We are looking for a way to bring a small boat or a canoe with us when we travel. The top of the truck in not an option that has a thule rack on it with 4 bikes. We have a Laredo 5th wheel. I would love to find a way to attach it to the back of the rig or something like that. Please send me any ideas or thoughts.
If we can not find a solution we are also looking for information about foldable or inflatable small boats. We are bigger people so first hand account with those boats would be great!
Please help we would love to get on the water we just can't seem to get the toys there.
What some folks will do is to extend out over the truck with something like in this photo. Does not interfer with the fifth wheel operation. There has been some recent discussion on this not too far back on here. Maybe a couple of months back. Ive never done this - just remembered some discussion on it some time back.
Since you are rulling this method out I cant think of another way to do it unless you might store it inside the fifth wheel laying on top of the couch and table slide-out if you have one of those.. Apparently with the wide slide out opened up you can get the canoe inside the trailer door. You might build a small support thing to keep the canoe off of the furniture. Once the canoe is inside then you can close the slide.
NOTE: This isnt my original idea. I dont even own a canoe haha... I ran across this a few months ago reading a similar discussion and thought this was a great idea. I should go back and get the name of the guy doing this. This really caught my eye as a real good way to haul a canoe. The same post as I recall is where a guy had rigged up a mounting bracket on the inside of his fifth wheel to support the canoe over the top of the couch and the booth table set in a large slide-out.
The owner of this idea is Sue Thomas RV.net member Sue T. This is another shot of her setup from her web site. This is indeed a great setup with her fifth wheel in tow.
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My Posts are IMHO based on my experiences - PM me Roy and Carolyn
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I like Roy's solution for carrying a canoe, it's great! I would suggest that you find a better solution to carrying your bikes and use the idea in Roy's photo for a canoe. You might be able to add a bike rake to the rear of the 5er that is stable enough to hold all the bikes. I've never seen one, but I have seen people add a mount for either a moped or motorcycle.
You could put the bikes on a front hitch carrier in front of the truck, then put the canoe on a forward roof rack, as pictured above by RoyB. Or maybe put only 2 bikes on the front hitch rack and put the canoe and the other 2 bikes on the roof rack.
Depending on how tall your trailer is, I have seen canoes on top of fifth wheel trailer's roofs. Doesn't look all that fun getting up there, but they do it somehow. Maybe a cable and hand winch mounted to a roof rack on top of the trailer would make it easier, pulling the canoe up by the cable and hook.
Another option is to trade to a toy hauler trailer, where you can load the canoe, all the bikes, and anything else you want to bring with you in the cargo area of the trailer.
I think Roy has a good idea which I would combine with what we do. Put the boat on the truck as Roy suggests and then get a Thule T2 rack for a hitch receiver. We had a regular hitch receiver welded to the frame of our 5'er. Our truck has one also. We carry 2 bikes on that rack and it is expandable to carry 4. When we reach our destination for the trailer but need to go further to a bike trail or other biking starting point, we put the rack into the receiver on the truck. It is pretty low to the ground and the bikes rest in it rather than hang from it so it is much better for the bikes.
You'd have to be pretty careful on side roads though since it would really increase your rear overhang. With two bikes it sticks out from the trailer about 3 feet.
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We have a rack similar to Roy's for Canoe and are planning on bolting hitch to hitch of 5th wheel to carry 2 bikes we have F350 ext cab with long bed. Looking at yakima double down 2 bike rack folds down We are awaiting Dee Zee storage box arrival prior to installing bike rack. Headed to ALaska in a month for 5 months need all space & storage we can hold. Rear hitch holds rack for large cooler. Told hubby we'll look like the Clampets.
I looked into the Porta-boats, but they are very expensive. Depending on how much you plan to use the boat/canoe, you might want to see about a good quality inflatable? That is something that you could then store either in the RV or have room in the bed of the truck.
If you just want something to sit in and fish a while, that would probably fit the bill, and not attack the wallet either.
I agree that the roof rack would be a good idea, and by moving the bikes to the front or back of your rig, you would have room. A canoe would be narrow enough, that you should be able to still keep 2 bikes up on top, with the canoe in place.
Good luck, and post a picture of the rig, when you get it all figured out.....
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