cartop peapod

[rycav]

We have a "Steele Pod" 13'ish, cedar-on-oak.
Were thinking about trying to cartop on a chrysler minivan occasionally.
we have good thule roof racks.
anyone have suggestions/experience with such a thing? how to tie down? padding? getting it up there?
thanks.
Ry.

[Donn]

Try Thule.

[Todd Bradshaw]

This gizmo seems to work pretty well: Check out the "Maine Roll-on"
http://www.maineoutdoorproducts.com/

[Mrleft8]

Might make your soccer mom van a little top heavy...
If you have a garage, or a barn, you could store the pea pod upside down on slings, and just lowere it onto the roof racks. Securing it to the racks while in transit shouldn't be too tough, just lash it down nice and snug.

[huisjen]

I think we'll need to see a good picture of the boat.

Dan

[Doug Wood]

Agreed...we need to see some pic's. Wish I had one of Mr. Steele's peapod's!

[blaydone]

I have a Caravan with standard racks and have cartopped many types of boats. If the boat is narrower than the racks, just attach some of those canoe rail pads and strap down with at least 3 1" pieces of strapping from your local hardware store (I just carried a 28' touring shell that way).
In applying the straps, tie a loop in one end of the strap, pass around one rail, throw over the boat, put the free end through the loop and tie your favourite combination of hitches. As a back up(on a very windy day?), a few bungee cords passed through an interior part of the boat and looped over a cross rail of the rack should do the trick.
You don't state a weight for your boat -- most lighter craft can be slid over the rear rail of the rack by one person. If it's a bit heavier, a person fore and aft should do the job. Hope this helped.

[Todd Bradshaw]

And tie the ends of the boat to the bumpers! This is standard instruction on even the best roof rack systems - especially those which mount to automobile luggage racks. Factory roof racks are nowhere near strong enough to guarantee that the rack and your boat aren't going to fly off on the highway. Not taking the time to tie the ends down is extremely foolish.

[rycav]

sorry.
no good pics to post.
thanks for the input.
-ry

[blaydone]

Absolutely, Todd. I meant to add the end tying into my own missive, but somehow lost the sentence in the editing.

[rbgarr]

My Dad and I (age 8??) built an 8' Seashell plywood pram from a Hagerty kit one winter. In June we put it on a ski rack on top our '58 Chevy wagon for the 1 1/2 hour trip to Cape Cod. I was in the back of the wagon (no seat belts for us!) when a whooshing sound arose. I looked up out of the back window to see the pram take a swan dive off the roof. I guess the lashing wasn't as good as was needed, or maybe the rack shifted. In any case, my Dad had tied the boat's painter to the rear fender so there she was fishtailing down the road behind us until we pulled over. A couple of chine corners were worn down a bit (he'd fiberglassed the outside), but she was surprisingly undamaged. After we hoisted her back up on the rack and tied it down (through the car doors, which I've always done since)his plegmatic comment was,

"Well, I guess we built a pretty strong boat, huh!"

I don't think a Steele peapod would come out looking as good.

[huisjen]

Ry, does it look like this one?



This is a 16' rather than 13'. I found the picture here: http://www.woodwater.com/servicesp1f.htm

For some reason, the image isn't playing nice when I post it here. Oh well.

Dan

[ 07-08-2003, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: huisjen ]

[rycav]

yep.
that's pretty much it.
nice boat.
I've never met Jim. Got the boat second hand.
Anyone know if he's still at it?
-Ry

[Bruce Hooke]

Check the listed capacity of the roof in the vehicle's owner's manual. This is a function of the roof, not the rack, and most vehicles have a capacity of 100-150 pounds, which may well not be enough for the boat you have in mind. I'm guessing that at least part of this capacity comes from how much weight would make the vehicle too prone to rolling over in an accident, which is not a limit I would want to push too much. Of course you should also check the capacity of the Thule rack in the unlikely event that it is less than the vehicle's capacity.