Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I have attached 4 more photos to address some of kiwiL300's questions. The first items would be what not to do:
1.I started with 3/8” Shaft which was to small. It bent on the front roller and the winch twisted it until it broke on the rear roller.
2.Do not use thinwall irrigation pipe for the rollers. Only the rear dropped roller is now aluminum pipe. The front and drive rollers are now rigid aluminum conduit.
3.If you use a flexible coupling between the winch and the roller as I have use the largest you can find for a 1/2” shaft. The coupling I have is rated @ 15 HP @ 3600 rpm. The ratings are very low when used @ low rpm's.

The entire loader and rack is made of aluminum except for shafts, bolts, bearings and bushings. I'm not sure how much it weighs but it is very light. I would say the loader and boat don't weigh 200#.

Construction:
The 4 photos show the major parts of the system.

4318: The frame for the system is 2” aluminum angle. The roller is mounted on 3/16” aluminum plate bolted to the angle for additional strength. The rollers are 2”. I made acrylic inserts to fit in the pipe and glued and screwed them in place. I used 3 – 1/2”pieces glued together. I drilled 5/8” holes in the acrylic and drove 1/2” bushings into the acrylic to provide a smooth long lasting surface for the shaft. The only size that is important is the shaft. The remainder is whatever material you can scrounge.

4319: The drive system uses a 2000# winch with the drum removed and a flexible coupling added. I have since found an angle drive that would work better but the winch was $ 59 and the drive > $ 200. This was the trickiest part of the system. I would use different connection system for the winch drive shaft next time. I used 2” suction hose over the pipe for traction as the drive roller pushes the boat on and pulls it off. Some use a hose similar to a rad hose which would work better. I have added rubber tape to give better traction but is wares off.

4320: I was concerned the rack might scratch or rub the gutter so I used a piece of old tube for protection. This worked well as after a year of use the rubber was not wore through and you can't even tell where the racks were mounted.

4321: I used bearings for the rear drive to make it as smooth as possible. This may be overkill but it provides a nice solid drive roller.

If you have more questions let me know.

Wayne give me a call if your in the area and want some company. I could even take you to the mysterious E lake.

Larry

Thanks Larry. Couple more questions for clarification.
"2.Do not use thinwall irrigation pipe for the rollers. Only the rear dropped roller is now aluminum pipe. The front and drive rollers are now rigid aluminum conduit."
I'm a bit confused as to what you mean by "rigid aluminum conduit" as compared to "aluminum pipe"? I assume you mean you have used thicker walled tubing on the front and rear drive rollers compared to the "rear dropped roller" (rear pivot roller, the roller boat trips over at back).

Does the rear dropped roller, need to be a roller? I'm guessing it still needs to roll a little with the boat sliding over and makes operation smoother than just using a non rolling pipe or bar.

Does the rear dropped roller need to be lower than the rear power roller?

What determines the distance between the rear power roller and rear dropped roller?

How did you decide on the distance between front roller and rear drive roller? I'm assuming this is a relationship between the length of boat and boat balance point.

Thanks for the extra photos and tip on using 1/2" drive shafts. At the moment I'm looking at putting a hand winch on mine and maybe power it by a motor later on. I see Rhino makes a rear loading boat rack that is hand operated so winding it on by hand can't be too hard.

Thanks again for the ideas and information.
Steve.

Larry
Thanks for the invite . I'll pm you before I head north next time. See my latest chronomids in the PDF attached.
So many lakes, so little time... but better when you're retired.
Wayne

my place is always open and free for northern travelers!!! and I also could use a lesson or two in the art of fly fishing

Here is some additional info Steve:

Rigid Aluminum Conduit is the electrical equivalent of thickwall pipe. I think it's referred to by some schedule #.

The dropped roller does rotate as the rope pulls the boat up and as the boat rotates. Both are not necessary but it does reduce friction.

The rear roller needs to be lower than the drive roller so that all the weight is on it as it pushes the boat forward when you load it and pulls it off when you unload it.

The rear roller and the drive roller can be quite close together. My spacing was determined by the 8' angle I used for the frame. ( The left over piece with some overlap was my distance.) The more important location is the location of the front roller. The connection point on the boat and the location of the front roller are both about 1/3 the length of the boat. The height of the drop roller should be about 1/2 the length of the boat to allow easy rotation. In my case my boat was so short that I needed to lift the boat about 18" off the ground. With longer boats this rope usually leaves the boat on the ground or only a few inches off. If you get all the geometry right the front and back of the boat are automatically tied down. My boat was to short or the van was to tall to make both work easily. I prefer to tie things down anyway.

A hand winch will work well. I've seen them used on boats that were likely 14' or more and likely close to 200 #

Good luck with your loader and let me know if you would like more pictures or answers.


Thanks for the fly info Wayne that looks like a pretty innovative chironomid. I'll try to tie a few and see how they work.

UPDATE: E lake still exists and still produces fish. We had a great day. Nice to get a minor sunburn as late as Sept.27. The lake was super easy to get to this fall as all the mud holes were dry. We were even followed in by a Hyundai Tuscon pulling a small trailer with a boat on top. He sure wouldn't have done that last time I was there.