Car-topping an A.I. - front & rear tie-downs?

Hi Guys,

I recently upgraded (Ha!) my car from a 2003 Kia Rio hatch to a 2002 Honda CR-V.

I used to transport my A.I. on the Rio using soft-racks, which worked very well and I
was able to very securely tie-down the boat. The downside was that the soft-racks
had 'through the window' straps, so when it rained water would seap into the car
along the straps. The other downside is that the roof suffered a fair number of dings
and dents due to me manhandling the hull onto the racks.

With the CR-V I have a decent set of factory racks, which should be able to hold the A.I.
securely and eliminate most of the downsides of using soft-racks.

The main issue I have is that (as seems to be the case with most modern(ish) cars)
the racks are very close together and don't seem to provide enough support for such
a long hull.

I've done a test-run of loading the A.I. onto the car and it seems to sit well on the racks
and is quite well-balance front to rear (as shown below).

On the old Kia I never needed to use front/rear tie-downs and the boat was clamped
very securely to the roof - never use to budge an inch. On the CR-V I think that
I'm going to have to do something to make sure that yak can't move on such
close-together racks. I can imagine that the yak would 'see-saw'/pitch and also
yaw on bumpy or uneven road-surfaces.

The question is; where do I attach front & rear tie-downs to the yak, without
potentially causing damage? Would the front & rear carry-handles be strong enough
to provide a secure tie-down spot?

Here's the hull on the car:



I carry the amas inside, so will just have the hull and mast/sail on the racks.

All comments and suggestions appreciated!

Cheers,

Mike.

Hi Mike.
There is a problem with modern cars using monocoque chasis and plastic bumper bars as there is not much substantial to tie to.
I car top a TI on a Holden Commodore wagon where the roof racks are set up for a sedan and also too close together.
I am also exceeding the rack rating.

Fortunately in a way, I tow a caravan so I was able to attach a pole to the safety chain lugs. Using a steel pole takes some of the weight off the rack, as well as holding down the yak.
The front was harder and I clamped a frame to the front cross member with 1/2" water pipe just shy of the grilled. I then attach an A frame using barrel joint connectors. So there is no pressure on the front bumper which I think is going to be your problem.

I know this doesn't solve your problem but perhaps gives you some thoughts.
Perhaps look for tie down hooks they use for transporting, sometimes under a small removable cover.
Otherwise I would attach to whatever you can find looking solid under the car and contemplate a piece of plywood covered with carpet to spread the load on the plastic bumper bar.

Whatever you do, please make sure it's safe enough. It may be me driving behind when it comes off.

_________________
Cheers, Brian in South Australia
Tandem Island -

Thule makes inside the hood loops, QuickDraw ratchets and quick loops for doors and bonnets. You'll find them all here:

http://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and ... fgodMc0PtQ

I show them off in the "SUV FROM HELL" thread.

_________________
The Wind Is Your Friend...

Mike, a loop (like suggested by NOHUHU) bolted to the crossmember just in front of the radiator could stick out between bonnet and grill. You could then attach a line through the loop, with a snapshackle attached to the bow padeye (I reckon the bow handle would be strong enough, but the padeye would be better). You could do something similar for the rear.

_________________
Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

If it was me, if the vehicle didn't come with a trailer hitch reciever you can buy aftermarket hitch recievers from places like Reese or Kurt (or Aussie equivalent mail order). Over here anyway they are pretty inexpensive (around a hundred bucks, and easy to self install in under an hour).

I would then add a T bar to the back of the car. The T-bars are nice (especially the ones that swing down), and make it pretty easy to load the boat on the car by yourself. You only ever need to lift half the weight of the boat, place the bow on the T-bar then slide the boat forward over the roof racks.
Those T-bars are very strong with around 500 lbs capacity, what I do with our TI is slide the boat on the car place the sail next to the boat, then place one AMA on each side of the boat, I then strap the back of the boat and AMA's securely to the T-bar (the T-bar supports about 80% of the load). I then strap the boat and AMA's down at each roof rack. We typically put our boat hull side down because for me anyway it's near impossible to flip the boat upside down once on the roof (too darn heavy). To even out the load I just stuff cheap pool noodles under the hull the even out the load (before strapping down). Sometimes when we go to our Key West house we have the boat on the roof for several weeks at a time in the hot Florida sun with no issues (trailer parking is a major issue in Key West, there are only two trailer parking spaces on the entire Island and they cost $4.00/hr to use, then you have to park your car someplace else (another $4.00/hr), so we keep the boat on the roof (locked down to the roof with motorcycle locks).
One other thing you can do is bring along two pieces of 1 1/4 cheap pvc pipe about 8ft long and place them in the two tunnels on 11 inch centers up the center of the hull to even out the load (no need to screw them down to anything). On short trips we don't tie the bow down, but on any highway trips we always tie the bow down with V-Straps to keep it from going side to side in crosswind.
I have a feeling once you get a hitch reciever on your car, it will only be a short time before your looking for a trailer (that's what we did). It's not the loading the boat on and off the car that's the problem (that never bothered me), to me it's the hr or so putting all of the boat back together, rigging everything, putting the seats back in, installing the AKA/AMA's, tramps, anchor, (in my case engines), etc then rolling the boat to the water. With our trailer we store the boat fully rigged in our garage, it takes two minutes to hook to the car, we drive to the launch, back up to the water, then we are sailing 10-15 minutes later. When we get done we just pull the boat on the trailer drive home, rinse the boat off with fresh water and pull it in the garage (takes all of 5 minutes).
The big difference for us was the break down time once we got home when car topping. We would get everything out of the car rinse everything off, hoist the boats up in the garage (I had cieling hoists for the boats), then store everything (AMA's,paddles, mirage drives, etc someplace in the garage, in total it too over an hour to get everything put away, then the next week, repeat again to get everything back onto the car (another hr). We seriously went from 2-3 hrs setup and break down time every weekend down to 15 minutes tops just by going to a trailer (my cheap harbor freight trailer was only a couple hundred bucks). When we don't have to car top we don't. We use the boat a lot more now.
Just sayin
Everyones situation is different, I'm just describing what worked well for us.
FE

Here are some pics of our setup:


Note the V strap on the front, we only add that when going on the highway (straps could be to inside hood if needed):


To the best of my knowledge I own the only car top-able complex 18 ft plus sailboat (complex meaning main,jib, and spinnakers, etc (260 sq ft plus sail area total)) out there. (you can't do this (car top) with a WETA or a Windrider 17)

This is our cheapo trailer, which we use only locally when in Sarasota (15 minute drive to the water thru town), saves mountains of setup/breakdown time every weekend (plus it looks cool (lol))


Hope this gives you some ideas.