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Glenn & Rosemary
Pleasure Way Excel TS Limited Edition
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein
I assume that for this discussion we're ignoring the interesting boat rig, and talking about the dolly which carries the fifth-wheel hitch and is towed by the truck.
There are two types of device which look similar but work quite differently.
Some are a non-pivoting extension of the truck. They are essentially a compromise between the converter dolly used behind a commercial truck's semitrailer to tow another semi-trailer in a "C-Train" configuration, and the built-in functionality of the lead trailer used to assemble a "B-Train". I have a lot of structural and practical concerns with these, but I have not heard of any way in which they are illegal. Examples include Hitch Buddy and The Automated Safety Hitch.
Some are a very short trailer, towed conventionally by the truck. They are essentially the same as the converter dolly used behind a commercial truck's semitrailer to tow another semi-trailer in an "A-Train" configuration. These are illegal in many jurisdictions (including here in Alberta and in British Columbia) for non-commercial vehicles.
Does he have to drive all the way in the lake to launch the boat?
In case it's not apparent, the reason the boat is on a trailer - not just a frame - is that the trailer is moved down to the ground by some sort of slide system, then the boat is launched conventionally with the boat trailer's wheels on the ground.
The boat-on-truck setup in the original post doesn't look nearly as extreme as the one in Jim's collection, but it does suggest to me a need to check axle capacity. As long as it is secure and within the truck's capacity I don't see any concern... other than perhaps the aerodynamic characteristics.
Jim's example isn't deliberate - it appears to be a boat rammed up on the truck which was towing it, when the truck hit the pole and the trailer folded up. Nothing secure or within capacity about that!
The old trailer on the S-10 Blazer (or is it an S-15 Jimmy?) is an internet classic, with some interesting details.
Should have taken a picture, but I didn't. At Goosenecks SP yesterday evening we saw a roughly 30' TT being pulled by a pickup that had a huge ATV in the bed, it was up on the side rails or some sort of rack up that high. Looked close to as bad as the boat pic.
Should have taken a picture, but I didn't. At Goosenecks SP yesterday evening we saw a roughly 30' TT being pulled by a pickup that had a huge ATV in the bed, it was up on the side rails or some sort of rack up that high. Looked close to as bad as the boat pic.
I'm guessing that the ATV was on a snowmobile deck. They're needed to have enough width for snowmobiles, or for two ATVs (usually carried crosswise). They're common enough here that they don't attract attention, and are used by anyone who doesn't want to tow a trailer, or is towing a different type of trailer (such as in this case with a travel trailer). They may be less common now as people use dual-function "toy hauler" trailers with travel trailer section in front and garage in back.
When I first saw one decades ago I assumed it had some sort of clever lift mechanism, and there are some like that (e.g. SlickLift), but generally they're simply a fixed deck just above the box sides, sitting on a frame which sits on the box floor; long ramps are needed, and carried under the deck in the truck box.
The high mass isn't good, but I've never heard of a problem with them.
Must be a bugger turning corners when the front wheels are not touching the ground.
Funny, but then seriously... the dolly doesn't add significant load to the rear of the truck (it's adjustable to whatever you want for traction, and this case would need none) and the boat load doesn't appear to be behind the rear axle, so the front axle load (which is close to two tons) would not be lowered significantly if at all by this rigging.
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