Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo ?

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aidancoughlan

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Anybody got an insight into which of these are better and why ?

also, I'm wondering if I could mount one of these on a standard arctic low-loader trailer and secure the whole lot (boat and cradle) with heavy duty load straps for a once-a-year journey of about 100 miles (2-3 hours, mostly main roads). Is this a mad idea ? Does anybody else do this ?

My boat is a 28ft fin keel Westerly Merlin, 3.5 tons I thinkk - just a bit too big & heavy for a normal Jeep road trailer (legally at least) - but I have access to an arctic & could buy or borrow a second hand low-loader relatively easy. Specialist arctic Yacht low-loaders seem to be fairly rare & expensive - there is one for sale locally at around £5000 STG.

regards,
Aidan.
 
Cant answer your question directly but know exactly what you mean.

Did a 200 mile journey like this this year.

The cradle is home made from acro's, scafolding poles and a three of H beams.


Boatloaded.jpg




I can post more details of the cradle if necessary.

The cradle was fitted with lorry axles and winched onto the low loader. Thus we did no need a crane at one end.

Iain
 
I've looked into the options and will say that i agree with Iain.

i looked into buying a HGV trailer and modifying it to carry boats, or to buy a flatbed HGV and doing the same... it makes the HGV limited in it's flexibility to be used for other purposes. plus it means that the truck would spend most of it's mtime parked up.

probably better to spend some money/time on a decent cradle that can be used either for transport or to safely store the boat when ashore.

a decent cradle, mounted on a standard flatbed seems to be the preferred method to me.

steve.
 
I sold a boat a while ago and it was taken away on a standard flatbed lorry with a hiab mounted behind the cab. It picked the boat up (30ft, 2-3 Tonnes) without a cough over the side and was held on with 2 webbing straps - one forward, one aft. Major factor was that it was a triple keel (although like a fin with flippers).

Didn't see it on the traffic news, so I presume it got to its destination safely.
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

This is how my Lavranos was moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg some 1600Km

only 2 hold down straps and just side supports.

You can see the flat bed supports on the just behind the cab
web0350.jpg
 
I have what used to be an artic type boat trailer just about to go up for sale on Boatsandoutboards. It was used commercially by the owner before last who removed the articulated (??) coupling and replaced it with a big ring-type coupling. I carried a 30ft 4.5 ton bilge keeler. It has cut-away sections so a fin keel boat can sit on it and has the "acrow" type side supports. A mate carried a 36ft motor boat weighing 8 tons on it. I had it pulled by a local farmer useing his tractor. I fitted an ex-army coupleing to the tractor. The hitch is like a Nato coupling you see on the back of army lorries. I reckon it is worth about £2,000, maybe a bit less because the tyres which OK to move it should be replaced before a massive load is carried a long way. Has 4 big lorry tyres.
 
No its not a mad idea, providing you have somewhere safe to keep it nearer home then why not. Remember to tell your insurance company that its in a different place than usual and make sure its insured for the journey. It will also be much cheaper if it can stay on the trailer at the end of the trip . Crane hire for single movement is very expensive.

Width of the load is another issue. I think, you had better check but I think over 10' you need an escort and wider still the police might have to be involved however with a 28' I dont think you will have any problems.

I have transported my boat 32 ' LOA 10' 11'' beam home and back to the berth , only 7 miles each way. I borrowed an old RNLI boat trailer rated 12 tonnes for the winter and pulled it with a mates 150 HP tractor. We did it early in the morning both ways with no trouble . Will definitly do it again when boat needs alot of work .

I would go the route of buying a second hand low loader and a yacht cradle. You then have use of the cradle where ever the boat be. I f you borrow a low loader the owner will nodoubt want it back -crane costs

Hope of some use

Cheers
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

Hi folks, thanks for the info - looks like this is not so mad an idea after all !

execimp, I'd be interested to see a photo of the trailer you're putting up on boatsandoutboards, but I'm not sure about the coupling. One of the advantages of an artic trailer for me is that I have access to an artic truck tractor unit to pull it. Can the artic coupling be replaced do you know ? Otherwise, is it restricted to an agricultural tractor ? - a bit slow for a distance of 100 miles probably.

BTW, do you folks think that just securing the cradle & boat both with straps is OK - ie. is there a need to screw/secure the cradle direct to the trailer first ?
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

I will post a photo, or maybe PM it to you if that is possible. Trailer has air brakes. The coupling would bolt onto the rear "girder" that goes across the back of the artic at the rear about 3ft off the ground. I will sort out the proper details and photo after the weekend as I am going away now.
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

[ QUOTE ]
Hi folks, thanks for the info - looks like this is not so mad an idea after all !

One of the advantages of an artic trailer for me is that I have access to an artic truck tractor unit to pull it.
BTW, do you folks think that just securing the cradle & boat both with straps is OK - ie. is there a need to screw/secure the cradle direct to the trailer first ?

[/ QUOTE ]

\

my cradle was chained to the bed of the low loader.

The length of my boat was 33ft and 10'5" beam.

The main problem was that the axle width was greater than the ramp on the low loader so I bit of inventive initiative was required to load it.

There is something about tractors having to stay within the something like 10 miles from the farm. Perhaps you should check this up.

I only paid a contractor to shift the boat on his low loader so do not have storage problems.

An old low loader can be a bit of a liability to maintain. I had to assist in sorting out the brakes on the one I was using as it kept running out of air.

Still think it is a good idea and I think you should look at a Roadgoing trailer with couplings which match your Artic Tractor Unit.

100 miles is a bit far for a tractor to tow and not attract the attention of the 'undesirables,

Cheers

Iain
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

Oi! Pampoenpuss!! Is jie 'n drole in die drinkwater?

We don't all have 42" widescreen TV/monitors here. When posting a pfotty on the pforum, please be so kind as to reduce its size to an acceptable norm. So as to avoid pf****ing off your dear readers.....

You will find the best guidance web page here which most of us have found wholly adequate.

Now let's see your boat in the water......

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

Thanks for your comment and advice.

The origional pic size is 2131 Kb and I reduced it to 137 Kb to put it on my web site
URL as shown on my detail page.

I used "Microsoft image composer" to reduce the size but seems not enough
I dont have Paint Shop Pro. If any one knows how to do what Paint shop can do in MS Image composer pls let me know


The web programmer I employ who did My site recomends that a max image size be specified in the forum program as we see in the source code for other images may solve the probem for other people and thus make it easer for less computer orentiated people like has been done in this program statement
(img src="http://www.ybw.com/images/headers/logo_2005.gif" alt="ybw.com" width="273" height="82" border="0">).

Changing the statement that calles my image to be like this (<img src="http://www.clearlink.co.za/roger/web0350.jpg" width="???" height="???">)

If we have it wrong pls correct us
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

You have it wrong - unless the formum specifies "all images must be sized X by Y" then specifying a fixed size in the image tag will just distort images that are not in your expected size.

Best practice for your website is to make the images the correct size rather than resizing them when displayed, unless you are sizing them properly taking the users screen size into acount.
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

Just reduced the size of your pic from 3500 pixels wide to 350.
 
Re: Transporting Cradles on Low-Loader? Jacobs, Tennamast, YachtLegCo

Thanks keith for resizing.

I did not take offence to bilbobaggins commet but my staff did get a chuckle from the Dutch/Afrikaans which was not very complementry and as I dont speek Dutch/Afrikaans being English I just treated with the contempt it deserved !!!

DinghyMan fair comment I did not think of that one.

Keith what is the Instant Markup "code" used for? Is it a way I could inbed JAVA code into a reply and thus run say a small JAVA script.
 
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