A folding travel trailer on top of a 28' pontoon boat.

[hotairgypsy]

major late to the party but incase you are still wanting a bit of accuracy on the weight capacity this may help...found this somewhere on the web

[RonKMiller]

Thanks, but I think I've got a pretty good handle on that. My trip to the dump will all the stuff taken off the Party Hut was a "hold your breath" moment - that turned out good.

[woolznaz]

Hey, fellow AZ pontooner, any new updates? I know "life" gets in the way of these projects sometimes, but I was wondering if you had found anytime to dedicate to your project lately. Fill us in when you can and I hope everything is going well.

[RonKMiller]

Deck is done, electrical is done, new fuel tank in place.

Next up is floating it and finding the center of mass WITH the trailer on board. Once that's done it's full speed ahead since I'll be able to fabricate the entire tie down system - which is rather (ahem) important.

I'll be using sand bags to simulate the placement and weights of the battery, full fuel tank, 50 gallons of water, console, furniture and passengers.

Like the trip to the dump it should be an interesting moment... The good thing is at this point I can bail out and still build a traditional pontoon if it is apparent this was a bad idea from the start. It will be a major bummer but at least I'll still end up with an excellent boat (that I'll have absolutely NO interest in...)

If everything is still a go - on to the motor - have a small water jacket leak to repair, installing the new steering cables, rework the fences, build the new shade covering and painting, polishing, install the furniture. etc.

With any luck I should be done in a few months -as long as this annoying thing called a job doesn't interfere.

[RonKMiller]

This motor cover was sitting out in the Arizona sun for 23 years.

A little OEM paint with some sanding between coats, then several coats of clear enamel. The decals are original - and that's a good thing - since they are no longer available.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MillerRonK/ ... ou3O976wBg#

It's not perfect, but it passes the 10 foot rule with ease. No ghetto looking boat for me.

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[woolznaz]

Thanks for the update. It sounds like good progress is still being made and that engine cover looks great!

[RonKMiller]

Yep, I've still got visions of cruising Lake Powell for a couple of weeks next May for my birthday.

[RonKMiller]

The overall color scheme is going to be French Vanilla, Navy and Tan. Seats from Veada.

The deck is tan, the motor Yamaha blue, the side panels will probably end up tan with some sort of navy accent striping.

My trailer has an outside shower with an extra looooong hose that I supplied, hence the pop out "changing room" which will be used as a shower stall instead. It doubles nicely as an arm rest for the couch. I'll make a couple of overstuffed navy Sunbrella fabric throw pillows for the couch too. The shower stall will be between the couch and the front of the trailer.

The passenger seat is directly in front of the helm, which will double as a fishing seat. It folds down to allow a completely unobstructed view while traveling.

The two tan seats (hey, I got a deal on them) will be in the rear facing each other behind the trailer next to the sun lounge which is over top the battery, motor and fuel compartments.

The helm seat has a folding section that allows you to sit higher as well - should be useful for long slogs over a period of a couple of hours to change positions and get more comfortable. I'll probably end up rebuilding the base seat cushion right off the bat with visco (memory) foam.

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[curtiscapk]

Ron it may be in the post somewhere but are you going to pivot the couch?

[RonKMiller]

The couch will need to be removed - as well as the two chairs and shower stall when loading/unloading the trailer. The couch and shower stall will be held in place with simple wing nut fasteners that will be hidden inside the storage compartment.

I considered hinging the couch but prefer to have the railing bolted down on that side - it's very light and easy to handle - weighs all of 68 lbs.

The rear seats will be mounted permanently on top of small storage bins. The rear of these seats will be attached to the railing and allow the bottom to hinge up to access the bins.

The helm and passenger chairs will be mounted with kingpin pedestals - so very easy to remove.

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[RonKMiller]

Ho, Ho, Ho.

New furniture arrived. The 16' Chalet trailer fits between the 2 rear seats, sundeck and the captain's chair, changing room. 28 feet overall, the bow open deck area is 8' x 8" and will be permanently covered, the rear will have a folding clam shell bimini for shade.

More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/MillerRonK/ ... _vW_4refVg#

Furniture made by Veada Industries - excellent quality control. VERY pleased.

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[hotairgypsy]

i have a dumb question...i was looking at your floor plan and how are you going to get to the back seats when on the water or to the engine area in general?

[RonKMiller]

Not dumb at all! Folding 1' wide "gang planks" (for lack of a better word) that run on along both sides and extend out from the deck from just in front of the trailer to just past the bumper - with grab rails bolted to the sides of the trailer. While docking or trailering they'll be folded up and out of the way. There's actually a bit more space than that to work with since the trailer is 85" wide - plus your feet easily fit under the bottom of the trailer since it is on wheels. This leaves roughly 12" of gang plank width plus 6" of deck on both sides for 18" of unobstructed walkway. I'm planning on attaching them with stainless piano hinges and brackets underneath that will rest on the upper outsides of the logs for support and carry the weight.

[goldnrod24]

The "hitch" area seems like a lot of wasted space. Could you figure out how to use that infrastructure to mount the table? It would give you more deck space.

Got any elevation sketches so those of us without vivid imaginations can get the picture?

[hoosiername]

Hey....Merry Christmas...and glad to see the project coming along. Thanks for the tube float capacity by diameter.


if you need to know the weight distribution of the trailer, heres an idea. Go to the local weigh or truck station with the trailer. get the weight for each of the wheel sets, and the hitch. just put each on the scale if you can, one at a time.


if you're going to put bolsters under the frame to the boat deck, this will help you figure out the weight on each of those too.