Looking for Pontoon to Trailer and Store in 21' Deep Garage

[mschmidt]

All,

We are in the process of buying a home that has a private ramp on our the street to a private all sports lake. The garage is 30x21 internally with a 16' and 8' door. We cannot leave the boat on the water since we do not have a waterfront home ($). With the need to trailer and the not so deep garage, what are my options? The HOA bylaws will not allow us to leave the boat in the yard for more than 48 hours.

We got the house we wanted first so this would just be icing on the cake to be able to fit a pontoon. I think we can live with a 18' pontoon, but getting a trailer that short seems to be the issue. A breakaway tongue would be nice.

Mike

[HandymanHerb]

Yea you have to make it a break away hitch, I measured my 20 footer and it was 25 to the tip of the hitch and I could have only made to break at the 3 foot mark because if where my stop is.

So an 18 footer should be 23 foot overall so it may just fit with a break away hitch.

[FloterBoter]

they won't allow boats on a property almost on a lake? WTF? is this maybe out east somewhere...?
you're a good man--i couldn't stand having all those people crawling up my arsh all the time.
next they'll tell you what color boat you can buy...

sorry for the rant. folding or slide-out tongues are pretty common. here are some ideas:



three photos from bottom:
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... hools.html




http://www.adventurerv.net/pivoting-hin ... 7t9sbducp5





http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0047174472

[mschmidt]

Thanks guys... yea, there are some weird sub rules but it is apparently a higher end sub. The wife will be happy at least. It's in Michigan and foreclosures can be had for 50 cents on the dollar. Thus, we will have some money left for a nice boat. Hopefully someone here with a smaller pontoon gives some more insight.

[dockholiday]

Is it a gated community? Seem like they have more rules (enforceable) than normal hoa. Are there any hp restrictions on the lake? I assume it is a private lake. Think the swing away would work good for you.
doc

[Bamby]

Before you go too far with this, you'd be smart to measure the "height" of your garage doors opening. Most pontoon boats on trailers are to tall for standard garage doors. I know mines about six inches too tall just at the furniture and the bemeni top would add a few more inches on top of that. Not wanting to rain on your parade, it's just another consideration.

[mschmidt]

No, it is not gated, but certainly too many rules. No hp restriction. They lake is about 270 acres so not that big but should be enough. I will for sure measure the height. There is a 3rd 10x10 door out the back of the garage but I don't think driving through the backyard all the time will work.

[Ray Jr.]

Would you be able to back the boat in enough to close the front door and leave the back door open letting the boat stick out thru it? If they cant see it out the front then they should just mind their own dam bussiness.

[mschmidt]

The 10 foot door in on the side so likely not. How about a deck boat like a Hurricane? I bit more money, but with the fiberglass hull a standard trailer might be an option?

[FloterBoter]

you could get a scissors trailer and it should be low enough. if you're only trailering
a block, you won't even need one rated for highway speeds, just one like the dealers
use to move boats around. plus, when you want to work on the boat, you can plop
it on blocks in your front yard and piss off all the snooty neighbors!

[GXPWeasel]

Sounds like you have a couple of options, but man, I think your're pusing it. If you think about it, your motor is going to stick out about 1ft. to 1 1/2 feet past your boat, which leaves you 6" for trailer lenght. I've never seen a toon trailer that you can break away more than a couple feet from the tongue. I know my toon is a 26' boat ( actually 25 feet long ) and with motor, and trailer tongue, it is just under 30' long, so with that math, I would guess that with an 18' boat, you're still going to be 5 feet too long to fit in the garage with a normal trailer. On top of that, you have height like stated above.

You may be onto something about the deck boat though. I think you can get those as short as 16', so you could probably make one work.