What floats your boat.

As my customer is fully involved in this research himself, he will no doubt follow through this post and we will discuss the merits suggested together.

 

Read myarks posts tom . He told mr e that his barges are not for sale.

 

It would be a good idea to keep our own ideas on how buoyancy can be used most effectively in a craft and clear up the trailering options so we can address some other controversial areas.
Superstructure layout.
Areas for sleeping.
The trailer proposed by the customer is a 6x4 floor standard type, tow bar to suit our boat trailering and general use with a winch, four wide 2 inch rollers on trailer floor and sides on the trailer designed to stabilize the boat when on the trailer. Wheels to be 10 inch rims heavy duty tires. The trailer must not be wider than the boat.

The trailer needs to not have box section but open so hot dip galvanizing and cleaning of salt water is made easier.

The 10 inch rims are important for small two wheel versions and 4 wheel tandem versions for bigger boat.

 

A good exchange of ideas philSweet and many people use similar methods.

Image shows 10 inch alloy wheels for trailer design.

 

I would suggest to use rubber cord torsions suspension as the ones I have designed with DIY replaceable rubber cords which some time in the future should be on the market made from titanium and aluminium casings as the ones pictured, although chrome molybdenum steel models will be available at a low cost which can also bolt on as well as be inserted to box structures for removable if wanted to plug straight in to the boat and not to have a trailer at all.
The advantages of torsions besides excellent suspension for towing is that the trailer structure is a lot lower to the ground than bouncy springs and is why high quality horse floats or racing car trailers use torsions .

The customer, I understand wants to try and not have axles in water when launching boat where with torsions at least the boat is closer to the water making this more possible.

 

Here is a picture of the torsions suspension trailer showing even though low to the ground it has good clearances when riding over high and low areas.

 

Hi myark, I would be interested in any new products and I am sure what you suggest could be an improvement on the trailer design as in the posted image.

Not long ago I saw a myark folding barge on a property close by an tried to find the owner with out success,I will look again.

Thank`s for suggestion.

 

Hi Tom

I think that would be the 7.2 X 3.6 Myark folding trailer barge I sold in Hamilton seen in the picture below when I was coming back from Great Barrier island just after visiting NZ wrestling legend John Da Silva on his paradise bush block.

A storm was brewing and had to hang to a rope and ride it like a horse as the waves during the pitch black night soon after became a lot bigger.

That barge was made from 3mm aluminium and has been in rough conditions and survived , even rolled it down a bank one time on cross country road , and winched it back on wheels and kept going with a couple minor dents.
One time coming back from a hire out work towing the Myark folding trailer barge on the Auckland high way it was late at night, windy raining and cold when a car broke down in the busy lane and the following cars slammed into it doing a 100kmh causing a 20 car pile up as I snaked my way through the cars flying through the air and people running for their life's who tried with torches to wave traffic down.
I could not use brakes while towing the Myark folding trailer barge or it would of lost control and at one time sped up to miss a car upside down sliding on its roof in front in me.
I was the only car that made it through which the whole incident I visioned in slow motion.

 

Have you solved that problem?

 

Read the post again

 

??
It's not a good advertise to say that you lose control if you brake while towing one of your folding barges. Your driving skills may have gotten you through that multi-car pileup, but that's not the point. What if there were a pile of loose babies spilled on the road, right in front of you? Unavoidable. The choice would be to run them over or lose control of the vehicle and folding barge, possibly running them over anyway or anyone else standing around.
Brakes are required on trailers everywhere. Towing a trailer must be no more dangerous than when not towing one. The ones on my trailer are electric and you can set the sensitivity with a rheostat dial so the trailer will apply braking before the truck, to eliminate jackknifing.
If your folding barges are dangerous when braking on wet, slick or any kind of expected road surface, that would be a major problem for sales I would think.
If they don't have brakes, they need them. Something else they need is remote steering and throttle capabilities to make them more 'user friendly'.
Anything you design for use by the public has got to be designed so the average simpleton can use it with no problems.

 

The Myark folding trailer barge weighs less than 800 kg and by NZ road law does not require brakes, also to brake towing a boat to avoid crashing cars that are several feet in front during a heavy down pour at midnight with cars flying through the air and skidding in all directions and avoiding people with flash lights running for their life's at the same time one would skid in any vehicle like they all did and all crashed and many went to hospital, some critical, I said I was the only one that escaped the accident because of I was skilled enough not to panic and slam on the brakes like you are suggesting.

If read again I was the only one that made it through the carnage also I was the only one that was towing a boat.

Do not be silly Sam and make up stories such as babies on the road, of course no babies on a busy lane high way during a cold windy rainy winter midnight.

You not going dottery on me are you ?

 

Yes, I mentioned that your skills are what got you through, and yes, a pile of babies was a feat of exaggeration, representing the common need to stop or you will run something over, possibly killing it. Like a herd of ducks, fluffy innocent ones. Ducklings maybe.

So I guess you're saying they don't have brakes and are liable to get out of control in emergency braking situations?

Can a person put brakes on them to make them safer? Will the axle and hub system you use accept brakes?

 

Like all boats on the market if brakes are not required by law then common sense states why would one pay the extra cost and maintenance when not required by law, how ever my next designs are very light and abide to the small car manufactures strict requirements, the large heavy designs do have brakes as the wheels automatically rise out of the water when unfolded so brakes are not an issue.
With that car pile up which I was following directly behind the cars that piled up in front of me, it was at that time like a slow motion movie and saw a narrow exit with a calm good timing, sped up instead of braked as a car was sliding across the road on its roof about to bloke that only exit and missed it by inches including a guy on the road on the other side who had frozen in terror and lucky he froze because that is what saved his life.

 

It's about the same here, 1500 lbs and below brakes are not required. Brakes are nice even if they aren't required. I think my truck and 26' rv trailer stops quicker than just my truck, and any tendency to wag or fishtail is stopped by applying just enough pressure to activate the trailer brakes.

Sometimes I watch youtube videos like the Russian dashcams or 'The Luckiest People In The World' things. Some are saved by freezing, some are saved by instant reactions and some are saved by pure luck.