Other 3 in 1 Stand, Dolly, Trailer/Rack

[lilracer94]

Necessity is the mother of invention. I live in a condo and cannot have a full size trailer in the garage, so I came up with this. It works as a garage stand, ramp dolly and a hitch rack. Loading and unloading time is about the same to slightly quicker than using a trailer (If the ramp is full then much quicker). Due to the clearance of the cart wheels with the bumper of the car, the rack must be custom length. This is a rough idea right now but if there is enough interest I will have some made up. Cost will be around $850 (ball park number, not including shipping). The rack is made from 2' square steel, the cart is made from 2' square aluminum and the axle is stainless (can't remember what size). The cart is secured to the rack by three stainless taper pins and a master lock for security while unattended. I am also trying to source some bushings to eliminate the electrolysis between the stainless axle and the aluminum cart. The current tires I am using do not work well on the beach. I have ordered balloon tires and will be fitting them next week. Please excuse the poor image quality and the dirty/dusty ski. The pictures are from a cell phone and I had just finished carbon/kevlar reinforcing. Let's hear some thoughts.

 

[Wolf Child]

now mount a margarita mixer to that sucker and you could be on to something

 

[AtomicPunk]

very nice... you successfully pulled off what I wanted do 2 years ago when I built my hitch hauler. I may borrow some ideas from your design.
$850 is kinda steep IMO, but I know your time and materials are worth something.

 

[O2VW1.8T]

Not a bad idea at all, but it seems like you need bigger tires so it will be easier to load back up on the hitch?

 

[Balduccimoto]

Can we see a video of this in action? I don't quite understand how this works. You don't need any muscle to get the ski back on the rack?

 

[EightySeven550]

Looks like you took many notes from my plans, that I have drawn up. Although they've never been posted anywhere. Oh well there goes my thought I had an original idea. Looks like it came out nice
. Good work.

 

[dirtnut99]

very nice... you successfully pulled off what I wanted do 2 years ago when I built my hitch hauler. I may borrow some ideas from your design.
$850 is kinda steep IMO, but I know your time and materials are worth something.

You gotta remember though, its a hitch rack AND a Beach Cart! My TBM Beach cart was $500 and the hitch rack I built I sell to my friends for $250.. I had to strengthen the beach cart after I got it due to some major weak points it had from the factory..

Great Idea! I have been pondering this for a while now... Makes 1 person loading and use much easier!!

 

[The Penguin]

Can we see a video of this in action? I don't quite understand how this works. You don't need any muscle to get the ski back on the rack?

ski sits on the dolly. wheel the dolly up to the rack. lift it up slid the dolly on top of rack - then pin it down to rack.

remove wheels and "handle" portion from dolly before driving away.

that's what it looks like to me.

 

[lilracer94]

I will put a video up in the next couple of days of loading/unloading. It is a little tricky, but once you learn the process it is very easy and does not require much effort (if you can ride the ski you can load it). The key is to have the motor part of the jet ski over the axle. Once the cart has one pin in place the ski is then slid back into position. Hard cost into it right now is around $600-$700. The tires that are on it are $60 each opposed to $120 each for the balloon type. It was an R & D run and the welds are not the prettiest but they are solid (had to fill some holes from mis-drilling, then had to grind...ect). I will be taking the final product to a larger fabrication shop nearby to see how much I can get the cost down. Final price at this point is yet to be determined. Hopefully I will have the balloon type tires fitted and production cost lower in the next couple of weeks.

 

[227]

I don't need one myself as I use a trailor but I think that's a great idea. I love innovation and thinking out of the box! Hope it works out for you!

 

[motozachl]

Ingenious! I am going to try and fab up something tomorrow with my spare quad wheels, just minus the hitch part and see if I can keep it under $50 bucks

 

[lilracer94]

If anyone wants the dimensions let me know.

 

[swapmeet]

Pretty cool! I've been trying to figure out how to carry my beach cart on my trailer, I may borrow some of your ideas with the rack to the cart on my trailer. I made a hitch hauler on my own, so I dig your inginutiy.

I think its a cool product, and your in the right state to sell some. Keep it up!

 

[sjetrider]

I have a one up trlr that takes up little more space than this ( it think its 48" wide over all and like 8 foot long). I do like the idea though. The trlr was $150.

 

[N3vrSat1sfied]

very nice.. Now you just need to make some for big lifted trucks! I have to back mine in so far down the ramp its always a little sketchy.

 

[Droste14]

Very interested! ill be more interested if the price drops a bit. Interested in the video also because it would be nice to be able to do everything without having the need a second person to get it hooked onto my dodge

 

[Snivilous]

very nice.. Now you just need to make some for big lifted trucks! I have to back mine in so far down the ramp its always a little sketchy.
View attachment 163107

Nice! Personally, I'm not a fan of hitch haulers since they seem so precarious and look like they'll break. And if you just put giant unnecessary tires on the hitch hauler it should perfectly match your truck I would think.

 

[lilracer94]

This is the loading and unloading process for the 3 in 1 Stand, Dolly, Trailer/Rack . For time sake I did not put the last fastener in. It is a lock for securing the cart and I also did not put the cotter pins in the tapered pins. Just a video to show the concept. For reference my trailer hitch is 14 1/4' off the ground. I only did one shoot of the video. Very easy once you learn the process.

 

[lilracer94]

very nice.. Now you just need to make some for big lifted trucks! I have to back mine in so far down the ramp its always a little sketchy.
View attachment 163107

I'll try to find someone in the area with a lifted truck that I can do some fitting on. Larger tires would help but I might have to add a drop to the rack with the truck lifted so much. How high off the ground is your trailer hitch?

 

[Speleopower]

This does work very well. I've seen him load and unload a few times at my house. Good job on a cool cart.

The cart is just the right height for a work stand and very sturdy.

I would suggest trying to get a winch onto the handle part so you can more easily load the ski when it's sitting in the sand at the beach.

-Scott