jay2018: You sound a lot like me, (similar history). We are also rv'ers and many years are out on the road 6 months or so. Our home base is SW Florida and the keys, (we currently have houses in sarasota and key west), used to also have homes in chicago area and california, (too many homes and not enough time was my motto), we got rid of all those other houses and are now full time Florida residents. We have over 200k miles with Hobies on the roof and our camper in tow, (since moving to florida full time in 2007). I have talked to others about modifying motorhomes and toy haulers to facilitate being able to transport our TI easily. We even have looked at several motorhome/toy haulers scoping out what can be done. The ones of interest to us need to be self contained (with engine), We currently pull a camper trailer with a big ole truck (GME Sierra Denali), and I gotta tell you that blows..... Since the camper is using the hitch we can't use or take along our TI trailer (which makes owning a TI very nice and easy, and when local in Florida we only use our TI trailer towed behind one of our vehicles). However when traveling we have to put the TI onto Thule Aero racks mounted over the truck bed. I'm old and not very fit (5'6 230 lbs) and don't have any real issues loading the TI up there all by myself, (done it a thousand times now, technique is everything). Getting the boat up and down isn't really the issue for me. The issue with me is in order to get the boat up there it has to be stripped down completely to just the hull, (our 2012 TI bare hull weighs around 100-110 lbs). However our boat is very complex with 3 masts (up to 260 sq ft of sail area), with twin outboards, an automatic anchor system, and is heavily hardened for offshore use and performance, Our main favorite pastime is snorkleing and scuba diving in the keys, (mostly off key west, where the water is very dangerous, (there are no coral reefs within 5 miles of shore, and most everything within a mile or two from shore is just shallow barren sand, (boring) pretty much anywhere in the keys), just sayin. In other words it takes us over an hour to set the boat up once it's off the roof, that really bites. Typically we stay at any destination over a week and only take the boat down once, then leave the boat setup either on the beach or moored offshore, during our stay, and often go out several times a day. With the fully rigged boat our max daily range is around 100 miles. When we are not traveling, the boat remains fully rigged on our trailer and lives in our garage (fully rigged). It takes all of five minutes to pull out and hook to the car, then drive to the water. It typically takes about 15 minutes once we pull up to the water to launch. When done we pull the boat out using a winch, drive home rinse the boat off in the drive then pull it in the garage, (takes about 5 minutes), nothing is ever removed from the boat, the AMA's a swung in and all the masts and sails are just laid down on the hull, I leave all the rigging attached, I just tilt the motors down for storage, and that's about it. Bottom line trailering is your best option, car topping is the absolute worst especially if your boat is very complex like mine, (ie... it's the breakdown and setup time that kills you). Another aspect especially when we are traveling, is when we are inland on small lakes and rivers we simply don't need all the extras that are mandatory offshore, as avid kayakers we love to explore rivers (following to their headwaters), we leave all the extras back at the campsite, and just use the kayak part of the TI. I have to tell you the Tandem Island kayak is the best and fastest kayak in Hobies fleet and will hold it's own against pretty much any kayak on the market. Near half our time when we are out and about is just kayaking. The beauty of these boats is their versatility to be used both ways, and many options in between to suit the conditions at the time. For example (true story), we used the boat to scuba dive 7 miles offshore at the coral reefs one day, then two days later we we quietly kayaking up the Sante Fe river (in north florida), then a week later we were running the Huron River rapids in Ann Arbor MI. Then two weeks later we made the run out to Macinac Island (stayed overnight at the Grand), However I'll never attempt that trip again, (too dangerous). All with the same boat.
I like your ideas about the Morgan truck, it's similar to what I was thinking about using a toy hauler, (we were looking for a toy hauler with a big enough back end, with a door in the center between the toy storage area and the living area, that the nose of our TI could be stuck thru during transport. This way for transport the complete boat fully rigged could be rolled into the back, with the nose sticking thru the doorway into the passenger area. This way you just roll the fully rigged boat in (on the boat trailer) close the door and your off. We had a modified Harbor Freight trailer (only cost a couple hundred bucks), the beauty of it was it was pretty light, and we could walk the boat and trailer pretty much anywhere, (because if the big wheels with bearings), heck in key west we even towed the boat down to higgs beach from our house which was on the corner of Us 1 and Duval (about ten blocks) pulled behind either my wives beach bike, or behind our buddy 150 scooter many times. We also did that at some campgrounds when we weren't camping right on the water.
A key tip to using your trailer as a launch cart.... What we do is slide the boat back on the trailer so the boat is balanced over the wheels, then strap it down with one strap, this way you can easily pick the front up and walk the boat around till the cows come home, (we even added a handle to ours up front), very easy to walk up hill, down hill, thru terrain, or whatever, then just slide the fully rigged boat off when at the water, easy peasy. The wheel bearings and big tires make the difference. Like I said earlier you can even tow it with your bicycle. Trust me... trying to haul around a fully rigged TI on a scupper cart bites. When you do your trailer, I'm strongly suggesting you use PVC bunks verses the Hobie cradles, (way nicer, and more versatile, better for the hull, and easier to load/unload, plus with the PVC bunks you can slide the boat back for balance, (you can't do that with the cradles))
Hopefully I'm giving you some ideas here, basically try to avoid having to break the boat down, if you can put it into the Morgan truck with the boat fully rigged on the trailer, it will make your life much easier, (in our case the boat on the trailer is no longer or wider than the boat itself with the AMA's folded in). Our garage at home is just a standard 2 stall garage, and the TI on the trailer fits in there just fine. In our experience trying to haul the fully rigged boat around on a scupper cart is just too hard, and the boat cannot be stored on a scupper cart, it's best stored on a trailer (basically lives on the trailer). Hope this doesn't change your plans too much, but I'm talking from experience here (we have had 3 TI's now). For many years until recently we used our TI every weekend averaging around 15 miles per week, with some weekends covering over a hundred miles, and have been in pretty much every body of water we have been able to find all across the country. Our TI was our only family boat and we often had 4 or more people on board, (in safe areas of course). Sure beats having to endure the expense of our old 24 ft Sea Ray ($400/month for dry storage around here), or having to haul 3 or 4 Hobie kayaks (with kayak sails) down off the roof and having to set them all up by myself ( nobody ever volunteered to help, (ever, not even once)). There is no boat on the market or on anyones drawing boards, that holds a candle to the TI (in my opinion), plus it's easily modified to do whatever you can dream up. Stock it's nothing to brag about, (not very fast, (especially in Florida where there is very little wind) and doesn't point well) but a few simple mods which you can do yourself, there is nothing out there that's car toppable that can match it. I compare mine (with it's modifications, (same sail area)) to a Windrider 17, however the Windrider 17 is 450 lbs, (and costs around $10k),,,, nobody is going to car top one of those, mine is faster and much more versatile, and can also be used as a unbelievable kayak (best there is IMO). Hobie says there is no day you can't use an adventure boat, this is actually true. Let the adventure begin
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