How to get a car onto a boat?

[Machpoint005]

you could always tow it:

An Amphicar would be OK on the canal, wouldn't it? I seem to remember from my 1960s childhood that it would only do 4 or 5 mph?

 

Ian

[carlt]

An Amphicar would be OK on the canal, wouldn't it? I seem to remember from my 1960s childhood that it would only do 4 or 5 mph?

 

Ian

Yes it'd be fine, but some might prefer:

 

youtube

[david and julie]

My thoughts are now on a single ramp eitherside of the boat. Ramps would be about 6ft wide and about 4ft high(or more) made from steel(box/square section steel) covered in Expamet, to save weight and give grip. They would be fixed to the deck in a way that they could pivot, such as bolts and lock nuts or pins and "R" clips.

 

We now have an option.

 

1. For simplicty and low cost the ramps could be raised and lowered by hand, however, if they are too heavy for the owner, springs (as found on horse box tailgates etc) could be used to reduce the effort.

 

2. If listing in use was considered a serious issue, the ramps could be powered by hydraulics. The thinking being that you could power them down, very slightly, onto the bank, then power them back up after use.The mounting points for the rams would need to be very carefully consider though and looking at the back of some plant transporters may give some ideas.

 

This should give easy to use ramps that you can't (sensibly) miss or slip off which automatically become safety barriers when raised. They could be held up using a similar arrangement to lorry tailgates or sideboards.

 

Whether this would be asthetically acceptable is another issue.

[AllanW]

It's been tried before...

 

 

[DHutch]

I guess most have you have seen this, but it is a neat solution.

- Ive actaully semi-serously consdiered to possabilty of doing it meself if i ever end up living aboard for any time.

- 58ft narrowboat (already got...) stick a 12/14ft butty on th back or ratched to the front. Then stick a lotus 7 or somthing on it.

 

 

 

 

Daniel

[RichardH]

This is done regularly in Holland and on the Rhine.

With a bit of googling, you should be able to find some pics and source the small hydraulic crane they

normally use.

 

 

Just come back from 4 days on the Rhine - Admired the amount of water borne freight and how exactly they manged to get their cars onto the back of the barges - Mercs and BMW's in many cases so possibly not a bad living.

 

One even had a fully equipped childrens play area on the deck - bet you a pint in the Navvi Gary you've never been asked for that !

[blueprince]

How about a sliding deck? Two I-beams, parallel with steel rollers at each end, incorperating nylon rollers to support an upper metal framework that has a sheet of wood on top with tie downs. No ramps, whole deck moves, so easy to drive on/off, then hold car with tie downs whilst moving on/off board. The balance/COG problems mostly eliminate themselves, and the whole thing can be powered from a central winch/motor/cables/gears rig etc. crossed to either side, can deploy either side if required, is low profile, whole thing should be about eight inches thick, with the motor being a foot or so. You can fancy it up with dampers and weight distribution devices/counterweights, and a couple of trim tanks to balance after every park would be nice. You could enclose the working bits, and it would be fairly simple to maintain, removable barriers could be manual, or you could figure out an automatic way.

[carlt]

Then stick a lotus 7 or somthing on it.

 

Daniel

 

Or something!!

[Gary Peacock]

Or something!!

 

Too complex you need three ramps!

[DHutch]

Too complex you need three ramps!

No, just one really wide one....

[Liverpool Boat Co Ltd]

we've just built one, that will be ready to go out in a couple of days time. I'll get the customer's ok and then i'll put some pictures on.