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Silly question

They are used to lift the boat up..........You can also use them to tie off your ropes to the dock etc.......
 
and to get it off the tractor/trailer.
 
Rule #1: There are no silly questions.

Rule #2: See rule #1.
 
Some call it being a trend setter, others call it being the 'weird one' hehe jk
 
Give it time .... You southerners will catch on eventually .... :)
 
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I hate to tell you, but Southerners have been pontooners since the boats came out.

Virtually every boathouse on my lake has a pontoon boat, but very few high horsepower tritoons. Since the boats are kept under cover and out of the weather, all the 20 year old boats are still good and serviceable. The people still have their original boats and just don't trade. (Every boathouse also has a pair of PWC's, too.)

Go to Kentucky Lake around Paris, Tennessee and the State Line and you've never seen so many pontoon boats in one place.
 
Our Community Dock had only one runabout tied up last year. The rest were pontoons. Just one high horsepower boat (mine) till Labor Day weekend and a new Avalon tower model with 300hp O/B showed up. It was a good looking boat.
 
Ok, you "Texans" .......... Instead of "Southerners" ....... :)
 
I'm not trying to steal this thread (okay, maybe I am, but the question is similar). I have an eye bolt in the middle of the first cross member back from the front end of the boat. Problem is, it's directly above my center toon, and there's no practical use for it. Can't winch to it, the nose of the center tube would either dent, or the strap would get cut on a sharp edge. Can't use it to be towed for the same reason. Can't use it as a tie down, because the center tube is only a few inches below it and a tie down wouldn't clear the side of the tube without putting a dent in it.

My understanding is that this is meant to be used to winch and be towed, but you can't use it that way with the center toon. Is it useless now due to the center toon? I don't see a use for it...
 
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I also don't get why the lift points say "do not lift" on them.
 
kaydano said:
I also don't get why the lift points say "do not lift" on them.
Click to expand...
I think that was added by Bennington to prevent "customers" from lifting them improperly. If I remember correctly, these are a lifting point for dealers using "cradles or bars" that span the tubes and the attatching points come straight down to tubes.
 
If you ever need to tow a toon, this is where you want to hook into with the tow harness.
 
Actually schmeg, Team Bennington states not to tow from there, at least that's how I read the post by Bennington a little ways down on this post,
 
I agree with Derrick (TB says not to tow from the nose cone) but on tri-toons, they should have either offset the eye bolt on the first channel back from the front, or put two in the channel, a foot or two apart from each other, so they are offset from the center toon. Otherwise the tow strap has to wrap around the center toon a bit, and that just doesn't look good to me (something would get bent). In my situation, my choices are to use the eye in the tip of the nose cone and just take it easy with the tow line, or tow off a front cleat. My front cleats are bolted so close to the edge of the plywood, and on my boat they don't go through any C-channel beams, so using a front cleat scares me. Not much meat behind it.

I think each of us has to look at our boat's configuration and try to decide what's best. I wish this was more straightforward.

I guess I'm now thinking I should remove the eye on the first crossmember, and move it 6-12 inches left or right, using the same parts and mounting it the same way the factory did. That way the center toon wouldn't interfere with the tow strap.

Anyone have thoughts about that being a bad idea?
 
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Definitely don't use your cleats, as you said, it's bolted to plywood. I know what you mean about the eye bolt, one solution would be to use a short, maybe 4 foot tow strap, run the two ends back and use an anchor shackle to go through the stainless u-bolt on the boat, then hook on to the 'halved' tow strap. Similar to the tubing harness except it's on one u-bolt instead of two. Does all that make sense?? Haha
 
I had to read that a couple times! But I get what you are saying now. It would pinch the stanchions, but that should be okay... I'll have to look under there and see what it looks like. Maybe a short spreader pipe (a foot long or so) could be put between the two half straps, so the compression would be on the pipe. The pipe probably would have to have it's own eyes on each end to contain the strap. I'm guessing you'd need two separate straps and two shackles so the strap/rope won't slide through the single eye bolt... I like your idea. Better than the alternatives, but you'd definitely have to have this all pre-planned and made up ahead of time.

It would be nice if this was already set up from the factory with two eye bolts in the cross member (in the case of tri-toons) just like it is in the back of the boat.

I cringe sometimes using the front cleats for anchoring if it gets windy and wavy and I don't have enough rode out... Especially since using one cleat makes the boat turn out a little, and the "pull" on the cleat is at an outward angle, making the edge of the plywood bear even more of the force.

I won't need to be towed though. :D

Now I will.
 
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