Hi all, some of you may recall I had a boat, boat loader, folding trailer and motor some time ago.
The main issues I experienced with the setup I had at the time and what forced me to give it up was the following -
1) The trailer was heavy, not heavy in terms of how heavy a trailer can be but just overall heavy for what it was and made it hard to handle
2) The trailer consisted of to many parts and took a fair bit of time to be put together
3) The boat loader I used to get it up on my roof was fiddly, noisy when the boat wasn't on the roof and required a few to many parts like a winch, cross bar etc to operate it
So essentially I have been searching high and low for a more weight considered set-up that is easy to put together when on the road and doesn't require an excessive amount of bits and pieces.
Some of the bits of the puzzle are a few months off at best but I have the first piece of the puzzle today so documenting the process so others can benefit from prior experience and my trial and error.
So the first part to arrive today was.............
The Trailer
After looking around at a variety of collapsible trailers and looking at weight, setup, suspension and adaptability I stumbled onto mangrove jack -
http://www.mangrovejack.com/
Lets break it down into what makes it a good choice -
WEIGHT OF THE TRAILER
Firstly the trailer weighs in at 38kg's which is incredibly light but it is super strong made from anodised aluminium which gives it the weight savings but this also gives it an exceptional finish.
My previous trailer weighed roughly 70kg's and most comparable collapsible trailers weigh in at 70 - 80kg's so at a weight of 38kg's is a minimum of 32k'gs in saving weight which is massive.
EASE OF USE
The difficulty I had with the old trailer was the split pin bolts. They where fiddly and often required alot of force to separate them especially once salted up a bit.
They also required a bucket load of them to construct the trailer so it became a real pain.
Here is an example of what was in the old trailer -
The new trailer is dead simple to use as Mangrove Jack Marine has patented there own split pin bolt that is spring loaded and requires no additional parts so no fiddling around you just push the pin in and lock it in.
Its so easy my kids can do it for me reducing set-up time again. With the old design I usually had to get a pair of pliers to get the split pin ring out but with the new one and the spring system it is really just plain simple and dead easy to operate.
Further to this the pins are also strategically placed around the trailer so there is not an excessive amount of them required to hold the trailer together once setup.
Here is a picture of the pin they provide -
Now onto the set-up the set-up is dead easy, every part uses the supplied pins so it just snaps together simply and there is no bolts required or tools for that matter to set it all up.
Moving into build quality as it directly relates to set-up of the trailer all the parts are manufactured to a high standard.
The main frame of the trailer is profiled so it slots together in a custom fashion.
From the minute you unbox it you can tell the quality is of high standard from the finish on each of the parts of the product to the little things they provide like a bag to keep all your bis and bobs in.
Here are some shots of the trailer from unboxing to first setup.
From many boxes comes good things
!
Well packaged, looks simple enough.
Hmm, ok so this makes a trailer?
It certainly does!!!!
Obviously the trailer is not completely extended in the above picture but gives you an idea of the set-up.
It takes @MrsExpanda and I about a minute to put and a minute to put down. That's just pulling the pins and separating the pieces but its just so simple I can't explain it.
Ill get some better shots of it when I get it on the road for rego.
Now if you are still following this and have looked at the mangrove jack website and looked at my trailer you might notice some differences.
I will elaborate more on why this is but as a hint its related to the type of boat I am going to be using as a car topper and the true capability of this trailer.....
The Boat
Ok, so now for the boat!
So the main issue we have experienced in the past is two fold
1) The weight of the vessel, the tinnie weighed in at a respectable 76kg's but by the time you add the boat loader 25 kg's you are over your limit of the standard 100kg's and if you add the weight of the roof racks themselves you are well over. When I talk roof capacity this is the carrying capacity of your roof set by your vehicle manufacturer. Some roof capacities are larger thank 100kg's but most vehicles Prados, Pathfinders, Pajero's etc are 100kg capacity which is to include the weight of your racks and the boat itself.
2) Comfort and stability, no word of a lie but even a modest 3.6 metre boat with a family of four can become uncomfortable. Whenever a fish was on it was like a mad fury of shuffling bodies to get someone boatside to asssist with the net. This resulted in either a man overboard scenario and most recently a nearly sunken boat as the two heaviest bodies in the boat decided to wrestle and 80cm flathead from the back of the boat whilst the boat had pivoted directly up in the air from the weight leaving the kids holding onto the front of the boat like a thrill ride.
So the search began, what could we get that doesn't kill the weight of the roof and would provide us with a comfy ride that we can stand up, cast lures, wrestle fish and not send children to the deep.
