That is really nice.
I registered it as a truck rather than an RV. Here in PA a motorhome would only be $50 per year but truck registration is $200. However, since it is a conversion built out of state rather than a factory unit it would have required a $300 special inspection and to wait 6 months or more for PennDOT to approve it as roadworthy so I just went the “truck” route. This state doesn’t assess motorhomes the way your state does. They are just classified as vehicles and the registration is based on weight and length.
By the way, these retired fleet cargo trucks are plentiful and reasonably priced since the carrier companies sell them off at regular intervals for tax purposes. They guy that built this one had a buddy who worked for Penske who would tell him which units were coming up for sale that had been particularly well serviced. They tend to sell between $10K and $20K, far less than the bloated prices on factory RV’s. And the boxes are easy to work with as far as cutting windows and doors. Some even come with the cab pass-thru already installed. The builder insulated the walls and ceiling and paneled it with light birch plywood, same stuff he built the cabinets from. Put in black headliner to make it easier to sleep late (he was out in Utah and used to camp in the desert). He built the shower from aluminum sheeting with a prefab fiberglass pan. Plumbed in with PEX. The side door with the fancy steps that he welded into place is handy but if I was building one I would leave it out since access through the cab is not that difficult and it wastes wall space. I would have made the Murphy bed frame hinged in the middle with fold out legs so it could either be folded up fully against the wall or just folded in half with a split mattress stacked on it to make a sofa bench/single bed.
If I was younger and feeling more entrepreneurial I would try to start a business building these. You could easily buy and convert one (with sweat equity) for under $30K. I have already been offered $60K for it but would never sell it. When cramped high-mileage Transit van Class Bs that don’t even have a shower or flush toilet are selling for $120,000 to $150,000, a cargo van conversion is a pretty good deal.
I also like that since he did this all himself for his own use he made all the mechanical systems readily accessible and easily replaced and/or modified. I already swapped out the padded barrel chairs he had in the dining area with a pair of ergonomic commercial type stacking chairs I got for $5 each at our local architectural salvage warehouse. I can nest them to get them out of the way (to set up the second bunk) and also take them outside when camped. And if the AC unit ever punks out it is just a conventional window mount I could buy at Lowe’s and swap out in an hour . Not having the roof mounted usual RV AC meant he had more space to mount the solar array.
not my cuppa… We cant take something like that on our journeys as you are tied to it. We leave the trailer in a campground and navigate the logging roads to a launch. We like the freedom to drive without always having the bedroom and kitchen with us…
No one has the universal correct answer. Ecology matters as it does in paddling.
Yah we got robbed in our RV. Its a depreciating asset and we paid $17 k for a 26 foot Jayco. We had another one that we paid less for and hauled some 120,000 miles ( with boats ) from Maine to Alaska and M to Cali twice and M to Fl 6 times and back.
Going to Newfoundland with boats this summer and the truck rate is not pretty on Marine Atlantic so for us we made the right decision.
BTW I have seen cars similar to the OP Ascent haul 4000 lb trailers here in Maine. Local people who say the haul isn’t the greatest but for what they do manageable… Now how to get that boat to cooperate with loading is the question.
Might be cheaper to get a trailer with a different slope.
Looking at your shot of the entire rig: would it be possible to elevate the front rack mount somehow to have the boat be on an angle so the stern has more clearance beneath the overhanging front of the trailer? Even just a 4" to 6" elevation might make the clearance work. If that’s a conventional square Thule rack they make high and extra high feet up to 11", though they are for roof gutters.
Because of the funky egg shape of my Mazda CX5, my 18’ SOF rides at a steep angle. It has traveled thousands of high speed highway miles at this angle without issues.
What’s odd is that the picture makes it look like I should reverse it, but the bow to cockpit measurement is 11" longer than the stern to cockpit measurement.
Exactly.
Nope, actually , yes, it would be, our trailer was not cheap. But after narrowing the field to the ones we could actually tow, we went and sat in all of them. This one is actually comfortable, I can’t say that about the others, actually, I can say the opposite. It also has a wet bath that doesn’t s**k.
Oh wow, that might actually do it! I have some foam kayak pads, one will give me 3-4" not sure if that will be enough.
I’m using the aero bars so I can’t use that Thule part.
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ya gotta love North Maine Woods logging roads for sure! We own a canoe trailer and NEVER bring it along… You never know when you need to back up for a mile or more.
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Actually? That was northern Pittsburg NH. However, Maine was just a few hundred yards east. 
45.29802632654994, -71.08516564261708
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Turn your kayak around, so its stern is to front of car, then you can move it a few inches forward.
