Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska General Purpose Boat x NO TRAILER

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For a Jeep Cherokee or short bed Tacoma, would a square stern freighter canoe or an inflatable be a better rig for pretty easy water? Let’s say the motor will be the Backwater SWOMP GX 200 or something in that weight class. I need to be able to load/unload it by my lonesome. If the inflatable must be inflated upon arrival, I can live with that. I guess a johnboat would work if light enough.
Will a long-shaft rig work well with a canoe?
Thanks!

Gruman Sport boat would be ideal for what you want launch wheels that bolt to transom for loading unloading. A cargo rack for your motor with a motor bracket. Inflatable with your sun will be an issue over time. Ran a Gruman Sport boat for 15 plus years bought a Saturn Kaboat for easier storage only inflatable that performed the same as the Sport Boat. The G Sport boat is wider than most square sterned canoes and more of a planing hull.

No bud, this is for AK. Not AZ. Sun not an issue.

A good inflatable will be heavier than a canoe, but extremely stable, unsinkable, capable of very shallow draft while safely carrying enormous weight, but does not track well with motor, paddle or oars. Best material is Hypalon, far superior to PVC. Deflated, it is way easier to transport and store securely. Also they can be much faster, handle waves far better and will handle a much larger range of horsepower than a canoe.

I've lashed more square stern canoes on various 4wd's than most anyone. At least a dozen different styles, and at least a dozen different 4wd's.

The kaboat is garbage for many reasons, and id rather have a square stern.

Anything shorter than 17 ft is too limiting from a sportsman's perspective.

One of the best square stern canoes I've used, was the old town discovery 17 ft. They stopped offering the 17 ft some years ago, so look for one used. They have a flat bottom, so good initial stability and better with a motor. They are made of polyethylene, so are as slick as uhmw when the dragging gets shallow.

Round bottoms or wineglass sterns on some square stern canoes don't do well with the 55 lb Back Water/gx 200 ultralight.

Over a decade ago, 17 ft discovery sport:

Got a 14’ jonboat to sell. Probably bigger than you want.

I've spent quite a bit of time in a Grumman Sport boat, I believe it was 17-18 footer that one of my hunting buddies use to own. He had it setup with a lift and ran an 8 horse Yamaha and we never had any trouble going where we wanted. We've ran the Tanana, Salchaket Slough, the Chatanika into Minto Flats, Hess Creek, and several of the smaller rivers/creeks along the Haul road, it did it all.

AKmtnhntr,

I always liked the flat bottom, narrow stern design of the sport boat. They work better with motor power, than most canoe sterns with rounded bottoms.

Heres a guy on the Chena, in a grum sport boat with a cheap Chinese motor, seem to scoot along very well:

Many thanks.
Can a Grumman Sport be put on top of a Cherokee?

Not sure, they run about 17 feet in length but with the proper rack setup I don't see why not.

Gruman Sport Boat is 15 ft 4" 43 inch wide

You had either a 15’ or 17’ canoe on that little car of your sister’s. For reference.

sportboats are getting harder to find.

Look at a Gheenoe.

I used to put one and my 17 foot mad river on top of my 92 Cherokee with yakima racks///bars. Id probably have a hard time doing it myself now lol

FWIW . I carry a 17' Colman Scanoe on top of a 1998 Honda CR-V. years ago carried a 12' aluminum car topper on top of a VW Beetle . --- Mel

Well now we got a Jeep Cherokee, so movin' up!

Sounds like something I'd do

You Jefferson, you!

That video posted was not in real time but speed up quite a bit

Yeah. I see the 10HP SWOMP from backwater is slightly over 100 lbs. Speed isn't happening with the aforementioned parameters. But better than a paddle.