Rowboat as Aero shell
 

I keep comming back to this idea.

Has anyone had any success getting a small aluminium rowboat and upturning it onto the appropriately positioned cradle in their pickup? It sure would be handy to have a boat available for spontaneous fishing trips and get better gas mileage.

I need to scan some classified adds and find one. Never can have too many boats :D

Plus it would come in really handy when this happens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdGfplrbKU

PRECISELY!

Think of all the women who will want boat rides. :thumbup: But alas, I'm most unlikely to experience such an event in inland Virginia.

I'm thinking something like a classic dory hull. Similar to Provo, UT Merchandise / Row-Boat with trailer - Geebo

Sort of like this you mean?

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - aerohead's Album: Pickup images - Picture
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ae...r-3-4-view.jpg

Haha yeah--That's awesome!


I was thinking of a much smaller vessel just thrown ontop of a tonneau cover in my case, but one can scale it up :D

Now that is an interesting thought. Since boat building is my newest hobby, my thoughts went immediately to what type to build. A small, planing garvey-type hull would seem to work best, but I don't know how well. I think that the cuvature forward (at the back end once loaded onto the truck) would be too much to retain attached flow. And for me, a 10 foot boat strapped to my 5 1/2 foot bed would look a little funny.

I will have to give this one some more thought.

10-foot
 

The prow could be hinged and folded and stowed during transit.
Once at the waters edge,remove the hull,'invert',swing and latch the prow,then launch.
You'd lose usable cargo space underneath.Or just remove the prow when there's no risk of 'spontaneous' boating!