Building a two piece barge - Ideas?

[atmlogic]

Here is what I would love to be able to do, can anyone give me Ideas, and things to think about along the way.
What I want is a barge that will be able to carry a Mini Excavator (8000LBS) Mini Truck/Large UTV(1600LBS) large tandem Axle Trailer with sand (8000LBS)
In other words, something that can safely carry 20-25,000LBS.
Now comes the tricky part. I want to trailer this on the road, so each "section" cannot be over 8'6 and I don't want it over say... 38' long.
In my head I would like to take two crafts almost identical that are 7'5" wide by say 36' long. Each one hopefully weigh less than 10,000lbs (I don't think that is too much to ask is it?) Better than that, I want them to have their own "on board" trailer system (a set of axles that can be lifted up out of the water after launch) Once in the water I would want then to ‘pin’ together (This could be done with large square tubing into custom slots on the deck) in such a way that the large heavy loads become very stable. The idea would be to make a “small” portable powered barge to bring the “small but heavy” equipment to remote lake islands or no road access areas. Mostly for building septic fields and landscaping.

Things that I would like to hear… (what type of float/pontoon/etc should I use),
What sort of power should I use (can I use basic outboards, have a system when the two units are together I can manage the controls easy)
I would like to have some form of a shore ‘down rigger’ setup so unloading on a rocky shore does not have me rolling the backhoe into the lake.
Things I don’t want to hear are that it cannot be done, it can be done, I want to do it and this is just bouncing a few ideas around.

[Commuter Boats]

Everything sounded pretty good including your weights until you said " Better than that, I want them to have their own "on board" trailer system (a set of axles that can be lifted up out of the water after launch)" and then it fell out of the realm of possibilities.
I must say that this is beyond what I would normally design so I could be mistaken, but I would bet that materials as exotic as titanium would be required to come close to your requirements, how lucrative is the septic system business?
10 years ago, a client requested that I design and build a vessel whose livelihood was to be servicing septic systems on islands. His requirements were almost as challenging as yours. We built it, it works ( 32' by 8', 570 gallon vacuum tank, and disguised as a sport boat), and it was expensive but not nearly as expensive as your barge will be if you figure out a way to pull this off.

Check out flexifloats. No tweels - they have to come seperate.

[Village_Idiot]

Consider a barge that folds in half lengthwise for trailerability. See website below for ideas:

http://www.myark.com/trailerbarges.html

[tugboat]

I agree- your idea is sound except the part with retractable wheels.. building two barges is a good idea and conecting them with good very very heavy bolts at the adjoining flat faces. i built a 20 foot barge 18 inches high by 10 ft wide and it would easily hold a small pickup. it was made of wood and sits about 1.5 -2.5 inches in the water . yet 5 hp propells it to hull speed unloaded. it displaces l x h x w x 62 lbs for each cubic foot of freshwater- therefore it can submerge the deck to water level at- 18 000 lbs- thats 9 short tons! so use that calculation in designing your barge- L x W x H(depth) x 62lbs (per cubic foot in freshwater)
but remember you want half of that minimum...so when you design your barge you could build a higher freeboard say 3 ft depth , and maybe 24 ft long and i think the legal limit may be about 9 ' 6'' on the road - some areas have 8ft as the limit but an overage permit probably for travel wont be much. and thats a pretty good sized barge. If you build two barges each about 16 ft, then attach them at the ends using strong bolts that should easily carry what you want and then some. but why if you cna get that on a 24 footer? Btw if you want a good easily built strong hull for a barge- think of ferro-cement as an option- wall thickness about 5/8 inch to 1 inch thick. it wont be much more weight than steel if any but will require much less maintenance than wood or steel will cure stronger infinitely and will cost much less about a third the price if you do it right. and even a badly made barge hull in ferro means nothing since it is not built for cosmetic reasons. it will last forever. good luck

[alan white]

I get two sections 8 x 36, each 24" depth of hull, one foot immersion (draft).
This is based on 35,000 total in fresh water.
Joining the two parts is not easy, but you could use cables and hydraulics to join them side by side.
Steel is obviously the way to go. Concrete would be cheaper but not as light.
Hull thickness in steel with appropriate webbing inside can be calculated by rule of thumb, and then you'll see if 10k lbs will do it. You may be low and will need another 10k to handle axles, ramps, etc.
If so, each additional 10k lbs should require 20k of bouyancy, or about another 6" depth. You need to sit atop the barge rather than in it because of the tires/axles.
Looking to make some money on some islands? This is a very expensive project you're considering particularly due to the same uniots being used for both road and sea applications. It might be better to have the truck, excavator, and other material inside two landing craft type boats atop a flatbed trailer, one at a time. The excavator is so top-heavy, it would be a nightmare on top of a barge rather than down in it, so this is maybe the only viable way anyway.
You could then join the two landing craft with cables/winches side by side, an engineered process to say the least, though not necessary if you can transport a 10 fft width, which could possibly be enough beam to float a small backhoe.

