Quote Originally Posted by NortonDommi View Post
Hi Bill,
A friend bought a jet ski trailer for his 12 1/2' tinny. It came with carpet covered wood runners and was a P.I.T.A. to load. Took a lot of effort from two of us.
I picked up some HMWPE cutting boards at the local clearance shed and cut them into strips, counter sunk screw holes and covered the wood. At the back end cut tapered leads onto the runner and formed the cutting board to shape with a hot-air gun.
To load now with fully laden boat takes hook-up to winch and wind. One person operation. The first time we put the boat on with the cutting board covers it nearly went off the front it slid so easily.
If you are going to push trees with your Cat I hope you have a VERY strong safety cage with mesh screening, that can be very dangerous as sometimes a trunk will explode or twist in an unexpected way.
Tight lines.
I do whitewater boating, so my boat is a little different than flatwater craft. It's a 14' long x 5.5' wide inflatable, much like the life rafts the Navy uses. I'm thinking of using the Harbor Freight type trailer I inherited from an old tenant, tear off the boxed top, and lay a flat bed with a roller bar in the back. That way I could back it up to a river and slide the boat on or off.
I like your idea about using JMWPE for the deck. Not sure where I'd find a 4x8 sheet of that and wonder how it would hold up parked in direct sun all day.
I've got a very strong ROPS on my Cat and I supplemented it by welding 2x2" safety screens for the back and sides. Believe me, the possibility of dropping a tree on myself is one of my primary concerns. The trees died from the drought and bark beetles here in the Sierra so they're very brittle and prone to snapping off widow makers. The plan is to cut the fall side notch, back the tractor up against the tree with the tree spear against the treel, then siimply push it over .