Duck Pond Redneckery


I made these pictures in 2008. I was planning on building this. Never got around to it. It would be 8'3" wide on the trailer and 12 foot 3" wide on the water. The two sets of rafts would be able to pivot individually when waves come in from the side.

Dual rafts 33 JPG.webp

End view 60 GIF.webp

MS River Raft small JPG.webp

Or maybe something like this:

yucan raft small JPG.webp
 
I would go with the plywood building version. more protection from the elements.....
That version was if I was going to go all the way down the Mississippi River or something. It would have to be built on the raft, and then dismantled after the trip. Unless I had a crane to remove it & set it on a flatbed.

Or if I ever buy one of those houses along the river. I'd just build some kind of dry-dock or make a little trailer to drag it up the bank.

The tent version would be for weekend overnighters or something, if shade can be found. I'd need to be able to power that thing upstream against the current though. No way it'll make it under this bridge immediately downstream of the state line launch point:

IMG950405-640.webp
 
Couldn't you put hinges on the plywood so that you could fold it flat while going under said bridge then reassemble it once past?
Not sure what you're talking about but if it involves lifting a raft out of the water, it's impossible unless your feet are touching the bottom.
 
No, I mean on the building on top of the raft. Make it collapsible. But have it so you can set it back up on top the raft and have pins to keep it from collapsing while you are moving down the river.
 
Do your chairs fit under that bridge? How high can you make the base part for your shelter on the raft? A tent would be a pain in the butt having to untie and take down the poles......but if you had something you could pull the pins, fold it down, go under the bridge then put it back up, put the pins back in and your good to go.
 
Do your chairs fit under that bridge? How high can you make the base part for your shelter on the raft? A tent would be a pain in the butt having to untie and take down the poles......but if you had something you could pull the pins, fold it down, go under the bridge then put it back up, put the pins back in and your good to go.
The chairs don't fit. We had to fold them up. We were worried about the cooler & the stereo. The cooler was about 4 inches taller than the stereo was after I laid it down.

If I was going to have a tent or some kind of structure I'd just drop off the rafts at the south side of the river, and while the guys are getting it set up for me I'd drive to Rt 41 in Indiana, cross over the river & head back to the state line. Probably a 20 minute trip, then walk across the bridge & get on & go. There's nowhere to park on the other side but there's a spot where the dead end gravel road is right next to the water. It's where we had to launch from in 2009 when the river was at flood stage & we'd have needed a submarine to get under that bridge.
 
Just buy one of those Pop-Top caravans, cut it off the wheels and frame and put that on a raft, when going under a bridge, fold it down and when the bridge is past, just pop the top back up.
 
Just buy one of those Pop-Top caravans, cut it off the wheels and frame and put that on a raft, when going under a bridge, fold it down and when the bridge is past, just pop the top back up.
They have Rednecks in New Zealand too??

:bowdown:
 
Cheap campervans here are to buy a caravan with rusted out frame and a cheap used farm truck, remove frame and bolt to truck deck.

so yeah, we have rednecks.

My last bout of redneckary was to cut open a sealed transmission unit on a masport rotary hoe, clean it all up, hammer flat and weld the broken axle stub back in, then after putting it back together I had to weld a continous bead right the whole way round the transmission again.

I filled the transmission case with chain bar lube from the chainsaw box rather than greasing it again.
 
I can see everyone being launched into the air on the first wave!
Not if it's locked down. Ain't taking anything like this out on the ocean.

I should probably design a huge raft that's sea-worthy. And I mean "sea".

Something shaped like a big tube, rounded ends like a jet airliner fuselage. Stays upright just because of a low center of gravity. But the whole entire thing would be designed to float however it's positioned, even upside down. Storm coming? No big deal. Just take down the sails, pull up the keel & strap your feet to the floor so you don't hit your head on the ceiling when it flips over. :D

Maybe that'll be my zombie apocalypse bug-out plan.
 

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