Re: Moving a boat aroud the garage?
Those power casters work fine on smooth pavement but forget them in soft dirt or wet grass.
The hand dollies are also worthless on tandem trailers. I tried moving an empty tandem trailer from my 23' boat with one and it just wasn't going to happen. It would go forward and back but forget trying to turn, it would either flip over or bend.
I just got done moving everything in the yard around with a garden tractor, even after all of my trailers spend the winter parked, many which sunk a bit into the dirt, my little 12hp tractor moved them just fine. The biggest concern is traction, nearly any garden tractor will have the gearing to move the weight.
Don't extend the hitch too far back on the tractor either, it will make the front end too light if you have a lot of tongue weight. All I did with mine was to put a ball in hitch pin hole. The closer the ball is the rear axle the more stable it will be.
I did convert a rear engine model once to a front end hitch, I built a hitch up on top just ahead of the steering collum, behind the front axle, but the small tires and lack of weight made for poor traction on soft dirt. It was nice to be able to see what you were doing but the front end hitch and steering was actually awkward to maneuver compared to a standard rear hitch.
If your worried about a belt drive tractor doing the job, for an example, my old trash picked Dynamark does just fine and if on pavement against an immovable object, with my weight on it, the rear tires will spin before the belt will slip. I've pulled loads so heavy that I've left black marks all the way down the driveway. I had a trailer with two locked up wheels that I need to get off the road, the tractor moved it just fine with some tire smoke. You also don't need the most aggressive tires, an aggressive tire will only dig deeper holes when it spins. Mine does fine with the well worn turf tires it came with. I can't knock this thing at all, for a low end cheapie tractor, it's sure taken some real abuse over the years. It's never really been used as a lawn mower, the deck was pretty trashed when I got it, and I finished it off on a stump or something soon after. I removed all the safety switches and brackets as well as the deck levers long ago to make it as simple as can be. I can't say it's not a little tired, but still gets the job done. I picked up another one very much like it a while back which will most likely be this ones replacement when the time comes, but I don't see that being anytime soon. I do have a very large Bolens and an older John Deere but this little thing turns so much sharper and can squeeze into tighter spots with no worry about tearing up a nice machine. I've taken it with me to retrieve project boats from overgrowth and vines, or places where I wouldn't take my truck. The hitch height as never been a problem either, it sits a bit high in the back so it works out well. The worst thing I've ever done to this was run over a pile of old rims that were buried in some leaves and I ripped the left front wheel off, the weight of the boat I was pulling out of the trees combined with heading downhill meant it wasn't stopping, I finished the job fine with one wheel folded back and off the ground, I tossed it in the truck, brought it home, heated and bent everything back in place and it was good to go again. The boat it was pulling then was a 26' Wellcraft cuddy cabin that was full of wet foam and on a super nice load rite trailer, (which is what I was after), the boat also had two good running V4 outboards. In high gear even with weight on the back it will get rolling far faster than you would want to hit anything.
The best part is that this thing only weighs about 300lbs, I can load it by myself into the bed of my truck by hand, so it can go anywhere. It will turn as sharp as the rear tires will allow, they will hit the trailer tongue before the steering hits its stops.
