Powered jockey wheels and dollies

[Thunderace2]

My Father caravan has to back his caravan up his drive way and then uses a electric boat winch that is anchored to the ground and pulls the van up the hill to one point, he then moves the winch to a second anchored point and winches the van back in the car port

[cormorant]

I saw a vid recently of a caravan with a set up on it where the van was parked with a remote control. It had drive set ups on the van wheels. Proberly would not like being dunked in salt water though

Here is one version , they also make power wheels hitch etc etc

http://www.powrproducts.com.au/powrtouch.php

or

http://www.carsbyweb.com.au/movecontrol/tiki-index.php


Making it so it could be removable wouldn't be that hard and just have the brackets on the boat trailer galvanized.. At least they trailer wheels will have weight on them and traction.

The biggest worry with many options is what happens if it gets away from you. Cables on winches snap etc. We all know how crap trailer handbrakes can be. Bigger problem is they are often used on your own

Worm drives have a big advantage that they lock when the motor stops so as long as the wheels connected have traction you can stop the trailer.

A short loss of traction on a slope and 2000kg gets momentum real fast

12 volts can use house battery in boat or van as once in the shed you can throw it on the charger as well.


New inventors on abc had a bloke with one that attached to the wheel for moving cars in a workshop. Not sure if he ever went commercial.

[charleville]

My Father caravan has to back his caravan up his drive way and then uses a electric boat winch that is anchored to the ground and pulls the van up the hill to one point, he then moves the winch to a second anchored point and winches the van back in the car port

That would work - but it sure would discourage him from taking the caravan out every day like often happens with a fishing boat.

Nonetheless, it is a good fall-back option.

[finga]

Bugger you Bruce.

This little exercise has been bugging me.
I've thought about a little trolley type set up for the front built from the Stiga in the shed.
I've thought about the nice little 24V drives on my mobility scooter with it's built in interlocks.
I've thought about putting an electric motor on an old trimatic gearbox connected to a simple drive so it's nice and quite with forward/reverse and park.
I found an old 12V hydraulic pump and thought about fixing it and using two little hydraulic motors to make something.
I've thought about automotive power steering pumps with an electric motor and a couple of hydraulic motors but I haven't been able to find out flow rates.
I've thought about a simple belt/pulley setup but reduction would make the secondary pulley huge.
I've thought about reduction boxes but have not found one yet.
I've thought about drives on the tyres and powered rollers that go under the wheels and even thought about Peter Lyndores cranes.
I've even thought about the jumbo tug Raby Bay VMR have under their Operations Centre.

Why do you put these sorts of ideas in my head??

Best solution so far is buy a bloody Landrover and put a towbar on the front.

[oldboot]

A mate of mine has built one of these for a customer.

basily started with an electric boat winch.....that provides the motor, some reduction gearing, brakes and all the controll stuff comes with.

the wheels came from a standard crate trolly from supercheap...I recon wheel barrow wheels would be better.

basicaly......the winch drum was replaced with a shaft & sprocket.

the wheels off the trolly were fitted to a solid axle with a large sprocket in between.

a standard jocky wheel post was the connection method.

and there was very little else to it.

cheers

[finga]

Mmm. A winch you reckon.
I just happen to have an old one under the house in Brisbane

Another thing on the list to bring back...boat wench.

[charleville]

Mmm. A winch you reckon.
I just happen to have an old one under the house in Brisbane

Me too. Being a boofhead, I incorrectly replaced a circlip on it and that resulted in a stripped cog so it has sat in a box in the garage ever since.

I shall have to see if there is potential in the old winch yet.


BTW, Finga, did you really mean to say that you wanted to bring back a boat "wench"? I really think that you should leave your love life out of this.



.

[finga]

BTW, Finga, did you really mean to say that you wanted to bring back a boat "wench"?

Maybe. Maybe not. Guess

[tunaticer]

I know a guy who made a little 240v dolly for moving his caravan around with. Used a 150:1 worm drive geared motor ( i think about 1 horsepower) mounted on a frame with a tow ball one end and the extended handle the other end. the hollow shaft of the gearbox he made a axle for and mounted two pnuematic 8" tyres to. Moves his tandem caravan around easily. (trick with a tandem trailer on rockers is to place a small bottle jack between the rear axle and chassis and pump it up to rmove the weight bearing from the front axle. The dolly takes the rest of the weight and it becomes easy to move.