After a long search we came up with a company called Enlightened Boating -
https://www.facebook.com/EnlightenedBoating
We first encountered John and Geoff from Enlightened Boating when we where coming back from our Cairns trip.
From the first phone call everything was just to easy and we where invited to the workshop to have a sticky beak at the manufacturing process.
When we arrived we where shown allround the factory and treated like family even the kids had a ball.
They are the comibanation of two companies EzyTopper and CrossXCountry boats who have joined forces to produce a car topper range of boat and a trailered version.
So what makes them so special?
I am not going to get into the whole glass vs metal debate but the first thing is the manufacturing process of the boat, which is made of a resin infused foam cell and gel coat.
They inject the resin in a special process which can be seen below which provides a super durable structure by ensuring resin reaches every required area of the mould and also produces a super light weight boat.
And you can even see other companies use this process to -
The next thing is the sheer scale of car topper range they supply as a standard hull as it comes in an immense range of configurations that you can choose from depending on your intended usage stye and budget -
1) 3 and 3.7 Metre Barra Style Boat coming in at 40kg and 47 kg's. Yes I am not lying the 3.7 comes in at 47kg's WOW that is light!!!
2) A V style hull coming in as
a) 3.7M V / 63 kg's
b) 4.1 V / 80 kgs' (Same as the boat below in size terms but no carbon fibre base)
c) 4.1 Carbon Fibre model / 69kg's (NO JOKES 69kg's)
So we have ordered a 3.7 V hull and added a boat load of extras but it still comes in at a respectable weight limit where we can have everything legal on the roof.
Although we have not even collected the boat yet we have been very impressed with there product and it is that and the service that tipped us over the scales.
The 3.7 V hull also comes with a splash well as standard which is normally found on bigger boats and for something in this size range is just truly exceptional as it will eliminate much of the issue of water coming over the back of the boat from waves etc which is a hug benefit for a small boat.
The team at Enlightened Boating have the entire car topper process nutted out so everything you would normally carry can be optioned up to the boat as standard
For instance you can add a live well, esky, navigation lights, sounder pockets, transducer slide etc etc to fully kit the boat out.
In closing, we now have a boat on the way that is legal to carry on the roof, has all the options we need and comfort.
Certainly not cheap but a complete package is certainly worth it!
The Boat Loader
More to come
The Motor
More to come
So we have ordered a 3.7 V hull and added a boat load of extras but it still comes in at a respectable weight limit where we can have everything legal on the roof.
The main issues I experienced with the setup I had at the time and what forced me to give it up was the following -
1) The trailer was heavy, not heavy in terms of how heavy a trailer can be but just overall heavy for what it was and made it hard to handle
2) The trailer consisted of to many parts and took a fair bit of time to be put together
3) The boat loader I used to get it up on my roof was fiddly, noisy when the boat wasn't on the roof and required a few to many parts like a winch, cross bar etc to operate it
So essentially I have been searching high and low for a more weight considered set-up that is easy to put together when on the road and doesn't require an excessive amount of bits and pieces.
Some of the bits of the puzzle are a few months off at best but I have the first piece of the puzzle today so documenting the process so others can benefit from prior experience and my trial and error.
So the first part to arrive today was.............
The Trailer
After looking around at a variety of collapsible trailers and looking at weight, setup, suspension and adaptability I stumbled onto mangrove jack -
http://www.mangrovejack.com/
Lets break it down into what makes it a good choice -
WEIGHT OF THE TRAILER
Firstly the trailer weighs in at 38kg's which is incredibly light but it is super strong made from anodised aluminium which gives it the weight savings but this also gives it an exceptional finish.
My previous trailer weighed roughly 70kg's and most comparable collapsible trailers weigh in at 70 - 80kg's so at a weight of 38kg's is a minimum of 32k'gs in saving weight which is massive.
EASE OF USE
The difficulty I had with the old trailer was the split pin bolts. They where fiddly and often required alot of force to separate them especially once salted up a bit.
They also required a bucket load of them to construct the trailer so it became a real pain.
Here is an example of what was in the old trailer -
The new trailer is dead simple to use as Mangrove Jack Marine has patented there own split pin bolt that is spring loaded and requires no additional parts so no fiddling around you just push the pin in and lock it in.
Its so easy my kids can do it for me reducing set-up time again. With the old design I usually had to get a pair of pliers to get the split pin ring out but with the new one and the spring system it is really just plain simple and dead easy to operate.
Further to this the pins are also strategically placed around the trailer so there is not an excessive amount of them required to hold the trailer together once setup.
Here is a picture of the pin they provide -
Now onto the set-up the set-up is dead easy, every part uses the supplied pins so it just snaps together simply and there is no bolts required or tools for that matter to set it all up.
