Question for the mechanically inclined

[flot]

A few replies, in no particular order:

A hitch on the front of my tow vehicle is an interesting suggestion. That DOES sound like it would accomplish a lot - although it is still semi-impratical thanks to the total combined length of vehicle+boat(although I'll admit it would be a hell of a lot easier than trying to back up the same way). I'll put some thought into that, I suspect I could get a front hitch for my jeep for cheap.

As for the people who suggested I do it by hand - if we were talking about a 2000 lb boat on a trailer on 100% smooth level concrete I might agree with you, once it starts rolling it's not so bad... BUT I currently muscle up my jetski + trailer entirely by hand, which is ~700 lbs and is right at the limit for a reasonable weight for me to drag around on my own. I don't think I'll have a problem *rotating* the boat by hand, but I don't think I'll be able to push it around on my own given my terrain and the potential of the boat rolling backwards into a busy street. However, you're right, this does make me think that even an underpowered riding mower (with a good 1st gear) may have no trouble dealing with it. (my terrain right now is grass, soon to be replaced with brick pavers leading to grass)

As for dman and the voice of reason - appreciate the thoughts, but I'm on my 3rd jetski now and feel like moving to something bigger. Ideally the next place I'd buy to accomodate a boat would have to be on a canal with a dock, but I don't have the $400k lying around just now. So I figured in the meantime, there'd have to be a creative solution to this. I AM familiar with all the normal headaches of boat ownership, but when I bought the house I was thinking more along the lines of getting a 16-17 footer, but in what I'm looking for, the difference to go with the 21' just isn't that much more $$, and I think in the long run I'd use the boat more.

The come-a-long is an interesting choice but really I think all I'd need is a 4:1 or so pulley system (And somewhere to attach) to get the mechanical advantage I'd need... again only catch would be finding the attachment point, and it could get tricky trying to do it by myself, would probably need at least 1 other person to assist.

PS: With the size of my lot and the fact that I'm replacing 70% of my FRONT lawn with a paver driveway, the riding lawnmower is a pretty ridiculous purchase, unless I can pick up a nice used one for < $500

 

[gururu]

can't you park the boat right in front of your house perpendicular to the parking spot, then push it manually around the corner into the parking spot? you might even be able to back it into the spot such as a truck might do to back a trailer into a similar situation.

 

[DrPizza]

Hmmmm... sounds like a lot of people here don't have much experience with trailers...

Let me be the first to state: Find someone who's good at backing trailers into places. From your description, I'd say you have more than enough room to maneuver. Take the boat to a parking lot first and practice backing it around corners. Hint for you: hold onto the bottom of the steering wheel... move your hand in the direction you want the boat to move. If you have way more than enough room to back your truck into the spot, then you more than likely have enough room to back a trailer into the spot.

Also, several people above already said to just do it by hand... I don't know why you'd need 5 or 6 people. There ARE wheels on the trailer, aren't there? If you can push a 3000 or 4000 pound vehicle, then the boat should be a piece of cake.

 

[bigredguy]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... sounds like a lot of people here don't have much experience with trailers...

Let me be the first to state: Find someone who's good at backing trailers into places. From your description, I'd say you have more than enough room to maneuver. Take the boat to a parking lot first and practice backing it around corners. Hint for you: hold onto the bottom of the steering wheel... move your hand in the direction you want the boat to move. If you have way more than enough room to back your truck into the spot, then you more than likely have enough room to back a trailer into the spot.

Also, several people above already said to just do it by hand... I don't know why you'd need 5 or 6 people. There ARE wheels on the trailer, aren't there? If you can push a 3000 or 4000 pound vehicle,

then the boat should be a piece of cake

.

Its a slight uphill. And unlike a car, there are no wheels in the front so you have to lift and push.

 

[Viper0329]

I push my 18' bay boat by myself around, and I'm 5'5" 135lbs. I'm a pretty little guy, but I can move around nicely by myself. I would see if you can park a boat there with a truck. See if you can borrow one from a buddy and experiment.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... sounds like a lot of people here don't have much experience with trailers...

Let me be the first to state: Find someone who's good at backing trailers into places. From your description, I'd say you have more than enough room to maneuver. Take the boat to a parking lot first and practice backing it around corners. Hint for you: hold onto the bottom of the steering wheel... move your hand in the direction you want the boat to move. If you have way more than enough room to back your truck into the spot, then you more than likely have enough room to back a trailer into the spot.

It DOES sound that way to me...if the total distance between the house and road is about the same as the truck+trailer, it would probably be a piece of cake to just back it up as if there were a corner.

