Jim, After much deliberation, I had to walk away from the aluminium RIB that was a really good price because I did not want my trip back to Florida to be an experiment. Had I been near my work shop, tools, and time for adjustment with short runs, I would have done it. I was very successful in installing a dinghy rack above the two solar panels and using the electrified St Croix davit to hoist the dinghy on to the roof rack. The electrified davit also is used to hoist the 10hp out board on to the back of the swim platform. Again doing adjustments over time, all working as designed. I could have used the davit system on my boat to place the RIB on the top of my truck, but again too many unknowns to gamble on a 9, 000 mile adventure through the Rockies to the Rio Grande and back to Florida with an untried roof rack on the truck. The big unknown was securing the racks to the cab, preferred to through bolt with backing plates, because of the aerodynamic flows. As an aside I did have to abandon one road because I could not negotiate the turns. Big signs stating max total length of the rigs was 40 feet. I was 55 feet. That would have put the front truck wheel off the berm on one side and the trailer wheel way off the berm on the inside of the turn possibly in the ditch, really tight turns :roll: But I had a great adventure and did it safely.
