Towing an inflatable a short distance on launching wheels? Bad idea?

[ben1000]

Howdy...

Just wondering if this was something anyone had done...

Take the SIB uninflated to the lake... Inflate and rig in the parking lot, and then lower the launching wheels....

I was then thinking about attaching the front of the boat to my ball-hitch (maybe with just some rope around the front handle, or something) and the using the truck to maneuver the boat around to the ramp and back down the ramp.... At the bottom, I'd until the boat from the hitch, and lower it down to the water...

So, essentially, the boat is being towed, with no trailer and no real hitch, for a couple of hundred feet across the parking long and down the ramp, on it's launching wheels..

Anyone do this? Any issues? Bad idea?

Thanks!

Best,

Ben

 

[Peter_C]

Re: Towing an inflatable a short distance on launching wheels? Bad idea?

Nothing wrong with rolling the boat 200ft with the launching wheels as that is what they were designed for. Towing it with a vehicle could create issues if the boat is torqued sideways or such causing it to roll.

Why not just hand launch it downhill? Recovering it back up the launch ramp with a vehicle where you are moving uphill in a forward straight line would be safer.

 

[ben1000]

Re: Towing an inflatable a short distance on launching wheels? Bad idea?

Well, just to answer my own question: This weekend, I was camping at Fool's Hollow Lake in AZ, and my campsite was around 1/4 mile from the boat ramp, up and down several hills.

I inflated the boat at my site, dropped the launch wheels, and then pulled the front of the boat up so that it rested on the open tailgate of my Ford Explorer. The front D-ring / handle was around 3 inches from the tail-gate door clasp, so I lashed a short length of line between the two to keep them together.

I then got in the back of the Ford, with the tail gate still up, and my wife drove at around 5-10mph to the boat ramp. There, I disconnected the boat, and walked it the final 20 or 30 feet down the ramp.

Upon finished up our boating for the day, we just reversed the process.

Everything seemed to get extremely well. There seemed to be little or no stress on the wheels at that speed, and the large pneumatic wheels rolled very well over the asphalt. There were a couple of pot holes and a speed bump to deal with, but we just took that slowly...

So the answer seems to be "YES!" you can certainly drive slowly a small distance towing a SIB on launch wheels, as long as you're careful, slow, and take your time... I think this will be the standard way I launch my SIB in the future...

Best,

Ben