How tall can my Christmas tree be and fit on my sedan roof?
December 3, 2013 7:00 PM Subscribe
We have very high ceilings in our apartment and can get a tall tree, but we would like to avoid renting a truck and I don't think any of our nearby friends have the type of vehicle that would be better. If we must, we will further investigate those options or delivery or whatever, but first I want to rule out using my own car. I've never transported anything on my own roof and I have no rack but I know trees get home this way all the time. I'm happy to go nuts tying it down as long as we're being safe. I know there's a weight limit listed for my car. What's the practical/legal length limit and what is it based on (roof, car length)?
To some extent, this depends on the size of your car and the kinds of roads you will be traveling on. We have brought 7 ft trees home on our Ford Focus, over 40 mph-roads, with no issue or worries. I don't think we'd do it over a freeway.
Just saw Amity's suggestion of a flag which is a good idea (any piece of red/orange cloth will be helpful). I'd also recommend a rug or something for the top of your car. We have one of those oversized bath mats that's rubberized on one side -- we put that against the car and the tree against the fuzzy side. It protects the finish a little and help to prevent slipping.
At most tree farms I've been to, the attendants are very helpful and will let you know if your tree is just too big (ask them before cutting though the maximum length they'd recommend you can take) and they will usually tie to to the car for you too. we go to the same place every year and tip well, and the guy always does an awesome securing.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:17 PM on December 3, 2013
Just saw Amity's suggestion of a flag which is a good idea (any piece of red/orange cloth will be helpful). I'd also recommend a rug or something for the top of your car. We have one of those oversized bath mats that's rubberized on one side -- we put that against the car and the tree against the fuzzy side. It protects the finish a little and help to prevent slipping.
At most tree farms I've been to, the attendants are very helpful and will let you know if your tree is just too big (ask them before cutting though the maximum length they'd recommend you can take) and they will usually tie to to the car for you too. we go to the same place every year and tip well, and the guy always does an awesome securing.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:17 PM on December 3, 2013
I have a small hatchback yaris (with no roof rack). I usually get trees that are between seven and ten feet tall and transport them no problem on the roof of the car with lots of rope tying them VERY securely. I have done one hour trips a couple of times (driving around 80/k an hour) but prefer the short trips. If you are concerend about scratching the roof of your car you can bring a blanket for the treet to lie on. I try to bring a tree bag to bag the tree before it goes on the roof and make it easier to carry in the house without dropping needles (I do all this by myself -well the toddlers *think* they are helping, and I am a pretty small and not strong woman). Go for it!
posted by saucysault at 7:18 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by saucysault at 7:18 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just take along a red cloth to hang on the end if it hangs over. And rope, a lot of rope. Drive slow.
posted by sammyo at 7:29 PM on December 3, 2013
posted by sammyo at 7:29 PM on December 3, 2013
I'd go more based on what you think you can lift and carry when you need to get it off your car and in the apartment. Big trees can be heavy!
posted by cecic at 7:48 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by cecic at 7:48 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
You can look at the rules at your DMV to find the legal limits.
In WI, IIRC, it was 8ft past the front bumper and 10ft past the back. You need flags for anything more than 3 feet from the vehicle. So, a ford focus at 15 feet long would allow you to get a tree (8 + 15 + 10) 33 feet long.
Or less. You know, if you're chicken.
The bigger concern is weight. The roof is designed to handle 3x the cars weight. But, you might crease the sheet metal with a tree thats too heavy. Plus scratching the paint and all that.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:09 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
In WI, IIRC, it was 8ft past the front bumper and 10ft past the back. You need flags for anything more than 3 feet from the vehicle. So, a ford focus at 15 feet long would allow you to get a tree (8 + 15 + 10) 33 feet long.
Or less. You know, if you're chicken.
The bigger concern is weight. The roof is designed to handle 3x the cars weight. But, you might crease the sheet metal with a tree thats too heavy. Plus scratching the paint and all that.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:09 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Pogo_Fuzzybutt: "The roof is designed to handle 3x the cars weight."
