Since we don't have a Boating Forum

[Buckrub]

We have a fishing forum. I can't catch fish, so I don't visit there often. But this is a boating/trailer question.

Without getting into some Rube Goldberg deal, I'd like to explore the option of an electric boat trailer jack. Now, I have to lower the Dutton/Lainson trailer jack down all the way in order to move the boat around manually very well, THEN when it's close to the trailer ball, raise it back up, and manhandle it over the ball, THEN lower it back down onto the ball. To get it off, reverse the process. In other words, the jack has to be at lowest setting to move the boat/trailer around the driveway easily.

My driveway runs along side my house, meaning that the carport which houses the boat is 90 degrees to driveway. Thus, I have to back in, take boat off of truck, and maneuver it manually into the carport.

I can see one of these would help:
http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Trailer%20Valet/STC-V211.html
(and sidebar: Etrailer is one of the best places to deal with that I've come across....just great....)

But to use that I'll have to move some of the stanchion and spare tire carrier stuff that's on the trailer now. It's as far forward as I can get it (thus making the manual maneuvering in driveway easier) and there's little room. Plus, that's a manual deal, just easier......

I can also find a zillion electric jacks........but they're all made for travel trailers.......I have one on mine.......and NOT for boat trailers. Because the jack is GOING to get wet every time I back into the water. Thus, the etrailer one above is ok......but not electric.

Ideally, it'd be one like this Trailer Valet, but with a way to connect it to the front of the boat and hit the wiring that runs to the 12v batteries.

Ideas? Egg, you got a big boat........any ideas?

Yo? Help? Beuller? Anyone??

[Thumper]

90 degree angle? I have an EASY and inexpensive fix. Learn how to back a trailer! :D

(90 degrees is a piece of cake IF you know what you're doing ... trust me ... I did it numerous times daily with an 80 foot rig!) ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Will one of those trailer dolly deals not work? They don't handle a bunch of tongue weight but for a medium sized tailer they seem like they'd be okay. I know Birddog has one.
BKB

[Thumper]

My uncle has always been a big boat person (I think he has three right now), but as long as I've known him (all my life!), he's never been able to back a trailer worth a darn. Every tow vehicle he has ever owned had a receiver on the FRONT. When he gets home, he hooks the trailer to the front and effectively "drives" the trailer anyplace he wants it. I've never thought to ask if hitch companies make hitches for the front or if he adapts a regular hitch ... never really thought about it. I noticed the other day he had one on the front of his Chevy (the little one, like the old S-10 ... not sure what they're called these days). When not in use, he simply removes the hitch from the receiver and you can hardly tell it's there. Is that a viable option?

[Buckrub]

Sigh.

I have a trailer dolly. It's going on sale when I have my big "Sporting Goods Garage Sale" in a few months. No, that doesn't work. Boat is too heavy.

None of this has a single thing to do with my trailer WHEN ON THE TRUCK! It has to do with the trailer in the driveway.

I should have known not to ask questions to folks who can't read.

Jim, that's called an Alabama Hitch. No thanks.

[Thumper]

Just tryin' to help. It sure helps him as he has the same problem with "tight spaces" where he parks his boats.

[Buckrub]

Thanks. I know how that works. I need to be able to maneuver the trailer without a vehicle involved.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Can you not hook up your four wheeler and move it around when you need to? Those electric deals look too gadgety to me.

BKB

[Thumper]

The wheelie was gonna be my next suggestion ... followed by a riding mower if'n ya' gots one. I pull my 10' utility trailer all over the place with my mower (or my wheelie before I sold it).

[Captain]

I was gonna suggest the 4-wheeler but he said NO VEHICLES. So I bit my tongue.
And you two dufes mentioned it....

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[BarryBobPosthole]

My mower won't budge my boat. Triedit. A four wheeler would though.

Get oneof those things they move airplanes around with at the airport!

BKB

[Captain]

He said.... "I need to be able to maneuver the trailer without a vehicle involved."

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[BarryBobPosthole]

Then park it on a hill. Practice running fast. Use a picklefork to turn it.

BKB

[Captain]

BINGO!!!

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[Buckrub]

Never mind.

I have limited space, which is the issue......coupled with getting older. I can do what I need to now, manually. I just was asking if there was an electric assistance device.

Never mind.

[BarryBobPosthole]

If you're serious, and I can tell you are, get ahold of a floor lift deal like they use in big box stores to move pallets around and have someone weld you a jig with a trailer ball on it that you can slide over the prongs. That'd work I'll bet. Wouldn't be electric but those things give you good leverage.

BKB

[Captain]

You talking about a pallet jack Posty and I like the way you thinking.
And to expand on that or perhaps tweak it a bit, you could use a floor jack (on sale all the time at Northern tool or the like) and weld a ball on the jack plate. Or fashion a plate with a trailer ball to attach to the jack plate. That way you could remove it and still use the floor jack as intended if you ever needed one.
Yours was the bestious suggestion I've seen.

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[Thumper]

Well, we've been jacking around with this stuff ... but if you're REALLY serious and want to get crazy ... there is a TON of options out there. I ALWAYS had electric "pushers" in the dealerships. It didn't take up any manpower to move "dead" cars around. One man with the pusher and one to steer ... and a "deadhead" could be moved all over the shop. They've been around for a zillion years. I don't remember the companies I dealt with back then, but I do know they also built units for boat dealers (even airplane dealers/repair facilities) and not just car dealers.

Heck, I just did a quick Google. Here are a TON of 'em. For light duty work (not a large dealership operation), I'm sure there are some light duty units available. Dig around a bit.

https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+trailer+mover&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XqAGU469KISqkAe9qYHwAw&sqi=2&ved=0CEMQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#imgdii=_


http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/3F9ED4ZC3Lc/hqdefault.jpg

[Buckrub]

I actually thought of that. But space makes it hard to envision.

