Amphibious Trailer to Tow a Vehicle Down the Highway and Across the Water

amphibious trailer to tow vehicles on the water

a trailer to tow down the highway and accross the water

Amphibious Trailer?  When you here the words Amphibious Vehicle it’s hard not to immediately have the image of a James Bond movie pop into your head where 007 drives into the water in his Austin Martin and drives under the water.  Although much less glamorous, Rolling Barge designs and builds amphibious trailers to tow large items such as a truck or crane across the water.

The design of our floating utility trailers is essentially the same as our floating docks-kits, but are also equipped with wheels, hitch and motor transom.  Once these converted floating docks are licensed they are highway legal and are considered a boat by the DMV. The weight capacity is 5,000 pounds, which would be enough to tow most vehicles.  Depending on the weight of the load, the decking would need to be reinforced to stand up to the vehicle weight.

How to Prevent Floating Barrels from Leaking

“Floating dock barrels, how do you keep them from leaking?” Since Rolling Barge manufactures all of our floating docks with barrels, this question is one of the most common ones we get about the engineering viability or our products.

After 5 years of using polyurethane drums as the floatation device for our floating docks, swim platforms and party barges, we have never experienced any breaches in the barrels causing them to leak.

If you purchase your barrels new then they will be airtight. If you purchase your barrels used you should inspect them carefully for any large holes. In almost 100 percent of the cases the barrels will not have any problems.

Here’s a tip to ensure the barrels won’t leak…

There should be a plastic gasket that fits between the plug and the hole. If this gasket is in good shape, you should not have any trouble with your barrels leaking. If the gasket is questionable and you cannot buy new gaskets, then you can add a bead of silicon all around the threads of the plug before you screw it in.

plastic barrels leaking

floating dock barrels...do they leak?

Have you done any studies on the Engineering viability of your floating docks?

Rolling Barges meet the requirements of both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the U.S. Coast Guard. These floating trailers tow down the highway at 8.5′ wide and typically do not require special highway permits. They are structurally engineered by a certified Naval Architect and approved by both the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers (NATM) and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA).

Rolling Barges are insurable as both a commercial rental and for personal use.

Rolling Barges are typically powered by a single hydrofoil outboard motor that ranges in size from 10 to 60HP. They have a maximum speed of between 4 and 6 mph.

Rolling Barges are designed to provide years of trouble free service in both fresh and salt water. They are constructed with the following materials and components:

  • 6061 T6 structural aluminum makes up the main structure.
  • 2024 T4 Aluminum Bolts are the primary fastener (anodized for corrosion resistance in salt water).
  • Nyloc® locking nuts and Loctite® are used to ensure the bolts stay tight.
  • Aqua Plus® pressure treated fir plywood deck (warranted for the life of the barge).
  • The deck can be covered with either high quality marine carpet or a polyethylene non-skid surface.
  • Dexter Torflex® galvanized axles.
  • Air-Tight® Bearing Protectors. Designed for the military to keep the wheel bearings dry for up to one year
    continuous submersion www.airtighthubs.com.
  • Kodiak Hydraulic Disc Brakes with Stainless Steel Components.
  • Polyethylene Drums make up the Primary floatation.
  • Sunbrella® marine grade fabric.

For more information please read: Design and Construction of a Rolling Barge (3.8MB PDF)

The following documents are structural engineering and capacity test reports, illustrating our committment to quality and safety — from concept to construction.

Summary of Engineering for Rolling Boat Inc (515KB PDF)

Big Barge Capacity Test Report (2.7MB PDF)

Big Barge Upper Level Stability Report (367KB PDF)

Dock & Barge System Preliminary Engineering Report (48KB PDF)

Mini PWC Barge Capacity Test Report (3.1MB PDF)

PWC Barge Capacity Test Report

PWC Trailer that Floats

The very first project we did using floating barrels was back in 2005. We wanted a way to tow our atv’s and Personal Watercraft across large bodies of water. In our case it was the Columbia River, which acts as the border between the States of Washington and Oregon. Even though you could technically ride a PWC from one side to the other it is not advised, since the currents are quite strong in the river and it’s doesn’t help that it is also a major shipping lane. So we needed to construct something that we could use in this situation. What we came up with was the genesis of our Party Barge. The mini PWC Barge as we call them, is ideal for both fresh and salt water and provides a steady platform for carrying several pwc’s and/or atv’s. These small barges can also be used as work barges when needing a large surface and weight capacity for commercial equipment.

 

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