M/V Northern Expedition Vehicle Height

[sjaj]

My wife and I are traveling to SE Alaska this summer via Port Hardy to Prince Rupert on the M/V Northern Expedition. We have a new Jeep Grand Cherokee and installed a Thule roof box which brings the overall height of the vehicle to 84-3/4 inches. This height is greater than the 7 foot (84 inches) limit under which we made the reservations.

Question: How stringent is BC Ferries on the 7 foot height limit?

I imagine the height test involves driving under a pipe that is hung at a certain height? I don’t see the Alaska ferries to be a problem but I will call this week to verify. It looks like our ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Duke Point is also limited to 7 feet but the over height premium here is more tolerable. If 7 foot 0 inches is the limit, I have been brainstorming some ideas to avoid paying the 300 CDN extra (Port Hardy to Prince Rupert)for an over height vehicle. I imagine the height test involves driving under a pipe that is hung at a certain height?

1. When we arrive at Bear Cove, remove the cross rails from the roof and tie the box onto the top using a blanket as a scratch resistant cushion (should lose greater than an inch).

2. Upon arrival to Port Hardy, fill the coolers with water in hopes of weighting the vehicle down to obtain less that 84 inches in height (verify method at home first).

3. Other ideas?

Thanks for your input!

Stuart

[Kahloke]

A 7ft height limit on Norex? That seems strange, considering she has a full height car deck for all lanes - observe:



I wonder if the 7ft height limit pertains more to pricing versus an actual physical obstruction either on the ferry or at the docks. For WSF, I know there is a surcharge for over-height vehicles.

[sjaj]

Interesting..... I figured as much and thanks for the photos.

I imagine if they advertise 7 feet or less at one price and above 7 feet at another price, they will be stringent with these numbers.

Stuart

[Low Light Mike]

The BC Ferries over-height charge for the Northern Adventure and Northern Expedition is a blatant rip-off cash-grab, unethical and illogical extra fee.

There is no reason to differentiate between vehicles heights on these 2 BC Ships, because there are no obstructions on the car-deck, so all space on the car-deck is the same.

So it is just a sly extra fee that BC Ferries charges, for no reason.

I suggest you phone the terminal in Port Hardy or Prince Rupert to find out if your "close" is close enough. I don't think there is any sort of drive-under-a-pipe test.

If you need to shed some inches, maybe pack the Thule into the back of the truck, just for boarding & unloading (squish the existing contents of your trunk into other parts of your Jeep cabin. Member Wett Coast Kidd has done this before, and re-set the Thule in the pouring rain.

BCFS is really unethical in this charge.

[sjaj]

Yes, I agree with these bogus charges. I will call the Port Hardy terminal this week and confirm. I know when I made the reservations by phone the lady seemed very insistent that if we did purchase a cargo carrier, they needed to know ASAP if we exceeded 7 feet in height. After seeing the above photos, I am disappointed in this height policy.

I will develop a "plan B" in case they do measure our height. Your idea of moving the carrier inside the vehicle is a good one but we will likely have to rope the rear hatch down as the box is too long to fit fully enclosed. One thing is for certain, we will not pay a trumped up charge for a standard car deck that appears to be able to haul semi-trucks; especially with our height being so close.

Stuart

[Quatchi]

I've seen terminal crew pull out a frame that they run over a vehicle to make sure it is within the 7'height limit. This was although for a sailing on the QPR, so height is very much a physical issue. I must agree though it is disgusting that they make people pay more to have over heights on the NorEx. The NorAd I can see because she actually does have some physical height limitations.

You are within 2" of being undersized. Call up the folks at reservations and ask to talk to the manager about it. Guaranteed the guys at reservations have no-idea what the ships are like, so maybe if you explain this to the manager you might be able to get away with it.

Otherwise, fill the truck up with water and let some air out of your tires.

Cheers,

[Nick]

If I recall correctly, the height restriction is "eyeballed" by the ticket agent and terminal crew when you check in. I don't think they actually measure it, and when I boarded the Northern Adventure in 2007, there certainly wasn't a suspended bar as a test or anything. Mind you, when we went we had a large travel trailer that was obviously over 7ft, so they didn't have a reason to check us.

