Towable camping "trailer" for beach camping

Howdy,

I'm looking for ideas for something I can tow behind my ski boat when we go camping. It needs to be able to hold about 100 gallons of gas and camping gear. I would like to be able to tow it about 25-30 miles per hour. It needs to be stable enough to not capsize in lake Powell like conditions.

Any ideas? I've looked at the pre-fabbed layout boats that duck hunters use but think I may end up having to build something myself. Lighter is better.

Thanks!

Bakes

 

A small skiff or dory hull. flat bottom carries lots of weight. here are skiffs will come back with dory.
https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=376 http://www.boatdesigns.com/11-15-Power-Row-Skiffs-flat-bottom-skiffs/products/857/ another- stich and glue-http://www.boatdesigns.com/12-Power-Skiff-12-SG-skiff/products/349/http://www.boatdesigns.com/12-Power-Skiff-12-SG-skiff/products/349/ Go to the Glen-L site, click on boat plans and then outboards. lots of ideas for you. https://www.google.com/search?sourc...lz=1T4GGLR_enUS202US205&q=glen L boat designs

 

Welcome to the forum.

Towing any boat or floating "device" at that speed, will prove quite problematic. Even if you towed a well shaped V bottom skiff, designed to run at these speeds, she'd dance around like pole stripper, if left to find her own way, at the end of a tow line.

Maybe a different approach will work for you. What is the make, model and year of your ski boat?

 

It is a tige 22v. I have no problems towing inflatable tubes at any speed. But I definitely can see a longer boat/barge skipping around. That being said, never really had trouble towing ski boats behind the houseboat at about 10mph. Maybe something that is round and does not have edges to catch?

 

You're talking about very different dynamics at the speeds you propose. Lets have a closer look, a 650 pound load of fuel, maybe 200 in camping gear, plus the weight of what it's in. So, dragging an 800 - 1,000 pound something or other around behind your boat, is a whole lot different, then a 5 pound inflatable tube and a couple of kids dangling off it.

10 MPH is one thing and certainly doable, but once you get into the upper teens, things change dramatically.

 

Am I correct in thinking you are not that familiar with Lake Powell? I am and I cannot imagine what the interior of a houseboat would look like after transiting the Maytag Straits at 20kts on a summer afternoon. Scrambled eggs maybe? Castle Rock Cut is being excavated a few feet deeper, but with the dropping lake level it may close again in a year or two. That means a 12 mile trip through a narrow canyon with sheer rock sides and hundreds of boats, including high speed tour boats, to get from the Marinas to the main lake. The reflected wakes are astounding! Unless this trailer/houseboat is a deep vee everything inside will be smashed to pieces if you try to plane.

I see what boat you have and it is a moot point anyway. Your boat doesn't have the ability to tow something
like you envision beyond hull speed. Maybe an old pontoon boat with the motor removed could be towed a bit faster, but you still need more motor and more prop.

 

How about putting a 25 hp outboard on a skiff or small dory and let a family member drive it to where you want it.

 

We always do Powell from bullfrog so not really worried about the detour down south. The thing is, my boat pulls 600+ pounds of people on large inflatables without any problem. I would think something with a little more surface area and a slicker bottom would tow even easier.

I know high speed towing can be done. I'm just not sure I want to be to one experimenting around with it. In the end I will probably end up sinking the raft, tearing the pylon out of my ski boat or dumping 100 gallons of fuel into the lake.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MZyIheUhxKM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMZyIheUhxKM

There are also a few YouTube videos of some very brave/foolhardy souls who get towed at higher speeds by a bass boat.

Anyways, based on the replies it seems that a towed cargo "pod" is not something that is very mainstream. Thanks for the replies. I think I'll just rent a lake house instead and save me a lot of trouble

 

We keep our HB in Bullfrog as well. If you go more than once a year a share in a beater houseboat could be a bargain. That's what we did, over a few years it works out cheaper than renting one of the family trailers. Plus you can easily have a swamp cooler or a/c, something that's a lot harder to do in a tent.

 

This is how we usually go



But since a houseboat costs $3,000-$10,000 per week plus gas, it is really putting a damper on my Powell frequency. I was trying to come up with an idea to get my ski boat and family up river away from the hoards and not be limited by ski boat gas. I can get everyone where I need it but just can't solve the gas problem. Really not interested in putting 100 gallons of gas in the ski boat.

I can say one thing for sure, Lake Powell was a lot funner when I was a kid and someone else worried about and payed for everything.

 

You could get an old ski boat with no engine and put all your stuff in it.

 

Too much trouble. Would have to figure out what to do with it, how to get it there and what not.

Lake house it is

 

We paid $5k for our 1/5th share of a 50' HB, yearly charges are about a grand. Compare that to two weeks rental a year. We get every fifth week all summer and unlimited off season usage. We keep her in the Bullfrog Marina so we can sleep aboard after the long drive from LA. We have 300 gal of gasoline in the HB and 100 in our scout boat. Lots of HB's have toy tanks and pumps onboard.

Where can you get a lake house on Powell? I've been going since the Del Webb days back in the late 70's and can't recall seeing any homes on the lake.

 

That's a decent deal. There are no houses on Powell. Would go to a different lake for that. My favorite in Colorado thus far is lake granby. The only issue there is an altitude of over 8,300 feet. Needless to say, my boat does not quite have the power there that it did in Louisiana. I got a new prop for it but have not tried it out.

Anyways, thank all for trying to help out on the towing thing.

Bakes

 

Think about using a long pole to tow with and not a rope. It worked great for me and kept the towed vehicle under control.