Parking a trailer with a RIB on a public road

[Giblets]

Peter, another thought occurs. As you have a very long drive I don't suppose you also happen to have a tractory type thingy to tend to the green sward on your estate that could be adapted to move said RIB & trailer? Or even buy a cheapo secondhand, tatty, one just for the purpose! Great fun they are!

 

[peter2407]

The problem(s) with my great estate are: very long drive (300m), narrow at points (15m) with a wooden elevated drive like a railway bridge that will fit a transit vans axles (just), curved (but not in a Marilyn Munroe way ..) cambered (cant think of a pseudo sexual reference there..), with a rise of around 10 meters over a 200m distance, with Oak trees overshadowing and level changes ... so ignoring this particular challenge, yes I would love a ride on mower like we had at the last place, but going from one lawned area to another would be a right PITA .. plus the old one I had wouldn't have the guts to push 2 tons (guesstimate) up a steep ish drive. The electric winch pulling with jockey wheel steering might be worth a play. In two months look for a thread titled "How do I get a 2 ton RIB/Trailer combo unstuck from a steep narrow drive?".....

 

[Uricanejack]

The problem(s) with my great estate are: very long drive (300m), narrow at points (15m) with a wooden elevated drive like a railway bridge that will fit a transit vans axles (just), curved (but not in a Marilyn Munroe way ..) cambered (cant think of a pseudo sexual reference there..), with a rise of around 10 meters over a 200m distance, with Oak trees overshadowing and level changes ... so ignoring this particular challenge, yes I would love a ride on mower like we had at the last place, but going from one lawned area to another would be a right PITA .. plus the old one I had wouldn't have the guts to push 2 tons (guesstimate) up a steep ish drive. The electric winch pulling with jockey wheel steering might be worth a play. In two months look for a thread titled "How do I get a 2 ton RIB/Trailer combo unstuck from a steep narrow drive?".....

Sound like your place bears a striking similarity to mine. No Oaks, mostly fir, Option I can't do, is call a buddy with a front end loader (JCB) and create a spot down near the road. My drive way goes between 2 other estates. To get road and utility access, Very secluded and less than ideal for backing a boat into.
Other option, Do you have a bit of room and a couple of burly mates who could help you disconnect and turn it. My Brother and I do this with his boat. Its not a big boat though,

 

[ShinyShoe]

The problem(s) with my great estate are: very long drive (300m), narrow at points (15m)

Have you mixed up your units 15m is huge...

plus the old one I had wouldn't have the guts to push 2 tons (guesstimate) up a steep ish drive.

REALLY? That seems mighty high for a 5.5m RIB

The electric winch pulling with jockey wheel steering might be worth a play.

For that length of drive thats gonna be a serious PITA. You'd need multiple winch points as 300m of cable wont fit the winch. Unless you can tow it close to the need and park it on the grass to take the car out and then are just manually manoeuvring it to park.

- If you do park it on the road can you send me the address since its at least 300m from the house I reckon I can come and relocate it for you before you will notice ;-)

 

[ProDave]

Have you mixed up your units 15m is huge...

Enough to do a 3 point turn at least.

Somebody with a 300M drive must have somewhere to turn at the end. I can't believe you drive in, then reverse 300M out to get back to the road?

 

[peter2407]

The 15m width is probably a little generous, however ....the usable aeea is the wooden drive itself (as I said, width of a little over a transit axle width with a bit to spare and then the "turning area" at the top, which with all the crap out if the way needs a 3ish point turn for an A6 estate to turn in. The rest is lawn, office, sheds, more lawn, flower beds, more bloody lawn ... And i hate gardening ...The trailer length with the bar must be the car length plus 50%,as the trailer end to end must be c.7 metres? The 2 tons is the boat and the braked trailer. Boat with two chunky 40 Hp O/B's.

My original electric winch idea was - tow up in the normal way, attach the elec winch to the trailer and unhitch the trailer from the car, then winch the trailer into position after turning it round so that in 4 months time I couod bring the car up the drive, atrach the trailer and orf we jolly well go. My concern is that the turning area wouldnt accommodate both the car and the trailer. Reversing the car down (assuming I cant turn it round due to the space being used by the trailer) is a pain, but doable. But that presupposes that I can get the car past the trailer. Modeling on paper might say its an absolute no, but I doubt that it would give an unequivocal yes either. The architects drawings showed a two seater sports car. The git ....

 

[Hadenough]

U

The 15m width is probably a little generous, however ....the usable aeea is the wooden drive itself (as I said, width of a little over a transit axle width with a bit to spare and then the "turning area" at the top, which with all the crap out if the way needs a 3ish point turn for an A6 estate to turn in. The rest is lawn, office, sheds, more lawn, flower beds, more bloody lawn ... And i hate gardening ...The trailer length with the bar must be the car length plus 50%,as the trailer end to end must be c.7 metres? The 2 tons is the boat and the braked trailer. Boat with two chunky 40 Hp O/B's.

