55 Gallon Drum for lift bag

[Bubble_Boy]

Well, on March 9th we started with this:

2 hours later with 4 bait barrels attached just forward of the mast to a lift strap running under the hull, a barrel attached opposite each of the winches for stability, and one off of the outboard bracket to keep the aft end up, and a bit of a tow at high tide and you have this as the tide starts to go out.

After pumping out at low tide you end up with this:

We used plastic bait barrels, would have loved to use two 1000# lift bags but we had to get her up and out quickly, so you use what you got. The barrels are open at the bottom with lobster pot line running from one side to another and a leash of 5’ off of that to tie the barrel to what you can. Essentially the barrels are a plastic lift bag. A 80 filled all of them using a cheap Sears air gun attached to the inflator line of a cheap regulator, takes about 2 to 3 minutes to fill a barrel. If you need to get air out of them use a 6’ length of garden hose, stick one end in the barrel and raise the other end outside of it above the water level and the air will come out.

I did all of the diving in 35F no problem, but the toes were a bit chilly by the end of the 2 hours.

Mythbusters have shown that you can fill up the inside of the boat with ping pong balls to lift it lol

 

[knowone]

I remember?

That's just like what they did with The Titanic

 

[ncullinan5]

How about if you get a brass ball valve or gate valve and get a nipple to thread on one end of the valve and drill a hole on the top of the drum and have a coupling on the other side of the drum (the inside) not sure if you want PVC of metal it would depend on how much use it will get

 

[james croft]

I've made lift bags from plastic drums. I use the drums positioned sideways. I threaded in a water spigot valve to vent by screwing it directly into the small hole on the lid to vent excess air. It fits perfectly.

I lay the drum on it's side and poistion the spigot valve so it is at the highest side of the drum. At each lower end of the drum I cut a small "mousehole" at the top and bottom side of the drum. The mouseholes are where I run my rope through. These holes are at the bottom of the drum and the spigot at the top as it lies sideways.

I use an inflator to shoot air into a mousehole. If it needs to be vented air can be bled from the spigot. It cannot over expand as excess air escapes from the mouseholes at each side.

An alternative to using the spigot to vent is to use a pressure relief valve from an old hot water heater. It also screws right into the bung hole on the barrel and you can attach a lanyard to it as well to make it vent.

 

[bell47]

By the time you go through all the effort to make "lift bags" from 55gallon drums, why don't you look up these guys. A 500lb real lift bag is only $165 each.(a drum will pick up about 450, so these are comparable). I have several bags from them including: pontoons, elongated pontoons, pillow bags, and shallow water bags. They are the best deal for lift bags. Plus real bags roll up and store easy. Good luck.


Proliftbags,Inc Underwater Lift Bags, Liftbags