The new tow tug

A forum for discussing issues relating to trailers and towing MacGregor sailboats.
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Tomfoolery
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Tomfoolery »

BOAT wrote:COOL :P I thought those 'metrics' things were only for racing boats! Now we can have them too! (Not just those 12 meter guys!)
Boat - my Aquarius was an A7.0, not an A23. Masthead rig, and rudder on the transom. No OB notch, so OB was on port side bracket. Hull and cabin roof were otherwise identical, with similar interior.

But it was 'metric'. :D
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RobertB
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by RobertB »

sailboatmike wrote:Yep USA is one of only a couple of countries that have not moved to the metric system.
Metric makes sense because its all based around a liter of water.
I was taught in both Metric and Imperial when I did my apprenticeship back in the 1970's so I consider myself to be bilingual :D
I always found it interesting that the auto industry was one of the first in the US to go metric, but for many years could never find any metric hardware in an auto part store.
I still believe that one of the major reasons the US never officially adopted metric is the aerospace industry. Planes fly for decades and changing to metric is not likely to happen. DoD is also the last major holdout - we only use metric when interfacing Euro items we integrate into a platform.
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kadet
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by kadet »

:cry:

Sadly the tow tug was a bit of a failure for its intended mission. It cannot get enough grip to move the :macm: up a bit of a hill, on the gravel the wheels lose traction and spin. On concrete or the flat fine. Might have to concrete the parking zone :(
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Ponaldpe
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Ponaldpe »

kadet wrote::cry:

Sadly the tow tug was a bit of a failure for its intended mission. It cannot get enough grip to move the :macm: up a bit of a hill, on the gravel the wheels lose traction and spin. On concrete or the flat fine. Might have to concrete the parking zone :(

Kadet, You might try filling the tires with water to get more traction. Farm supply stores have the adapter to put water in the tire,
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Starscream
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Starscream »

Or try an almost deflated tire to increase the contact patch and spread out the load?
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BOAT
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by BOAT »

The number one issue with these electric tractors is TRACCTION - it's ALL about traction. That's why most of them have multiple tires - I rarely see one with less than three tires and most have 4 or 5. The multiple tires increase traction a lot. Adding weight can help too but if the angle is too steep the tires will slip even with added weight - the key is traction.
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kadet
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by kadet »

BOAT wrote:The number one issue with these electric tractors is TRACCTION - it's ALL about traction. That's why most of them have multiple tires - I rarely see one with less than three tires and most have 4 or 5. The multiple tires increase traction a lot. Adding weight can help too but if the angle is too steep the tires will slip even with added weight - the key is traction.
Yup :!:

Tried the deflated tyres no luck, MKII might be 4WD 8)
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kurz
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by kurz »

dit you try to put your tow dingens nearar to the axle? If it would be possible you will get mor weight on it...???
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kadet
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by kadet »

kurz wrote:dit you try to put your tow dingens nearar to the axle? If it would be possible you will get mor weight on it...???
Hitch sleeve is mounted right above the axle, thanks anyway. :wink:
mike0404
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by mike0404 »

this is what i had in mind. We had wheels of trailer size for our old trailer for the powerboat. We had a very long shallow at low tides and we did not want our cars totally in the water. Now people use ATVs but they ruin them if they go too deep. Perhaps having the motor up and chain gear to the tow tug wheels would do the trick. I still think i would keep also a chain block to my pin and pull it in mud and sand , and keep the car or pickup out of the water. I will plug it to my battery bank to keep the tow tug as light as possible.
For boat parking it is better than the standard leveller.
Good post.
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Azzarac
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Azzarac »

You might consider changing the tires to an agricultural bar tire similar to these:
https://www.amazon.com/Kenda-K357-Agric ... s=bar+tire
I put similar tires on my zero turn mower to mitigate sliding on hills and find they also work great in gravel.
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Tomfoolery
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Tomfoolery »

But that brings up the obvious question, much like white vs blue hull (white is faster), loose-footed vs bolt rope (loose footed is better), or any talk on choice of anchor type (mine is best, whatever I happen to be using at the time) - which way to orient the bar treads for best traction? :wink: :D
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BOAT
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by BOAT »

kadet wrote:
kurz wrote:dit you try to put your tow dingens nearar to the axle? If it would be possible you will get mor weight on it...???
Hitch sleeve is mounted right above the axle, thanks anyway. :wink:
Hey kadet, I think he means connecting the tractor closer to the 'TRAILER AXLE', not the axle on the tractor.

The idea is that if the tractor is mounted further under the boat it will get more weight on the tractor tires. The tractor will work better the more weight you can get on it - the only thing is that the further you mount the tractor back the longer a handle you need to turn the tractor, (that's why a lot of the tractors you see online have such long handles).

Three tires with diamond tread (that gets the maximum rubber on surface) should do it. The tractor should be connected to the trailer right in front of the lift jack - forward of that and there is not enough tongue weight, anywhere BEHIND the lift jack should be in excess of 350 pounds and that should work too. NO TIRES are going to work on peat gravel or sand or even pavement over a 15% grade. Even a car will lose traction trying to pull a boat up a steep slippery ramp or in sand if it only has one tire traction that tire will spin out.
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kadet
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by kadet »

Thanks Boat will investigate these options one day. Have already been out, my temporary solution was this, though the wife did not like the outcome much on her graden 8)

Image
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Azzarac
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Re: The new tow tug

Post by Azzarac »

Tomfoolery wrote:But that brings up the obvious question, much like white vs blue hull (white is faster), loose-footed vs bolt rope (loose footed is better), or any talk on choice of anchor type (mine is best, whatever I happen to be using at the time) - which way to orient the bar treads for best traction? :wink: :D
Actually bar tires are directional and should be marked on the sidewall as to rotation. The point of the "V" should be the first to engage the ground when moving forward. You can actually mount them backwards to get a quieter, smoother roll if your using them mainly on blacktop but then you probably want something different for tread design anyway.
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