HOME MADE BEACH ACCESS BOAT ROLLER

[Cliff]

Got my head round the tricky beach access situation, here's what I came up with... Most of us have launching wheels fitted which are not wide enough for soft sand, mud, pebbles... so why not replace them with a roller.
The wheel arms need to be reversed if pointing outwards for my design to work. You also need a bit of DIY, which most on here have.. Therefore with the axles pointing in, make a roller to suit the distance between the axle shoulders, using 160mm underground drainage pipe with timber inserts at each end with centre holes to suit your axle diameter, filled with expanding foam for strength.
You'd need to remove one or both legs from the transom brackets to fit the roller to the boat.
This is a spec design, but I can't see why it wouldn't work. If anyone needs one and can't make it themselves give me a p.m. about supplying one to your sizes. Sizes are: arm shoulder to shoulder and axle spigot diameter.

[SEMTEX]

Sounds like a plan, but I think that 160mm diameter might be too small. The key to moving over sand is to increase the surface area in contact with the sand. Given that the boat weight and roller width are fixed the boat will sink into the sand approximately the same amount regardless of the diameter of the pipe (as the initial contact point is a line. Obviously this doesn’t hold true at extremes, but given available pipe sizes and common sense it works as an approximation), however the greater diameter will allow the pipe to climb out of the rut in the sand more easily, as the depth of the rut is a lower percentage of the diameter of the pipe.

Does that make sense?
Basically you need to find the greatest diameter pipe you possibly can. 6” might not do it.

[Cliff]

It's all about finding the largest diameter pipe at an economical cost. 6 inch is widely available and cheap, bigger than that and the price rockets.
I agree though the larger the better..... as the wife always says

[Mitch]

with wheels you pull the boat down the beach, put boat in water then lift the wheels up.
how would you lift the roller up with the outboard in the way or do you remove the roller before putting boat in the water.

[Cliff]

with wheels you pull the boat down the beach, put boat in water then lift the wheels up.
how would you lift the roller up with the outboard in the way or do you remove the roller before putting boat in the water.

I see this as a intermediate step to get to the water, once there, take it off and put the wheels back on.

I've also found some 300mm /1foot dia double walled pipe which would do a much better job,

300mm pipe.jpg (13.62 KiB) Viewed 3041 times

so I might invest in making one and see how it goes, anybody else want one?

[pritch]

Not a bad idea.
How you going to get traction with the sand to make it spin?That pipe will just drag over dry soft sand with the weight of the outboard.

[Cliff]

It's an idea at the moment, I'd probably incorporate sealed bearings / nylon insert or make the end pieces from nylon. It's gotta be better than two wheels, plus the corrugations give more surface bearing area.
I reckon the weight of the motor will help rather than hinder, if it's easier to turn than not, it'll turn.
The proof of the pudding etc.... When I have more time, I'll probably make a prototype. In the meantime, anybody can use or improve on the idea.

[Paul]

Watching this with interest
Can't see in 'theory' that it shouldn't work
I just love 'garden shed developments' as we used to call it