Keith:
We have completely different purposes for our boats from each other, your concern is always to be able to drag the fully configured and loaded boat up above the high tide mark (which I know can be daunting).
I don't really care about that, my biggest concern is how heavy is just the main hull itself and how easy is it to load just the basic hull with everything completely removed out of the boat, (ie... all seats, mirage drives, etc, with the only just the empty hull), and how the heck to get the dang thing on my roof.
We have about 250k road miles with trailers in tow and Hobie mirage sailing kayaks on the roof over the last ten yrs or so, (prior to that it was canoes). We are actually going on another monster 3 month trip this summer, trying to visit as many national parks as we can, I'm guessing by the end of the summer we will have another 8k to miles under our belt.
Our TI is a 2012 model, and our old Oasis was a 2007 model, I don't know beans about any other boats. But I have loaded our boats on and off of roofs if I had to guess at least 500 times now (I honestly have no idea, don't keep track).
There is definately a set routine on how to do it all by yourself ( I've never had any help, not even once). I'm just an itty bitty old fat guy (mid 60's... 5'6" and 230lbs).
I weighed our old Oasis hull and it weighed 90 lbs. I weighed our 2010 TI empty hull and it weighed 100lbs, our 2011 weighed 103 lbs, and our 2012 empty hull weighed 105 lbs. This is all with everything possible removed from the boats (including all seats, mirage drives, gear, (and water lol)).
As you can see from the pics below, with the Oasis and the TI in loading position, there is a huge difference in the fulcrum point when lifting the rear of the boat (the hard part). Lifting the bow part is actually pretty easy, especially if you have one of those tilting T bars. Where I have gotten hurt a couple times is lifting the rear (mostly the Oasis, never the TI).
Showing both Oasis and TI in ready to lift position, (notice the balance point), with the Oasis you are dead lifting 85 lbs, with the TI you are dead lifting under 60 lbs.
This pic shows your starting point for lifting both boats (red = Oasis, yellow = TI)
This pic shows the safety rope (blue), while lifting you tug on the safety line to help pull the bow down (makes lifting way easier, and prevents the boat from sliding back)
Here is one of our old Yukon Denali's (we wore out three of them) with the boat ready to go to our Key west house (without our camper). For many years we made that stupid 350 miles trip once a month, kayaks on the roof.
This is our current setup (camper in background), where our TI will live hopefully all summer.
What we have now takes me much less time to get down than our old setup, where we had an Oasis and a revo up on the roof, (and sometimes a second revo, (3 boats on the roof). What a PIA that was getting all that down and rigged all by myself. The boats lived on the roof all thru summer, late may thru early sept ever year.
Wooden 1.5" dia cloths line poles (home Depot) just laying on the roof rack (not tied down) are the best method I have found for supporting the boat on the roof in the hot sun all summer.
When the boat is not on the roof, everything is removed from the car (no remaining roof racks), this way you can park in parking garages and such, (lol, I tore off a set of roof racks going into the garage at Tampa airport once (oops).
Of course when local we just keep the boat on our boat trailer in the garage (the boat lives in the garage on the trailer when we are home). Takes all of five minutes to pull out of the garage, hook up and go.
I don't know what to tell anyone else, I have no idea about the other models, or the newer version of any of these boats. I have never been in an AI or AI2, so I know nothing about them. We almost always have 3-4 people along, so having the TI as our general purpose familys boat works out well for us.
Typical weekend for us, (always too many people, lol)
FE
Login
Register
FAQ
