How many teardroppers does it take to...

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How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby catinmoon » Wed Sep 21, 2016 7:21 pm

...no, not screw in a lightbulb, but I'm open to suggestions on that. I'm asking how many to push a teardrop up a hill.

I just wrote a long post and the draft disappeared. So I'm going to shorten my original post. Basically my ask is:

If I roll my teardrop down a slope to the back of my house, to a patio under a deck, how many people will it take to roll it back to the street so I can hitch it up again?

Approx. 40 feet from the back of the drive to the patio; approx 8feet maybe less in elevation change over that 40' or so.

Do I need a friendly neighbor? or a football team?

Anecdotes? The one time we got in trouble we used a pickup truck to pull the Tear up a slope out of the mud.

thanks
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby pchast » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:15 pm

I'd get a length of heavy rope and a car to pull it. People pushing could be
injuries and some one run over.... No way to brake it when pushing.
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby KCStudly » Thu Sep 22, 2016 6:40 am

Why not drive it there on the hitch? I'm assuming there is not enough room to maneuver?
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby KCStudly » Thu Sep 22, 2016 6:41 am

Stick a hitch ball on the front bumper of your lawnmower/garden tractor?
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby catinmoon » Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:14 am

There is no room for a vehicle to enter the backyard space, so it would need to be people powered. This is an older smaller house/yard so no riding lawnmower or other small vehicles. I will even need to undo a part of the fence to get it in the back.
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby daveesl77 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:39 am

Use a rope or cable rated higher than the full weight of the trailer. Find a tree and wrap a rope/cable around it. If you have an electric winch, use it, otherwise, use a boat trailer winch and just crank it up. If you have pulleys, use them. If using pulleys, do at least a 3 or 4 loop system. This reduces the load by the number of returns. 1 pulley= full load. 2 pulley = 1/2 load. You must also increase line length to match # of pulleys. You can even use the big, long ground screws used for mobile home tie downs instead of a tree. Just use several and spread the load between them. Have friends with locking blocks so you can switch the angle of the pull if needed. If using a boat winch, make sure it is geared, to make it easier on you.

Using a system similar to this, while rebuilding my house a few years back, and due to some morons who delivered a prefab garage and it literally fell off their trailer, I pulled a 14x28 foot, fully built garage up 60' of steep incline, using steel pipe rollers. I had a 3k# electric winch and used 1/2" cable, attached to two big oak trees, but it worked like a charm.

If you believe you'll be doing this manuever many times, and don't have a tree to attach to, then put in a couple of permanent ground attachment points and buy yourself an inexpensive 1 ton 12v winch. That will pull your trailer up with no problem. You can use the same system to help guide it back down when needed.

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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby KCStudly » Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:55 am

If using a strap around a tree be sure to use a 'tree saver' strap. In rigging terms this is a "basket hitch" setup as opposed to a choke or snatch hitch. Choke a tree and you can kill it.

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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby catinmoon » Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:59 am

There is a large oak tree but the angle may or may not work. the winch idea makes sense -- I might look into renting one. keep the ideas coming .I realize it's hard since the layout of the land is hard to communicate. I could just find an off site place for the trailer but I like having it nearby and also use it to store lots of the camping gear.
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby 3GKnight » Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:37 am

Image
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby catinmoon » Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:12 pm

3GKnight wrote:Image

yes, this is exactly! what I need. Sky Hook.
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby Dan242 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:35 pm

Electric winch is my idea also. Sounds like you have a straight shot from drive to Trailer? , you can make a mount to put winch on tow ball (temporary) and then pull the trailer. HF sells them for under 100.00 and its cable is 50 feet fully extended. slowly drag trailer up hill to car. it rolls easy, so not a whole lot of load, safer than having 3-4 people pushing, falling breaking things

http://www.harborfreight.com/2500-lb-AT ... 61840.html
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby yrock87 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:42 pm

not as cool as a skyhook, but still pretty cool. a motorized trailer dolly/tongue jack. https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Valet-V2 ... iler+Dolly
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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby catinmoon » Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:05 pm

yrock87 wrote:not as cool as a skyhook, but still pretty cool. a motorized trailer dolly/tongue jack. https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Valet-V2 ... iler+Dolly

I must admit I'm loving this Trailer VAlet idea. There is a poor man's version of this already on the trailer, but those tires and the gears sound much more promising. The price is a bit much but I will keep it in the running. The path in and out is not perfectly smooth, so I need to consider if this will handle the terrain (some grass and rock driveway) thanks

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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby daveesl77 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:49 pm

KC is correct on the protection part, I forgot to add that in. I had an old firehose that we cut into sections and used to cushion between the cable and the bark. Worked perfectly. Fire departments will often give away worn out hoses.

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Re: How many teardroppers does it take to...

Postby KCStudly » Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:59 pm

Yes, yes, never wrap the cable directly around the tree. For this small load using a cushion on the cable, such as the fire hose idea, might be okay but it is as much better practice to use a properly configured basket hook. For that you need a proper strap with "eyes" that allow both ends to be connected to the hook.
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