Aluminum Pontoon boat

[steveweston1945]

Anyone else here have an aluminum boat? Pontoon yet?
Mine is a Sun Tracker. Its six months old and I m having a very bad time putting it on the trailer. Rocky beaches dont seem to be my problem but when its time to head home. the trailer is thrashing my pontoons. I ve owned 11 other boats in my life but never had such a bad time at the ramp. I ve installed boat guides, inside the hulls which didnt work... I ve purchased guides for the outsides. Thats not working....either. I m really destroying the pontoons. I guess its a tribute to the toughness of these hulls.....
Any ideas ? I wonder if I m getting the trailer too deep in the water.
The very first time I retreive the boat (without any guides) things went smoothly. Being the expert I am, I knew guides were the way to go. Now I m not so sure.
Steve
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[davetclown]

I have never seen pontoon trailors with guides on them, and I see a lot of trailors in front of my house. 17-20 foot toons going down my road all summer.

I will not condem guides, but it may be the application or the angle or placement posibly even the type.

to be able to help you we need to see what it is we are talking about, so if you could,. next time you drop off your boat in the lake and you pull back up on dry land take a picture of what you have so we can see the application..... This way we can better assist you....

adding a photo of your toon dled on the trailor will give us more data to help even more.
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[steveweston1945]

Thanks Dave,
First time I used this boat it didnt have guides. Being the expert boatsman extrordinar of fine yatchs, I fingered that some guides on the inside of the pontoons (like everybody has out here) would make me look extra professional when retreaving my tooner in the wind.
First guides were five feet long and inside the pontoons at the rear of the trailer. I gashed the pontoon really bad.. So, I removed these guides and bought the post type upright guides. They are 60" tall and are at each rear part of the trailer. Just vertical two inch pipes....
Last time out I got crossed up somehow and again gashed AND dented the inside of my pontoon.
I think I ve learned two things about retreaving this type of boat. One: never force it up on the trailer. If it doesnt go smoothly, somethings wrong. Second: dont get the trailer too deep in the water. Its better to have the boat settle into the bottom bunks and even itself out. Then give it the gas and drive the boat up to the stop at the front of the trailer....
I m going out tomorrow and I ll try my ideas to see how it all works out....
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[davetclown]

some of the Pro guys up here have trailors that drop shorter than the pontoon, they run the toons in to the shallow over top the trailor and the trailor rises up to lift the toon.

I have seen some with wenches to pull the trailor up about 5 feet.

but the tralors with the lifting beds are the fastest in and out of the loading ramp... the guy the comes by with the lifting trailor isnt donw there five munutes and he is on his way back out, he has to turn around in a small drive way and unlock and relock a gate.

so it might be that you need to just not back the trailor to deap like you said if you have a trailor with out bells and wistles...

I do have to admit that you are the first person I have heard of who takes his toon in and out on a regular basis.
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