Here's the deal....I have to pull the boat out of the carport.....into the driveway, which is perpendicular to the carport......and by the time I get the boat out of the carport, it's entire length is about equal to the width of the driveway. If I'm pulling the boat out, behind me is an 8' high 'berm'....of dirt. It's there because I had to dig out to make this driveway. Mother's lot is next door, and it's higher than mine......and to make the driveway level with the house, I had to dig out on the outside edge of the driveway. So the driveway is bordered on one side by the house, and the other side by this berm......

When the trailer is out of the carport, I have to turn it HARD.......90 degrees fully...........and I have about 2 inches of clearance to keep the boat motor from ramming into the travel trailer. But if I'm careful I can do it........but all manually.

But it's getting harder. Everything at this age is getting harder........except what is supposed to. Making it harder is the fact that I have to lower the wheel jack to the bottom to move it............do all the above..........then raise it up to get it on the truck ball........and it's almost impossible to move, even a few inches, if it's raised up really high. But I manhandle it and it gets done. I'm just trying to find a way to do it easier. The link I posted is the closest thing I've found, and E trailers are great folks.

I can't get a wheely or car or truck into this process......there's NO room. I'll try and take a picture of it tomorrow. Hard to explain.

There's a concrete man coming tomorrow to give me an estimate of how much it'll take to widen my driveway from street up to the house. Maybe I can get him to give me some idea if it's even possible to dig into that berm and give me more room somehow. But that still doesn't make the jack electric......

[Buckrub]

I have the trailer dolly that's in that link somewhere. It won't work. In fact, ALL those pictures depict a guy standing behind the pictured device, which attaches to the front of the trailer. I don't have that kind of room. Like I said, the entire boat/trailer takes up the entire width of the driveway.......no room for said device, much less me in front of said device.

The 'wheel' mechanism to make this trailer move has to be attached to the trailer......it is now...a simple wheeled Dutton-Lainson wheel jack.

I'm just trying to figure out if there's a way to mechanize that jack.

[Thumper]

I give up. Get a smaller boat or move. ;)

[Thumper]

Here ya' go Bucky. Gander Mountain has 'em. (it ain't electric, but it's a starting point and they may have a similar unit that's electric)

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j8GdzPW660g?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Buckrub]

I am literally ROFL.

When I don't read you guys' posts, y'all lambast me. "BUCKRUB CAN'T YOU READ??"

Go check out the link in my FIRST post above, dude.

[Thumper]

Ha ha ha! You're right! I looked at that first post so long ago, I forgot how this whole thing started out. I guess just seeing a picture of it, then seeing the video of it in action, it didn't even register that it was the same thing.

Sorry ... as they used to say in the military ... "as you were!" ;)

[Captain]

Sounds like you didn't leave enough room between the shop and house, or turned the shops entrance wrong
Knock a side wall out of that shop and put in a roll up door and back the boat straight in off the street.

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[Buckrub]

HAHAHA. You money guys slay me.

That wall goes to back yard. It's the furthest from the street that there is. My property line is the city limits, and along that is the easement for a huge water pipe that goes from Greers Ferry Lake to several towns.

It isn't 'turned wrong'. It is an add on, the only way it could have been done after the house was built.

Why do I do this? Everything I ask requires some explanation.............

just never mind. I appreciate the help. I do. Thanks.

I think this device Jim mentioned is as close as I'm gonna get.

[Big Muddy]

$595 installed....put it someplace in your yard that isn't so discombobulated. ;)


2582

[Buckrub]

More money guy ideas.

Nowhere to put it that is near pavement and flat. Only got ONE acre, guys. Not 5,000..............

[Captain]

I promise you that burm of dirt is not a problem. I made a good living in the 70's moving them. Just widen the driveway towards your mothers side.....

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[Buckrub]

Will consider that with the concrete man tomorrow.

In all honesty, I am glad you don't live closer. One of us would get a divorce.

[Big Muddy]

More money guy ideas.

Nowhere to put it that is near pavement and flat. Only got ONE acre, guys. Not 5,000..............


"""There's a concrete man coming tomorrow to give me an estimate of how much it'll take to widen my driveway from street up to the house. Maybe I can get him to give me some idea if it's even possible to dig into that berm and give me more room somehow."""


So, I assume this guy is gonna do all that work free???....

[Buckrub]

No.

And because of that fact, I cannot afford to A) knock out a wall or B) acquire a metal carport roof for which I have nowhere to put it.

The 5,000 acre comment was meant to show I'm 'hemmed in'........and just simply moving to another spot in the yard won't work.

And besides, the concrete man is going to give an estimate..........not start work. I might just say "Whew, thanks, bye".........

[Big Muddy]

In that case, I'm going with Cap's idea....move the dirt....heck, rent one of those little mini-excavators, and do it yourself....they're really fun. ;)

[Buckrub]

That's very much an idea I've thought of. Again, depends on what he says/estimates tomorrow. I need concrete on one end of driveway..........but this stuff is on the other end. It's very much NOT the same width all the way along it.....which is the problem.

[Thumper]

Edward! Have you lost your frigging mind? Can you picture Bucky running an excavator? He's dangerous just trying to operate on a scope with a dang screwdriver! ;)

[Big Muddy]

Edward! Have you lost your frigging mind? Can you picture Bucky running an excavator? He's dangerous just trying to operate on a scope with a dang screwdriver! ;)


Hahaha....my bad, Thump....lost my senses for a moment....I guess that steel door on the 'nader shelter, hit my haid harder than I thought. ;)