I got my barrels from a local carwash for free, as far as I know they are all the same, just depends on what they put in them. I carefully inspected my barrels and used silicone on the bungs and I positioned the bungs horizontally (at 9 and 3) with hopes of keeping them out of the water. After I attached the gangway I got a little list to that side due to the added weight but the bungs on that side remained above the water line when the dock was unloaded. I added some weights to the opposing side to level the dock, but I needed a little more weight but never got around to adding it. The stability was “OK” to me but several visitors thought it was very unstable. I discounted their opinion since they were not water/nautical types and had limited exposure to these things. As I stated in my original pose, if I gotta pull the dock, I want to do it only once. I’ll improve the stability, durability of the floats and increase bouncy. Later I want to add a metal roof and a winch stand to pull my 10’ Bass Hunter onto the dock and get it out of the sun. I’ve ordered the floats but I’m afraid their installation will be delayed since I have a knee replacement scheduled for mid April.
I didn’t know the URL to my photo server was broken, they are still in the same place. Here are two links, one to the original dock build and the second to Phase 2 where I added a 16’ section, hand rail and benches.
https://public.fotki.com/jsing/hambrick-rd-1/dock-build/https://public.fotki.com/jsing/hambrick-rd-1/dock-build-phase-2/These links will take you to the “thumbnails” page where you can select each pic for larger viewing. If you are on an unlimited internet connection (not a metered connection) and bandwidth is not an issue, you can select the “Roll” option near the top and it will load all the pix sequentially and use your wheel mouse to roll thru the pix.