Also, I don't know how big this "median" is, but it's possible he could just hop it in the truck?

 

[gururu]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... sounds like a lot of people here don't have much experience with trailers...

Let me be the first to state: Find someone who's good at backing trailers into places. From your description, I'd say you have more than enough room to maneuver. Take the boat to a parking lot first and practice backing it around corners. Hint for you: hold onto the bottom of the steering wheel... move your hand in the direction you want the boat to move. If you have way more than enough room to back your truck into the spot, then you more than likely have enough room to back a trailer into the spot.

Also, several people above already said to just do it by hand... I don't know why you'd need 5 or 6 people. There ARE wheels on the trailer, aren't there? If you can push a 3000 or 4000 pound vehicle, then the boat should be a piece of cake.

REPOST (see post right before yours)

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: bigredguy

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... sounds like a lot of people here don't have much experience with trailers...

Let me be the first to state: Find someone who's good at backing trailers into places. From your description, I'd say you have more than enough room to maneuver. Take the boat to a parking lot first and practice backing it around corners. Hint for you: hold onto the bottom of the steering wheel... move your hand in the direction you want the boat to move. If you have way more than enough room to back your truck into the spot, then you more than likely have enough room to back a trailer into the spot.

Also, several people above already said to just do it by hand... I don't know why you'd need 5 or 6 people. There ARE wheels on the trailer, aren't there? If you can push a 3000 or 4000 pound vehicle,

then the boat should be a piece of cake

.

Its a slight uphill. And unlike a car, there are no wheels in the front so you have to lift and push.

Buy a wheel for the front.. when you crank up the hitch to get it off the ball, the wheel attaches quickly to the bottom of it. Every trailer with any sort of weight that I've seen comes equipped with one. The only trailers I've seen without that 3rd wheel were little utility trailers and trailers for jon boats. Never for a 2000 pound boat.

But, it shouldn't be necessary.... there's more than enough room to just back the trailer in. The truck and trailer don't have to be lined up in a straight line with the parking spot to accomplish what the OP is intending.

 

[Calin]

Well, start training:
http://www.pepere.org/aventures/vacances_pepere.php

Leaving jokes apart, you could back it up linked to the car (but it will be hard on transmission). You could put a trailer hitch on the front of the car, or you could pull it with a winch. For a secure attach point, force a steel pipe 3 or 4 feets into the ground, and attach the winch at the lowest point on the pipe.

Calin

 

[biostud]

Buy a couple of horses or oxes.

 

[moonshinemadness]

HOw about fitting a tow ball to the front bumper of the truck and pushing it in, that way you will have much more manouvarability when moving the boat because you could start off with the truck at pretty much 90 degrees to the boat on the road and go from there.

 

[flot]

Ok, I've drawn up a crappy diagram to try to further explain the situation.

I'm not positive, but I honestly believe backing it up with my truck is nearly impossible because of the distances involved. This is not to say that your average tow truck driver couldn't do it - but I'm pretty certain most people wouldn't be able to pull it off. The big problem is the curb - it is your standard 5" tall square concrete curb, and to make matters worse on the sidewalk side there's a stormwater drain... so on that side it's more like a 9" curb.

Not to say it is IMPOSSIBLE to drive over, but it is not easy, and hitting the curb tends to throw things out of whack more than it tends to solve a problem. Not that if the median weren't in the middle of the road, this whole thing would be a non-issue...

Edit: Note that to back up at all, (And turn) the truck must be more or less centered on the road, or maybe even close to the sidewalk, otherwise as the front end came around I'd graze the median with my front wheel at a nearly parallel angle - which is a great way to destroy a rim and a bad way to try to hop a curb...

 

[gururu]

drive a pretty solid pole into the ground near your house on the upper left side of the parking spot. Park your boat so that the front is in front of your driveway. unhitch it and run a rope from the front of the boat around/through the bottom of the pole to the back of your truck. pull the boat up with your car. Adjust the position of the boat manually.

since this would be a permanent solution, I'd get a pretty solid pole and embed it in some concrete. Id also put something to prevent the boat from smashing into the pole.

 

[lightpants]

You should easily be able to get a riding mower for less then $500.
$ 2-300 would be realistic IMHO look for an old cub cadet or john deer 100 or 110 series.
Buy on with a broken mower deck, another mans trash= your treasure.

 

[jyates]

Cut a notch out of the concrete median in front of your house so you can
access both lanes of traffic and have more footage to back up the rig.

I'm sure they won't mind.......