Can’t do. It doesn’t look like that in the pictures but the distance from the bow to the coaming is 11 inches greater than from the coaming to the stern.
Then you have no choice but a new boat. We need a moment of silence while you get over the angst.
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More boats!!!
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Then the most affordable thing (my kayak weighs 75 lbs. so I understand the issues of a heavy kayak) is not use the hydraulic rack at this time, and get one that will let you center the kayak on your car. You can tie a kayak cart on the stern, then lift the bow onto the rack. roll it up some, then slide the boat the rest of the way onto the rack. Put a towel or blanket down to protect your car in case you rub on the edge of the roof. If your car has an overhang, which it looks like - do look for a rack with a roller to protect it, and move the back rack as far back as possible. I used this method with my kayak before I got the hydraulic racks, and I am not strong enough to lift the kayak, so had to use leverage. Since you are building new kayaks, making the current one work makes the most sense.
I did some doodling with graph paper, based on some guesstimates of measurements of the kayak and your car from that shot you have of the whole racking set up (from measuring on the screen). Hard to be exact since it is not obvious what the clearances are on the rear of the car roof (my little Mazda wagon has a damned fin that interferes with the rear edge clearance, as do many newer wagons). But it looks like the geometry that could result from raising the boat’s position on the front rack 4" would result in the stern being as much as 12" lower than it is without the added elevation. Main constraint on the height of any front rack booster would be where the diagonal hits the rear roof edge.
To get extra height, those grey solid foam canoe blocks that pop over lateral racks would add a couple of inches and you could glue minicell to them to boost them to whatever height worked. These now come slotted for the aero type bars as well as round and square, and being 4" square, add about 2.5" to the mounted height of the boat above the bars. This is probably what you already get with the saddles. BUT cementing minicell layers to them would get you more height and would be a simple project. The blocks are $16 a pair from REI.
I don’t know, the hullavator is a real game changer but I guess I would only need to center the boat while towing. But, when it is centered it will be really close to the center of the trailer which is even further forwards. Yikes.
And I’m not sure I can mount my boat in the center anyway with @Lillyflowers’ boat off on the other side of the Subaru.
Yeah, and with the boat so far forwards I’m not sure it is going to gain much. We’re back from our weekend camping trip, I’m off to get new tires for the trailer (grrrr…) but I can mess about with that this afternoon. The real problem is going to be on turns. But if I can drop it some, maybe it will work out.
Then again, if I get this to work, I’ll still worry about turns…
So, I’m officially an idiot, but I guess it makes sense since bow and stern are so similar. After the 1,000,000th of you told me to flip it around and I insisted I didn’t need to, I re-measured and yes, I needed to flip it around. And curiously, with the hullavators in tight, the coaming wasn’t close to touching, so I moved the boat forward a lot.
It still didn’t solve the problem though, arghh… still touches on sharp left hand turns.
Oh, and that far forward was really unbalanced. I wouldn’t want to move it any forward. I tried lifting the front part:
… and it really didn’t feel stable.
So my Necky Manitou is, at least for now, the solution. I’m kind of bummed, I really like my Cetus and I really like the trailer!
In the first photo you had posted of the whole rig, the trailer looks front heavy, but maybe that is just the pitch of your driveway and an illusion from the shadows.
But it looks like you need a weight distribution hitch device. Many moons ago my Insignificant Other was into sports car racing and he and his buddies all had them for their car hauling trailers.
Getting one would both add a little more distance between the truck and the trailer and set the trailer more upright instead of that slight front diving. Would improve handling of the truck too, and wear and tear on the tires and suspension. Costs from $1000 to $1400. Still cheaper than a new boat…
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Unfortunately, as stated in post #39 they can’t use one on that vehicle.
I do like your use of “insignificant other”. 
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Too bad moving the kayak forward didn’t solve the problem, but I’m with you, the kayak doesn’t look safe moved so far forward (and still didn’t solve the problem). Unfortunately, with that trailer’s deign of the sloping forward front wall, you’re going to have an issue with most vehicle/kayak combinations, you loose a couple feet of clearance between the end of the boat and the trailer window. Too bad a hitch extender isn’t an option.
I am generally skeptical of car makers’ “prohibitions” on various afternarket accessories, It is just an easy way to allow them to invalidate warranties and often has no basis in actual engineering necessity or safety. Seems to me a distribution hitch would put LESS stress on the tow vehicle’s frame by allowing it to remain more level during operation.
Good article here: https://askthervengineer.com/the-hidden-danger-of-a-weight-distribution-hitch/