Getting harder to tow a big boat..

[ozynorts]

What happened to the silverado???

The Silverado is for his next boat. Ssshhhh don't tell Mrs Boat Hog.........

[Boat Hog]

What happened to the silverado???

The tax man has our Silverado money Cobes ..... well, a good chunk of it. Brother in laws, low milage never been off road, car came up and well it tows better than the old Prado (and is legal). But rest assured, the Cruiser is an interim measure!

Plus side is I can now put a whole lot more tackle and stuff in the boat!!!

[Boat Hog]

The Silverado is for his next boat. Ssshhhh don't tell Mrs Boat Hog.........

Ohhh ...... she has a fair idea where it's all heading.

[ozynorts]

Grady White??????

[Muddy Toes]

The Silverado is for his next boat. Ssshhhh don't tell Mrs Boat Hog.........

I don't think he's got any problems there.......Mrs Hog rules!!!!!!

I remember a conversation about Jim getting married for a Silverado and a casual over dinner one night.As I recall Mrs Hog seemed pretty cool with the whole idea.
Jim's the dude we all want to be just quietly.....oh yeah, god that lady can cook too!!!

[team_mongo]

Jim,
Is that frame reinforced against the rear roof rack?
How quick does it go on and come off?

Thanks
TM

[Boat Hog]

Will post up some photo's tomorrow. It folds down flat. Bolts into place in upright (200ml back from vertical) or horizontal position. Frame welded onto sections of ally channel, then cross bolted through the Rhino bars. Undo 4 bolts and it all comes off. Towing to Port Macquarie tomorrow, will see if it holds up okay!

[Captain Seaweed]

It looks like the boat stays at holiday during Christmas and Easter.
I wonder why that rule is there?

Hi Finga,
There are restrictions put in place by Main Roads for oversize transport, traffic control, intersection work during peak periods to prevent traffic incidents...so they think. I use to work in the signals game and we were restricted to when we could work depending on holidays and special events. Its typical government thinking
I am about to start towing oversize so this is all new to me. I am thinking piss the signs and yellow lights/flags off and just run a Blue and Red lights!!

[Triple]

What's the fine for failing to comply?

[finga]

Wholly crap!!!!

I'm starting to think it might just be easier to buy a set of chisels and get that sucker back down to 2.5 wide.

I've got a nice new chainsaw. it might save some time

Just thinking on how I'm going to make all this happen.....is there anything saying that I can't mount the disco light for night travel on the boat?I was just thinking of using a magnetic one on the hard top of the boat that gets plugged in to a 12v plug on the boat just to try and avoid wires and crap sticking out of the car windows.
Thoughts?
What sort of magnet sticks to aluminium.. or fibreglass??\
This might be of use http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/Sa..._v3_102010.pdf

Yeah. I know I'm a smart@rse

[Boat Hog]

Ok. Towed 'legaly' from Coffs Harbour to Port Maquarie today...... Strong Wind Warning with massive Southerly wind! The 4.2 TD Cruiser was fading a bit in the 95 - 110 Km range where the Prado 3.0 Common Rail TD would have still had some punch!

Sunrise this morning was at 0550 Hrs, the place to get to was the Kempsey Bridge over the Maclay River. Narrow Bridge with a restriction on Oversize Loads during Peak Hour (0730 - 0930), I mean c'mon a 2 hour peak time in Kempsey!!! So, distance calculator was showing the time for the journey as being 1 hour, 42 mins. With only 1 hour, 40 mins of legal driving time to get across that bridge or face a 2 hour wait til we could cross and about 5 fixed speed cameras and two point to point cameras ......... it was going to be tough!

Okay, we may have snuck out a few minutes before sunrise and we got a good run despite the wind..... crossed the bridge with 10 mins to spare. Phew.

Discovered a few things.

Warning Flags that are sold on sticks are no good stuck in the gunnel rod holders at the rear of the boat. Why? Well, despite trimming them down a little in length they don't have enough weight to hold them in place in a loose fitting rod holder. Gone! Need two more flags.

Warning Flags that are light weight and fluro coloured with brass eyelets in the corners. Had two of these cable tied at the front edges (top and bottom) to the bow rail and rail upright near the start of the oversize section. Port side okay, Sarboard side for some reason flapped itself to pieces with the stiching (between the two different colours) coming apart. Need another flag.

Yeah, but what about the OVERSIZE signs? Surely they would last the journey? Front sign (rigid) okay. Rear sign (Banner) showing signs of wear and tear. Was tied between the hard top supports and possibly needed to be tied super tight (maybe time to relearn the truckies knot?). But, it was going into a 30 knot southerly at 100 KPH. When I stopped south of Kempsey, I lowered the sign a little and retied it a lot tighter. Time will tell if this banner lasts or not.

Now, normally I would tow up the road a couple of Km then stop and check all the tiedown points etc but I couldn't do this considering the tight schedule we were on. Also there were the usual drivers going 80-85 in a 100 zone and for me to pass was difficult while all thsoe behind me were wanting to get past that bloody oversize boat that was slowing them down! Gives me a bit of an understanding of some of the frustration faced by truck drivers.

Here's some more photo's of the sign mount I had made up.

photo (2).jpg
This is the sign folded down. The rear support leg has been un bolted from the frame and rotated fully forward through the pivot point which is the bolt on the top right. The support leg has been fixed to the frame by the bolt on the top left hand side. The bolt on the lower right is holding the sign down in the closed position. Note there is a strip of self adhesive foam/rubber between the mounting frame and the support frame around the sign.


photo (3).jpg

This is the locking tab, used to bolt the sign into place when folded flat.


photo (6).jpg

This is the bolting holes and support bracket (with adhesive foam/rubber) for the support leg when rotated to the front and locked down.


photo (4).jpg

Picture of support leg (1 of 2). Sign in raised positon.


photo (5).jpg

Rear view. Sign is bolted through the Rhino Rack rails with four bolts. All bolts are stainless and the nuts are nylock so you don't need to tighten them too much.

I would say that with a socket and ring spanner or shifter you could undo the whole thing in under 10 mins and have it removed from the rails. You can mount or unmount it with the sign either raised or lowered.


It seems to be a lot noisier with the sign lowered? I might put some of that adhesive rubber/foam stuff under the frame to get rid of the gap between the frame and the rail.

Cost?
Custom made $480.
I supplied the Oversize sign.

Now going to have a beer and a well earned relax.

[WalrusLike]

That's kind of funny.... imagine walking along the footpath and a 'safety' flag whacking you in the head as it flew out of its holder.

[Mister]

That's kind of funny.... imagine walking along the footpath and a 'safety' flag whacking you in the head as it flew out of its holder.

That would be an unsecured load then.

[Muddy Toes]

Warning Flags that are sold on sticks are no good stuck in the gunnel rod holders at the rear of the boat. Why? Well, despite trimming them down a little in length they don't have enough weight to hold them in place in a loose fitting rod holder. Gone! Need two more flags.

Warning Flags that are light weight and fluro coloured with brass eyelets in the corners. Had two of these cable tied at the front edges (top and bottom) to the bow rail and rail upright near the start of the oversize section. Port side okay, Sarboard side for some reason flapped itself to pieces with the stiching (between the two different colours) coming apart. Need another flag.

Ever thought of just buying some of the warning flags that already have the elastic straps and plastic clips already on them Jim?
They take about 2 sec to put on and take off......I'm sure a quiet trip down to your local quarry in the dead of night might uncover a couple in the dog boxes of a couple of semi's .

[Boat Hog]

Thanks Muddy - now you tell me! Or are those pictures of A Salt Weapon Photoshop ?? !