• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

Float Dolly

L

Lotro

PATRON
Hey Folks,

I've searched and browsed but haven't found anything definitive regarding a float dolly for a Super Cub or PA-12.

I'd love to get some plans and either build, or have one built for me. Something that will slide under the plane and pull it out of the water with a vehicle. I don't possess the skills to just "make one up". I've reviewed marine rail, boat lift and pontoon options and I may end up that way, but I'm hoping someone has it all figured out and I don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Wish I could post picture to put you at ease. A young welder built a four-wheel dolly to his figuring for my 180hp Bushmaster/Producer for less that $CAN2,000, stock and labour. pole attaches to MF 135 tractor for to and from the harbour, slick as can be. Depending on tide, I wear chest waders to place it properly on the dolly. It's a rectangle, with one-inch marine plywood supporting the floats, two planks vertically on uprights to assist floats alignment. Frame, at a guess, four-inch pipe, no leaks, painted with Tremclad, looks straight out of New York.
 
Simple but works great, we launch and retrieve 6 or 7 different floatplanes every season. Used steel from wearhouse racking and an old straight axel from a 1940s truck. Platform is about 10' wide by maybe 5' front to back? I bet island Bob's doesn't have $100 bucks in it





Glenn
 
Last edited:
Surfside Seaplane Base in Lino Lakes, Minnesota used to use a modified pontoon boat trailer. They might still use it.

It worked well enough to pull my Beaver or PA12 out of the water.

Be careful about building one that requires getting under the floats unless your shoreline has a quick drop off. It is often easier to pick up a floatplane from the spreader bars than from under the floats themselves.
 
Link to a video at Duluth Mn you can see the "picker" at about 1:30. Surfside uses something [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]similar except it is built out of an old chevy blazer and it is not a trailer.
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTsNLcRnbE[/FONT]
[/FONT]
 
This is the most interesting rig I've see. This is up at Tower MN and is a very early Ford Ranger 4x4 that was hacked behind the cab and frame rails to go under under spreader bars fabricated for ahead of the cab. Really looked funny going down the taxiway from the hangar to the ramp. Super nice seaplane airport and wish I took a better picture.
FloatRanger.webp
 

Attachments

  • FloatRanger.webp
    FloatRanger.webp
    42.2 KB · Views: 415
Link to a video from surfside and their picker. [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Glk141to5s[/FONT]
 
Lotro said:
Hey Folks,

I've searched and browsed but haven't found anything definitive regarding a float dolly for a Super Cub or PA-12.

I'd love to get some plans and either build, or have one built for me. Something that will slide under the plane and pull it out of the water with a vehicle. I don't possess the skills to just "make one up". I've reviewed marine rail, boat lift and pontoon options and I may end up that way, but I'm hoping someone has it all figured out and I don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...


Email me at tmbelgood@gmail.com My son and I built a lift using a front wheel drive car, total cost was about $1800 Or look at my facebook site Terry Elgood
 
180Marty said:
This is the most interesting rig I've see. This is up at Tower MN and is a very early Ford Ranger 4x4 that was hacked behind the cab and frame rails to go under under spreader bars fabricated for ahead of the cab. Really looked funny going down the taxiway from the hangar to the ramp. Super nice seaplane airport and wish I took a better picture.
View attachment 44032
Click to expand...

Several of these rigs at the Renton WA airport KRNT on Lake Washington.
 
Terry, they must not be listed publicly as there are only a few photos visible on your page, and those are from 2017.


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org
 
A set of unAirworthy Buskwheels would be great tires for a trailer especially if launching on softer ground or mucky beach.
 
<<<<Send me a "friend" request that should give you access to my facebook site>>>>


I was just relaying it for FYI - I don't have a need to see it. You can make it a public post though, if you want to share.
 
There are two types of beaching gear I see used here in Pitt Meadows, either motorized with a truck or front wheel drive car, or a trailer. I use the trailer with a tow hitch mounted to front of my truck and it works well for up to a C185, I don't have to maintain another vehicle and its small enough to store under the cub when its on floats in the hangar. One of the motorized ones here gets used everyday to launch and retrieve a DHC3 single otter, lots of DHC2 beavers off a wood ramp into the river.

beaching gear suitable for Beaver-1.webp
trailer beaching gear-3.webp
 

Attachments

  • beaching gear suitable for Beaver-1.webp
    beaching gear suitable for Beaver-1.webp
    158.4 KB · Views: 987
  • trailer beaching gear-3.webp
    trailer beaching gear-3.webp
    352.7 KB · Views: 538
Last edited:
That blue one is pretty much a scissor pontoon trailer, available everywhere, winch or electric/hydraulic. Might want/need to shorten the arms so it doesn't lift it higher than needed.
That said, if it's just for one airplane, you could use a bunk trailer and just adjust the bunks for the floats, and leave it on it.


https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/tro/d/frazee-20-pontoon-trailer/6957988606.html
https://www.drtrailer.net/2019-wolv...nized-crank-up-pontoon-boat-trailer-QZCb.html
https://www.boattrader.com/listing/2004-shoreland'r-pontoon-scissor-trailer-102411687/
http://www.tebben.us/product.php?Scissor-Lift-Pontoon-Trailers-28
https://www.hoosiertrailer.com/bx_and_tritoon-trailers.php
 
Wow guys! I was away for a while and I've come back to a pile of awesome replies. Thanks so much. I will start here and let you know where I end up!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Amph. float dolly
Replies
0
Views
2K
Ron B.
R
Flyingde
Tundra Tire Dolly
Replies
3
Views
3K
Flyingde
Flyingde
M
Front seat options for a PA-12
Replies
7
Views
4K
PA12Tray
PA12Tray
S
Water Wings - INCREDIBLE STC for EDO 2000's!!!
2
Replies
54
Views
19K
mike mcs repair
mike mcs repair
P
Vfe Floatplane vs Landplane
Replies
11
Views
8K
skywagon8a
skywagon8a
Back
Top