Tri-Toon lift supports

Chuck13

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Is it OK to support a 2250 tri-toon on the 6 inch wide I-beams of my old cradle type lift?
Or do you have a better suggestion? Any advise will be appreciated. Thank You in advance,
Chuck B
 
No, it is not. You need to support along the toons. There are a few ways to support, here is how mine is supported.20190302_090723.jpg 20190302_160758.jpg
 
I agree with Mike not to use I beams, but you can also support from under the deck. Look at shorestation “toon rails” as an example, but you can also use other methods.
 
Here is a close up of our tritoon V-bunks. Metal, with a a heavy duty “plastic” like composite covering for protecting the pontoons.

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I am not sure that I totally agree with the need for bunks to support the tubes. The reason I am saying this is have you ever driven passed your dealer or any toon dealer and seen how their inventory is stored? A few will have boats sitting on trailers, but most will just have them sitting on 4 X 4's or some sort of blocking to keep them from sitting on the ground, providing only limited point of contact. Depending how fast they turn their inventory, some may be sitting on this blocking for the season.

I am going to guess dealers that provide indoor winter storage will place toons on a form of pallet racking, again not providing full support of the tubes.

I have an older Shore Station that I will work on putting bunks on but it wont be a deal breaker if I don't get it done right away. I am going to have to build something that is low profile as I am in shallow water. If I go much further out I will be in about 4"-6" of muck. This makes it really hard to get the lift out in the fall.

I am more of a believer in bunks for a fiberglass boat to help keep the bottom straight, as it was intended.

Bob
 
No one said its necessary, just that its one of the options. They asked how to set them up, so a couple of us posted pictures of our own.

Lots of ways to support pontoons on a lift. I think the main point was simply having something that supports the toons length wise vs. just a couple for pressure points across pontoons that create stress points. Lots of examples out there of the damage that can cause.
 
I don’t use a lift but do store ours on the ground for the winter on styrofoam blocks. (i have a Scissor trailer). If you don’t support the entire length the smaller supports MUST be on the tube welds rings or it will deform/crush the tubes. I would be worried about lining up exactly on them if I was pulling onto a lift.
 
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I have a couple friends that use an “under deck” lift rather than bunks. They have no troubles driving onto it, but they don’t have tri-toons.
 
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If you are in shallow water, consider lifting from the deck, not the toons. I have a tritoon and Hewitt lift that lifts from the deck.

If I didn’t have so much invested into our current 2.5 year old lift, I’d sure take a look at this to see if it would work out for us. Our shallow water lake is the bane of our existence when it comes to seasonal boat use with our lift/dock.
 
If memory serves correctly, the two supports, which bolted to the lifting frame, were $600. Really isn’t much to them.

You may want to check with your dealer-there may be trade in value for your three cradles.
 
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