dolly launching a Jn18

[Floris van Vugt]

Dear Johnson 18 community,

I am considering buying a Jn-18, it looks like a terrific boat. One thing I'm hesitant about is that it seems people typically launch it from a road trailer towed by a vehicle. I'd ideally want to launch by hand. Do people have experience with this? Is it realistic with this kind of boat or is it too heavy? What kind of dolly could work for that?

Wishing everyone good winds

Floris 

[Rick Paullin]

Hi Floris,

Yes, I've actually launched it by hand on a dolly many times.

I also talked with another owner who stored it on a dolly (they didn't own a trailer).

Once it's on the dolly, it's easy to launch/retrieve in the water (the dolly is light enough that it floats).

(The only hard part is transferring the boat from the trailer to the dolly on land, if you need to do that.)

The dolly is well-balanced, with the axle near the center of the boat, so it's pretty easy to retrieve on a flat beach.

But the boat is heavy enough that you would need two people to pull it up a steeper beach or a ramp.

The dolly handle is wide enough that two people can walk side-by-side while pulling it.

Years ago, Seitech was the only manufacturer of a J-18 dolly, but I don't think they're in business any longer.

It looks just like a larger version of a Laser dolly, but with two long tubes instead of one.

It uses standard Seitech parts, which are all interchangeable with other Seitech dollys.

I'm no longer using my dolly, so I'd be willing to sell it if you're interested.

I still have the original brochure if you'd like me to send you a PDF copy of it.

Sincerely,

Rick

[Rick Paullin]

Here's a Seitech dolly for a similar boat:


It looks like Seitech parts are available from boatdollydirect.com 

[Santiago Rovira]

Hi Floris,
We installed a "third wheel hub" to the trailer, so it can be
pushed/pulled by two people into the water without a vehicle (see
photos attached).
We did this to be able to launch it into the water on the beachfront,
where there are no facilities for it, and it works really well.
We take the trailer with the vehicle as close as possible to the
water, we put the third wheel on it, we unhook it and we put it in and
out of the water by hand.
I hope this idea helps.

Regards,

Santiago

On Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 9:48 AM Rick Paullin <rick.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Here's a Seitech dolly for a similar boat:
>
>

> It looks like Seitech parts are available from boatdollydirect.com
>

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[Floris van Vugt]

Hi Santiago, what a cool construction! Thanks for sharing. It looks like in your case there isn't much of a ramp, is that correct? In our case, we'd need to pull the boat up a slope to get it out of the water. I'm wondering if that wouldn't get too heavy.

Have a great day!

Floris