This morning I had my fist sailing this year.
Temperature 0÷1 Celsius at 10.00 AM, but it was a sunny day and I had the feeling of a warmer day.
After one hour sailing, finally, I've been able to take off the tick ice layer from my seats corners, but I didn't care about it, because I was conscious that my sail was the only one for many, many kilometers. The lake was only mine and of a dozen of divers in a training session near the harbor.
I had a positive water test of my last dolly modification. Since the beginning, My launching dolly caused my many problems and forced my to lose many chance to sail, because of really too many tires failures. I try to explain why.
1. I dimensioned tr
Excuse me, but I sent my post incomplete, here follows again:
This morning I had my fist sailing this year.
Temperature 0÷1 Celsius at 10.00 AM, but it was a sunny day and I had the feeling of a warmer day.
After one hour sailing, finally, I've been able to take off the tick ice layers from my seats corners, but I didn't care about it, because I was conscious that my sail was the only one for many, many kilometers. The lake was only mine and of a dozen of divers in a training session near the harbor.
I had a positive water test of my LAST dolly modification.
Since the beginning, My launching dolly caused my many problems and forced my to lose many chance to sail, because of really too many tires failures. I try to explain why:
1. I dimensioned frame and tires on the declared hull weight. It was not clear to me that it was for the hull only, the total yacht weight is quite more.
2. I forgot to consider my own weight, when I work aboard and the boat is on the dolly.
3. Tires declared max load was a pure fantasy. After my callings, my supplier admitted that tires for boat dollies are tires for small forklift, but declassed by quality assurance tests that destine them to low duty applications. In this condition no max load is guaranteed.
4. It seems that summer sun jokes with my tires until they explode, even when the dolly is totally unloaded. I don't know why, but for two times I found a tire flat after a sailing session.
All this caused a visible bending of the aluminium structure that forced my to reinforce it with a steel traverse and at least 5 tires flat in less than 2 years.
When I built my dolly, I did not consider this as a so frequent case, therefore to remove a tire is a quite long work. Furthermore whitout a wheel I cannot launch my Weekender so I cannot sail.
I don't live in a big city or an industrialized area and all tires shops are closed during weekends (and holydays). So the only thing I can do is to remove the tire, to wait for Monday or Tuesday and find the time to go and see the repairer. Then to come back to the workshop to take the repaired wheel and finally, the following Saturday, to spend my time to mount the repaired tire instead of sailing.
I could not use a larger tire because there was not room enough in the dolly, so I decided for a sort of twin tires configuration. In the picture you can see as it works.
The good things are:
a. in case of flat, another wheel can temporary bear its load
b. a very simple dolly modification was necessary (two traverses and two longer wheel axles)
c. I can reduce tire normal pressure and avoid sun ray induced over pression
d. The wheels contact area with the ground is increased, and this is better on soft soils.
e. The wheel track is now shorter, this has positive effect on bending stress reducing.
The bad things are:
a. another work done instead of sailing.
b. other money spent
c. The dolly weight is now increased and I have to pull up also this new load with my boat.
d. the new two tires weight, but also float. In the former configuration I had to add ballast, because I found hard to push the too much floating dolly under the boat hull. Now I should increase the ballast, but I don't want to do it.
In spite of all the negative considerations, I've been satisfied by these modifications. I've planned to apply spoilers on the wheels in order to protect them from sun effects, but in this season this is not a problem and I'll do before the summer.
Gianluigi
Your original trailer looks a little light to me,but you got your boat in the water,have fun sailing !
Bob.
I like the dually arrangement of your dolly, should get you into the water even if one goes flat!