That's a little misleading. Modern cars are designed to support more than their weight in a roll over but doing so is going to cause extensive "cosmetic" damage to the roof including severe dents and possibly deformation of the roof such that opening the doors becomes problematic. I've hauled plenty of stuff on the roofs of cars with nothing but some rope and a maybe a blanket between the load and the roof but I'd never put much more than 50-60 lbs on a standard car roof. Heck the factory racks on my Caravan are only rated for 65 lbs evenly distributed.
posted by Mitheral at 8:29 PM on December 3, 2013
That's a little misleading. Modern cars are designed to support more than their weight in a roll over but doing so is going to cause extensive "cosmetic" damage to the roof including severe dents and possibly deformation of the roof such that opening the doors becomes problematic. I've hauled plenty of stuff on the roofs of cars with nothing but some rope and a maybe a blanket between the load and the roof but I'd never put much more than 50-60 lbs on a standard car roof. Heck the factory racks on my Caravan are only rated for 65 lbs evenly distributed.
posted by Mitheral at 8:29 PM on December 3, 2013
Best answer: I used to sell trees.
The practical limit is likely to be based more on how much you can lift than on the amount to weight your car can carry. How much is very high, 25 feet? If it's more like 12 feet you don't need to worry about going over the weight limit on your car.
For tying your tree, you want to have the trunk towards the front of the car, and it needs to be well secured in all directions. Further along the tree you pretty much just need to keep it from sliding around. Put a red cloth on the very end behind your car.
It is far preferable to do this during the day. If it's night, bring flashlights in case you need to retie the tree.
If you want to have the farm or lot tie it on check in advance. Some places don't do this for liability reasons. Some will provide materials for tying it yourself.
If you are getting a fresh tree that you cut, it's going to be very heavy. A tree from a lot may have been cut as early as September or October and will be much lighter, but have dried out more and not last as long. Even for a fresh tree, you'll want to cut off an inch or two of the base before you put it in water at home, transporting it will have caused it to dry out a bit.
You don't mention how far you are going or if you want to take the freeway. If you are crossing state lines, see if there are restrictions on what you can bring. You'll be better off keeping your speed under 55, if you pay attention to how the car handles you can get a good idea of what's too fast. If it's very windy you will need to go slower, the tree will act like a sail on your car. Have some extra rope along and pull over immediately if you feel or see the tree lifting up on the front end.
You might like to know that taller trees can be much more difficult to get to stand up on their own, and you might need to attach some guy lines in your apartment.
posted by yohko at 10:08 PM on December 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
The practical limit is likely to be based more on how much you can lift than on the amount to weight your car can carry. How much is very high, 25 feet? If it's more like 12 feet you don't need to worry about going over the weight limit on your car.
For tying your tree, you want to have the trunk towards the front of the car, and it needs to be well secured in all directions. Further along the tree you pretty much just need to keep it from sliding around. Put a red cloth on the very end behind your car.
It is far preferable to do this during the day. If it's night, bring flashlights in case you need to retie the tree.
If you want to have the farm or lot tie it on check in advance. Some places don't do this for liability reasons. Some will provide materials for tying it yourself.
If you are getting a fresh tree that you cut, it's going to be very heavy. A tree from a lot may have been cut as early as September or October and will be much lighter, but have dried out more and not last as long. Even for a fresh tree, you'll want to cut off an inch or two of the base before you put it in water at home, transporting it will have caused it to dry out a bit.
You don't mention how far you are going or if you want to take the freeway. If you are crossing state lines, see if there are restrictions on what you can bring. You'll be better off keeping your speed under 55, if you pay attention to how the car handles you can get a good idea of what's too fast. If it's very windy you will need to go slower, the tree will act like a sail on your car. Have some extra rope along and pull over immediately if you feel or see the tree lifting up on the front end.
