Power Trailer Dollies

G

gljjr

New member
I have a question for those of you that have something to move your boat around the yard. I've seen the website for the Power Caster and Power Mover and they look pretty convincing. If you have one what are your thoughts on them?

Due to the length of my boat and the tight quarters in my driveway I have been seriously looking for a way to manuever the boat once I get it home. The truck just doesn't have a short enough turning radius to do what I need it to do.
 
I put a trailer hitch on the front of my truck. Can turn my 22' C-Dory into places you never thought possible. However, you still need some space to manuever the truck. Don't know how much space you have to deal with.

John
Swee Pea
 
The facility where we store our boat uses golf carts to move the boats around. They work great. Then again- you need space to store the cart.
 
Although putting a hitch on the front of my truck might help a little it just won't do the job as the turning radius on the truck is just too big. I can barely turn it around in the driveway!

And trust me, I have a LOT of experience backing towed items as I spent over 5 years running a tow truck :)

I had thought I might be able to use my garden tractor to move the boat but the boat is too heavy. I had actually thought of using a golf cart but as stated what would I do with it the rest of the time?

I'm telling ya, going from a Grand Cherokee to an Extended Cab F250 Long Bed you really notice the lack of turning radius! If we still had the jeep I doubt I would have any problems moving the boat around. Of course, I wouldn't be able to pull the boat with the Jeep as it is way too heavy. But for moving it around the yard it would be great.
 
They work great - far better than any other solution I've seen, including front-mounted hitches (I have one of those too.)

The main limitation - the surface needs to be relatively level and smooth. If so, even a tandem trailer can be turned on a dime.

Here's a link to a previous discussion.
 
Gary,

I've used a Power Caster for about 4 years on an 18' outboard with a single axle trailer. It's the only way I can make the sharp turn in the alley to get her on the slab.

To do this, I had to remove the little hump at the slab/alley interface and regrade about 20' of the slab itself. I couldn't get the traction from the single wheel version, especially wet, but it works fine now. With a bigger boat I'd opt for the dually version.

Bob
 
Thanks for the information guys! That is the kind of info I needed. Of course I will be looking at a very heavy duty one as it needs to be able to move about 7000 lbs. I initially asked this question as I saw one on EBay and had thought about bidding on it. But the price went over what I wanted to pay so...

I'm going to keep shopping. They look like the best way to get the boat parked once I pull into the driveway. With the old boat I could turn it around in the neighbors driveway and then back it down the long curved driveway and into the parking spot. But this boat is too big and the truck just can't turn sharp enough. So, I'll have to pull in, unhook, and then move the boat to its final parking space.
 
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