[PSUBS-MAILIST] launch cart redesign

Sun Sep 28 18:10:15 EDT 2014

Tim,
Your idea for a catch system if the trailer falls off the end of a ramp is brilliant.  We have some nasty drops here, luckily I use tandem trailers and usually it is deep enough by then, well in high water anyways.  You could put ballast tanks on your trailer and do the same as I am, except your road trailer would act as your cart.
Hank--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 9/28/14, T Novak via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] launch cart redesign
 To: "'Personal Submersibles General Discussion'" <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 Received: Sunday, September 28, 2014, 5:50 PM

 Hank,

 Further thoughts on launching as I want to be
 able to launch my sub directly
 from the
 trailer:

 You may recall my
 current trailer also needs to be disconnected from the
 truck and allowed to fully submerge to float
 the sub off and on.  This
 trailer requires
 about 55 inches of water to launch and recover the
 submarine.

 With respect to a new purpose built trailer (to
 replace my current utility
 trailer), I am
 planning on a low slung boat trailer with a 5 foot
 vertical
 stanchion welded onto the tongue
 between the coupler and the boat winch.
 This
 would allow the operator to detach the electrical plug from
 the truck
 and clip it to the top of the
 stanchion, thus keeping it dry out of the
 water while the trailer is detached from the
 truck and rolled fully
 submerged into the
 water.

 Another mod that I
 have planned is to weld two straight c-channels from the
 front of the trailer frame back to the front of
 the wheel fenders such that
 they hang down
 from the frame in front of the wheels below the
 wheels'
 equator to act as skid plates. 
 This way if the launch ramp ends at a drop
 off the wheels will fall  off the ramp but the
 c-channels will then support
 the weight of
 the trailer as it slides further into the deep water. 
 As
 well, I think that the bottom of the
 c-channels would benefit from having
 sacrificial oak or plastic strips on the bottom
 to take the damage caused by
 dragging the
 trailer up and over the drop off.  I currently have
 three
 single-wheeled jacks on the tongue to
 provide sufficient floatation of the
 tongue
 on the substrate while the trailer is disconnected from the
 truck.  A
 tongue jack with a double ended
 ski like plate may also be a good idea.

 While launching my sub from my current trailer
 I found that the buoyancy of
 the three tires
 keeps the unit sufficiently light on the bottom such that
 it
 doesn't get stuck in the muck.  The
 bottom substrate must still be
 reasonably
 solid, but with the addition of the c-channel skid plates
 providing further floatation on the substrate
 it should work reasonably well
 in most
 cases.  I am also considering adding the same c-channel
 skid plates
 behind the wheels to the rear
 trailer frame to give the trailer some
 tendency to lift itself onto the top of the
 substrate if the substrate is
 softer and the
 wheels want to sink into the mud while it is being backed
 into the water.  I found that submerging the
 trailer and recovering it with
 tow straps
 works quite well.  

 Since
 my submarine is operated by divers, it is no problem for the
 divers to
 set an anchor out into deep water,
 run a line from the back of the trailer
 through a pulley attached to the anchor and
 then back to the truck.  As the
 truck pulls
 forward the disconnected trailer is pulled back to the
 anchor
 into the deep water while a diver
 helps keep it on track.  Obviously this
 would not be an option for your one dry-man
 operation.

 I have bearing
 buddies on my trailer now, and the new boat trailer will
 be
 aluminum or galvanized steel so that salt
 water launches are not a problem.

 Just my thoughts, perhaps you may find them
 useful. 

 Tim

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org]
 On Behalf Of hank pronk via
 Personal_Submersibles
 Sent: September-28-14
 6:33 AM
 To: personal_submersibles at psubs.org
 Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] launch cart
 redesign

 I am back to my
 launch cart because lake levels are dropping.  I am
 making
 big design changes to make it more
 user friendly and to allow super shallow
 launches.  First I am changing the axel
 arrangement so the cart steers. The
 biggest
 change is ballast tanks.  I am adding two ballast tanks
 above the
 wheels.  The idea is to back the
 cart and sub into the water with ballast
 tanks full of air.  The cart and sub should
 float away in 36 inches of
 water, or less.
 Once the sub and cart have floated into deeper water, I
 simply open two valves to let air out of the
 cart ballast tanks until the
 sub is free to
 float away.  I simply throw an anchor out to keep the cart
 in
 that spot until I return.  When I return
 the cart will be pointing up wind
 making it
 easy to drive into.  I raise the cart with air and use the
 sub to
 drive it to shore or boat ramp.  

 I am not working on my support
 boat because I have no support,lol.  There is
 no need for a large boat because I am a one man
 sub operation.  Gamma has
 such good range
 on the surface, I can simply cruise on the surface to my
 dive sites.  
 Hank
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