Mass Transport of Trailers

I

iggy

New member
I've never seen this discussed . . has anyone ever considered a mass transport of trailers? This came to mind following the recent discussion of NW river travel. Obviously there's a lot to see in every direction, but it doesn't take a real rocket scientist to recognize certain advantages in travelling from Lewiston, ID to Astoria, WA in the downstream direction!

Suppose one wanted to organize a group river tour? Is there anyway that 6-12 (?) tow vehicles with trailers could be barged (?) down river for some reasonable fee? I'm suggesting C-Brats drive to Lewiston, get the boats wet, and then find their tow rigs available in Portland, or Astoria at the end of the tour.

Lewiston --> Astoria is 415 miles (8.5 hrs) by road. It seems like it would be very anticlimactic to have to carpool back to Lewiston (1 full day) and then all the way back (another day) to get the trailer and the boat to the same place. (Another alternative would be to bribe friends or family members to ferry the rigs back down.)

Or perhaps I'm looking at this all wrong. It's a boat. The river's wet. Put the boat in at Astoria and do the whole round trip in the C-Dory.

??

e.g.
 
Iggy,,, you know motorhomes have an extensive "rails" program wherein they load the RV's, Campers, Motorhomes on a train and ship then into and across the mountains in Canada and Mexico.

I bet they could get alot of trailers on a semi bed, too.

John
 
Probably easier, cheaper, and far more practical to rent a van or two to ferry drivers back to their rigs in one swell foop. The rest can "guard" the boats 'till the rigs arrive. Besides, it's a good excuse for an overnighter party before returning with the rigs.... :lol:

Actually, El & Bill are the real experts at that hopscotch game. I seem to remember they discussed it at length, either here in the forums or in one of their online cruise logs.
 
My first thought was, "I bet they could get a bunch of trailers on a flat-bed semi." Then it dawned on me, "Oops, what about all the trucks towing them?" It certainly could be done, but probably not very cost effective. The reason I wondered about a barge is that one of the main reason for building the Snake River dams (without fish ladders . . . ? duh! . .. ) was to enable barge traffic from Lewiston to carry wheat to Porland and Astoria. OTOH, I'm not sure how much 'flat-bed' cargo is carried down.

I am aware of El and Bill's numerous hop-skotch routines. I was just wondering if the fact that a group was doing this might open create some economies of scale that don't exist for a single rig. The van idea (or a couple SUV's) probably is the most practical, depending on time constraints.

For now, this is all academic thinking. (A) This trip is not planned yet. (B) I don't have a boat. :cry :cry: :| :sad

:idea I gotta get a boat! :idea :D :) :rainbow :rose :love :hot :cocktail :thup
 
With a little lumber in between and some ratchet straps you can stack about 6 trailers on one . That how we get em delivered to us when we buy a few at a time . The biggest one on the bottom ...........................
Marc
 
Agreed . . . BUT, what about the trucks towing them???

It won't do any good to have all the trailers shipped downriver, if all the trucks that are used to tow them (and take the owners home) are back upriver! The entire tow rig needs to be shipped.

I don't suppose a car carrier (or 'parking lot', as the truckers refer to them on their CB's) would be too cheap? Although . . . hmmm . . . I wonder it they deadhead back from Lewiston to Portland after delivering cars from the docks? Trucks go onto auto transport? Trailers go onto flatbed?

Getting kind of complicated . . .

e.g.
 
Sea Wolf":2297h6e4 said:
Boy, I can sure see why folks try to make a CIRCULAR TRIP whenever possible!

Joe.
Click to expand...

I think they've all been partaking in Oregon's well known cash crop.... :shock: :shock: :shock:

'Cept for Charlie, of course. He just hits up his Gilly stash confiscated from some poor Submariner.
 
If you people are serious about getting your tow truck and trailer from your launch point to your end point, hire chauffeurs. Even it you have to pay them $50.00 per hour, it will be cheaper than trying to ship by barge, rail, truck, or any other means.

If there are a large number of you, you can stack as many trailers as possible hooked to one or two tow trucks, then every other tow truck could tow another truck to the end point. Nevertheless, the time in coordinating this, the equipment necessary to stack and un-stack the trailers and tow bars needed would eat up most or all of the savings in the number of chauffeurs you could eliminate.
_________
Dave dlt.gif
 
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