# I created a PortaBote Carrier Underneath my 5er



## Puredrifting (May 7, 2004)

Hi all:

For those of you not familiar with what a PortaBote is, it is a folding, very tough, fairly economical, easy-to-use alternative to inflatable boats. Being a 5th wheel owner, I still wanted to have occasional access to a boat without having to purchase a 'real' boat and trailer, hauling doubles, etc. The PortaBote fits the bill, it's an incredible, innovative product. You can get the details on the PortaBote at www.portabote.com

As I promised weeks ago, here http://homepage.mac.com/blfilms/Dans_5er_M...otoAlbum52.html are the details and a webpage I created that illustrate how I constructed a carrier for my 12' PortaBote underneath my 5th wheel.

All inspiration for this project came from Pat Kane, a local PortaBote owner who did the same. I saw his pictures a few months back and spoke with him about some the details. My installation is similar to his, yet there are some differences, mainly that I tried to shoot images as I went so that I could provide you with more details about how to go about this project. Also, his installation was on a 5er with an exposed undercarriage, mine has an enclosed undercarriage. The unit I constructed is also much wider than Pat's as I wanted to use more room under the 5er.

If you are handy, you will find this project fairly easy to execute. If not, you might want to hire someone to do it.

BIG HONKING LEGAL DISCLAIMER!
As a disclaimer, making this modification to your 5th wheel may cause damage to your 5th wheel, it's plumbing, electrical or gas delivery systems or may cause damage or weakening of the unit's suspension, body or frame. I disclaim and disavow any liability or repsonsibility to you if you attempt to install this project and mess up your 5th wheel. Depending on if your 5th wheel has an enclosed undercarriage or not, you may find this project very straightforward or incredibly involved. Once again, if you try this, you are on your own, this post and webpage is strictly for entertainment purposes, it is not a suggestion or solicitation for you to try this yourself.
BIG HONKING LEGAL DISCLAIMER!

With that out of the way, below are some notes, observations, suggestions and recommendations about creating one of these units.

1. The first point is that in the planning process, make sure that you understand the true depth of your PB. Most of the PB advertising and many posts mention that the PB is 4" deep. Yeah, right. My PB, even with 300 lbs of sandbags weighing it down, it 6.5" deep. Don't make the mistake of building your carrier to narrow to accept the depth of your PB. I only have a 12' PB so I am not sure if the 8', 10' and 14' PBs are the same, deeper or shallower in depth than this.

2. I figured if I installed the carrier so that the bottom of the carrier was higher than the axles, front jacks with in the up postition and my stair unit housings, I would be fairly safe from bottoming out over speed bumps, uneven driveways, etc. So far, this was a good decision, I have never touched the carrier to the pavement yet. While I suppose you could build the carrier at the rear of the 5er, it seemed to me that there would be more of a chance of scraping or crushing a unit in the rear of the 5er.

3. The width of the carrier is arbitrary. I made mine around 36" wide because I wanted to carry the oars, seats and bow cap in the carrier as well. I did not have anough room to create a carrier that could also hold the transom, Porta Dolly and motor, although with the right technique and space, I suppose you could.

4. I did not have a chance to go into great detail on the webpage because of the limited space offered by the webpage template. If you have any questions about some of the finer points, please post them here and I will answer them here so that everyone gains the benefit of our exchange. I bought some simple hinges and a basic, cheap lock hasp to secure the door to the carrier. Home Depot and Lowes have dozens of styles to choose from.

5. I used pre-drilled angle iron (actually not iron, I just call them that because I am not sure that they are really called). These proved to be much easier to work with than buying and halfway cutting, then bending regular angle iron, although that works for some people as well.

6. I purposely left some gap between the top of the unit and the botoom of the 5er. The reason is because the space and access may be needed in order to fetch some of the seats, oars, small parts that could become loose or work their way back toward the rear of the carrier. If the the top of the carrier was flush with the bottom of the 5er and formed a tight seal, how would you easily be able to access items toward the rear of the carrier? In the way I built it, I can crawl underneath the 5er and 'retrieve' any items that slip or slide to the rear of the carrier easily. So far, after 800 miles of driving. I have had no oil, road tar or rock issues with stuff working it's way up into the carrier. The PB is fairly indestructible as it is so the carrier functions as both a carrying unit, security unit and shield from road debris.

7. This is just a template, you can obviously adapt to your own needs, skills and innovation. Don't feel that you need to find the EXACT same materials as I used. It's more important that you grasp the basic concepts of how I constructed the unit. I recommend at least 6 anchor points on your 5er for the down hanging support brackets. If you have a longer PB or 5er (from front of 5er to front axle), you could use 8 or even 10 supports although I feel 6 is plenty.

8. Build and construct the carrier separately, then mount the brackets to the frame of your 5er. Then you can bring the carrier into position and raise it up to secure it to the down hanging support brackets. I used Loctite to secure the bolts, nuts and washers so that they will not become loose from the vibration of driving and bouncing down the road. Make sure you sand, buff and grind any obvious sharp edges hanging out from the self-tapping machine screws, corrugated sheet metal, etc. You don't want to slice open an artery while installing this thing or by someone crawling underneath and snagging on it.

9. While not totally necessary, I really noticed that the housing visually disappears when spray painted matte black. Since the bottom of my 5er is all totally black metal, the spray painting of the carrier really made it almost invisible from a few feet away.

10. Be careful when drilling the lock hasp into your 5er. Check for hidden wires, tubes, pipes, etc. Fortunately, the front area of my 5er is made of steel storage bins behind the fiberlgass so I was able to just drill into these and the hasp is tight and secure.

Have fun and good luck with trying this. It is the best, easiest way for 5th wheel owners to transport their PortaBotes. Since it is low to the ground, it is much easier physically to load the PB than trying to carry onto the roof of the 5er or a 10' high canoe rack on your TV. It also is out of the way and to most people on the road and in CGs, just looks like a place where you carry awnings, chairs or other low value junk. It's under the radar.

All the best,

Dan


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