Portable Dock & Barge Systems
The Rolling Barge design can be used to create floating docks that can be quickly depolyed and removed. The dock can be rolled down the beach and into the water or it can be launched at a public launch ramp and towed into place.
The sample system showed in the pictures below has three components: the Gangway, the Dock, and the Barge. The Gangway is suspended between the shore and the Dock. The Dock is a floating section that is permanently attached to the Gangway. The Barge is 16 feet long and 12 feet wide. It has the deck space of a 25 foot Pontoon Boat and is rated to carry 14 people. It has a 25 HP outboard motor that is driven by a tiller handle and has a maximum speed of about 4 miles per hour.
Down the highway this rolling barge is 8.5 feet wide with a 40 inch deck height that makes it very easy to tow. In May of 2008, this system was towed from Portland Oregon to Northern Michigan.
This is just one example of how a Rolling Barge can be used as a portable dock & barge system. They key is that the Dock, the Barge, or both have highway rated wheels that are permanently attached that allow the system to easily be towed directly out of the water. This makes the system easy to setup in the spring and take down in the fall.
Permits a problem?
On many lakes getting the permits to install or enlarge a dock can be time consuming. However, your dock can be registered as a U.S. Coast Guard approved boat which can often be legally moored along shorelines where a standard floating dock cannot (check local restrictions).
Our Rolling Docks are contructed from 6061-T6 structural aluminum. See our 'Engineering Reports' page for information on the design and construction of all our Rolling Barges.
See our 'Floating Docks' page for more floating dock options.
