Inflatable Boat or really small conventional boat?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
AndyinLexington

AndyinLexington

Well-known member
Joined
May 3, 2010
Posts
574
Location
Lexington, KY
I'm considering getting some type of boat that we can bring on our m/h trips.  I think my two main options are 1. Inflatable boat, and 2. Small boat or canoe that will fit on top of the Toad (2005 Chev Malibu).  I'd like advice, thoughts and suggestions from those who have done either of these two things.  My initial thought is that a canoe is too unstable for much fishing.  The boat would need to be adequate for myself and my seven year old son.  Thanks for any advice you can offer.
 
You need to remember that inflatable boats do not take well to branches, sunken trees, sharp rocks, and espeically fishing hooks, but unless they're a RIB, they can fold up when not inflated and be easy to store and transport.
 
If considering 'Uncle Buck's Pond Prowler' envision a 4'x8' sheet of ply lying ontop of your Chevy. Also unless your 7yr is really big top of car is long way off & 50# end (1l2)of boat is pretty heavy. JM2? ~~ YMMV
 
maddog348 said:
If considering 'Uncle Buck's Pond Prowler' envision a 4'x8' sheet of ply lying ontop of your Chevy. Also unless your 7yr is really big top of car is long way off & 50# end (1l2)of boat is pretty heavy. JM2? ~~ YMMV
Click to expand...
Gee, Maddog.  Kinda of a sour take on it.  Besides the fact that the boat will be out of the wind behind the MH, it would be nothing like a sheet of plywood.  Plus, I only mentioned the 7 year old because 7 year olds need to be included it stuff like this.  Even if they can only lift 10 lbs.
 
Not Sour just something to think about. 4'x8' is 4'x8' no matter what it is made out of. Good sized 'footprint' on top of a passenger vehicle. Used to carry Sit-on-Top Kayaks on top of toad.  Not 'easy' to put up there.  But then I am a 5'2" 70yr one-eyed-old-lady.
 
I've seen some RVs with folding boats on the side of the unit when in transit.  You might try doing a Google search for folding boats.  Here is a site that is one sample, I'm sure there are a variety....
http://www.porta-bote.com/

Good luck!
 
I've looked at the folding boats - not sure I want to go that route.  The attraction of the inflatables is the storage - looks like most would fit into one storage bay on our motorhome.  100-lbs would be ok, I could probably muscle that around myself.  I'm concerned about the "windage" of having something too wide on top of the toad because it's going to stay up there when we're using the car too - the only time it would be off the car is when we're boating.  I was hoping someone on here might be using an inflatable (or "deflatable" as they're sometimes jokingly called), and could give me a first-hand review.
 
Hi Andy,

We have an inflatable boat made by SeaEagle.  It's called a "paddleski".  Here is their website.  It folds up and fits nicely under the coach in a bay.  The paddles break down and it comes with a foot pump which works very well.  We've used it on a couple of lakes; but haven't tried it on a river yet.  What I like about it is that it has lots of storage.  There is a big bag up front which straps in; then if you get the neoprene seats, they also have bags that clip onto the back of the seats.  We fly fish off of ours or just take it for a spin around the lake.  The total weight including 2 paddle is about 50#s.  I'd have no trouble taking a child on it; infact we take our 6 year old granddaughter..  It's easy to paddle  because it's up and on top of the water, not down in it.

We love it!  We also thought about a canoe; but didn't want to lug it around on top of the toad when it's not in use.

Marsha~
 
Marsha ~~  Isabella?? or speaking of some 'other' lake. If we had more CCC would really be interested in SeaEagle.  Kate
 
A Sea Eagle is excellent as long as it isn't real windy (the lack of a keel means it slides whatever way the wind blows). No worries about fish hooks or minor debris in the water - they are pretty tough.  We used one all over Alaska and Canada and the only thing better is a Zodiac or similar.

I also owned a Port-a-bote for 3-4 years. That's a good portable solution too. I built a rack and carried it on the roof of the RV, but it fits on a car/SUV roof easily too.

Either the Port-a-bote or Sea Eagle take about the same time to set up or tear down.
 
Andy,
We have two SOT kayaks that travel on top of the Jeep. So far; no problems except getting around to actually using them. A definite Pro is you can always find where you are parked (yellow and mango eight feet up) at the mall. I've seen no difference in mileage with them on the Jeep.
Note that we have Malibu Mini-X's (Set up for fishing, both together cost less than $1,100 plus life preservers, racks, etc.). They aren't fast, but they are very stable. I have no problem putting a seven year old in one (grandson - now eight) so long as the water is safe (not open gulf or high wind).
Ernie
 
    cant go wrong with a  Sea Eagle. I have a 375  pontoon boat made by Sea Eagle. Its 12 ft long and about 4 ft wide. It rolls up into a very managable size and weight. We nflate it with a 12 volt inflater bought from Harbor Freight. t comes with oars but I put a 12 volt trolling motor on it with a deep cycle battery. Can fish all day with this setup. Only disadvantage I have found that it can get blown around by the wind. Made for two people and is a very well made boat. Have run it up on rocks and it take a lot of abuse. Comes with all kinds of accessories, but not an electric inflator. It takes about 20 min to set up. Need to use an electric inflator or it will take you a long time to set up. Go to the website  seaegle.com. There are videos of it.  Good luck  Bob S.
 
Honest John said:
For some photos of side or top mounted folding boats see this http://www.porta-bote.com/rvmounting.html
Click to expand...

100 percent agree with Honest John.  The Porta-boat is the best all around boat you can carry for fishing.  It is light, foldable, unsinkable and will last a life time.  I just bought  a new one and sold my twelve year old one.  the old one had NO LEAKS and should be good for another twelve years.
Of course this is just my opinion ,....... yours may differ..


 
  I have a 9 ft Livingston that I carry on top of my Toyota Tercel. I don't know the weight but I'm sure it's more than 100 lbs.  I made a detachable winch set up for the front of the car and use a 2x6 in the back to keep it off the trunk.  I put the boat on the 2x6 as far as I can then use the winch to pull the boat up to the point where it starts to drop down.  Then it's just a matter of centering the boat and securing it.  I have no problems with this setup whether towing or driving.  I figure the weight is not much more than me and it's spread out over all four corners. 
 
We used to have a Port-a-Bote, came on the Class C we had when we bought it. Used it once. It was kind of a pain to take down and set up and it was heavy. Of course, it didn't take up any storage space because it was stuck on the side of the motorhome. Now we have an inflatable tandem kayak and we love it. It's also work to get it out and inflate it but it's a lot of fun and we can lift it up on top of the VW to transport short distances.

Wendy

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,026 (members: 28, guests: 998)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,929
Posts
1,387,676
Members
137,677
Latest member
automedicmobile
Back
Top Bottom