Pontoon trailer

[wslayer]

Nephew just bought pontoon. Wants to put on some guide on's. Any suggestions for good or bad ?

 

[KDM]

Never had a pontoon so take this for what it's worth. Over engineer the guides. Pontoons catch lots of wind and the pressures a wind blown pontoon will put on a trailer guide are substantially greater than one would think. Seen LOTS of MN pontoon trailers with cracked and broken welds where the guides attach to the frame. Seen plenty of pontoons come in to the landing at wrong angles with some wind and hit the guides. Wow. Pushes the whole trailer to the side. Anyway. Enjoy the new toy.

 

[westwolfone]

Never had a pontoon so take this for what it's worth. Over engineer the guides. Pontoons catch lots of wind and the pressures a wind blown pontoon will put on a trailer guide are substantially greater than one would think. Seen LOTS of MN pontoon trailers with cracked and broken welds where the guides attach to the frame. Seen plenty of pontoons come in to the landing at wrong angles with some wind and hit the guides. Wow. Pushes the whole trailer to the side. Anyway. Enjoy the new toy.

Good advice for boat trailers also. Over-build them.

The ones that came on the Shorelander trailer I have, are the stock roller guides that are 1" square tubing u-bolted to the frame. They are junk and touching them at all bends them.

 

[wslayer]

Never had a pontoon so take this for what it's worth. Over engineer the guides. Pontoons catch lots of wind and the pressures a wind blown pontoon will put on a trailer guide are substantially greater than one would think. Seen LOTS of MN pontoon trailers with cracked and broken welds where the guides attach to the frame. Seen plenty of pontoons come in to the landing at wrong angles with some wind and hit the guides. Wow. Pushes the whole trailer to the side. Anyway. Enjoy the new toy.

That's what he is afraid of. They're out of Devils Lake with there docking facing west. Thanks @KDM , I'll pass that info on.

 

[guywhofishes]

Nephew just bought pontoon. Wants to put on some guide on's. Any suggestions for good or bad ?

how often will it be needed? trailering every use or on a lift most of the time?

 

[Tommyboy]

What I have noticed on our pontoon in and out of the water; dip the bunks and pull it back out of the water much farther than you think you need to. Think of it like when your beaching your pontoon if that makes any sense. Of course all ramps are different depths but the end of the bunks are only 6" under water and she slides right in on the bunks. If you do put guides on the inside of the bunks, make sure they are short enough to not catch the bottom side of the deck and only guide the tubes when loading. Picture shows guides on the ends and in the middle. We only have the guides on the end and when loading ours are showing a couple inches out of the water. If its too deep the back of the pontoon swings outside the guides and your screwed. Good luck!

 

[wslayer]

how often will it be needed? trailering every use or on a lift most of the time?

It would be on and off trailer each time used. They use a public dock at their campground.

 

[shorthairsrus]

pain in the ass --- if u dont have a third toon - scissor trlr it --- otherwise dont back it as far and when you hit the bunk back the creep the truck down.

Best bet --- get rid of the toon

 

[Rowdie]

I always dip bunk trailers all the way no matter the boat.

 

[Wall-eyes]

This is good question never fun seen to many problems dont think guides will help. Tommies trailer above does look nice put most of them I have seen are very crude and just a bitch to load.

 

[shorthairsrus]

I always dip bunk trailers all the way no matter the boat.

Boat you have what 3ft of error as the two bunks at the bottom line you up

Try that on a toon -- you have 6" inches of error.

 

[wslayer]

pain in the ass --- if u dont have a third toon - scissor trlr it --- otherwise dont back it as far and when you hit the bunk back the creep the truck down.

Best bet --- get rid of the toon

Great advice for someone that just purchased, I’ll pass it on

 

[Allen]

While it takes a little practice, unless there's a 25+ mph cross wind, they aren't that hard to load. Each ramp is a little different because of their slope, but start out by not backing it in too far and worry about getting it stabbed/started onto the bunks. If you can't drive it on up, back the trailer down a little bit more until you can. Then remember how far in you are at that ramp.