Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I'm buying a vacation cabin that comes with an old pontoon & trailer. I think I can figure out how to operate the boat but the trailer has me scratching my head. It has a sliding axle section that moves about 3 feet max. I assume it's supposed to make it easier to launch or retrieve but to my eyes 3' isn't much help. How does this work?

Sounds like it came with a 'Scissor Lift Trailer'
Here's a quick vid of how this person unloads the pontoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCX1zbdQvbE

Dealerships like them because you can set your pontoon down on the ground (should use something else like old car tires) and then drive off with the trailer to move another pontoon. Trailers like mine (Bunk Style) are more like a 'standard' boat type trailer with bunks that hold the pontoons and while they are nice for towing, not quite as flexible for loading/unloading a pontoon wherever you want to.

-ron

No--it's not a scissor-lift. I don't know what it's called--maybe it's rare because I haven't found any pictures or a description--but it doesn't lift or pivot. The axle section slides fore/aft, pulled in by the winch cable that zigzags through several pulleys. I don't see any sort of lock, clamp or pin that would secure it in position like it's intended to be a permanent adjustment. The pipes/tubes that permit the sliding action are scraped clean of paint so this feature does get regular use by the owner. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to meet him & ask how it works.

I did find a reference (Google search) to a float-on pontoon trailer with adjustable tongue weight but it's possible that sketchy description was referring only to U-clamps that allow the axle to be shifted. (A one-time adjustment)

The boat is a '79 but the trailer doesn't look that old. All the pontoon trailers I can find on Google fall into 2 types: scissor-lift or tube bunks.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sounds similar to the way the old Donahue farm implement trailers work.
http://donahuetrailers.com/implement.html

By pulling a pin and setting brakes the entire axle assembly would slide out the back so the trailer would sit flat on the ground. However being that the Donahue is a land based trailer you wouldn't need the intricate cables/winches for pulling it back under the trailer...

My Bunk style trailer has an axle cradle that is held in place by 2 u-bolts on each side that allow you to do weight balancing, but it is a chore, not something that can be done while the pontoon is still on the trailer..

-ron

You're right about it sounding like a Donohue trailer. But they didn't have springs, did they?

I would get the previous owner to go over the trailer with you. It might be fine for hauling short distances to the boat ramp. Many just use trailers a couple of times a year, and for winter storage anyway.

I didn't think it worthy of a photo & didn't know it was odd. I'll try to remember to take pix next time I go up...which will probably be when I get the keys

[quote="ronb"]Sounds like it came with a 'Scissor Lift Trailer'
Here's a quick vid of how this person unloads the pontoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCX1zbdQvbE

quote]

Thanks for the link to the video.. that is the first time I've seen a scissor trailer used. From watching the video it looks like it would be really easy to load the boat on to it.. but from all the edit points it looks like the cranking up and down might be a bit of a pia.....

Before we bought our South Bay, we took it to Detroit Lakes MN (about 45 miles straight East of Fargo) and the person who gave us the demo pulled the pontoon on a scissor lift trailer. Watching it go down the road and trying to load it in a crosswind was the deciding factors in us getting a bunk style.

1. The wheel spacing is very narrow, I never measured them, but they can't be more than 4ft apart, it looked like the pontoon was constantly swaying.
2. The Pontoon tubes are left unprotected, should you do something like take a corner too short and hit a curb, pole, or fire hydrant..
3. The pontoon tubes are unsupported, visit the pontoon lift thread, everybody says to lift pontoon tubes from the bottom, not stress the bolts from the top when the tubes are 'hanging'.
4. Granted the day we test drove there were white caps on the water, it took 3 times before we got the pontoon on the trailer straight enough that a tube didn't rub on the tire. The next day the salesman had to go back out and launch/reload the pontoon to get it straight. It was so bad that you couldn't even let the pontoon down because the tire would rub/hit the pontoon tube on one side preventing us from being able to lower it. I am sure you can add guides to help with this situation, but the trailer he had didnt' have them.

Pro was that it rode much lower (less wind drag), and when we launched he backed in far enough that we didn't have to do any cranking, it floated off. If you have a lot of pontoons, you can easily move one or the other. For a 1 or 2 time per year move, I think they would work great, but other than that... I will stick with my bunk trailer, but I definately see the advantages to the scissor.

Looking at the pictures I took, it appears that I really need to rebalance my current bunk trailer, I knew there was a bunch of tongue weight on it, but never realized how much difference there was between the test drive scissor and my bunk for axle placement.. see how the center of the axle is right below that one fencing brace on the scissor and how far behind it the bunk style is?

Test Drive on a Scissor Style Bunk Style Its harvesting season around here, I should really make a run to one of the local grain elevators and do some trailer weights/balancing.

-ron

I finally have some pictures and this is a strange trailer It's a 2000 Hoosier and they still make this type. The sliding tubes are attached to the axle rear struts so when the tubes slide back the strut allows the axle to tuck up inside the rails. Gets very close to the ground. I'm guessing here since I have zero experience but by only lowering the rear this only adds to the ramp angle--making the rails pretty steep relative to the boat. Not sure if that causes retrieval problems.

Mechanism:


Up:


Down:

Its a hoosier scissor lift trailer. Crank that winch and it will go up.