Best attachment for Boat Ramp?

[theboman]

A track hoe/excavator. One can sit on the ramp you have now and get the job done better than faster than anything other than a bulldozer, and then it may be better than a dozer. The good thing you don't have to get in the lake bed with an excavator (depending on it's size). I know you said attachment, but a $500 attachment vs $500 for rent....

 

[Richard]

I just did this myself...

TVA lowers the water level at lake, I take take tractor with box blade out..going to simply scrape down some lake (before TVA police or wildlife officers make their rounds)..

Tractor simply SINKS to it's axels /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif in the muck. I trot up to house, get Uncle to ride the tractor while we connect a chain to backhoe on Brutus and he puts in drive...I have to pull him out (notice how I subtly changed it to I have to pull HIM out??) /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Next time the water is lowered (next winter) I may simply take the backhoe down. I have just GOT to figure out a way to hide the mud on the tires and the tracks leading up to my house though..../w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Richard First get permit from TVA then hire trackhoe and arrange a location for spoilage. Those guys can cause problems you or I don't want. Then after excivation have a concrete truck pour a splash pour of 5.5 mix and finish with wet suit on. You can actually screte it under water from shore as it needs to be an agressive surface anyway. A long rake will do. The concrete will harden to a very strong ramp. It works.

 

[MikeFLA]

Paul,

I did not dam up the water. You do lose some material out the sides. Backing the box blade in and out is a relatively speedy operation so you can make a lot of quick passes to make up for it.

I've got R-4's with 4WD and did not have significant traction issues. Our lake is a sand bottom though. Not muck.

 

[tgello]

paul ,i don't know how it is over where you live, but where i am you best get permits ,contact inland wetlands,d.e.p., e.p.a., u.s.d.a. and anyone else who will make your life miserable. and how about the lake assc.? .oh ,don,t forget the army corp. of engineers! gooood luck...tgello p.s. you better hire a soil scientest.

 

[patrickg]

The first time I saw a redimix truck back up to the water and dump its load in San Diego bay I was more than a little suprised but the SUBASE SD ROICC (Resident Officer In Charge of Construction - civil service architect/engineer) 'splained it to me. They had forms and every thing for their ramp but as they were under water I hadn't noticed. This was for the Coast Guard to launch and recover their small craft.

If you do decide to dam it up, here is a process we used in SAC to make emergency dams to keep spring melt water from flooding missle silos:

Sand bags and visqueen. Lay down the visqueen and lay a row of sandbags on what will become the botom of the dam. Make a wall of sandbags with the visqueen on the outside of the area to be drained/pumped out. Water pressure will hold the visqueen up against the sandbag wall. Make the wall significantly higher than the water level to help make the dam stable against the pressure of the water. The visqueen only needs to be a bit higher than the water not to the top of dam. Fold the top of the visqueen over and put bags on it to secure it. Depending on water depth, the sand bag requirement can increase pretty fast. I recommend you lay the bags so their long dinension is at right angles to the direction of the dam for more stability. Again, depending on depth of water to be held back, you might have to place several rows of sandbags at the bottom and taper to one or two at top. It is a lot of sand bags and a lot of work but the good news is that you only need to move them one at a time.

I only did this once and it was a Chinese fire drill. Some bozo got it screwed up and had the troops (USAF enlisted) build it with the visqueen on the wrong side and it billowed out like a spinaker sail and kept it from working until I could get the attention of an aquaintance who was the deputy commander of the 810th Strategic Aerospace Division of SAC who was second in command of the 150 nuclear missiles, many of which were in danger of flooding. Needless to say they tried it with the visqueen on the other side and it worked well. Meanwhile up the road (raised country road like a dike with culverts under it) the same nut case was having troops try to plug a culvert to keep water impounded on the other side of the road from the missile site by placing sandbags on the downstream end of the culvert. It would have made a great comedy video if it hadn't been real important.

Patrick




Patrick