motorized trailer puller?

ritzpro

New Member
Every time I sail, I have to pull my trailer by hand about 500 yards out ot the end of the pier. It's reasonably flat, but still fairly exhausting. The yacht club has some nice little hand trucks with trailer balls on them. I'm looking to make up a motorized version of the same thing. Ideally electric. Has anyone made or seen anything like it. Ideally it would be sort of like a rototiller with a hitch instead of blades.
 
A modified used eletcric wheel chair comes to mind. Modify it to resemble the hand truck models that you have seen. You would need to move the controls out to the "handle"

Better yet put a hitch on one of those electric scooters and ride in comfort with one hand steering and waving to the crowd with the other!. Not the kids kind but one of the ones that disabled people use.

I have used garden tractors to haul around U-Haul and pop-up campers in parking lot's so the scooter idea may no be so bad. It would already be set up for charging, steering etc..

You would need enough weight and determine the correct position so the front end would not pop up. You might be able to rig a small 4 wheeled trailer with a hitch ball centered in the middle to avoid the front end pop up issue. Place the hicth ball low.

Your weight should be enough on the scooter to keep all the scooter wheels on the ground while pulling the "trailer".

I guess it would matter whether this would need to be transported outside of the Yahct club.
 
Front trailer wheel tracks

I have the need to roll the trailer from my backyard to the side yard to attach to the car. This is about 30 feet. Some of the ground that I need to cross has maple tree roots raised 1 to 2 inches above the ground, which hamper (and frustrate) me by catching the front wheel.

I tried lifting and pulling but, the old back is not what it used to be.

So I made these "tracks" that the front wheel rides on to make a smoother begining to my day!

These are made from 3/4 inch exterior plywood, that I had laying around, and furring strips. 1/2 inch would work fine. The furring strips keep the wheel on the plywood.

I lay these down and when the wheel reaches the beginning of the second one, I pick up the first and line it up at the end of the second one.

I store them on the trailer, under the boat, where they are handy and somewhat protected from the weather.

Art
 

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I found a solution that was embarassing, and low tech. I re-inflated my tires. And all of a sudden, the boat is easy to pull. Doh!
 

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