TOPIC: Rebuilding my dock for eaiser installation

For the last 10 years I had to auger my last dock section into the muck. And getting it back out in the fall is a pain. And more of a pain as I age.
So I'm going to try to devise a system for it to travel on a track.
That section will be outfitted with rims to ride on a PVC pipe track.
Right now it is in the developing stage.
When the ice goes I'm going to put into action.

dave, will you still have to remove it in the winter?

I remember an interesting setup I saw, and wondered about how good it was:
Using a frame from a house trailer, [estimated 45-50 foot length] they cantilevered the frame over the water, solidly ancoring the first 8 feet or so on solid shoreline in concrete. [probably four pilings into the ground, and enough concrete weight to offset the weight that overhangs the water] It was very clean looking, with nothing supporting the dock the entire length over the water. I'd think there would have to be some flex, but I have no idea.

Imagine not having anything to put in or remove, ever! Anybody ever see anything like that? Does it work?

jim, that sounds like a great idea. i see no reason why it wouldn't work as long as you had a few yards of concrete anchoring it. wonder why i haven't seen any of them yet. ron

Yes Ron,
I'll still have to remove it at the end of each boating season. We live on the north side of the lake (252a).
In the spring when the ice starts to melt our prevailing winds are out of the south. When the ice goes, it starts to come my way pushing anything in it's way. The ice will sometimes push the shoreline up into a nice hump. I believe everybody on this lake removes there docks. The moving ice will wreck them. Back in the day My grandfather had a "T" shaped dock which was floated with barrels. We would pull it in all but the last 10ft. It survived every year. But we were in a nice cove where the ice didn't push up on the shore and on a different lake..
Here is a photo of my dock. It has 3, 10' sections. the last section is the one that gets into the muck.
3' wide with 3, 2 x 6s with deck planking on top. Heavy! Should of uses 2 x 4s instead.

wow...that lake is like glass......

the only one I ever seen like what your talking about used a 40 foot office trailer frame, that would pivot 180 degrees so you had "summer" and when it spun around it would store for winter.

actually it was two frames in one that would lift up the dock on floats to bring it around.

the other neat one I have seen used pontoons from a boat "up -under" and was skirted to hide them and it was anchored in place with guild poles and set cement anchors, when it was time to "pull" the dock the skirt was hinged to wing up and tie across the dock to each side and a set of wheels dollies where placed up under each pontoon on both ends and just wheeled up on to shore.

I've seen dock set ups you are talking about. The one I want to devise is laying a PVC track. The track will stay in the water anchored with rerod up by shore. The dock will ride up and down the track for installation and removal. I hope to get photos of my progress and post them here. I only use a 30ft. dock. My neighbor goes out 40' plus a 6'section, it takes him about 4 hours to get his dock in and out. He is a perfectionist. He gets the O'le level out. I eyeball it. Somewhat myself. If it still looks crooked then I get the level out.
I don't want to spend all day putting a dock in. I want to go boating with my Fiberglassics and my Homelite powered pontoon.

Hey Ron, The lake being like a mirror is not too often.

ok, a couple of questions:

in the location can you set a cement block?



your gonna find with your PVC pipe you will have a lot of "flex" and after a period they will crack my only suggestion with them would be to fill them with a structure foam to stop the flexing.

Now one thing that is around the price point of the PVC is good old galvanized fence top rail, which if you find your self rather handy you can weld that rather effortlessly using dura-rod with out a welder to build a "V-double rail" which for your purpose would be rather simple 2 main rails with the one end piece where the "dock side" wouldn't need a cross rail because it would be anchored one two cement blocks that would hold to "U" brackets.

the U brackets would need a back brace across the back "land-end" of it, to prevent the dock from levering over when raised when lifted

come time to "lift" the dock a simple A-frame with a pully set at the end of the dock and a winch or a handy car can pull up the dock, where it will stand up in the U-brackets where you just insert a holding bolt.

to lower, just reverse the raise.

you would still need legs at the far end, which could be simple rail extenders set in cement and placed in location after the cement drys.

Thanks for the suggestions houston. Only the end of the dock will have the rims that will ride on the track. The first 2 sections will be attached to pipes with pads that will set into the sand. I may have to put a stabilizing post up front that will auger in the muck some. but I won't have to be in the water to get it out. Also plan onto attaching some wolmanizied plywood to the end of the pvc to firm it up some and will serve as a pad that will lay on the lake bottom. The water is only about 4' deep at the end of the dock. But the muck is another foot. Not fun walking around in.
I'll make it work somehow.

Dock is remodeled and in. The rims ride on the 4" PVC pipe very well. Seemed pretty stable but I added a middle leg on the end of the last section. It will auger in the muck. But I can do that without getting in the muck myself. Sucess!
Sorry no photos yet.