So, I have a problem. I am doing a wedding cake for a friend but I can't deliver it. It will be three tiers to feed 100 and be fondant covered with an ocean theme (shells/coral/sand, etc.). I only transported two cakes before that were large and tiered with BC and despite dowelling the tiers slid on one another.
I need advice on how to to tier this cake so that it stays intact...
THANKS!!

Hopefully, someone else can help. I've only transported a 3 tier- buttercream cake once. Let me try to explain the issue that I had. I had stacked the cakes and each cake had dowel rods inside. Then I put one big dowel rod thru all three layers. That worked pretty well. My problem was that I had already done the trim around the edges (where the 2nd tier meets the bottom tier) and where the top tier meets the 2nd tier). So when I got the cake out, the icing had kind of broken away from the cake during the drive. My drive that day was an hour and a half.
Hope you get it worked out!

If you are doing a fondant iced cake, make sure and wet the bottom edge of the fondant tiers so they are "glued" together. Have plenty of supports and also "glue" on the pieces really well. Have something of a repair kit , because, inevitably a shell or 2 will fall off.
I think transporting a fondant cake is much more stable than a buttercream cake. Fondants are pretty solid.

Wow....and you won't be delivering it? I've done some pretty tall cakes with fondant and BC and I usually put two long dowels all the way through to the bottom, kinda supporting each other for give and take sway. So you won't be able to be there to repair anything that goes wrong?

Refrigerate until very cold before travelling...and blast the a/c. It should stay firm for most of the trip. Of course, good dowelling as well. The refrigeration makes the cake more firm, and then the shaking/vibration of the car will not, so much, make the cake weaken or crack.

Thanks for all your tips. I have never not delivered a cake before so this is a first. I have another cake to do for the same day.
cylstrial, the same thing happened to me with my BC tiered cake, the edges slid a tad!
kitagrl, great tip, firm it up!
malakin,nope, i wont be there. I hoping because of the simple design I can give my friend spare pieces to take with her. I know several people going to the wedding so hopefully I can train someone with a quick how to stick shell back on, lol.

Check out some of Leahs' threads on SPS, I think that would solve your problem.

SPS is your answer. It was CREATED for customers to pick up and transport their own tiered cakes.

Unfortunately we have been displaced by Hurricane Ike and I do not have access to my computer where the instructions are stored. However, there are literally over a hundred people on CC who have received my file and surely one will volunteer to send it to you.