New pontoon owner here. What is everyone's recommended / preferred way to load the boat onto the trailer. Float it on or drive it on to the trailer. Like I said this is my first pontoon my previous boat was a "V" hull and I drove it onto the trailer.
Thanks for the advice want to do what's best for the boat.
I drive on but with some of the steep ramps I had to install guides to keep the rear reasonably straight on the trailer. Best money I spent after purchasing the pontoon.
I like to drive on/off, make sure she's up against the stops. I will probably get guides because I need my wife or daughter to start doing this so we can be in and out faster.
I used to be a pro on the glass boat, my pontoon not so much!! I float it on whenever possible, if not I drive it on. I do have guides but the couple times I got against them it did do some scuffing of the sharkhide. My luck driving on has been minimal to say the least, probably minimal experience rather than luck!
We drive it on every time. Last year we added two post with pvc covers on back so back is always aligned so on a windy day once the front is aligned with those I can slow down and steer the back to insure a smooth load.
We float ours on Just seems safer for us to do. Float it off when we put her in. We also live on lake so I don't get a lot of practice driving it on or off. I would probably decide to drive it on and end up with the boat in the back of my Yukon.
It takes a team that is current and qualified. We have dry docked our boats for around seventeen years. I believe the pontoon was a little easier to load than the Tritoon. I'm not sure why but we have a little more difficulty loading the Tritoon. It may be that you must line at least two toons up and they are very close together, were in cross wind with a pontoon just landing one brings the other one around. The center toon is the key with a Tritoon.
The method we have found to work the best is to back the trailer in deep enough to wet all bunks, this will allow the toons to slid easily. Then pull the trailer out so that just the back 1/3 of the bunks are in the water. Back of the fenders just starting to go under, this gives the Captain a large target. Have the bow door open and have something like a rope or some other indicator that lines up with the center toon. That gives the Captain a sight for the center bunk. The trailer driver can give signals left or right or back off if target missed. Slow and steady is always best. Once the toons have contacted and began to slide up bunks the trailer driver carefully backs the trailer under the boat. The trailer driver can then put the trailer winch and safety chain in place. Always use parking brake with all transmissions and if you use a standard transmission, always put the transmission in first gear and shut the vehicle off with the parking brake set. Slow and easy with lots of practice and anyone can load a boat like, well, like they know what they are doing.
I used to float it on, but that was because I have a wonderful boat ramp. At night by myself, pushing the boat from the dock and running to catch it at the launch wasn't the smoothest operation. I finally bit the bullet and bought a loader from 4C Innovations. Not cheap, but MUCH nicer than anything else I could find and has really made loading the boat a lot of fun. It works great in calm or windy conditions. Here's a link. I worked with them on a tritoon package and they drove from Kentucky to the Charlotte area of NC to custom install it. (That was part of the updated design and instructions.) This is by far the best thing I have ever done for my trailer and the safety and care of loading/unloading my boat.
Never did or had to. The ramps in Virginia was in a long No Wake zone and here we always put in/take out during the week in the spring/fall when it's calm.....
In normal conditions, I drive mine on. If there is wind which makes it possible to damage something, then I get the wife to hold the boat near the dock, and I back the trailer down and under the boat. I then, attached the winch, and crank it about 1' to meet the stops. Simple either way.
New pontoon owner here. What is everyone's recommended / preferred way to load the boat onto the trailer. Float it on or drive it on to the trailer. Like I said this is my first pontoon my previous boat was a "V" hull and I drove it onto the trailer.
Thanks for the advice want to do what's best for the boat.
Has anyone used the caliber bunk slides? I'm on a fairly shallow ramp and trying to make powering on to the trailer a bit easier. Seems fairly reasonably priced.
