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G'day all. I launch an 8m platey off the beach at home and when it comes time to tow the boat back up the beach I have to winch the whole lot up the beach. All tyres are down to about 12 psi. Its only about 20-30 feet at high tide. I would ideally like some 30 feet long maxtrax. I have seen timber slatted ramps and conveyor belt ramps which are fine if they stay but I really need something removable. Maybe some heavy duty trench mesh or really thick shade cloth or something like that. Any help or suggestions appreciated.
cheers
Chimo I can get a run up when towing a small tinny and go up at an angle but with the big boat its not really an option. Too many trees and undulating ground.
We used to shoot our trailers right down into the water using the trailer spare tyre on the front (not the jockey wheel) and we used a long rope to haul them out after the boats were loaded; about a meter short of all the way on to the trailer.. We didn't pull up the slope of the beach but drove along along the beach and the trailer eventually ended up parallel to the water. Then we backed up and hitched the trailer onto the car or 4WD and collected the long rope and stowed it. Now the reason for not pulling the boat all the way onto the trailer was to limit the weight on the front of the trailer so we could easily lift it onto the ball and then winch the boat all the way on. Much easier if you have roller trailers, Might work with wet bunks and a good winch too.
If it was rough we often ran the trailer in front first and loaded into the waves. In soft sand we made sure the trailer wheels were sitting on mesh before we loaded the boat. Our mesh had a tie rope on it so as the trailer headed up the beach the mesh was pulled along behind.
Hence the question about driving along the beach, if you have a 100 m or so it could work for you.
Not sure but I think the issue is getting the rig off the beach once loaded on the trailer. I know a lot of guys use a tandem tow up at Fraser for the tuff stuff.
LOL - wouldn't that be a nice place to live - suspect I would probably put a few more hours on the Vic. Purely used Fraser as an example of the tandem tow being a possible solution.
I would be cautious about using something like trench mesh. If a corner or edge were to bend up from weight placement and then catch under the trailer you could be generating quite a bit of work with a cordless grinder or worse.
Whilst trawling the internet looking at boats, I came a cross a video that looked very promising. For a beach launch 4 wheels is better as less weight per sq foot means less dig in. How about a set of wheels mounted on the draw bar? Simply roll the trailer to the water, load the boat and then winch it all back to the car. I wish I could remember what site it was. It loocked like oversized dolly wheels up front.
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