Motorized Trailer Dolly

[Cnewbert]

I'm looking for a motorized trailer dolly capable of moving our Prostar with a combined weight of boat and trailer around 4000#.  We have an extra long garage bay I'd like to use for scheduled maintenance under cover as well as for safe storage during Florida's annual tropical storms and hurricanes when I don't want to risk leaving the boat on the lift. Our driveway is too narrow to allow my tow vehicle (F350 diesel dually 4wd 4-door long bed) with the turn radius of a locomotive to make the tight 90º swing necessary to get the boat into the bay.  The entire rig is just too long for the tight space.

Is anyone using such a powered dolly and if so, what make and model?  And of course let me know if you recommend the one you have.  If not, please tell me why.

Many thanks!

[skimtb]

Nothing there, but other options maybe.  Front hitch on truck.  Or borrow small suv from Neighbor.   
your number is more like 4,500 lbs if it matters.  
Extra deep garage.  Good problem to have!

[Sethro]

Do you happen to have a lawn tractor?  Front hitches on those move our size of boats very well.   Not a good pic…that’s a John Deere X748, but I’ve moved the boat with much less tractor over the years.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Sethro

[Cnewbert]

@skimtb thanks for the suggestions. Front hitch on our truck might work, but it would be difficult to attach completely blind and I wouldn’t want to risk dinging our truck while trying. I think I’ve found a good trailer tug however, the Parkit360 Force 5K.  5000# capacity.  Just right  

@Sethro no lawn tractor, just a z-turn. Thanks for the suggestion though. 

[TomH]

I do similar with a 4-wheeler for getting the boat into my one garage for winter storage (too tight to do it with a vehicle) and just generally moving any of the trailers, docks or lifts around the property.  We rigged up a hitch with a burly pneumatic caster wheel under it that takes most of the tongue weight off the wheeler so it doesn't squat the rear suspension so bad and keeps more weight over the front wheels (works great - basically like an industrial trailer jack).

[Mastercrafter]

3 hours ago, Cnewbert said:

 

@Sethro no lawn tractor, just a z-turn. Thanks for the suggestion though. 

If you can get a little creative and mount a hitch ball to the zero-turn, you're golden.  A quick google search led to some good pre-made options. 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Mastercrafter

[BraceMaker]

Consider a winch?  They all have remotes now, with a plain trailer mover in the tongue and a 2" receiver bolted to the back wall of your garage you can use the winch for all sorts of other tasks which you cannot say to a trailer mover.  

I would imagine you can back up to the trailer in the garage and pull it out but the backing it in is a problem?

 

[Cnewbert]

@TomH I do have a 4-wheeler.  A Kymco UXV 450 4wd.  My only regret is that Florida doesn't have any high cliffs for me to drive this POS off of! 🙂 What a piece of garbage.  But it came with the lake house we recently bought and the only real utility it would have had for us would be getting our boat in and out of the garage.  It's in the shop (again) and if I can get the thing running well enough to sell in good conscience, I'll spend the proceeds on a good motorized dolly. 

@Mastercrafter I do have a z-turn and someone else suggested that as well on a Prostar forum.  Worth considering.

@BraceMaker I've never had the trailer in the garage.  But when I tried to back it in (and I'm no amateur trailer backer. I have extensive trailering experience with not only boats, but much bigger horse trailers and numerous cross country horse hauling trips) I realized the turn radius of my truck and the available swing space on my narrow driveway lined with trees made it impossible to back the trailer in.  I think the motorized dolly would be the fastest and most efficient option.  I'm looking for the easiest solution.  Not necessarily the cheapest.  

[skimtb]

@Cnewbert what is the Prostar forum you are referring to?

[Cnewbert]

@skimtb Mastercraft Prostar Owners FB group.

[MDB1056]

@Cnewbert - Go to your local private airport /FBO. Very common powered item for moving aircraft of all sizes  in and out of hangars.  

[Vernon Reeve]

I attached a winch to my garage floor by the back wall.  Then use the remote and one of those 3 wheel hitch dollies that attach to the hitch to steer it as it goes in.  It's actually harder to get the boat out of the garage using the pickup than to back it in, so I attached a snatch block to floor near the garage door, so I can use the winch to get it out of the garage.  There's a pretty good slope just outside the garage, so after I winch it out enough to hit the slope and to where the wheel chocks keep it from going down the hill, I remove it from the snatch block and attach the winch to the back of the trailer to let it slowly go down the hill far enough to clear the garage doors.  I also drag some weight sleds behind the trailer as I'm winching it out to keep it from rolling too fast.  Sounds complicated but works pretty well.  I also replaced the steel cable in the winch with a rope cable which is much easier to work with.

 

[APB]

360 motorized dolly

[Cnewbert]

@Vernon Reeve very creative… and complex!

@APB if you are referring to the Parkit 360, I ordered one on Wednesday.  It arrived today. It assembled in minutes.  Very heavy duty machine and works like a champ.  I only tried it with our empty trailer as our Prostar is on the lift. In doing so I realized exactly how tight the fit was and with the 90° turn required to fit it into our garage how completely impossible this would be with anything but a motorized dolly. Even my POS Kymco 4wd, assuming it ran decently which it never has, could not have made the turn in the available space. 
 

@MDB1056 yeah, but airplane stuff is even more insanely priced than boat stuff.  Our former neighbor has his own helicopter that he moves in and out of his hanger with a motorized dolly — a $7000 motorized dolly! 🙂

Edited August 12, 2023 by Cnewbert

[MDB1056]

@Cnewbert - it’s all relative. Not all aircraft stuff is more expensive. Shop aircraft motorized dolly’s