Car Topper Advice!

[MR-STI]

Hi people

We are planing to go to the cape this year and i really want to take my tinnie. Its a 4m Bluefin with 30hp Suzuki. Has anybody cartopped a boat this big? how did it go?

I have a Triton Trayback and was planning to sit the boat on the ladder racks so carrying the weight should be ok or not?. havent really got and exact weight on the boat, has full floor and casting deck, transom step ,wide sides, i would be guessing 140kg with no motor, fuel or battery.

Any advice or ideas welcome.

Nic

[Noelm]

biggest drama will be getting it on and off, bolting it all back together and doing the revese when finished! make sure the racks are STRONG, the rough roads up the Cape will test the racks and the boat big time.

[GBC]

I don't think there'll be too many issues assuming the racks are O.K.
I have found out the hard way about a couple of things up the cape.
1. Use decent 1/2" rubber on the racks between the boat and the rack, that way the boat won't slip or wear away the gunwale.
2. Using the rubber allows you to firm up the straps without overtightening - tinny's have a habit of tearing the sides out at the thwart welds when strapped too tightly up there.
3. Have you thought about dragging a 30 h.p. donk up a mud bank?
4. Get some decent chafing strips for the proper truck tie downs you buy.
5. Tinny tosser wheels are your friend.
6. Strip out the floor/casting deck and any extra weight you can because it's a marginal proposition at best.

If it is going to be a tiki tour with the misses I'd think about leaving it behind and maybe doing a charter at Weipa and/or Bamaga?
A couple of mates and a week's worth of hardcore fishing/crabbing at Topsy Creek - you'll be king of the world.......

[NormC]

I carry a 3.95 Sea Jay Angler on racks mounted on the canopy of a Land Cruiser ute. It is pulled up by a little 2,000 lb electric winch I bought on the net for $80.

I carry the 30 HP Merc 4 stroke on the draw bar of the caravan. It weighs 73 KG. I lift it with a home made fold up crane which has another of of the little 2,000lb winches. Before I committed to carrying this large boat and motor as a rooftopper (we take in everwhere - we are currently at King Ash Bay in NT), I made sure I could manage the weight.

We (wife and I) are now very happy with the set up and it was worth the hassle. We have removable floor (which becomes a base on the roof racks to carry all the extra stuff under the boat). We also carry 55lb bow mount Minn Kota, a home made live bait tank etc, etc. In our view, worth the effort as we often spend 8 or 9 hours in the boat and travel 100 KM in a day of fishing.

Good luck with your trip.

[GBC]

Quick thread hijack here - G'day Norm.

Q. Do you have a collapsible trailer to get the boat into the water? Do you winch the boat back up the banks?

Q. A shot of that winch setup for loading would interest me greatly - I have a cartopper that isn't getting lighter as I get older.

Q. Please update the avatar - I wanna see the new rig!;)

Have fun doing what we all dream of.

[MR-STI]

Hey Guys thanks for the advice so far, its much appreciated.

Yeah me and my wife, 2 mates and there wives are coming also, so have many hands to help loading/unloading and lugging he motor round. We are going for 3 weeks so im sure/hope we will get to use it often.

I have thought about taking the floor out, bait tank ect. The thing with the floor that worries me it will fall out on the corrugations.

The other problem i face is having to take the boat of every night, because we have a uteback camper, when we are setup for a few days it will be ok because we can take the camper off the ute, it has its own legs. But making it easy to get on and off will be the most important thing. I though of having it slide off the side like the rinorack setup with a winch to wind it on and off.

Nic

[tin can marlin]

One of those things maybe do a weekend away and try it all out.

[Corry]

Found this post by searching, apologies for the hi jack, but NormC, have you put some photo's of your set up anywhere?
We are looking at setting off in the next 6 weeks on a round Aus trip for 12 months and are getting things ready. We're not sure how to carry a tinny, I'd love to keep my 13ft tinny I have now, and would love to see your set up.

Cheers
Corry

[Jarrah Jack]

Just asked my mate who has lots of experience up the top. He reckons pretty hairy thing to do, especially on the steep river crossings if you take the old road. Its sounds like a very easy rig to tip over.
Do you plan to go all the way to the top? Once in the water it would be magic as others have said.

[NormC]

Hi Corry, I have a Blog on our roof toppers and fishing in NT. I'm there now, at King Ash Bay. This is the link to the Blog which will give a general idea.

http://www.exploroz.com/Members/50743.25/12/2009/Norm___Kabby_s_Travel_Adventures_-_Fishing_the_Northern_Territory_and_Roof_Toppers.a spx?ky=&p=%2fMembers%2f50743.25%2fMyBlog.aspx

An important thing to work out is the roof carry capacity of your vehicle and the overall weight distribution. The canopy on my ute was rated to carry 200 KG standard. During construction, I had a ROPS (roll over protection system) built in, so it would actually be more than that. My vehicle suspension has been upgraded with a GVM increase of 400 KG to 3,700 KG.

Next is how to load it. I use a 12 V ATV winch as part of a boat loader.

Next is how to secure it. I use brackets that lock down over the gunwales and bolt down.

The Blog will give you a good idea. Happy to try to answer further questions after you have a look at it.

