Looking for deckboat to fit in 21' deep garage with trailer?

[mschmidt]

All,

The title pretty much says it all. Our garage is 21x30 internally with one 16' and one 8' door. I believe to boat will need to be in one of the 16' bays. I was thinking maybe a Hurricane 196 but no dealers are close to go measure the trailer options. If anyone has a deckboat in the 18' to 19' range with a trailer; can you take a quick measurement? I'm thinking an outboard trimmed down and a swing away tongue will be neccessary.

Mike

[FloterBoter]

park that through the front door and you'll have room to put the toon in through the side door.
then the toon can be a long one.

i wouldn't go to a deckboat. heavy, uncomfortable to walk around in.

[WaltF]

[GXPWeasel]

You could always get the toon, then angle the thing in the garage. This would gain you a bunch of room, but would mean that you would loose one parking spot for a car of course. Just depends on how much you love your wife, if you make her park outside or you.

[Stephen]

I was challenged with finding a spot for my pontoon. No way in hell it would fit in my garage (and I have a big garage), but it did fit in the drive way. Took up half the house, though, so we store it at a self storage place for $30/month. Not too shabby considering it's in a locked and gated area. Maybe that's something you could do?

[FloterBoter]

from what i've heard it's best if even gated areas have lights and security cameras.
it's just too easy to pull an outboard or an i/o outdrive off a boat.
we're talking about 5 minutes or so.

[Stephen]

Oooh, I'd be furious if that happened. It's lighted and has security cameras, but the idea of that happening scares the shit out of me. That could happen just as easily in front of my house, though.

[buddy19520]

The problem that you have is that the boat will stick out 2 feet past the back of the trailer, then the trailer tongue will stick out at least 4 or 5 feet past the prow of the boat.

Before the pontoon, I used to have a Maria bowrider with 4.3 I/O. The boat was 18' 2" long. At the time, I had a 21 or 22 foot deep garage and the only way the boat would fit in the garage was to angle it. This meant that both cars stayed in the driveway.

I would tilt the drive down to shorten it. I also removed the trailer tongue and cut about 2 feet off the non-hitch end and bolted it back together just to get it to fit on the angle. With the short tongue, you had to watch sharp turns so that the winch stand wouldn't hit the truck. Backing up took some getting used to - it was like backing a PWC.

My guess is that you won't find a boat worth using that will fit straight into the garage. Anything that does fit will be very short and probably no fun to use.

Good luck!

Philip

[WaltF]

Dont b hexing us now Float!

[FloterBoter]

it's something to consider.
it happens a lot more than people think.

[ROLAND]

we store it at a self storage place for $30/month. Not too shabby considering it's in a locked and gated area. Maybe that's something you could do?

Stephen, is that "outside" or inside storeage? Down here in Shreveport the average monthly fee for inside storeage is about 125.00 to 135.00 a month with electric. I stumbled onto a local place that charges me 85.00 a month for inside storeage w/o electric. Gated, security camera ( watch dog that's real friendly ). It's a place that has several buildings designed kind of like air plane hangers, completely covered and walled on 3 sides,with one side open. Completely open inside with painted parking spots for everyones boat... each spot is 12 feet wide and 25 feet long. So it's just two rows of boats on each side... I like it cause it keeps my boat out of the weather ( including the sun ). The only thing I hate is it's just alittle bit narrow from one side to the other, making it kind of hard for me to back it completely in... So we just line it up, unhook the trailer and push the boat into the spot, and then turn the trailer wheel and push the tongue over to one side so the boats in on an angle, and gets the entire trailer well into the spot and out of the "driving " area. Boats light so pushing it is no big deal. The only thing I hate about storeing it is having to go get it everytime I want to use it. Wanted to keep it here at the house with a boat cover next to my garage, but a buddy of mine here in the neighborhood discovered squirrels had eaten thru his cover this winter and completely destroyed his seats and carpet. So that's why we keep our little toon in storage....

[Stephen]

Stephen, is that "outside" or inside storeage?

It's outside storage. Inside is around $50-60 here (more for electric), and outside is as low as $25-30. I pay $30 a month just so I don't have to stare at it in my drive way. If I had more property, I'd build a little covered parking spot and park it at home. The only way I could be ok with throwing $85 or even $60 a month into just storage, is if I owned a 2010 Bennington like you do. I think you're certainly doing the right thing, in my opinion.

That said, I keep mine covered, and it has 4 poles that arch it up in the middle, so it will never be affected by rain, sun or snow. I plan on always covering it when not in use, which will hopefully keep mine looking new for as long as I own it.

[HandymanHerb]

Now that Floats got everyone worried I have a question, has anyone made a security bolts to make it harder to steal your drive.

Hell how about loctite red on the treads, then you have to apply heat to remove bolts, I used it on my drive shaft of the race car, you could not remove them till you got them hot with a torch.

[WaltF]

http://www.henrysmith.com/securitylocks.htm
Found this....

[HandymanHerb]

I know they have outdrive locks too, but to lazy to look them up again