[atmlogic]

Yes, there is a lot of money to be made, however... Lets drop the built in axle idea as it looks like its not going anywhere. Throw out one more idea single extendable (width) and pontoons? Our legal width limit here is 8' 6" before permits... I want to stay away from that if I can. What do you think of the thought of a 3 Pontoon craft, with Hydraulic extendable sides?
If the center beam of the craft was aprox. 5-7’ wide and I could extend the outer sides by say 32” or so, I could easy have my 8’ wide craft that could extend (for stability) to 11-12’ or so… I can see some issues if I load sand gravel on the deck, however I see that with three 3’ x 35’ pontoons gives me about 21000lbs close to what I was looking for. Now, however that I said that I am not sure how they rate pontoons…, Maybe I need twice that size?? Nice part would be its so simple, should be fast in the water, bad part would be when I totally crush one them walking the mini backhoe off the front over rocks. Thanks all for the info so far, I really like the folding, and have given that some thought, my Thought What to have a 70/30 split craft, once again 3 pontoons, center one short enough to have a single outboard on it, once again heavy steal supports to brace the “loose” pontoon “down”. The extendable sides seem much easier as for the sake of some heavy square tubing (think receiver hitch square tubing) and hydraulics I could have exactly what I am looking for. Only problem I have to overcome would be the landing of the craft on shore. I suspect I would need heavy steal guards and special spuds…

[Luckless]

What are the exact sizes of your equipment?

My biggest worry would be loading and unloading. What are the beaches like, I'm assuming most islands won't have docks you can firmly tie up at, or just how large are these islands?

[rasorinc]

these people have a few landing craft designs which might give you some good design ideas. http://www.specmar.com/

[johnboat75]

We can build a 34' X 8' with our pontoon hulls and have 2 more 4' wide decks with pontoons fold out from both sides giving you a 34' X 16' that will easily pull on trailer,Call if your interested john 941-685-9374

[marshmat]

Such a barge as atmlogic describes would indeed seem to be very useful and reasonably profitable in the Kenora area. (For those not familiar with Northern Ontario: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...570557&t=h&z=9 )

The built-in axle idea is, I think, a legitimate one. Not retractable, though, and not powered. It would just be a couple of submersible axles with brakes and wheels, just enough to carry the weight of the empty barge- not its cargo- on the Northern Ontario back roads.

I think the retractable outriggers are also a valid idea, although they may not easy to implement cheaply.

How does the attached sketch look as a starting point? Trailerable beam when folded up, 13-14' or so when out, stick a ten-foot ramp with a couple of hydraulic rams on the bow to get from barge to shore. I've been thinking something like this might be handy now and then, but I really have no reason to build it right now.

[cor]

Wheels and axles should be no problem. Just stick them on the bottom and don't worry about being retractable. For a barge application the drag is no big deal.

Do a search for the Idlewild voyage. They stuck some old trailer axles on the bottom of a 55' alum boat so that they could portage it around some rapids on a river. I don't seem to remember where the link is, maybe someone else has it.

I think two barges that you join together in the water would be easier than a folding setup. Once they are in the water it is a lot simpler to move them together than it would be to hinge them on land.

C.O.

[mydauphin]

I would separate into two barges or 4 section. One to carry excavator and one for sand. Or just make two trips. That way sand can come and go without moving excavator. I actually had a barge that you could put excavator inside double wall unit. It was much more stable than the kind with a deck on top. Also there are many good little excavator that work good around 3k to 4k lbs. Not as powerful, but might do job.

[alan white]

If a pair of fold-out floats are being considered, why have heavy extending barge sections if you can have a pair of much smaller cylindrical floats (which can ride about 7 ft up to each side of the excavator where the machine is narrow, when on the trailer)---smaller because they extend out six feet to each side (total approx. 20 ft beam)?
Then two barges are linked end to end (like a freight car hooks up). The swing-down-and-swing-out pontoons need only be 24" or so aound, allowing typical culvert pipe to be used.
This allows simple hydraulics to be used (run by onboard 5 hp engine, e.g.).
This would be cheaper than the rolling undercarriage being submersible, and much lighter.

[Sean Herron]

Hello...

Just got home - this might spark some thought - lots of vids - very low tech - looks 'scaleable' - wish I had one...

See http://www.admiraldrive.com/float_overview.html ...

Hell - this guys shop is in London Ontario - get on the phone...

Lots of YouTube under 'Float Trailer'...

DAMN I WANT ONE...

SH.