Half Car Float Plane Tow

Lake Hood in Anchorage has many half trucks running around.

This is the first half car I have seen though...:)
 
I'm not the OP, but that's Renton for sure
Yup. They dropped a Beaver in for us to run over to Poulsbo for lunch one time.
Walking back from the ramp there was a hanger open with a BD5 jet in it. Guy was selling it. Intetesting place.
 
So what's the advantage of a half-vehicle welded to a trailer over just hitching a trailer to a normal truck?
 
Yup. They dropped a Beaver in for us to run over to Poulsbo for lunch one time.
So what's the advantage of a half-vehicle welded to a trailer over just hitching a trailer to a normal truck?

Facing it and going forward is WAY easier to handle and accurately position. Same reason a lot of us have hitches on the front for tucking a trailer in between trees etc.
 
Wait a cotton pickin' minute........pickup trucks are not front wheel drive.
 
Facing it and going forward is WAY easier to handle and accurately position. Same reason a lot of us have hitches on the front for tucking a trailer in between trees etc.

Sure, so why not put a hitch on the front bumper?

OK...my real question: can the pilots take off from them while the half-car is speeding down the runway redlined in reverse?
 
The Lake Hood trucks have hydraulic lifts to lift float planes by the spreaders. Facing the plane makes it easier to maneuver the lift between the floats. Way better than using a trailer.
 
So what's the advantage of a half-vehicle welded to a trailer over just hitching a trailer to a normal truck?

Also more maneuverable, think of a forklift.

Lost of them also have hydrological forks on the front to lift the plane by the spreader bars.
 
While I'm sure this makes use of an otherwise unwanted vehicle, I just can't think that a regular tractor wouldn't be much better for this, as well as being useful for other things like mowing/plowing. You already have hydraulics available if needed, front hitches are just as easily mounted, 4WD pretty common, great visibility, short wheelbase (even compared to a half-car).
 
How Lake Hood mechanics move float planes.
 

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The FBO just north of here has one of these little guys.

aircrafttug.png
 
Wait a cotton pickin' minute........pickup trucks are not front wheel drive.

I can't find a picture of it right now, but there is a conversion some people do where they cut the rear frame off a pickup and replace it with a low flat bed trailer. There is no rear axle, but they use a 4WD truck to make it work out, so it end up being a FWD vehicle. I've seen one driving around here.
 
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Here we go. Notice there is no rear drive axle.
 
Hydrologically speaking of course

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OK...my real question: can the pilots take off from them while the half-car is speeding down the runway redlined in reverse?

This guy's just not getting the picture....
 
While I'm sure this makes use of an otherwise unwanted vehicle, I just can't think that a regular tractor wouldn't be much better for this, as well as being useful for other things like mowing/plowing. You already have hydraulics available if needed, front hitches are just as easily mounted, 4WD pretty common, great visibility, short wheelbase (even compared to a half-car).

If you look at the videos, you see how this makes much more sense than a tractor maneuvering a trailer. The front axle is fixed and you steer with the rear axle, the same way how you work a forklift. It's just left-right forward-back, no need to steer a two-axle trailer.
 
We use a four-wheeled trailer. Its front axle is steered by the hitch tongue, which is connected to a hitch ball on the front of the truck. It takes considerable care to get it going in the right direction and keeping it going that way unless you're backing up, which we do on a long pull down the taxiway. There are two pivot points, one at the hitch and the other at the tongue, making it way worse than maneuvering a simple trailer. But getting a plane out of the water on a muddy shore works best with all four wheels of a 4WD pulling; the half-trucks get stuck way easier.

One local guy has a Bobcat converted to a floatplane dolly. Lots of traction.
 
Do you guys have lots of toll roads/bridges ?

We don't have toll roads, but bridges don't have a per axle charge, at least not for cars and pickups. But I had the same thought as well.
 
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