Cartopping

i've been hauling my 14ft yacht around on a trailer, but now that my wife and I have recently retired and are buying a travel trailer I'm left with one alternative to bring the boat, cartopping {it's got to go, or why bother?} . anyone else here cartop their boat? and does anyone have any experience with the automatic loaders/unloaders {like the Eide cartop boatloader} that mount in pickups?

For cartopping that's a lot of boat. If you're dead set on cartopping, you might consider downsizing to a 10 or 12 foot aluminum. I'm not really sure what your other options would be. If you don't have your heart set on a certain trailer, you might consider some sort of camper/toyhauler trailer to put the boat inside.

Or, consider getting a camper for the truck so you can still tow whatever you might need to pull behind you.

Clarkbre, my boats a 14'x48"SeaKing alum Vee that has a carpeted interior and weighs less than 100lbs. my truck is a 03' 4dr F350 7.3 powerstroke w/8ft bed. I can see your point if I had a minivan, compact truck ,or small car, do you really think my boats too big for this truck? BTW that's a beautiful Lund you got there!!

Is it legal to tow 2 trailers where your at?

Not sure of laws and permits available in TX, so this idea might not be an option. In WI we can apply for a permit that allows us to tow two trailers. The first trailer being towed must be a camper with brakes, the second trailer can be used for hauling a boat, atv, or anything recreational use .... except livestock or horses. The permit here in WI is only $25 for three months, a bit more for additional months. If possible to do this in TX, then the only thing you will have to do once at camp is unhook the boat trailer, park the camper, and hook the boat trailer back up again and go launch the boat. Your truck should have plenty of tow power to handle towing both trailers with no problems. If that is not an option in TX, I can see raising and lowering the boat to fish becoming very tiresome.

clarkbre mentioned a toyhauler style of camper. Some are very nice and should fit your needs well to haul the boat safely. Once the boat is out of the storage spot in the hauler, you can make that into a guest bedroom or even a living room type of thing. It is an option that might be worth checking into.

I have seen people cartopping when towing trailers here in WI, so it is not uncommon.

Matt

lckstckn2smknbrls said:

Is it legal to tow 2 trailers where your at?

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lol, same idea, just took me longer to type my post out.


Also forgot to mention... Even if it might be legal in TX to tow two trailers. You might have to check into laws in any other states you might decide to travel to camp.

An example... IL requires trailers to be licensed, WI does not require smaller trailers to be licensed. Yet I cannot travel into IL without registering my small trailer because of IL laws.

Matt

ray55classic said:

Clarkbre, my boats a 14'x48"SeaKing alum Vee that has a carpeted interior and weighs less than 100lbs. my truck is a 03' 4dr F350 7.3 powerstroke w/8ft bed. I can see your point if I had a minivan, compact truck ,or small car, do you really think my boats too big for this truck? BTW that's a beautiful Lund you got there!!

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I think your truck is more than adequate...i've seen plenty with sled decks hauling two snowmobiles at bedrail height. However, its going to be a ***** cartopping. While you're loading it high on that truck, you'll be wishing you had a shorter car.

By downsizing,it will be much easier to manuver up to the top of your truck.

I truly appreciate the responses.My wife's not going for a toyhauler, she wants a little luxury{slideouts,a home away from home kinda rig} Towing two trailers is not an option in Texas, I'd sure hate to get stuck somewhere that I had to backup with two trailers . Actually there are a few outfits that make a rack that you back your truck up to the transom , hook up 4 lines and press a button, and presto it loads your boat in a minute and unloads it too, they've got a 16ft x 300lb capacity. They've even got one for folks with fifth wheel trailers that loads the boat from the front of your truck with the transom facing forward . I've seen a number of them on the road but have never been able to speak to the owners . Sorry I don't have a link but Google; "Eide cartop boatloaders", they've got a video of how it works and the different styles of vehicles they work on and there are a number of other builders out there too{mostly from the land of Aus}. Anybody out there have one of them or seen them in use ?

Where there's a will there's a way!

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a463/HMT-Kent/TrkBoatnTrailer.jpg&imgrefurl=https://openrangervowners.forumco.com/topic.asp%3FTOPIC_ID%3D699&usg=__oYYqJhcpitpHNii6cAMruUxxmo0=&h=768&w=1024&sz=104&hl=en&start=20&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=UhwmMWH1jyub8M:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtruck%2Brv%2Bboat%2Brig%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=Thh-TZOnOoTg0gHVq8XPAw

This one is more what your looking for.

https://www.roofrackcity.com.au/AccSubCategory_Side-Boat-Loader_Page_1_Accessory_Side-Boat-Loader_319_52.aspx

And another

https://www.loadit.com/

That last link I posted www.Loadit.com has some great videos of how their system works. I think that is exactly what your looking for.

When I live out west I used to see the "snowbirds" with these type of rigs all the time.

Sometimes you would see a truck with two Atv's on one of these racks, a boat on top of that, and towing a travel trailer, with another trailer behind that!

Or you could tow in tandem since you already have a trailer.

Oops. Just read your post about NOT wanting to tow in tandem.

reedjj said:

That last link I posted https://www.Loadit.com has some great videos of how their system works. I think that is exactly what your looking for.

When I live out west I used to see the "snowbirds" with these type of rigs all the time.

Sometimes you would see a truck with two Atv's on one of these racks, a boat on top of that, and towing a travel trailer, with another trailer behind that!

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I guess you could say they were getting away from it all by carrying it all with them! Seriously the loadit unit is what I'm talking about thanks Reed. In that first picture you posted with the boat motor and trailer cartopped makes me wonder what hill that billy fell of of . One other advantage to a unit like the Loadit is no trailer registration, license,insurance, or flat tires

i had an eide for awhile.they are worth every penny. a 14 foot boat is really pushing it tho.i got rid of my loader and went with the trailer when i dumped the 12' and got a14.5',because of the decking,hatches,and mounted batterys,not a good idea to flip upside down. downsize to a 12 foot and get the eide.