Thread: car topper, trailer, or don't bother

beauty Ranga, I'll take you up on that.

Lads, I caved in and bought a povo bimini at the sales. I can't sew to save my life, and didn't really want to put sewing job 10 637 back onto mum. The wife......... well, we don't even own a sewing machine. So you blokes who have wife's who do, think yourself very lucky.
I can wield a pop rivet gun however and if it needs improving I can do that.
What Harlie said about keep in mind what I'm doing was the decider.

It should be back from the welders this week, as to the motor from service. Keen to get a pic up for you.
I've added a hand rail around it for the kids. The seats are quit high I feel, an leave only 100mm of side wall until the top of the boat. I went the whole way round so it's still loads as a topper. I also noticed in the driveway my little fella likes sitting on the bow with his pirate sward. So a hand rail to grab while we do a bit of drifting is a good idea me thinks.

Odd sort of maiden voyage last weekend. Towed it for 5 hours to Pebbly Beach largely for the kids to play in.......next to the tent. Made the mistake of not parking it down the beach, so it was ready to go. So after setting up camp, which is heavily reliant of the car, it now meant a small pack was required to use the car for a tower.

Still managed to get it in the water and towed the kids up and down the river there for a bit. The weather or the open water wasn't the best for a novice, but I enjoyed the whole thing.

The hand rails seemed to be a hit, hope I have placed things in a practical position as it was all a bit of a rush last week to get it organised.

I've come to a conclusion a car topper is not for me and my set up. Given where one most likely wants to use a topper, the 150kg of boat, motor, and paraphernalia wont suit the weight distribution of the 130. Plus the realities of a top heavy 4x4 don't make for safe, predictable, or pleasant driving. So I will make the most of the heavier trailer and skull drag it around the place. Not keen on being a tower but I think overall it the lesser of two evils.

On this acceptance, and the reality of a 8hp capabilities, and some advice from the Pebbly Beach care taker, an upgrade in motor came about.
Looked at some second hand ones but with the sale of the old motor, the attractiveness of a 5 year warranty, and only another 1000, I got this spiffy 15 on now. Boy, the old dinghy goes well now. And that little reef off Pebbly Beach is well in sight.


Then an opportunity came about to acquire a sounder. Initially thought I would not require one of these. But a day out in the boat helping a mate do his job is not a hard way to cover a sounder. So again I talked myself into spending more than I should and there you go. I'm really looking forward to using this baby to jag some nice fish, and when that day happens I'm not going to care about the rush of blood I had when buying the thing. Watching the young fella's amazement trying to piece together the ocean floor underneath him while bobbing around on the top has to worth a bit as well me thinks.

Went for the Merc 15 super, which is a Tohatsu 18 with 2 more years warranty than a Tohatsu. Go figure.


Just playing with this thing in the garage, seems easy and simple to understand.

of course the next step is upgrading the little 11footer to somthing bigger :-)

It is always good to have roof topper though! So dont sell the little one!

S

Budget On Another Thousand
ENJOY
Andrew

Thanks for the day out Jason......... The kids really enjoyed getting out in the boat...patch is still talking about being dumped into the water

Originally Posted by roverrescue

of course the next step is upgrading the little 11footer to somthing bigger :-)

It is always good to have roof topper though! So dont sell the little one!

Your the second person now who has said it only gets bigger from here. I joked with the wife on the weekend about a bigger boat. She wanted to get a tandem tube to pull behind the dinghy, so my reply was "we need a bigger boat".
When I added the hand rail to mine a car topper has been thought of in the process. I'm hoping the kids will have an appreciation and interest in the water so with some luck it will be around for a while yet.

S

Originally Posted by weeds

Thanks for the day out Jason......... The kids really enjoyed getting out in the boat...patch is still talking about being dumped into the water

Thanks weeds, we had a really nice time as well, our kids were stuffed afterwards.
It's good how something so simple is a real crowd pleaser.

Did a bit of Cape training today, well that was the joke. Gee I love 4x4's and boats.