AMA Carrier Version 1

Even though the weight was low, I still had some mental problems trailering the WR17 with the AMAs hanging out so far. The overall width was uncomfortable for me, as well as the possibility of damage from tubes bouncing up and down as the trailer moved over the road at 65mph.

I thought there must be a way to put the AMAs up on top and secure them in some way. I started by placing them on the main hull and saw that the aka tubes lined up almost perfectly with the trailer beam below.

I started by mounting a pole at each of the four places that the aka tubes came down on the trailer frame when they were in a good position on top of the main hull. This is the big box store's galvanized pipe (1-1/4") and flange.

I drilled two of the flange's holes through the trailer frame, and the other two I clamped with a 1-1/4 square trailer "U" bolt.I cut a 3ft piece of each pipe in half to give two 18 inch sections on each side.

Next, I slid some 1-1/4 inch PVC pipe over each galvanized pipe.The inner diameter of the ama tube is just a little larger than the COUPLERS for 1-1/4 PVC, not the PVC pipe itself. That's why there is a coupler seen in the middle of the tube and a cap on the top. These are what use up the remaining space inside the ama tubes. The PVC pipe inner diamter is just larger than the galvanized pipe outer diamter.

I left them loose over the galvanized pipe so they could spin and slip a little as I put the ama tubes over the top of them.Placement along the trailer frame was critical to match the distance between the ama tubes.

Here is a shot of the ama tube over the PVC post. There is a screw going into the tube that holds the plastic sleeve on that needs to be cut off from the inside in order for it to slide over the posts easily

The whole "package" is now only 5 and a half feet wide now. It is narrower than my tow car! (please excuse the porch construction in the background). I used some foam car-topping kayak blocks that had roof rack cutouts to support the amas on top of the cross tubes. You can just see them in the first picture. I had to "entice" the cutout to go all the way around the 3 inch cross tubes.

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