Intro Trailer Mule

[Keith Hebert]

Not much of a boating season for me. I have been working a lot on V2 of the trailer mover I made to park my boat behind my house. This is a better design and much much stronger version of the one I built last year. I am extremely happy with it. The boat is an AR210 full tank and all my gear aboard. About 4k lbs...

Here is a video..

 

[BobJohnson]

Very nice. Looks like something battle bots (robot fighting tv show)

 

[Seadeals]

Very nice. Looks like something battle bots (robot fighting tv show)

Funny, I was thinking the same thing! That is really cool! It also looks like some of the remote units used to tow aircraft around. How do you determine the maximum grade this can handle (up or down)? It works like a champ in the parking lot; but if a driveway has a slope to it at some point I could see a runaway boat! My neighbor has a tight drive and garage. He uses the trailer valet and I cringe when he has to rotate the trailer in place and skids the tires like that. It poses a question, "how tight is too tight of a turn for our trailers?"

 

[jcyamaharider]

What about off road use? This is where I store my boat( actually back farther now ) and it has a little grade to it.

 

[Ronnie]

@Keith Hebert , Are you taking orders for this or the first version?

 

[Keith Hebert]

I haven't tested on sloops yet but I think it would do as well as any other mover. I will be finding a location to test this very soon. As for off-road I'm using turf tires, tires found on riding mowers, I don't think there's a problem there. The chain drive can hold up to dirt and debris like any other chain drive system, dirt bike, goKart, etc.. Also, the electronics are enclosed. I would LOVE to build and sell these but buying materials at retail, i cannot build and sale for less than 2k. I'm working on getting funding to by in bulk at wholesale which will bring the cost down considerably. I love using this thing, it makes parking and retrieving my boat a breeze. I have various methods of control, RC being my favorite, but I can do smartphone, PC, web, remote location with first person video (FPV), follow me, and limited autonomous. Until i tighten up my code, RC is the safest right now.

 

[Keith Hebert]

@Keith Hebert , Are you taking orders for this or the first version?

if i build these, it will be version 2. The first one was proof of concept. This design is way cleaner and stronger..

 

[Keith Hebert]

Very nice. Looks like something battle bots (robot fighting tv show)

Thanks, yuup! Big fan of the fight robots..

 

[Keith Hebert]

Funny, I was thinking the same thing! That is really cool! It also looks like some of the remote units used to tow aircraft around. How do you determine the maximum grade this can handle (up or down)? It works like a champ in the parking lot; but if a driveway has a slope to it at some point I could see a runaway boat! My neighbor has a tight drive and garage. He uses the trailer valet and I cringe when he has to rotate the trailer in place and skids the tires like that. It poses a question, "how tight is too tight of a turn for our trailers?"

Yuup! skiding the tires around like that isn't good for the tires, wheels, or axles. I did it to show the power of the system.

 

[Keith Hebert]

I think I do better then this. I've already moved around 700lbs tongue weight. Me and wife standing on the hitch mount while moving a 4k trailer.

https://airtug.com/product/trailer-tug-ld-electric/

 

[Seadeals]

Amazing power indeed! I can't get mine to pivot even on my wet epoxied garage floor without my F150. I was thinking of something like these two.
https://www.mototok.com/tugs/ground-handling-companies-mro-fbo-airlines
http://smartug.com/
Keep in mind things for things that fly sell at 10x the normal price of thing that stay here on Earth, so there may still be market share for you to get some specialized sales to fund the mass market volume leap to get cost down to something reasonable for land based sea(lake) people versions. Could be a bad thought; but a thought.

 

[Keith Hebert]

Amazing power indeed! I can't get mine to pivot even on my wet epoxied garage floor without my F150. I was thinking of something like these two.
https://www.mototok.com/tugs/ground-handling-companies-mro-fbo-airlines
http://smartug.com/
Keep in mind things for things that fly sell at 10x the normal price of thing that stay here on Earth, so there may still be market share for you to get some specialized sales to fund the mass market volume leap to get cost down to something reasonable for land based sea(lake) people versions. Could be a bad thought; but a thought.

Those things are confusing to me. Building useful tools is what i do best. I've done that my entire career.

 

[Ronnie]

Ever watch the show shark tank?

 

[swatski]

Not much of a boating season for me. I have been working a lot on V2 of the trailer mover I made to park my boat behind my house. This is a better design and much much stronger version of the one I built last year. I am extremely happy with it. The boat is an AR210 full tank and all my gear aboard. About 4k lbs...

Here is a video..

Holy cow - this is fantastic!
I seriously hope you can start making those for sale.

--

 

[FloJet]

Holy cow - this is fantastic!
I seriously hope you can start making those for sale.

--

For real. Count me in on an order. That's very impressive!

 

[zipper]

I agree with @jcyamaharider . An off road test would be useful to see if it has enough mass/power to push a 24' boat into a back/side yard, where many people put their boats. It looks like a nice product, but not all users have a flat paved surface to move/park on. But maybe your target on the first generation should be flat pavement until revenue starts pouring in.

 

[Beachbummer]

So, ball park, how much would it cost to put one of these together if you had to purchase everything?

My wild ignorant guess is $2k

Very curious. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ancient canoe]

Yeah the pricing on those links leads me to believe that they are probably more for commercial use. At those capacities, that's pretty expensive for individual use on 1 trailer, unless you just have an incredibly tight spot you have to fit into, or are smart enough to build your own.

 

[Slfmde]

http://www.saferwholesale.com/Hybri...MImIr16u7Z1gIVEJ7ACh3xzgwbEAQYASABEgIKevD_BwE

http://www.saferwholesale.com/Motorized-Trailer-Boat-Dolly-Mover-Car-Tow-Dolly-For-Sale-s/1825.htm

There are videos for some of the other models. OP yours looks cool more compact

 

[Keith Hebert]

working on some new videos of inclines and off road. be back soon...