Tractor on a boat ramp?

How well will a tractor do hauling a boat up a boat ramp? If things work out I want to get a boat. Originally I was thinking of a F350 or a Chev/GMC 3500 as a tow rig but I would rather have a nice Pete.

Is there anything I'm not thinking of that could make this a bad choice?

James

 

Thanks. I didn't really think about the weight limits of the ramp it self. BTW this will be in the ocean so I would hope that these ramps would be built to handle a bit more weight but that would be something to check on since the rig would weight more then a 1 ton dually.

Another option is having some work done. When I owned my detail shop a another business borrowed our bay to put decals on a Freightliner that was a guys retirement toy. He shortened the frame and dropped a axle. He uses the rig to haul a 5th wheel camper and he has a mount built to haul his Harley when going to bike rally's. The truck has a sleeper as well.

So maybe I could take some length out of it and drop and axle. That would cut down on the replacement cost of 4 tires and might help trying to get around the boat launch parking lot.

I also found a Freightliner online that was built to be the ultimate boat hauler. I believe it was more of a medium duty truck with a full box built on the frame to hold gear. This would add weight to the rears, add storage but would also hit the wallet hard.

James

 

LOL. Yeah the rear end would be an area to protect. Thanks for reminding me about that. When I thought about backing in the first thing that came to mind was having to clean the salt water off the aluminum rims. Shows you where my mind is.

James

 

The trailer I'm not sure on. For most of the boats I would be looking at I don't think it will be a goose neck unless I have it custom built. I think the first boat will be before the truck. It might only be in the 24' range I think. That would be some crazy overkill with the Pete but sweet anyway.

I would like to be in the 40' range. One thing I do know I need to watch out for is the width if I want to trailer it.

As far as the ramp goes I know of one spot I would like to launch the boat which is up near my grandmothers house (I want to go scuba diving with my father off my boat) and there is plenty of room to get the trailer in. The weight shouldn't be an issue there but I will look into that before hand.

What I should do is look at different spots around Nova Scotia that I would want to do some boating and check to see if there are ramps there that would work with the Pete/trailer combo.

James

 

My step father said they would bring a second truck just in case with a company he worked with years ago. But I think they were using a dump truck so that would help with the weight over the drives issue.

James