Moving into build quality as it directly relates to set-up of the trailer all the parts are manufactured to a high standard.
The main frame of the trailer is profiled so it slots together in a custom fashion.
From the minute you unbox it you can tell the quality is of high standard from the finish on each of the parts of the product to the little things they provide like a bag to keep all your bis and bobs in.
Here are some shots of the trailer from unboxing to first setup.
From many boxes comes good things
!Well packaged, looks simple enough.
Hmm, ok so this makes a trailer?
It certainly does!!!!
Obviously the trailer is not completely extended in the above picture but gives you an idea of the set-up.
It takes @MrsExpanda and I about a minute to put and a minute to put down. That's just pulling the pins and separating the pieces but its just so simple I can't explain it.
Ill get some better shots of it when I get it on the road for rego.
Now if you are still following this and have looked at the mangrove jack website and looked at my trailer you might notice some differences.
I will elaborate more on why this is but as a hint its related to the type of boat I am going to be using as a car topper and the true capability of this trailer.....
The Boat
Ok, so now for the boat!
So the main issue we have experienced in the past is two fold
1) The weight of the vessel, the tinnie weighed in at a respectable 76kg's but by the time you add the boat loader 25 kg's you are over your limit of the standard 100kg's and if you add the weight of the roof racks themselves you are well over. When I talk roof capacity this is the carrying capacity of your roof set by your vehicle manufacturer. Some roof capacities are larger thank 100kg's but most vehicles Prados, Pathfinders, Pajero's etc are 100kg capacity which is to include the weight of your racks and the boat itself.
2) Comfort and stability, no word of a lie but even a modest 3.6 metre boat with a family of four can become uncomfortable. Whenever a fish was on it was like a mad fury of shuffling bodies to get someone boatside to asssist with the net. This resulted in either a man overboard scenario and most recently a nearly sunken boat as the two heaviest bodies in the boat decided to wrestle and 80cm flathead from the back of the boat whilst the boat had pivoted directly up in the air from the weight leaving the kids holding onto the front of the boat like a thrill ride.
So the search began, what could we get that doesn't kill the weight of the roof and would provide us with a comfy ride that we can stand up, cast lures, wrestle fish and not send children to the deep.
After a long search we came up with a company called Enlightened Boating -
https://www.facebook.com/EnlightenedBoating
We first encountered John and Geoff from Enlightened Boating when we where coming back from our Cairns trip.
From the first phone call everything was just to easy and we where invited to the workshop to have a sticky beak at the manufacturing process.
When we arrived we where shown allround the factory and treated like family even the kids had a ball.
They are the comibanation of two companies EzyTopper and CrossXCountry boats who have joined forces to produce a car topper range of boat and a trailered version.
So what makes them so special?
I am not going to get into the whole glass vs metal debate but the first thing is the manufacturing process of the boat, which is made of a resin infused foam cell and gel coat.
They inject the resin in a special process which can be seen below which provides a super durable structure by ensuring resin reaches every required area of the mould and also produces a super light weight boat.
And you can even see other companies use this process to -
The next thing is the sheer scale of car topper range they supply as a standard hull as it comes in an immense range of configurations that you can choose from depending on your intended usage stye and budget -
1) 3 and 3.7 Metre Barra Style Boat coming in at 40kg and 47 kg's. Yes I am not lying the 3.7 comes in at 47kg's WOW that is light!!!
2) A V style hull coming in as
a) 3.7M V / 63 kg's
b) 4.1 V / 80 kgs' (Same as the boat below in size terms but no carbon fibre base)
c) 4.1 Carbon Fibre model / 69kg's (NO JOKES 69kg's)
So we have ordered a 3.7 V hull and added a boat load of extras but it still comes in at a respectable weight limit where we can have everything legal on the roof.
Although we have not even collected the boat yet we have been very impressed with there product and it is that and the service that tipped us over the scales.
The 3.7 V hull also comes with a splash well as standard which is normally found on bigger boats and for something in this size range is just truly exceptional as it will eliminate much of the issue of water coming over the back of the boat from waves etc which is a hug benefit for a small boat.
The team at Enlightened Boating have the entire car topper process nutted out so everything you would normally carry can be optioned up to the boat as standard
For instance you can add a live well, esky, navigation lights, sounder pockets, transducer slide etc etc to fully kit the boat out.
In closing, we now have a boat on the way that is legal to carry on the roof, has all the options we need and comfort.
Certainly not cheap but a complete package is certainly worth it!
The Boat Loader
More to come
The Motor
More to come
So we have ordered a 3.7 V hull and added a boat load of extras but it still comes in at a respectable weight limit where we can have everything legal on the roof.
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