You only need to lose 3/4". Have you measured the height with the truck loaded? If not, you may be under the limit just with a full load of passengers and fuel. 80L of fuel is almost 130 lbs. Your safest bet would be to put the Thule in the passenger cabin while you drive on board, even if it does have to stick out the back a little bit. I don't think a Grand Cherokee is anywhere close to 20ft in length, so you have a bit of room to play with there.

When you talk to somebody from BCFS, I would suggest that you register a complaint about this fee, since there is absolutely no practical reason for it to be in place on the Northern Expedition. The older ships had platform decks and such that prevented overheight vehicles from accessing every part of the car deck, but the Northern Expedition is completely accessible.

[Kahloke]

I'm guessing BCF has a "one size fits all" policy regarding normal length (ie. under 20ft) but overheight vehicles. On the Lower Mainland routes, it does have some merit where there is limited space available for talls (such as on the C-Class vessels, for example), but I agree with the others here: a height surcharge shouldn't be applied on the Inside Passage route with vessels (ie. Norad and Norex) that have a full height car deck across the entire beam.

[WettCoast]

You might say that I have been there, and done that. In the summer of 2006 we we travelling on the Queen of Chilliwack on route 40 (Port Hardy to Bella Coola). With a roof box (long ski type) on our car we were about 1 cm over height. I had booked the trip as under height not thinking that we would actually be over the limit. It was only when checking in on the night before our sailing that I realized thanks to the watchful ticket agent that we were actually over the limit. Rather than pay the steep difference for that one extra cm of height I came up with a plan.

The next morning we arrived at the terminal and just before getting to the ticket agent's booth we painstakingly removed the box and rack from the top of the car. We then shoved both inside. We drive a Honda CR-V and the box just fit, but left room only for the driver & one passenger to remain in the car. Lucky me, I got to go on as a footie.

As it turned out on that morning when we got up to the ticket agent she wondered why we had removed the box. It seemed that very likely she would have let us on as is. Furthermore, the vessel's car deck ramps were all pulled tight against the ceiling meaning the entire car deck was over height.

Some notes & suggestions:

If you are 'just' over the magic line you could act as if you have no idea about that and try your luck. If they wish to stick it to you for an extra couple of hundred then tell them that you will remove the box & shove it in the back (assuming that that is possible).

My advice is not to go with the advice provided by Cadmunkey above re calling up a manager and pleading your case. BCFS's is mandated to extract money from the travelling public however they can. If you advertise to them that you are over height even by just a small little bit, there is virtually no chance that the rules will be bent just for you.

At the Prince Rupert terminal there are electric eye devices installed for measuring vehicle height. I am pretty sure that the same system is used at Port Hardy. They only do hand measurement in borderline situations, and for measuring vehicle length.

The over height limit on northern routes was 6' 8.5", which equals the clearance under the ramps on the now retired Queen of Prince Rupert. I gather that it has now been changed to 7' which makes the limit the same as on most (all) other BCF routes.

As stated above, the whole concept of paying over height on the new Northern Expedition is just a tad bit unfair as there is no designated area for under height vehicles to be stowed. As I have stated before BC Ferries should drop the over height / under height distinction that they have on their northern vessels, and charge extra only based on the length and width of your vehicle. The system should be more or less the same as that used by the Alaska Marine Highway ferries. If you drive a 'Hummer' you will rightfully pay more than the guy who is driving a 'Smart Car'.

[sjaj]

I think what we will do is have a "plan b" if we are over height, (move carrier inside or remove box from cross rails). Hopefully when loaded, we will be 7 feet or under. I will make an height bar in our garage to verify once loaded.

Yes, it makes sense to use electronics to measure the height since height bars in public facilites are likely to scratch auto finishes.

I will keep you posted as to our final height and how the trip goes in early July.

Thank you for all of your help!

Stuart

[Dane]

Had a family friend up there last summer and they were very stringent, so much so that he went to great lengths to save himself from the fee.