[finga]

Righto then....
I remembered to bring the wench and I've pulled it apart.
I also found the original problem with it...a crook connection. But anyways it's apart now and found another small problem. They only come standard with one direction but I reckon that's easily overcome

Now...would it easier to rive one wheel so it goes around corners easy or not worry about a bit of turf turning with a locked axle??
Personally I reckon rip the turf up.

Also...would it be better to have the drive wheels as a pivot so all the weight at the hitch goes on the wheels or have a 'lazy' set of wheels so the operator doesn't have to hold the weight on the powered dolly??
I reckon have the drive wheels a bit aft of the attachment to the tow ball and have a handle the other side so a fair bit of leverage can happen for the operator (Charlie) and have all the hitch weight just on the drive wheels. ie towball, drive wheels and the Charlie

Any other thoughts??

[oldboot]

Some of the later winches are reversable and have all the gear provided......but I am sure you can sort that out.

What seems to be the go is to have the wheels very close together and both directly coupled..

as far as mounting
It seems the easiest thing to do is mount the whole thing in place of the jocky wheel.....that allows a pivot and keeps the whole thing upright.

And you can drive it right up to the tow vehicle and drop it on the tow ball.....because you have not occupied the tow ball.

ya steer with a fairly long lever type handle.

Iff you have no reverse gear...you could get arround that by providing a couple of different handle mounting socktes and simply turning the contraption toward the direction you want to go.

There are all sorts of fancy things you could do......but crude often gets the job done.

brakes would be good though.

cheers

[Chimo]

Hi All

Has anyone got a van / boat mover for sale?

A neighbour of mine is looking for something to move a big ie approx 3 ton van.

I saw one one here for sale a while back and I have told him about it and he is keen.

Any thoughts

PM or on here please

thanks

Cheers
Chimo

[cormorant]

Saw one of these working the other day and was impressed that it was all self contained. Mid size van on slight slope and did it easy as.

not cheap

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/new...te=1&p=1227472


Be nice if they did a cheaper one that just ran off the house battery 12v ( or small transformer) as the lith ion and solar must add to cost of production.

Just have to watch as with all ideas except ones that power existing wheels that there is weight on the device otherwise no brakes no control etc. With a friends I am the fat bugga allocated to stand on the drawbar to guarantee a extra 100kg downforce. If solo he places a block of wood in the suspension so no load share happens and winds the jockey attachment up to force weight on manual mover.

Towball on front bar is still the best I've used as it is secure and easy to see with safety of vehicle brakes. 3t van I would want it attached to something insured unless on total flat land. Some of the later brakes won't release well without vehicle attached.

3t van - hell that is in 5th wheeler territory?

Solas are selling a trailer tug now.

[finga]

Your a b@stard Charlie.
I cannot get this out of my big bald noggin'.

I found a solution for me but it may not be powerful enough for you.
I took the seat off the Fisher Paykel 3 wheeled gopher and shoved a towball on the seat stem and turned the handlebars around 180 degrees.
Works a treat but I don't know if it'll get your boat up your hill.

The anchor wench wasn't so good either.
Works OK with the boat on but a pain in the posteria when you want it to move in a hurry. It only has one speed.... tearfully slow.... and not so light so you don't really want to pickup it up and carry it about.
A 2 speed or infinitally variable speed setup would be ideal.
So with all this in my head I woke up with a start last night....you pi$$er I thought.
I remember where a 5 speed (plus reverse) gearbox is...well the rear end off an old Deutscher (spelling) ride on mower complete with dual wheels on the back is sitting.
I hope it's still there because I put it there 13 years ago and not much moves in that paddock.
I gotta go and have a look when I get back home tomorrow.
Now....got to remember to put that small 12v starter motor in the car before I go to power it.

[ozscott]

How much would a 15.5hp Massport/Murray ride on with a hydrostatic drive pull on the flat? Concrete. And would the drive belt slip before the hydrostatic drive burnt out?

Cheers