Cars going on Cook Strait Ferries.

bex2211, Apr 11, 4:06am
How do they secure the cars down in the hold! and if the car has notie down points!Very precious hot-rod here.
40wav, Apr 11, 4:12am
They dont. You just put your handbrake on. When I brought my ute back from Wellington some hippies had an old van and they forgot to put on the handbrake. They got paged as the van was rolling back and forth bashing the two cars at either end of it. It may pay for you to enquire if theres a 'safer' spot on there or some insurance possibilities for the journey.
sandypheet, Apr 11, 4:13am
Chains last time I went,hotrodthey will probably go over the axles.Been a while since Ive been overnthings may have changed.
quickstitch, Apr 11, 4:16am
yeah, they secure them down, at least they did on my last crossing.
bex2211, Apr 11, 4:19am
Thanks for this information:-)
skin1235, Apr 11, 4:21am
thats the part you see, then after you have left the vehicle they clip them down, if you have tie down points they will use them, if not they will clamp over the tyres, - and if thats the case and you have a towbar they will also clip down via that too, the ferry is not allowed to leave the harbour with unsecured vehicles on board
40wav, Apr 11, 4:25am
Well they must have missed the van then. OP, I would phone the different companies that can provide this service and ask specifically what happens and how the vehicles are insured when on the boat. Does you ferry ticket have some insurance built in, does your normal insurance apply when on the ferry! Better to be safe than sorry in your case especially. Good luck.
bex2211, Apr 11, 4:28am
Thank youskin, thats what he needed to hear.Just getting a bit worried about his precious baby.
helsbels2, Apr 11, 5:06am
Can always tell how rough it will be by how many anchor points they use to tie the truck down. If none shes all good. They day they used four they knew and yep my god it was rough.
electro2000, Apr 11, 4:02pm
x1
Got a mate who works below on them ,if calm nothingif rough rope,chain them down but you can assist them to tie them down just ask one of the attendants . usually if the sailing is moderate or lessthen nothing.
same with bikes they get you to tie them up your self.Trucks and rail tied down all times
pandai, Apr 11, 4:22pm
I don't think they tied the cars down the last couple of times I crossed.
franc123, Apr 11, 7:30pm
Yes, that seems to be the case based on the couple of dozen crossings I've done.You should have comprehensive insurance, end of story, the"carriers liability" for damage or loss is capped at $1500, although I believe that a lawchange is in the pipeline to up that figure.
ema1, Apr 12, 1:00am
Last time I went on the Interislander.3 weeks ago actually, I had a late evening sailing booked, I get to the vehicle check in point and handed over my documentation and they said it was booked out BUT wait a minute here!
Luckily I had pulled up just a few minutes before the afternoon sailing andthe check in operator lady said she'll radio the loading personal to see if they had room on that sailing otherwise I was going to have to spend the night in Wellington and go next morning, which I promptly said NO to!
Call comes back .aw the vehicle deck is fully loaded and "gang plank" is already up but there's room for a couple of vehicles on the rear end of the rail deck, yep I said and promptly drove up to the rail bridge at the stern and was asked to reverse into the ship "Aratere" and a mini bus was there too and was also loaded on after me.
Talk about skin of the teeth stuff, by the time I had parked in there up behind a line of rail wagons, ( 3 lines across the ship there was) pulled the handbrake on etc and locked the car the stern door was slammed shut and then by the time I got up to the passenger deck, heck we were 150meters away from the berth.
Bloody heck .that was certainly "skin of the teeth" stuff alright, never mind the sailing was one of the smoothest ones I had ever done on Cook Strait, strait was like a "mill pond" and a brilliantly sunny afternoon was happening too.
Had about 4 hours or so extra in Picton to mess about due to the earlier sailing, had a motel for the night and set sail driving south early the next morning.
Brilliant trip after flying up to Welly from down south that same morning, which funny enough the booking got changed from original being a stop over in Christchurch but the DN to CHCH plane was late and would have missed the connection at ChCh to Welly, luckily they re did my flight to a direct DN to Welly flight which arrived about 15mins ahead of the one I originally booked. Perfect all round in the end.
40wav, Apr 12, 2:31am
So.did they tie it down or not!
lookoutas, Apr 12, 2:49am
I've always noticed that mine have been tied down.
wrong2, Apr 12, 3:14am
before you leave your car, they expect you to pull the handbrake on & leave it in gear

cars dont slide around on the decking dude ~
hutchk, Apr 12, 3:52am
They generally just chuck a couple of strops over the bodywork then ratchet 'em down until your wheels foul the top of the arches.
deus701, Apr 12, 5:09am
lol

i took the interinslander two weeks ago. They didn't tie it down but the trip was smooth.
ema1, Apr 12, 6:12am
Short answer.NO!
All the rail wagons were lashed down good though.
big.b-lil.c, Apr 12, 4:30pm
i have crossed the cook straight many times, every time i went across all vehicles were tied down. rope for cars, chain/straps for trucks.i was on a crossing where a truck tipped over on it side.
elenor, Apr 12, 4:50pm
i crossed in a 4 metre swell only the trucks were chained, they pack the cars that tight you couldnt have if you tried.
autocars1, Apr 13, 2:09am
I've seen them tie them down, your car will have factory points that you are unaware of.
bex2211, Oct 25, 7:58pm
No factory points, built from scratch with a fiberglass body. Hopefully it will be a calm smooth trip.