 

[mugs]

My friend used to pull his boat with an Allis Chalmers riding mower that must have been about 10 years old... and this was in the 80s. I think you can find cheap used riding mower that will do it.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: flot
Ok, I've drawn up a crappy diagram to try to further explain the situation.

I'm not positive, but I honestly believe backing it up with my truck is nearly impossible because of the distances involved. This is not to say that your average tow truck driver couldn't do it - but I'm pretty certain most people wouldn't be able to pull it off. The big problem is the curb - it is your standard 5" tall square concrete curb, and to make matters worse on the sidewalk side there's a stormwater drain... so on that side it's more like a 9" curb.

Not to say it is IMPOSSIBLE to drive over, but it is not easy, and hitting the curb tends to throw things out of whack more than it tends to solve a problem. Not that if the median weren't in the middle of the road, this whole thing would be a non-issue...

Edit: Note that to back up at all, (And turn) the truck must be more or less centered on the road, or maybe even close to the sidewalk, otherwise as the front end came around I'd graze the median with my front wheel at a nearly parallel angle - which is a great way to destroy a rim and a bad way to try to hop a curb...

I looked at your diagram. Looks like plenty of room to me. Before you attempt it at your house though, measure out an area in a parking lot, put some boxes there to simulate the curbs, etc, and practice practice practice. Plus, with the practice, you a) won't look like an idiot at the boat launch and b) won't irritate people at the boat launch who are waiting for you to back your boat down the ramp.

Also, get one or two people to stand along the side of the boat to help guide you... you'll only be able to see one side of the boat while maneuvering. Plus, if you have a short 2 foot plank, they can place it behind the tire of the trailer that's about to go over the curb (giving you a little more room to work with.)
But, still... there's plenty of room there. It's not much different for the rest of us who have to back trailers into driveways...

 

[DrPizza]

Hey! You live in Florida.... there should be dozens of people around who could back it in for you.

 

[db]

Like someone already said, you should be able to move it by yourself (by hand), unless it's on a hill.

 

[mugs]

You could also find out how much it would be to store it at one of those self-storage places. They usually have an area where you can store campers and boats, and I imagine it's not too expensive since it's not inside a unit.

 

[imported_Rusty]

Is the house on a corner? Close to a corner? Most of your problems would be solved if the approach was from the other side (opposite to what is shown by the sketch).

Two sets of Rhino Ramps / Blitz Ramps would clear the median for crossing over.

Start in the middle of the road and drive onto the median during the first arc to get the boat in place? (Tow vehicle's rear tires hit the median at ~ 45 degrees)

 

[Amused]

This is as simple as buying a motorized trailer dolly. I've used one before and it's perfect for your situation.

Buy a used one.

 

[flot]

The list of suggestions is getting pretty entertaining, and so far it's helping so keep it up.

BTW I found an actual photo of the front of my house and the median etc. I can't approach the house from the opposite side because as you can see the center median is pretty formidable. The guy across the street was complaining about this - it used to be a 4 lane road, which make it cake to park a boat - now that it is 2 lanes with the huge median, it's significantly more difficult. (and he has a bigger driveway and a smaller boat!)

Note that my house is the one right int he center, and yes I'd be parking the boat directly to the left of the house. Because of the angle of the photo it's difficult to see how much room there is, but basically where that storm drain ends is where my driveway begins (which goes straight back next to the house)

Also what isn't shown is that this month I'm basically ripping out 3/4s of the front lawn and having pavers installed in a circular driveway with a paved path straight back. But there is at least a 8"-12" rise from street level to the level of my yard, which is what makes it impossible by hand.

As for everyone who keeps saying there is plenty of room, I really don't think there is - I had been backing my jetski trailer up into the same spot (14x5, not 22x8) and eventually just stopped because it wasn't worth the aggrivation. I think the added length and width of the boat trailer would make it substantially harder to park, plus the road is semi-busy which means I can't very well take 10 minutes to do it every time.

 

[elektrolokomotive]

Slaves.

When they're done, you can have them start on the pyramid you always wanted!

 

[imported_Rusty]

Originally posted by: flot
Also what isn't shown is that this month I'm basically ripping out 3/4s of the front lawn and having pavers installed in a circular driveway with a paved path straight back. But there is at least a 8"-12" rise from street level to the level of my yard, which is what makes it impossible by hand.

This may be the answer to the problem. Drive through the circle drive then the boat will already be kicked back into the driveway. All you really have to do is cut the wheel and spin the trailer.

How good of friends are you with the neighbor to the left (as shown in photo)?