Carver Owners Forum

Wondering how difficult is might be to take the arch and aft hardtop down so as to carry a 396 or 406 aft-cabin over the road. Anyone have experience with this?

If the max allowed height from the road is 13 1/2 feet would the helm/dash be an issue? And yes, a low bed trailer would help. Boat weighs approx 27,000 lbs dry and is 40' long. A travel-lift for on/off the trailer seems pretty routine--its mostly the "dis-assembly" that concerns me. I will ask DOT if they could do a waivor on the height limit.

Hi JP. When I shipped my 404 over I 90 I only had to be below 16'. I removed the hardtop and its supports, the radar arch, the bimini, the helm seats and the venturi. The helm split in two top and bottom so I disconnected all lines and cables from the top half and set it in front of the bottom half. The finale height on the trailer was just under 15'. If you are not doing the work yourself I would strongly recommend you send the tech doing the assembly to do the disassembly. You didn't say where and to you are moving the boat but route can make a big difference in how far down you have to tear the boat. Good luck!

Thanks for the good advice! Haven't bot this boat yet so I'm guessing some as to what I'll be dealing with.

Sounds like the hardtop/supports, arch, bimini and seats are nuts and bolts assembly. (?) Does the arch "pivot" or can be laid down and can the other parts stay up top for transport or do they have to come off the boat? The "venturi" -- is that the rather large "shroud/helm area enclosure with windshield on it?" Sounds like it has to come off the boat--if so, how? Are the helm sections difficult to separate what with antenna wires, steering, elec wire etc? Is this more than a two man job? Anything else?

Sorry for all the Qs. This is probably one of those things that is so much easier after having done it once. Good idea about having same guy de-assemble as well as assemble Thanks.

Yes most of the structure just unbolts. The Arch on my 404 came off completely and I secured it on the bow. The venturi is just the low windshield on the flybridge. The helm I referred to is just the console unit (helm station?). I used masking tape flags to label every wire and cable then coiled them in the lower half. All of the work was done by two of us except for the hardtop, I had access to a crane to lift and reposition it. If you hire a boatyard tech this will all be familiar to him.

a big help--thanks!