Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

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  • Dave Wright
    Senior Member
    • Jul 2002
    • 1152

    #61
    Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

    Originally posted by Ed Armstrong
    Found the article on the wooden trailer: Woodenboat #101 p82-85 "The Buckboard Trailer" by Richard Jagels with drawings by Arch Davis. Includes plans.
    You can get the plans and article on line for free, Google Books:

    Apple products have always been silly expensive,
    no one told anyone to buy an iPhone, there are plenty fine cheep non apple cell phones.

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    • David G
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2003
      • 89686

      #62
      Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

      Quite interesting.

      Twin, if you decide to build one of these, I wanna look at it.
      David G
      Harbor Woodworks
      https://www.facebook.com/HarborWoodworks/

      "It was a Sunday morning and Goddard gave thanks that there were still places where one could worship in temples not made by human hands." -- L. F. Herreshoff (The Compleat Cruiser)

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      • Thorne
        Like my hat?
        • Aug 2005
        • 16414

        #63
        Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

        Originally posted by Ed Armstrong
        Found the article on the wooden trailer: Woodenboat #101 p82-85 "The Buckboard Trailer" by Richard Jagels with drawings by Arch Davis. Includes plans.
        Gosh -- I'll run right out and start taking apart the nearest buckboard! Where is the nearest museum that would have one...hmmmm.

        An interesting design, but I'd modify it to take a commercial boat trailer axle and the lightest leafsprings possible. You wouldn't want to lend this to anyone, as a single slow jack-knifing (and I've seen a number of these on tricky reverses and beach launches) could crack the wood tongue and you might not know about it until (far) too late.

        And as I mentioned earlier, ya gotta get whatever you build past the DMV inspectors. I've (re)registered a number of boats and trailers, including two home-build/modified trailers, without a problem -- but everything was close to a commercial design and the trailers all metal.

        TRAILER **TOO LIGHTWEIGHT** ISSUES?

        I wanted to raise another issue at this point, which is that boat trailers can be too lightweight for some trailering conditions. Last year I came very close to losing my Cosine Wherry on my HF mod trailer -- all due to very high winds. It was handling an extremely windy tow along the California Delta bottom land quite well and not showing any of the usual signs of instability or excessive speed.

        But when the road ran up onto the top of the levee along the Sacramento River, the wind was blowing across the river with gusts over 70mph, and the boat and trailer were blown up onto one wheel at around 30 degrees -- the maximum that the towball would allow. I immediately slowed down and the rig slammed back down onto the windward tire, and was able to pull over and head slowly home.

        I suspect that this would not have happened had I been towing my dory skiff (350lbs or so) on the galvanized EZLoader trailer (200lbs or so). But the Cosine Wherry is under 100lbs, and the HF trailer under 150lbs -- light enough to be flipped up by the gusts.
        Last edited by Thorne; 01-20-2011, 08:31 AM.
        "The enemies of reason have a certain blind look."
        Doctor Jacquin to Lieutenant D'Hubert, in Ridley Scott's first major film _The Duellists_.

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        • Lewisboater
          Obsessed member
          • May 2010
          • 2097

          #64
          Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

          Why not look into ATV spring/shock combos...they arent the heaviest things in the world and the suspension is designed for quite a bit of travel. Getting the standard duty ones and possibly using a fulcrum to increase the force on the spring by the load should provide quite a cushy ride for not all that much dinero
          Steve Lewis
          Formerly Lewisboats (don't try to change your email address!)

          http://angelfire.com/ego/lewisboatworks

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          • Ed Armstrong
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2003
            • 841

            #65
            Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

            They left off a few pages in that Google Books preview, unless I'm missing something. The WB article had dimensions and a detail for constructing the axle/spring support (you don't have to find one off of an old wagon ). I have not attempted to register a home-built trailer with DMV, though, and I can imagine they wouldn't be eager to allow a wood-frame structure on the road.

            Ed
            --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            "
            The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything."
            Roosevelt, Theodore

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            • Dave Wright
              Senior Member
              • Jul 2002
              • 1152

              #66
              Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

              Originally posted by Ed Armstrong
              They left off a few pages in that Google Books preview,,,,,,Ed
              That's really interesting! Just last night you could see more pages, including a dimensioned profile and a cross section looking forward at the axle. I'm not a conspiracy theory type, but I wonder if Google books has a little built in program that limits page access based on number of views in the hope of selling a few more books????
              Apple products have always been silly expensive,
              no one told anyone to buy an iPhone, there are plenty fine cheep non apple cell phones.