Norm C

[Moffy]

An important thing to work out is the roof carry capacity of your vehicle and the overall weight distribution. The canopy on my ute was rated to carry 200 KG standard. During construction, I had a ROPS (roll over protection system) built in, so it would actually be more than that. My vehicle suspension has been upgraded with a GVM increase of 400 KG to 3,700 KG

its not so much how much weight the roof rack is manufactured to carry - its how much weight you are comfortable having up that high.

I have a 3.95m Qunitrex Dart that i "throw" on the top of a patrol trayback for regular trips up the Cape (Cairns to Weipa) - it weighs 95kg or so (bare hull) -

I have a full length steel boat rack made up that slides into the back of the tray (50x50RHS) and it does the job pretty well - but i wouldn't want it to be any lighter.

If by "ladder racks" you mean the light alloy ones that come on a tradie's ute - don't even think about it you will break both of them and your boat before you get half way up the cape. If you are going to throw a 150kg boat up there - get a proper, steel rack made up - it will need to be full length with plenty of bracing .

I wouldn't want to have much more weight than my 100kg boat up there though - i have coils all round, with rear air bags and you can really notice the weight when you are driving - (when i load up to go up there without the boat, compared to with, it is totally different ball games in terms of driving and how i have to handle the vehicle - have to take it steady for sure - i don't think i'd want to have a 150kg boat up there myself. Just makes that dodgy bit of road you didn't see all the more dangerous - and believe me you will come across a few holes in the road at some point in your trip.

In terms of useage once you are there - with my rig (i have removeable floors and a 25hp Yammie, full electrics - sounder, gps etc - not to mention all the safety gear and a bl00dy big esky!!) its great having that size boat there to handle the conditions we fish (usually from Mapoon - from the Wenlock to offshore) - but - we go to a spot and camp there for a week or more - and that's ok - i would not want to be moving spots every couple of days (and having to reload the boat etc each time.... not ideal to say the least - its a big job! - but can be done with 2 blokes - your boat - i'd say you'll need more)

in terms of overnighting the boat - we usually just drag it up the sand till its above the highwater mark of an evening and back down again the next day - (using the nissan as a tow vehicle - 4 wheeler doesn't cut it) have tried the tinnie wheels but find they don't work very well in the sand with a heavy boat - need much larger tyres to work - and carrying it loaded - forget about it.

This is ok on a beach - would be more of a hassle if camping on a tidal river.. You have to work a system of anchoring it off with a line to the bank to pull it in - or something similar. (if you can't work the same system of pulling it above the tide line each evening - depens on the bank you have.

Have started doing things simpler now - my Brother has a bigger boat in weipa - we just tow it from Weipa to where we go and put it on and off the trailer each day - much more civilised:cool: (especially when we just fly in....) (but probably not an option in your case)

Cheers,

Moffy

[Bros]

We are looking at setting off in the next 6 weeks on a round Aus trip for 12 months and are getting things ready.


What giving Rio away?

[Noelm]

don't wish to sound like a doomsdayer here, but I reckon that boat on the roof, and a 30HP being lugged around (regardless of how many helpers you have, and how many electric winches), fitting floors in and out, plus all the other gear, will get very tiresome, very quick, from experience, anything that takes more than a minute to do, will not be done more than a couple of times, it becomes too much bother, I know the boat will be a bonus to have, but a much smaller out fit will be far more usefull, those fold up trailers are useless, unless the boat ramp is 50 yards away, any more than that and it is painful to tow.

[CT]

I cartopped on our first cape trip. Constant on and off with loading an unloading every time you wanted to fish was a pain in the butt. Second time round we took two boats, both on beefed up trailers. Having the trailers made life so easy and I wouldn't ever car top again.

We had no trailer problems either.

Cheers
Craig

[Noelm]

I guess that is what I was getting at CT, mind you, if you want to tow a caravan or camper, then car topping is the only way.

[NormC]

As an experienced 'car topper' - been using them for five years and onto my third - each one bigger than the previous, I understand your views.

I generally only unload the boat and set it up if we are going to stay in the one spot for at least 4 or 5 days - generally longer. But that suits us, we are retired and have the time. When we get a good camping and fishing spot, we stay a while.

While a smaller boat is easier to load and carry, a bigger on is MUCH better and more comfortable on the water.

I don't agree on the fold up trailers though. I used to have a fold up for travel and a normal trailer for the boat for when at home. But since I got good fold up with suspension, I only have one. Sure, with the smaller wheels, I wouldn't too it 500 KM, but we regularly tow 20 km. Where we are now, it goes about 2km over rough dirt roads each time we fish.

The reason we use a car topper is that we tow a caravan (previously a camper trailer). Otherwise towing the boat( bigger one), with a very good trailer is the go.
But rest assured, car toppers can be set up very well - bait tank, elec motor, full floor etc. You just need the right set up to carry it and be prepared to spend about 2 hours unloading and setting it up each time.

Norm C


don't wish to sound like a doomsdayer here, but I reckon that boat on the roof, and a 30HP being lugged around (regardless of how many helpers you have, and how many electric winches), fitting floors in and out, plus all the other gear, will get very tiresome, very quick, from experience, anything that takes more than a minute to do, will not be done more than a couple of times, it becomes too much bother, I know the boat will be a bonus to have, but a much smaller out fit will be far more usefull, those fold up trailers are useless, unless the boat ramp is 50 yards away, any more than that and it is painful to tow.