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There are lot of riverboats and houseboats which you can rent but
for people already driving around on campervans or RV's there
should be a service where you can hire a basic barge fitted with
plumbing, 12 V DC, 110/220 V AC hookups for your RV.
You just drive your RV into the barge, secure the
vehicle with
chains or ropes and connect the other hookups.
The raft would be fitted with required maps, GPS, EBIRB, Marine
radio, life jackets etc.
After half an hour introduction to the operation and local condition
you motor away on the river or lake.
Rental fee of these rafts would be much cheaper than fully fitted
houseboats. And saves the problem of parking our RV, unpacking
and stocking as you would have everything you need with you.
The raft would have two motors and steering would be done at
cabin situated on the left, I think, as far as I know water crafts
internationally have giveaway rules like cars driving on the right
side of the road?
Yarr vee
http://www.terrawind.com/
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 18 2006]
Self Skippered Barge
http://images.googl...en%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Similar concept but drive in your van or RV [Pellepeloton, Sep 19 2006]
Floating House
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4852739/
For [gtoal] - not exactly as described, but... [neutrinos_shadow, May 24 2007]
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Very cool. I would like to see an amphibious RV as well. |
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<later edit> I should have guessed. [link] |
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Aren't barges typically unpowered? |
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This barge would have a suitable motor to have enough power to go up the slow river or towards headwind but not too fast to be a nuisance to other boaties.
As I think there is nothing like this yet I thought barge would be best word to describe the idea? Maybe motorised barge. And it woud have anchors as well to park overnight to some quiet bay or beach. |
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It would be very slick if you could steer the barge from the drivers seat of your RV. You could park on plates that turned when you turned the steering wheel. Maybe. That would save on space as well since you would not need a barge cabin. |
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Have the RV sit on plates for all wheels and have the RV power the propellers through the wheels' motion plus the steering thing. Be sure to chain the RV to the barge first though... |
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Possibly, but if there was a 4WD or front wheel drive RV onboard?
Also for the reliability barge having own motor would be better idea as this way it does not matter what sort of RV is on board. Could even be a caravan or a tent.
Maybe paddle wheels could be connected to driving wheels? |
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There is a small barge you can buy that looks like a floating caravan. It has a matching trailer. When you put it on the trailer it looks like a caravan too and can be used as such. |
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//Aren't barges typically unpowered// |
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An unpowered British canal barge is called a "butty". |
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Therfore, the barge is powered. The butty is another, unpowered barge that is towed behind it. |
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The barge would have a steering cabin and optional wireless remote control for steering. This remote would be handy for single handed operation when landing to a jetty or with other critical moves. |
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"Honey! We are headed for a waterfall, where did you leave the remote?" |
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"I don't know, Dear? You had it last, remember when we stopped at the pub." |
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"You had it at the pub, didn't you?" |
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"AAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrgghhh...." |
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Portable remote is doubling the steering on the cockpit(?) which would be on the left side of the barge. |
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I hate the idea of driving the barge from the inside of the RV. Having and indoor remote control might be good for short navigational manuvers late at night or early in the morning if you want to rotate the barge to see the sun rise from the side window or if it is raining and you want a different view from the cabin without having to go outside. But essentially when an RV is parked and set up, nobody wants to sit behind the driver's seat unless its turned around to face the other "living" areas in the rear. |
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I remember reading about a wonderful design of a house (this was about 20 years ago) designed to float in a flood. There were rings on each corner with what were basically telegraph poles through them, so that as the water rose, so did the house. Power, water, gas etc was on flexible piping that also moved with the house. The designer (in the US) was unable to build it because such homes fell foul of some building regulation that meant they could never be built. :-( |
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I'ld love to find a reference to this if anyone remembers it. |
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Yes, this is a great idea for motor homes and caravans alike.
These guys in Finland do these barges, looks good.
http://www.catmarina.fi
Im buidling a barge like this and to rent it out for motor homers that want to spend some time exploring rivers when they get sick of driving and want some tranquility.
Im purchasing from these guys in NZ the pontoons and ill power it will two outboard motors for good manouverability.
w.pontoonz.co.nz/gallery
Keep up the the great ideas about powering it with the motor home. Could be a cool idea to be able to drive it using the motorhome wheels indeed, like drive it onto brake testing type set of rollers and these could simply drive through shafts to paddles either side. probably i would have electric clutches on each shaft so as to drive each side for manouvering or have gear boxes driving to propellors. A remote cotrol pack could be put in through the window of the truck to steer it, may be just a joy stick powering rudders, even a wireless control would do and just clamp it to the handbrake lever or even the steering wheel it self. The engine in the camper truck needs to run anyway to charge the batteries and theres some serious horse power just sitting there waiting to be used.. |
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Funny coincidences Gyro,
My nickname Pellepeloton is Gyro Gearloose in Finnish.
I must visit those Catmarina people when I visit Finland next time.
As I live in New Zealand, I could catch up with you and park my van on your barge, haha.
Which waterway are you based? |
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Sound idea with no business gracing the pages of this site.
Nothing to lambaste. The only flaw is, there would be no road hogs. |
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Isn't there a glut of supramaxes and panamaxes right
now? (Certainly a telling statistic of how far we've
come as a species.). One of those should be repurposed
to this end. |
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//I thought barge would be best word to describe the idea?// Assuming that it's basically just a flat platform on pontoons, the correct term is 'raft'; a barge would imply a vessel that is complete in its own right. Not that it matters much. |
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Yes, but is there a pirate version suitable for Caribbean duties? |
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On a less flippant note, I think you'd have to go for an external engine as the RV/whatever engine gets cooled by the airflow, geared to the likely speeds the rv/whatever is likely to be moving at, and the pontoon hull wouldn't travel as fast, so overheating. Tacking a big fan/plumbing the rv cooling system into a hull heat exchanger seems a bit inelegant? |
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A budget option would be to turn a panamax into a floating car park. |
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That's a brilliant idea, [mitxela]. |
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Edited the barge word into raft. |
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Excellent! I saw a redneck, homemade, version of something like this, locally. The fellow took what I call a pontoon boat, or party barge, razed the top side, and fitted a crusty little camper on it. Just saw it trailering down the road once, never in action. It was very permanently attached though. A floating campsite with hookups kind of thing, seems perfect for a lake side RV park. |
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// Tacking a big fan/plumbing the rv cooling system into a hull heat exchanger seems a bit inelegant? // |
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The fans don't have to be that big. With the existing radiator fan, and a couple of extra Kenlowe thermostatic units you'd be fine. You might want to think about an oil cooler, though, if there isn't one already. |
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The fans on a 50kVA diesel generator set aren't outrageously large compared to the total size of the unit. |
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