              Comment

              • Dave Wright
                Senior Member
                • Jul 2002
                • 1152

                #67
                Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                Try this: http://tinyurl.com/4l5aynw
                Apple products have always been silly expensive,
                no one told anyone to buy an iPhone, there are plenty fine cheep non apple cell phones.

                Comment

                • Ben Fuller
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2000
                  • 4467

                  #68
                  Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                  You can download articles from Wooden Boat for very little money, dimes I think, so it would be easy to get a copy of the full article if you have no archive. The Google version was from WB's project book.
                  Ben Fuller
                  Ran Tan, Liten Kuhling, Tipsy, Tippy, Josef W., Merry Mouth, Imp, Macavity, Look Far, Flash and a quiver of other 'yaks.
                  "Bound fast is boatless man."

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                  • mike hanyi
                    you want me to VARNISH?!!
                    • Nov 2000
                    • 837

                    #69
                    Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                    thorne, dont know how far you want to go on the subject, But I do remember in 2002 a french friend had brought 2 sailboats to raid finland on 2 trailors, the following year he came with a van, and a double trailer, he dis-assembled both trailers and stowed them in the van, and the boats went on the double trailer, I do recall the trailers were fully galvanized, completly adjustable on axle location and hull supports and as mentioned very easily disassembled and reassembled.
                    There's one rich man onboard and there's twentyfive poor men and they enjoy it more then the rich man does -Jim Kilroy when asked if yacht racing is a rich mans sport.

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                    • john l
                      Senior Member
                      • Oct 2000
                      • 1939

                      #70
                      Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                      i just found a used holsclaw trailer. the price is very right. would it be a good alternative for either my chestnut freighter or penguin?
                      i plan on fitting cradles/bunks for either and maybe even carry both at the same time. i guess i'm wondering what people who have used the
                      holsclaw think about trailering with them.

                      Comment

                      • JuniperHeartPine
                        Member
                        • Nov 2009
                        • 87

                        #71
                        Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                        How about something like this Thorne?



                        I'm not sure what those pwc weigh, but seems they would be in your range.

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                        • Thorne
                          Like my hat?
                          • Aug 2005
                          • 16414

                          #72
                          Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                          John L - the Holsclaw is a wonderful trailer, so if you can get yours fixed up it will be well worth the money. Check for rust, and remember that on some of the smaller models you have to pull the hub and bearings to change wheels.

                          Juniper - While the PWC trailers might be OK for adding a longer tongue for heavier wooden boats, I don't see any rated for less than 1200 lbs, and many higher -- which probably indicates the use of 2000lb leaf springs. WAY too stiff for our small lightweight wooden boats!

                          "The enemies of reason have a certain blind look."
                          Doctor Jacquin to Lieutenant D'Hubert, in Ridley Scott's first major film _The Duellists_.

                          Comment

                          • JuniperHeartPine
                            Member
                            • Nov 2009
                            • 87

                            #73
                            Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                            I went to their site and you are correct...2100gvwr. Sorry for the lack of due diligence on my part.

                            Here's a link to someone's page with similar ideas on trailers:



                            One idea was to remove a leaf or two to make the suspension less rigid...makes sense to me. Four-wheel drive fanatics often add leafs to beef up suspension so it should also work in reverse.
                            Last edited by JuniperHeartPine; 01-25-2011, 12:04 PM.

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                            • Thorne
                              Like my hat?
                              • Aug 2005
                              • 16414

                              #74
                              Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                              Originally posted by JuniperHeartPine
                              One idea was to remove a leaf or two to make the suspension less rigid...makes sense to me. Four-wheel drive fanatics often add leafs to beef up suspension so it should also work in reverse.
                              Been there, done that, have loud banging noises every time the HF trailer hits a bump. Not a good idea!

                              "The enemies of reason have a certain blind look."
                              Doctor Jacquin to Lieutenant D'Hubert, in Ridley Scott's first major film _The Duellists_.

                              Comment

                              • Dave Wright
                                Senior Member
                                • Jul 2002
                                • 1152

                                #75
                                Re: Small boat trailer design w/light suspension, folding, good support?

                                Originally posted by JuniperHeartPine
                                ....Here's a link to someone's page with similar ideas on trailers:


                                That's an interesting site. I followed the link to the Castle Craft trailer site and noticed the 95 pound Trailex single canoe trailer (unfortunately just 200 pound capacity). So does anyone know the details of Trailex's "unique rubberized steel" suspension that "virtually eliminates road bounce? I'd love to have a 100 pound trailer with a 600 pound capacity.
                                Apple products have always been silly expensive,
                                no one told anyone to buy an iPhone, there are plenty fine cheep non apple cell phones.

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