This is sailing related but not Vega specific. I hope that that is OK.
We've got a wedding coming up in Florida (our son's) and we decided to have
a vacation in Marathon FL afterward. When we transported the dinghy in our
'97 Volvo the spars and oars fit satisfactorily within the car. Well, our
Florida son now has the Volvo and our '96 Toyota 4-Runner is shorter and we
aren't comfortable with the spars in the car. We frequently see
contractor's trucks with 6 inch (inside diameter) PVC tubing on their roof
racks. That fit would fit our dinghy's spars but not the oars. The 7'
oars will fit within the car OK.
Wandering through hardware stores I've found 6 inch PVC pipe and couplers
(which add a threaded section for the end caps) and end caps are available.
I can attach fore-and-aft 2X4s to my roof rack and I think I can obtain
u-bolts large enough to hold the 6" PVC pipe. (I'll know for sure on
Monday.) The spars are about 7 feet 9 inches long (the boom and two-piece
mast) and the two cross bars on my roof rack can't be much more than 3 feet
apart. The dinghy weighs ~105 pounds.
There is no choice: the 8 foot dinghy rides on the rack. Has anyone found
any better way to deal with the "extra stuff"???? My concerns are
protection (from rain, gravel put down for snow, theft, wild animals,
aliens from other planets, etc.). My drive will be 2,000 miles.
thanx,,,
Alan
Minke, #2505
--
Facts have a well-known liberal bias.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
We've got a wedding coming up in Florida (our son's) and we decided to have
a vacation in Marathon FL afterward. When we transported the dinghy in our
'97 Volvo the spars and oars fit satisfactorily within the car. Well, our
Florida son now has the Volvo and our '96 Toyota 4-Runner is shorter and we
aren't comfortable with the spars in the car. We frequently see
contractor's trucks with 6 inch (inside diameter) PVC tubing on their roof
racks. That fit would fit our dinghy's spars but not the oars. The 7'
oars will fit within the car OK.
Wandering through hardware stores I've found 6 inch PVC pipe and couplers
(which add a threaded section for the end caps) and end caps are available.
I can attach fore-and-aft 2X4s to my roof rack and I think I can obtain
u-bolts large enough to hold the 6" PVC pipe. (I'll know for sure on
Monday.) The spars are about 7 feet 9 inches long (the boom and two-piece
mast) and the two cross bars on my roof rack can't be much more than 3 feet
apart. The dinghy weighs ~105 pounds.
There is no choice: the 8 foot dinghy rides on the rack. Has anyone found
any better way to deal with the "extra stuff"???? My concerns are
protection (from rain, gravel put down for snow, theft, wild animals,
aliens from other planets, etc.). My drive will be 2,000 miles.
thanx,,,
Alan
Minke, #2505
--
Facts have a well-known liberal bias.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]