MacGregorSailors.com

So the council has decided to rip up the road out the front of my house to install traffic lights and an island on the corner outside my neighbour's place. My usual seesawing back and forth maneuvering to get the boat up the drive and around a right angle corner is not going to be possible anymore

I wanted a Parkit360 or something similar but for $3000 I think it would have been cheaper to find mast up storage at a Marina

My solution for about $400 in parts was to build a tug. Meet the beast a 1500kg atv winch power mover with 16" x 8" wheels. It has 53:1 gearing in the winch and 4:1 on the drive chain so 212:1 over all. She is no speed demon but it could lift the up a wall if need be

Very nice work!!!

Do we get to see a YouTube video of it in action when you get the time?

Sumner

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1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

I have an electric tractor for 'boat' too - it works real good. The thing about the tractors is to get them under the boat far enough to get plenty of weight on to the tires or the tires will spin on an incline. If your not going up and down inclines the tractors work great - but if you encounter grades it's necessary to add weight to the tires by putting the tractor further back under the boat or adding more tires to the tractor (the one I use has three tires) and most of the tractors I have seen have 4 or more tires. I have also seen guys add weights to the tractors. The gearbox makes the power so strong nothing will stop it - it will tow almost any weight as long as it has the traction - it will also climb any obstacle put in front of it (or destroy the obstacle trying).

BOAT wrote:I have an electric tractor for 'boat' too - it works real good. The thing about the tractors is to get them under the boat far enough to get plenty of weight on to the tires or the tires will spin on an incline. If your not going up and down inclines the tractors work great - but if you encounter grades it's necessary to add weight to the tires by putting the tractor further back under the boat or adding more tires to the tractor (the one I use has three tires) and most of the tractors I have seen have 4 or more tires. I have also seen guys add weights to the tractors. The gearbox makes the power so strong nothing will stop it - it will tow almost any weight as long as it has the traction - it will also climb any obstacle put in front of it (or destroy the obstacle trying).

Yes I found that too, if I left the wheel chock in place it would spin the wheels and try and bury itself into the gravel driveway, on the concrete it is just fine and the gravel without chocks

Lucky the only slope I have is concrete the gravel part is level so the wide tyres seem to grip enough on the gravel to move it easily.

Sumner as for a video I am no youtuber but I will see if I can put one up on Google Photo to share

kadet wrote:

BOAT wrote:I have an electric tractor for 'boat' too - it works real good. The thing about the tractors is to get them under the boat far enough to get plenty of weight on to the tires or the tires will spin on an incline. If your not going up and down inclines the tractors work great - but if you encounter grades it's necessary to add weight to the tires by putting the tractor further back under the boat or adding more tires to the tractor (the one I use has three tires) and most of the tractors I have seen have 4 or more tires. I have also seen guys add weights to the tractors. The gearbox makes the power so strong nothing will stop it - it will tow almost any weight as long as it has the traction - it will also climb any obstacle put in front of it (or destroy the obstacle trying).

Yes I found that too, if I left the wheel chock in place it would spin the wheels and try and bury itself into the gravel driveway, on the concrete it is just fine and the gravel without chocks

Lucky the only slope I have is concrete the gravel part is level so the wide tyres seem to grip enough on the gravel to move it easily.

Sumner as for a video I am no youtuber but I will see if I can put one up on Google Photo to share

More of this welding stuff going on here - MAN, I wish I could weld - I paid a guy here in Oceanside 800 dollars to build my tractor - but he did give me a lifetime guarantee and I see him around town so I guess in the long run it's a good buy. Sure would be nice to know how to weld stuff - Sumner is really good at it too.

At least I know how to do you tube I guess I have a few other skills.

I noticed your using a pin and sleeve hitch instead of a ball and socket hitch for the tractor - VERY GOOD! That is the best way to do it! If those tires had traction the tractor would have pulled the boat right over the chocks - that's how powerful those gearboxes are. Chain drive is the best too - you did it right.

I noticed your using a pin and sleeve hitch instead of a ball and socket hitch for the tractor - VERY GOOD!

You will notice the hole in front of the sleeve hitch for a ball,the prototype version had a ball and was a lot higher, complete failure given tow ball hitch on the trailer can rotate 360 degrees around the brake unit. A straight line was possible if careful but a turn was impossible

BTW I own a welder I am not a welder, I can use it to stick 2 bits of metal together not much more

kadet wrote: hole in front . . . for a ball,

The other thing you might get trouble from is the third wheel - on a steep incline it could get trapped or make the unit turn or even lift the pin out of the sleeve - the third wheel should fold out of the way if you find it contacting the ground during tow use.

The other thing you might get trouble from is the third wheel - on a steep incline it could get trapped or make the unit turn or even lift the pin out of the sleeve - the third wheel should fold out of the way if you find it contacting the ground during tow use.

Probably not clear from photo but unit slopes back to a small castor wheel at an angle, when on the trailer the rear wheel is lifted of the ground about 15cm and only the big drive wheels are used.

kadet wrote:

The other thing you might get trouble from is the third wheel - on a steep incline it could get trapped or make the unit turn or even lift the pin out of the sleeve - the third wheel should fold out of the way if you find it contacting the ground during tow use.

Probably not clear from photo but unit slopes back to a small castor wheel at an angle, when on the trailer the rear wheel is lifted of the ground about 15cm and only the big drive wheels are used.

As long as the small castor wheel never touches the ground during tow it's not a problem - if you go up a steep incline and that castor contacts the ground it will try to angle the whole tractor uphill - which as you know is in direct conflict with the whole reason you have a pin and sleeve hitch - the tractor becomes part of the trailer with a pin and sleeve hitch and it does NOT articulate in the vertical plane at all, only in the horizontal plane - so if the castor hits the ground it's taking all the weight of the trailer and also you lose contact with the ground on the rubber tires.

The tractor I use has castor wheels that flip out of the way - and people that have forgotten to flip the wheels out of the way on an incline have told me it caused the entire tractor to disconnect from the trailer. Makes sure that castor never touches the ground during a tow.

The other thing is when going down hill and the boat drags the tractor it will try to over rev the motor. If the motor is connected to electricity it will not over rev because the induction in the motor armature acts like a brake and will slow down the tow so make sure the motor is ON when the tractor is being dragged over it's normal speed. If the motor is OFF (with no electric pathway to the battery or AC) it will have no inductive resistance to slow down the armature and you will burn up the brushes or blow out the gear box in a matter of seconds.

rear wheel is lifted of the ground about 15cm and only the big drive wheels are used

People in Australia use metric stuff I guess?

People in Australia use metric stuff I guess?

Safe guess seeing as the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia are the only countries in the world that haven't adopted the metric system

Yep USA is one of only a couple of countries that have not moved to the metric system.

Metric makes sense because its all based around a liter of water.

I was taught in both Metric and Imperial when I did my apprenticeship back in the 1970's so I consider myself to be bilingual

Can we use "metrics" on our boats? Are they international too?

BOAT wrote:Can we use "metrics" on our boats? Are they international too?

Sure can the is the 8M here

COOL I thought those 'metrics' things were only for racing boats! Now we can have them too! (Not just those 12 meter guys!)

Not 8 meters, 7.96meters, if we were 8 meters we have to carry a heap of extra safety equipment here in Victoria, life a life line horseshoe life ring and I think the fire equipment requirements increase as well as others.

Its a bit like if we were 4.9 meters or below everyone would have to a PFD when above deck, but like magic at 4.91 meters your boat suddenly becomes much safer and you dont

Rules with arbitrary start points always amuse me