Boat on a launch trailer on a flat bed trailer?

MoodySabre

MoodySabre

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The crappy weather in West Wales is encouraging us to move an Achilles 24 triple keel by road. We have found a man to move it very reasonably but he can't find a suitable trailer to borrow (he can only find a fin keel trailer at present). We have a launching trailer that is not fit for a 60 mile road trip. Could we safely winch the boat, on its launch trailer, up on to a car transporter trailer and tow that. Don't know how unstable the whole thing might be.

Anybody done it?
 
24ft on a standard car tranporter (trailer) will be interesting as they are designed for cars around 16ft usually. Ideally you will want the keels over the axles for balance. Where will this put the bow? Moving the boat back on the trailer would make it tail heavy. It could be done, depends how legal you want to stay as well as what you'll be towing with.
 
Just another thought (and you may well have thought of it yourself), If you put a trolley piggy backed on another trailer, ideally I would remove the wheels once its on and have it sitting down solid on the transporter. It will make the whole lot more stable.
 
gunman said:
Ideally you will want the keels over the axles for balance. Where will this put the bow? Moving the boat back on the trailer would make it tail heavy.
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Agreed - you certainly need to consider the weight distribution as well as simply the dimensions. It may make sense to load the boat on facing backwards - I've seen a couple of factory-built trailers that did this.

Pete
 
I did exactly this a couple of years back - used a piggy-back style launch trolley with hard wheels, and the flat-bed trailer had a wooden deck. You can probably guess the rest ...

Wheels concentrated the weight into a few square inches, and promptly went straight through the wooden flatbed.

Lost me trailer deposit (of course) - not a happy day.

A steel-bed trailer is a must if you're planning anything like this - either that or use steel plates to spread the weight around.
 
Caravan transporter

MoodySabre said:
The crappy weather in West Wales is encouraging us to move an Achilles 24 triple keel by road. We have found a man to move it very reasonably but he can't find a suitable trailer to borrow (he can only find a fin keel trailer at present). We have a launching trailer that is not fit for a 60 mile road trip. Could we safely winch the boat, on its launch trailer, up on to a car transporter trailer and tow that. Don't know how unstable the whole thing might be.

Anybody done it?
Click to expand...

I used a caravan transporter with my boat on a yard trailer winched up onto the lorry. Just watch you overall height of Transporter + Trailer + Boat.


John
 
When my First 18 trailer lost a wheel I got it brought home on the back of a car transporter, it wasn't the bigest size but not the smallest either.
It was a bit like this:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:...ls.com/images/photos/Photo-gallery--117-1.JPG
It didn't have the Hiab though.
For a 24' boat you may need something a bit beefier.

It cost me £150 to bring it 50 miles home but it was a bank holiday Saturday and storage was going to be 6 days minimum @ £12 a day so I wanted it shifted.
 
I used to move my Hunter Delta around on its cradle on a trailer.
Critical issues - make sure the trailer brakes work, use a 4 wheel trailer with legs and fashion some ramps to get on and off with the winch. You also need to be careful that you get it central on the trailer - too far forward and the steering will go light and you may get some snaking -

30 mph along the M74 beats 5 knots in the Irish Sea when the weather is less than clement.
 
claymore said:
I used to move my Hunter Delta around on its cradle on a trailer.
Critical issues - make sure the trailer brakes work, use a 4 wheel trailer with legs and fashion some ramps to get on and off with the winch. You also need to be careful that you get it central on the trailer - too far forward and the steering will go light and you may get some snaking -

30 mph along the M74 beats 5 knots in the Irish Sea when the weather is less than clement.
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What did you tow it with? I thought the max trailer length (excluding drawbar) was 23ft and a width of 7.5ft. That is with a tow vechile under 3500kg (i.e a plg vechile). I'm not saying it isnt possible or safe, but doing 30mph on a motorway with an oversized trailer could make you stick out like a sore thumb!
 
gunman said:
What did you tow it with? I thought the max trailer length (excluding drawbar) was 23ft and a width of 7.5ft. That is with a tow vechile under 3500kg (i.e a plg vechile). I'm not saying it isnt possible or safe, but doing 30mph on a motorway with an oversized trailer could make you stick out like a sore thumb!
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I thought the max width towed behind an ordinary car was 8 ft 6, I hope it's not 7ft 6 or else I'm breaking the law towing my 8ft wide boat.
 
BTW, dont get me wrong, I will tow my sonata a short distance using my Audi A6 2.5TDI, although I accept I am not strictly legal doing so as it's over 8ft wide. Wouldnt matter if you were to use a 4x4 either, unless it's over 3500kg in which case its taxation class will not be plg (I think)
 
gunman said:
Under 3500KG vechile, max width is 2.3m or 7' 6"

http://www.ntta.co.uk/law/law/dimensions.aspx
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Whoops, we'll have to hope nobody stops me to measure my 8ft wide boat then.

EDIT:

(as pointed out below) you are allowed a load to project either side of the trailer by up to 305mm, and a max width of 2.9M, so my 8ft boat (being the projecting load) is okay.

The rear projection can be up to 2M with a simple flag or bit of rag, or up to 3.05M with a proper warning sign. (might enable a lowered mast to stay on it's foot rather than completely removing it, one less thing to do before launching)
 
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You should have no problem. I had my 22ft Swin Ranger lifted onto my car transporter and brought her 500 miles back from France to the UK. When you pull the trolley up onto the transporter pull it on untill the transporter (got to be 4 wheel) is level, with a slight load on the tow-hitch. Then chock the axles of the trolley up (I used fence posts 6ft by 6inches by 3 inches). This spreads the loads and ensures it does not move. Strap it on, and then strap it on again makeing sure that if the towing vehicle brakes very sharply that the boat cannot move forward.

My boat was 8ft 2inches wide. Provided the job looks good and you don't move it in rush hour PC Plodd isn't bothereed and most of them don't have a clue about the towing regulations anyway. I always move boats about daybreak when there is no traffic and if owt does go wrong you have all day to sort it. Never ever had a problem but you do need to use decent kit and take a belt and braces approach.
 
gunman said:
What did you tow it with? I thought the max trailer length (excluding drawbar) was 23ft and a width of 7.5ft.
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Trailers longer (and possibly wider) than that are entirely legal if they have been specially constructed for the transport of a single, indivisible load. I spent years towing around a 32 foot long glider trailer ...
 
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