You might like to know that taller trees can be much more difficult to get to stand up on their own, and you might need to attach some guy lines in your apartment.
posted by yohko at 10:08 PM on December 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
This is probably perfectly doable, as others are saying. I regularly used to carry a 15' canoe on top of my two-door coupe, and it worked fine as long as I was careful about tying it down well. Your biggest handicap is that if you don't have a roof rack you are going to have to get creative about finding tie-down points. Here are some tips.
For the middle of the tree, the thing to do is open the car doors and run the rope or strap (ratcheted cargo straps are highly recommended unless you really know what you're doing as far as knotwork, although the folks at the tree farm probably can help you) through the cabin underneath the roof. The doors will still open and close just fine.
For the back, you can tie to the trunk hinges or to the towing loop that's probably welded onto the bottom of your car's frame under the rear bumper, as long as the towing loop is centered. The trunk hinges work a bit better in my experience, because that way you get some horizontal stabilization. If you go to the towing loop you'll only have one tie-down point back there and things will tend to move side-to-side a bit more.
For the front, you can tie to the front door hinges (just open the doors and you'll see 'em in there) or to your hood hinges. Works fine, just make sure that when you're doing all this you aren't putting so much pressure on the hinges that you risk bending them. I wouldn't recommend tying things to your door/trunk/hood hinges on a regular basis (although I used to do it all the time and it never caused a problem) but if this is just a once a year Christmas thing I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Like I said, I used to regularly carry a canoe this way on a car with a very small, non-racked roof, at speeds of over 70mph and it was fine as long as I was very careful about making sure that everything was tied down well. The canoe was longer than my car! I'm glad that I have a truck now with a rack because it makes the whole thing much easier and less trouble-prone, but it's totally doable. If you're unsure about your ability to do this well then enlist the help of one of the Christmas Tree Farm guys (make sure you tip him a bit extra for this!) because he'll probably be an old hand at tying preposterously-large christmas trees onto small cars, and will know just what to do.
posted by Scientist at 9:12 AM on December 4, 2013
For the middle of the tree, the thing to do is open the car doors and run the rope or strap (ratcheted cargo straps are highly recommended unless you really know what you're doing as far as knotwork, although the folks at the tree farm probably can help you) through the cabin underneath the roof. The doors will still open and close just fine.
For the back, you can tie to the trunk hinges or to the towing loop that's probably welded onto the bottom of your car's frame under the rear bumper, as long as the towing loop is centered. The trunk hinges work a bit better in my experience, because that way you get some horizontal stabilization. If you go to the towing loop you'll only have one tie-down point back there and things will tend to move side-to-side a bit more.
For the front, you can tie to the front door hinges (just open the doors and you'll see 'em in there) or to your hood hinges. Works fine, just make sure that when you're doing all this you aren't putting so much pressure on the hinges that you risk bending them. I wouldn't recommend tying things to your door/trunk/hood hinges on a regular basis (although I used to do it all the time and it never caused a problem) but if this is just a once a year Christmas thing I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Like I said, I used to regularly carry a canoe this way on a car with a very small, non-racked roof, at speeds of over 70mph and it was fine as long as I was very careful about making sure that everything was tied down well. The canoe was longer than my car! I'm glad that I have a truck now with a rack because it makes the whole thing much easier and less trouble-prone, but it's totally doable. If you're unsure about your ability to do this well then enlist the help of one of the Christmas Tree Farm guys (make sure you tip him a bit extra for this!) because he'll probably be an old hand at tying preposterously-large christmas trees onto small cars, and will know just what to do.
posted by Scientist at 9:12 AM on December 4, 2013
I carry all sorts of stuff on my car, so I have an old blanket to put on top of the car to protect it from scratching. I have lots of bungee cords and several lengths of rope. I would secure the trunk of the tree to the front of the car - look underneath and you'll see where to attach a rope. The rope won't impair your vision appreciably. Same on the back. With the doors open, I run bungee cords from the inside ceiling handles across the car/ cargo, linking bungees of various lengths together as needed. Take your time and make it snug.
posted by theora55 at 11:13 PM on December 4, 2013
posted by theora55 at 11:13 PM on December 4, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Amity at 7:12 PM on December 3, 2013