I've been toying with the idea of building a kayak trailer. My problem is that, despite whether or not I use a fairing, my Thule roof rack creates a lot of turbulence. I drive a 1993 Saturn and the car is underpowered as it is. Even when I'm not tranporting my kayaks, pushing that extra air out of the way is hurting my mileage. Pushing two boats through the air is considerably more taxing. My thought is that with a trailer I can leave my boats loaded and ready to go. And when I am not transporting my boats, I won't suffer the wind noise and mileage deficit. I've read previous posts where people have been concerned that trailered boats are more vulnerable to damage from rocks and other highway projectiles. Does anybody have any experience with going from car-topping to trailering? Which is more convenient? Secure? Is it less taxing on the motor to pull a low profile trailer rather than car-top a couple of boats? Your thoughts would be appreciated. I have experience pulling long trailers, so that's not a factor. Thanks, Robb *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 11:59 PM 4/5/00 EDT, you wrote: >won't suffer the wind noise and mileage deficit. I've read previous posts >where people have been concerned that trailered boats are more vulnerable to >damage from rocks and other highway projectiles. Trailered kayaks are lower, and probably more susceptible to damage from road debris. However, I've never had it happen. >Does anybody have any >experience with going from car-topping to trailering? Which is more >convenient? Secure? Is it less taxing on the motor to pull a low profile >trailer rather than car-top a couple of boats? Your thoughts would be I've trailered boats for a number of years, and in most cases would prefer to trailer one. I will tell you this: two years ago I made a fairly long trip with two kayaks cartopped. Got about 17 MPG on my van. Made the same trip last year, same two kayaks, same van, on the trailer. Got 21 mpg. That say anything? Loading a kayak onto a trailer is considerably more convenient than cartopping. The real savings comes from the fact that you cut an entire cycle out of the load/unload hassle per trip. The kayak is stored on the trailer and doesn't get unloaded at home. That's a huge time savings itself. Secure? Depends on what you mean. I think it's easier to get a good tiedown on a trailer since everything is down at a reasonable level to inspect it. Secure from theft? Probably not, unless you use the same sort of theft-provention stuff you'd use cartopping. I've put together a page with my thoughts about kayak trailering, if you're interested: http://www2.dmci.net/users/wesboyd/trailer.htm Hope this helps -- Wes *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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