[sjaj]

UPDATE:

We went to great lengths yesterday to measure the overall height of our vehicle. With the roof carrier installed, we added 90%+/- of our gear and checked the clearance. I hung a straight edge from the garage rafters at exactly 7'0". We (both in vehicle) drove under the straight edge on the level floor and cleared by at least 1/4". While this is a tight fit, I am convinced that adding the remaining gear will only help us; especially the heavy beverages.

We are excited to ride the new Northern Expedition soon as she looks quite nice. We will also ride the Coastal Inspiration later this week and I can hardly wait! This will be my first trip on the new "Super C"class and if they are anything like the "C" class vessels, we will love it.

I just hope we are not spoiled by the BC Ferries. This will be our first trip on the Alaska Marine Highway and the vessels don't look quite as fancy as BC's. Either way, I am sure we will love it all!

Stuart

[lmtengs]

Jun 28, 2009 18:20:02 GMT -8 @sjaj said:

UPDATE:

We went to great lengths yesterday to measure the overall height of our vehicle. With the roof carrier installed, we added 90%+/- of our gear and checked the clearance. I hung a straight edge from the garage rafters at exactly 7'0". We (both in vehicle) drove under the straight edge on the level floor and cleared by at least 1/4". While this is a tight fit, I am convinced that adding the remaining gear will only help us; especially the heavy beverages.


We are excited to ride the new Northern Expedition soon as she looks quite nice. We will also ride the Coastal Inspiration later this week and I can hardly wait! This will be my first trip on the new "Super C"class and if they are anything like the "C" class vessels, we will love it.

I just hope we are not spoiled by the BC Ferries. This will be our first trip on the Alaska Marine Highway and the vessels don't look quite as fancy as BC's. Either way, I am sure we will love it all!

Stuart

When are you riding? any chance it's august 4th? BCF only spoils you if you pay to be spoiled. Nothign is free.

I took the ferry to Nanaimo form Horseshoe Bay once with a canoe on the roof , which brought us to 7'2", but they still fared us as underheight, and we got onto the lower vehicle deck of the SOBC. We were elated

[rt1commuter]

Ummm... how were you on the SOBC going on rt2?

[lmtengs]

Jul 24, 2009 0:06:53 GMT -8 rt1commuter said:

Ummm... how were you on the SOBC going on rt2?

Sorry. It was either the CRenny or the Oaky

[sjaj]

An overview from our trip...
We took the Coastal Inspiration from Tsawwassen to Duke Point. Before climbing the concrete ramp for the top deck I noticed a height sign of 6 foot 8 inches. I hit the brakes and talked to the traffic director and she said that the upper deck is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 feet. Obviously the sign did not apply for this ferry.

For the Northern Expedition, a gentlemen was walking by measuring lengths and writing on a slip for the person in the booth. While filling the slip out he briefly looked up as to determine the overall height and marked a “UH” on our slip, (under height). He was definitely more interested in the length, which makes sense for this ferry as over height is not an issue. Yes, there is over height electronic eyes at the booth but I have no idea if they were on. Long story short, height was not an issue but no guarantees for others making the same voyage.

The Northern Expedition is a beautiful ship. This is a perfect ship for this 15 hour cruise. It has a great layout, great food, and friendly staff.

I was afraid that the Northern Expedition would have spoiled us before we took the Alaska Ferries. It did in a way but I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and mostly up to date the AMHS ships were. We rode the Matanuska, Taku, and Columbia. They all served their purpose; transportation. The Matanuska is a nice mainliner and my second favorite while the Taku came in last. The Taku looks a bit rough and I can only wonder if her days are numbered with the Alaska Class vessels eventually replacing some ships. The Columbia is a great ship but she did ride a bit rough our first leg from Wrangell to Ketchikan. She seemed to smooth out when we took her to Bellingham the next week.

We had a great trip and hope to repeat our voyage in some manner next year.

Stuart

[lmtengs]

They couldn't give me a bridge tour on the NorEx so they gave me and 4 others an engine room tour
I got a bridge tour on the Nor Ad a few days later, and I actually liked the engine room tour on the NorEx more