Built a barge lately

[mx5guy]

I will be constructing a barge, so I can move my Kioti CK27 back and forth from Cottage lot when I want rather than wait for the lake to ice over.

Has anyone built one yet? Tractor weights 5000Lbs, how overbuilt should it be, 10,000 Lbs?

Thanks for your input.
Larry

 

[77bronco]

Have you thought about modifying an existing pontoon boat instead of starting from scratch?

 

[Johndeere3720]

Sounds like a fun project.

 

[studor]

I think the issue will be getting it on and off, not floating it. I seem to remember somebody on here with some pictures of a tractor being offloded and destroing the carrier in the process -- in the safety forum maybe?

 

[wvpolekat]

I think for what you will have in building this, you could just buy another tractor.

 

[Coolnorth]

Hey Larry,

Not having done a project of this nature, but knowing what a boat or floating device may do relative to the load upon it, I would venture to an experiment first.

If you use small items, even some scrap lumber 2x4, 2x6, etc. (for the barge) and a block of metal (tractor), see how the barge should be relatively larger surface area compared to the tractor. Try this in the rain barrel or what have you. The larger floating surface will give stability for loading/unloading as studor mentioned. To go smaller surface area on the barge, it needs to have taller sides to support the weight (displacement rule) without taking water, but the stability is lessened.

Graham

 

[Treemonkey1000]

What ever floats your boat (or tractor). Just watch the load and unload process as that will get pretty hairy. I would think wide enough and long enough to give you a stable ride especially if there is a bit of wind. Your landing and launch spots need a shallow spot so that you don't sink into the mud. Or a long enough set of ramps to put you onto a hard enough bit of soil.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/trailers-transportation/128658-how-unload-tractor-pontoon.html

 

[CurlyDave]

This actually doesn't sound nearly as hard as it is being made out to be.

A 55 gallon drum provides over 400 lbs of flotation. Our local feed store sells used ones, with clamp on lids for ~$20. They already have threaded bungs.

20 drums under a pressure treated platform would seem to provide enough lift for the tractor.

If I were doing this I would fasten the drums under a wooden platform with appropriate venting and plumbing so that the barge could be floated into a prepared loading area with a hard bottom next to shore. Sink the barge onto the bottom by venting the drums and drive the tractor up onto it. Push the water out of the drums with a high volume air blower (you only need 24" of water head to force the water out of the drums), and the barge re-floats with the tractor aboard.

Tow it across the lake and reverse the process.

At a guess, everything needed could be bought for $3-4 k. Maybe a lot less if you are a good scrounger.

Definitely want to wait for the right weather.

Test the whole thing with a big pile of dirt or rock loaded onto the barge by the tractor before committing the tractor.

 

[lostcause]

i helped my father build one many years ago to haul small equipment and building materials across about a mile of water. it is built on the principle of a strip canoe. the top deck of the barge is roughly 12'x28'. the deck is rough 2x8 (might be 2x6 - i can't rememember) at 2' oc with 2 layers of 3/4" plywood.

the deck is supported by two u-shaped pontoons, 3' wide and deep. they were made like wooden strip canoes, with a couple differences. with a strip canoe, you remove the finished canoe from the forms, but with this one, the canoe was left on the 3/4" plywood forms and the ladder type frame, which was boxed in and fiber glassed. the strips are 1"x1/2" to help add a little strength. the boat has certainly seen it's share of leaks over the last 10 or so years, but most seem to occur from putting it in and pulling it out of the water for winter storage.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Might I suggest something that is pretty insinkable... Styrofoam. It is what is now used in Houseboats to keep them afloat (I should say homes that are floating on the water, not the houseboats you rent to go out on the lake).

A simple box, and get large close cell foam. Won't spring a leak, shouldn't abosrb water.

 

[PILOON]

I once had a contract to reshingle a roof on an island chalet.
The roof was for a 20 x 30 chalet and materials consisted of shingles, felt underlay and misc materials as well as compressor and misc tools.
The client figured that I would row everything in his tippy boat but was surprised when I showed up with 2 dock floatation styrofoam blocks and maybe 10-12 2 X 8 planks.
Those blocks were 8ft X 24" X10" and when laid flat on the water with everything loaded they barely sank 2" and made for a most stable floatation platform.
We could walk from corner to opposite corner of the 'float' and barely cause it to sink more than a couple of inches. Very stable!

I bet that if you used, say 12 or so of those foam blocks with some suitable planking to deck it together you could float a typical CUT with very good stability.
(this would give you a SOLID floatation platform of 8 ft X 24 ft)

My technique would be to lay down planks and drive 4-5" nails into the foam just to prevent the foam slabs from slipping out. Load will then create pressure to keep the planks in place. Trick will to have close spacing between planking to prevent the foam from breaking between planks.
While a fair amount of HD planks will be needed, ALL planks will be reusable for other projects!

A flat bottom barge or raft will be much much more stable than any pontoon or barrel floatation device.
Over the years I have made many dozens of docks of all kinds, from barrel floated docks to the now standard foam type, and believe you me the foam block technique far surpasses any other form for stability and floatation.
I have seen maybe 25 adults standing on a 12 x 16 dock (raft) with 4-5 foam blocks and nobody even gets their feet wet.
Because of even surface distribution, not much structure is really required either.

