John,

I can't imagine your third choice, "having wheels in it by itself". The wheels would have to be very light weight and those type of wheels don't have bearings that would hold up to highway speed, plus the problems of attaching the pontoon boat to a vehicle. But, the other two choices are very viable.

The car topper is the cheapest way to go, as long as you have some kind of rack on the top of the car to secure it. Since you live in a fairly flat state, Indiana, you don't have any big mountains to worry about regarding bladder pressure, so you could have the boat fully inflated and ready to take off the top and hit the water. The weight of the pontoon boat is your main concern, lifting it up that high, and then the rack, is it strong enough to hold a pontoon boat while you travel down the road at 70 mph, or go over washboard roads to your fishing hole.

The other viable choice would be the trailer for towing the boat. There are some advantages to that. You can store a lot of equipment on waterproof boxes on the trailer. Trailers are not cheap is a bi concern.

I toss mine into the back of my pickup but if you don't have a pickup then I would consider the car topper or trailer idea.

Larry ---sagefisher---