JFD it!

 

[ShinyShoe]

The 15m width is probably a little generous, however ....the usable aeea is the wooden drive itself (as I said, width of a little over a transit axle width

OK so thats probably 2m.

I may be wrong but a rib of that size is probably 2.3m wide. Is the width restriction just at ground level or also at Tube Level?

then the "turning area" at the top, which with all the crap out if the way needs a 3ish point turn for an A6 estate to turn in. The rest is lawn, office, sheds, more lawn, flower beds, more bloody lawn ... And i hate gardening ...

So I'd be thinking of driving up the drive to the turning point with RIB on the back. Park and remove trailer and put on the lawn at right angles to the drive.
Turn the A6 round.
Move down drive past RIB.
Pull rib out and put it where you want it or connect to A6 and use it to reverse the trailer back to where you want it.

The trailer length with the bar must be the car length plus 50%,as the trailer end to end must be c.7 metres? The 2 tons is the boat and the braked trailer. Boat with two chunky 40 Hp O/B's.

Think thats way over the likely weight!
5.5m Humber Ocean pro = 360kg
4stroke 40HP engine = 100kg x 2 = 200kg
Fuel could weigh 100kg - but for winter empty? = 100kg
Other gear, anchors etc = 200kg
Trailer empty (unless you've got something HUGE) 400kg
Total weight 1260kg... Thats the weight of a small 4 berth caravan which can usually be moved about by two adults without too much trouble on a hard flat surface.

Assuming you don't have something solid in the way (fence, wall, hedges) I'd get two scaff planks and put them on the lawn to temp put the RIB on while moving...

 

[VicS]

lawn, office, sheds, more lawn, flower beds, more bloody lawn ...

It sounds as though you have acres of spare space to create a safe parking area for the boat. Mini-digger, a load of crushed stone and a whacker plate should have it sorted in a few hours.

 

[William_H]

Perhaps not useful to you but I wa sinvolved in packing away some 6m RIBs (18 of them) into shed. In the end we had to deflate one of them to get it into and turn in the shed. It reduced the beam by about 2 ft and was fairly easy to reinflate. Just one 40hp 4 stroke engine but not very heavy. I towed a few of em some miles and pushed em around a fair bit. good luck olewill

 

[PilotWolf]

PilotWolf - what is this mythical creature of which you speak? Like a mini airplane mover?

Yes, as per the next post. I seem to think Towsure used to do something similar? Been a long time since I looked at their stuff though. Anything would be cheaper than the aviation option I would think!

W.

 

[Fendant]

If you want to park it on the road, you need to check with your theft insurance.
Recently the Austrian customs discovered a van from East Europe going to ex Jugoslawia with 20 outboard motors in it !
Outboard theft is up 400% in the last 2 years in Germany.

 

[FulmarJeddo]

If you want to park it on the road, you need to check with your theft insurance.
Recently the Austrian customs discovered a van from East Europe going to ex Jugoslawia with 20 outboard motors in it !
Outboard theft is up 400% in the last 2 years in Germany.

A couple of years ago we had 2 Boarders Agency guys turn up at our club, just looking around. They said they were regularly seeing vans loaded with outboard motors going through Dover, enroute to Easter Europe. Obviously stolen, but as none of the serial numbers were registered as stolen, that couldn't do anything. The engines were arriving at Dover before the owners had missed them.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

If you can get a vehicle past it at the end of the drive then the easiest way to manoeuvre something like a boat trailer in very tight spaces is to attach a tow rope to the back of the trailer somewhere (maybe use a bridle) and very slowly pull the trailer backwards up the drive whilst somebody or bodies steers the trailer from the drawbar by physically shoving it to the left or right. Just go as slowly as you can and stop immediately you aren't happy with the way things are looking (because it is tricky to push the thing back down again sometimes). Also make sure that the trailer is man enough to stop it rolling down onto the the tow car if there is a slope downhill at any point (have a couple of chocks handy).

 

[chrishscorp]

If you leave a trailer on the Public Highway you need to make sure it is lit at night. the local council may also apply to have it removed.

Personally i think you would have to be mad, it will get stolen, far better off in a club compound or a locked yard.

 

[Laysula]

Turn it round on the lawn.

 

[peter2407]

Bluenote - the problem with the turn it around on the lawn approach is the same problem why I dont have a sit on mower - level changes, 6" edging, bushes, flower beds etc.

Grumpy - yes, there is a 1 in 20 rise, so I would be nervous about that approach.

Does anyone know why the electric winch manufacturer would suggest that it is only used on a tow bar where the car is out of gear and I think the hand brake off, but chock the car wheels (I will check this though). Seems daft on the face of it - surely the dead weight of the car is the "counter balance" to the drag of the weight? (I am sure the engineers and physicists will have better terminology ..)