 

[bal0123]

Just buy a boat large enough to carry it. Sea Ark boats build a awesome boat just for this type of situation. There website is SeaArk Boats & SeaArk Marine, workboat, aluminum, boat, welded, vessel, launch, fishing, deck, john, bass, monark, patrol oil, fire, barge, excursion, survey, dive, pilot, pollution,,,, They show a Dodge Neon in one of there boats as advertisement. Awesome boats!!!

 

[o2batsea]

Uh, I assume that you don't want to go broke on this project. go ask around at local marinas to see if anyone is trying to get rid of any floating dock sections. Bolt several together to make your "barge". There are also commercially available dock floats that you can bolt to a normal deck made from pressure treated lumber which will probably be your best bet if you decide to scratch build. You'll definitely want at least a 12 foot beam and maybe 24 length. For scratch built you're gonna pay 1500-2000 in lumber and about the same in floats. Buy the ones that are 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet. Use standard issue dock building hardware and itll do double duty as a pier.

There are several web vendors who sell all the dock, um, I mean barge, supplies you need. Don't make it from blue plastic barrels or you'll find out the hard way what the term reserve bouyancy means.

 

[Ductape]

Just get one of those plastic floating docks........................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lrJplJMV14

 

[Egon]

An old landing barge if one could be found.:thumbsup:

 

[woodlandfarms]

An old landing barge if one could be found.:thumbsup:

I filmed a few times in the Virgin Islands, this was how we got our gear around... It worked quite well as a "trucking" platform

1952 74 Feet Landing Craft LCM8 Barge Commercial boat for sale in US Virgin Islands - Scruton Marine Services

Doubt it will fit your lake, but it is not a bad price for the machine...

 

[ElDorado]

We have a contractor here who built his own barge for moving his full size excavator to build boat houses (garages) to park boats. This thing is impressive.

He built it out of 4x 500 gallon (I think) and channel stock. It is modular and gets unbolted when he needs to move it from lake to lake. There is no motor on it so I am not sure how he moves it, I guess he pushes with a secondary boat.

For ramps he took 2X8 on edge and fastened together for a width of 20-24 inches. Then he took flat stock metal and built brackets on the ends to keep the 2x8 together and on one end is flarred and the other he has 2 plus inch round bar welded to the bracket. These things are probably 16 feet long. They are massive!

He picks them up with the excavator, sets them between the shore and the barge, drives the excavator on, picks them up again and sets them on shore or on the barge depending on the job, and off he goes.

It is really a pretty impressive contraption painted gun metal gray.

Good luck with the design, please let us know what you end up doing. I want to do the same someday.

 

[jdmar]

Eldorado...PICTURE!!!

and $135,000 for that landing craft in the VIs sounds like a deal...heck it might just span the lake and then you have a bridge!

I think the foam is best option. Keep in mind that you want flotation but NOT so much that you stick high out of the water--keep it low since flooding foam doesn't sink it like a displacement hull design.
But to let you know the complexities of this...I went to school at a place called Webb Institute of Naval architecture...and even I am not going to do the calcs! That said this is your general plan: Wider, longer, more "solid" (as in foam not barrels) for consistent floation, and lower to water not higher. Then trial with weight...even dirt or concrete blocks set up high like a tactor. I still think the idea of using smaller/other equipment mighht be best. We need pics...but first be careful...do you really need to do this?
Peter

 

[JerryK]

How about long snorkles for your exaust and air intake...and some type of breathing apparatus??? Army has been doing it for years.. When you get that tractor parked in the center of your barge.....don't forget the parking brake..... again.... You can cross a lot of water with a snowmobile IF you are going fast enough... just an idea... [ no help here, just a slow Sunday morning trying to wake up... ]

 

[brokenot]

Did someone say barge?

This is a photo from one of the more unusual service calls I've gone on for work. There were several train cars that went off the edge of this bridge and into the water, and as the cars plummeted over the side, some of the bridge steel was damaged.

After the rail cars were fished out of the drink, a contractor went to work repairing the damage to the bridge. They rented this 120 foot boom lift from us and floated it out to the site on their work barge. (To give you an idea of the size of this barge, the overall length of the boom lift with the boom positioned as it is in the photo is ~54 feet.) This boom lift weighs 40,000 lbs., and as you can see, it wasn't centered on the barge....probably because it wouldn't have reached up and out far enough if it were centered. One end of the deck on the barge was about a foot off of the water, while the other end was up about 3 feet.

They gave me a ride out to do the repairs on the boom lift with the mini tug boat that they use to push the barge around. I wish I'd gotten a photo of it also, but I didn't. They ran their little tug boat nose-first up against the barge end, and the boat had two large winches on the front corners that would lash it tightly to tie-downs on the barge itself.

Here's a link to the story. As a train was traveling across the bridge, very intermittent high winds caught the container cars just right and blew them over the side. If you click on the second photo of the bridge in the story, you'll see the huge trail of debris from the totaled rail cars and their contents.

Griggs County Wind Event and Train Derailment, 9 Aug 2006

Barge topic threadjack over.