Brownell builds some nice ones. Find one, take pictures, build your own.

Rusty O

By large I mean 40' or more.

Thank you.

--
Courtney Thomas
s/v Mutiny
lying Oriental, NC
WDB5619

Find a reasonably good shape 46' Fontaine double drop box beam lowboy,
rip out the center bed and weld in a cradle for the keel and some
jackstands with ball swivel pads. Not cheap but it would be a lot
cheaper than starting from scratch.

You would still need a travellift to launch.

Courtney Thomas wrote:
By large I mean 40' or more.

Thank you.


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

I have the lowboy/tractor,.... suggestions as to how to build the cradle
and where to get the jackstand w/swivel pads would be appreciated.

Appreciatively,

Courtney



Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Find a reasonably good shape 46' Fontaine double drop box beam lowboy,
rip out the center bed and weld in a cradle for the keel and some
jackstands with ball swivel pads. Not cheap but it would be a lot
cheaper than starting from scratch.

You would still need a travellift to launch.

Courtney Thomas wrote:

By large I mean 40' or more.

Thank you.




--
Courtney Thomas
s/v Mutiny
lying Oriental, NC
WDB5619

If you are planning to carry just one boat it should be fairly simple to
design a trailer with fixed supports. If you are going into the
business it gets a lot more complicated making everything adjustable.

First, check underneath the trailer for the cross framing. See how many
you need to remove and substitute a keel cradle. Fabricating keel
cradle will be the critical part because it needs to be able to support
at least twice the boat's weight to allow for bouncing inertia.

Jack stands should be fairly easy. Either cut up some Brownell stands
or make some with 2 1/2" steel tube, 1 1/2" acme threaded rod and
nuts. You can get the rod and nuts from McMaster. Chopping the heads
off some used stands would probably be cheaper. I would mount them down
the sides on U-brackets so they can tilt in as needed. They will need to
be rigidly braced fore and aft and have adjustable cross bracing.

I suspect that the real problem administrative. There are probably half
dozen agencies that will want to inspect it before you can get it on the
road.

Courtney Thomas wrote:

I have the lowboy/tractor,.... suggestions as to how to build the cradle
and where to get the jackstand w/swivel pads would be appreciated.

Appreciatively,

Courtney



Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Find a reasonably good shape 46' Fontaine double drop box beam lowboy,
rip out the center bed and weld in a cradle for the keel and some
jackstands with ball swivel pads. Not cheap but it would be a lot
cheaper than starting from scratch.

You would still need a travellift to launch.

Courtney Thomas wrote:

By large I mean 40' or more.

Thank you.





--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

You will need to hire a metal worker/welder to begin by modifying the
trailer bed to recieve the boats keel through the bed.

(Actually if your welder/metal worker understands what you want to do, then
he is going to know how to go about it. If he doesn't then look for
another..)

I would imagine that once the trailer bed has been opened up and lowered
cross members installed, the next step would be to have the boat set into
place and blocked up so the metal work can be fitted to the boat. You want
to get these lowered cross members down to within a foot of the road surface
so you will get the require 14 ft overhead clearance.

The boat stands are available from any boat moving company for about $50
each. Boat yards have access to them as well..

The stands alone will only support the hull in a static load. You will also
need some sway bracing and tie downs.

Really the best way to see how this SHOULD be done is to to to a boat movers
yard and look at one of their trailers. Photograph it with a boat on it and
not the way their adjustable stands could be adapted for your use..

However you do this at some point you will need a crane or travel lift to
set the boat inplace for the final fitting.. You may find a boat yard that
will cooperate with this and allow your welder/metal worker to work in their
yard.

Sounds like an interesting project.. There are times that I wish I had my
own trailer for my Ingrid but then I would still have to hire a crane for
the mast and a tractor to haul the trailer. In the short term, it's cheaper
to pay a mover or a boat yard.

Good luck.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Hope your lowboy has four long beams instead of two. The upright
crossmembers between the outer pairs helps keep the webs vertical after
you remove the central crossbeams for your keel slot. If the existing
crossmembers aren't channel, get some. Use medium weight 6"-8" channel
and lay it flat between the rails tight against the web as low as
they'll go. Weld them to the web only and then reinforce with vertical
quarter-inch gussets--8"x8" if possible. Don't weld anything to the
long rail flanges. That goes for your stake pockets and rope hooks as
well as the crossmembers. And like the gentlemen said, look at a
professionally built trailer. The cradling is almost trivial, once you
have the trailer.
Good luck, Boatdreams.
-------------------------
Courtney Thomas wrote:
By large I mean 40' or more.

Thank you.