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Proper Siting On Lift

Depends how rigid they are...
 
You could lay 4 to 6 2x12s on their short side, on top of your lift rails, perpendicular to the lift rails. Screw another 2x12 to each end to hold them in place. It should look like the floor joists in your house or a deck. Then lay your pontoon supports on top of that. That should be rigid enough, cheap, and easy to build. Use pressure treated wood.

2x12s may be overkill. 2x8s might be enough.
 
lift.PNG We also are struggling with what we need to do to change out our lift (had a 23' speedboat before) We called Bennington and they sent this (see attachment Macon_A_Splash) Our boat will be delivered in May so we have some time but want to be sure we get the lift right. We ordered a 22SSRFBXP tri-toon with the Sport Performance System (SPS) package. How do you cradle the toons to ensure that they don't damage the lifting strakes and foils?
 
carribeanmum said:
View attachment 21641 How do you cradle the toons to ensure that they don't damage the lifting strakes and foils?
Click to expand...

See pictures of my lift above in this thread. Mine has three cradles, one fore each toon. They do not damage the lifting strakes due to their design and orientation. If looking for a cradle type system for all three toons on an SPS hull, its a nice set up.
 
kaydano said:
That should be rigid enough, cheap, and easy to build. Use pressure treated wood.
Click to expand...

Wasn't there something before about not using pressure treated wood for bunks because of the chemicals in them and interaction with the toons?
 
You are right. But I was talking about the base portion, not the bunks. You'd put your pontoon supports on top of the pressure treated base.
 
I believe the new pressure treating is ok to use. It was the old copper based stuff that would react with the aluminum.
 
I asked my marina guy to use non-pressure treated, or some of the newer stuff that wouldn't harm the aluminum, and he said this was all he could find in the hefty size he wanted to use. Here's the tag from the wood -- clearly has the old/bad combo. We just put bunk wrap on it.

IMG_4135

IMG_4135

 
I went with regular pine. When they rot out in 5 years I'll spend another $30 and an hour of my time and replace them. I can do that quite a few times before I get close to the $1600 I was quoted for bunks....with pine boards.
 
I prefabricated a 10' by 20' frame with 4 crossmembers in my driveway out of 4 inch channel steel. I used 8 pieces of four inch long 2x2 angle iron and drilled holes to bolt the angles to the channel --holding the frame together. I put two 2x6's the 20' length of the frame under each toon for stiff support. It looks like a boat trailer without axles or a tongue.

Then I disassembled the rig and used my ATV to drag the steel down to my boathouse. Reassembling the pieces while standing in the water was easy as was hanging them on steel cables of a 3/4 hp Ace Lift. It sure beat paying $2k for a crane, barge, the boat to hang it in my boathouse. And the rack is strong.

Those that leave their pontoons in inside storage, they will also need to use a rack for the huge forklift to lift. Otherwise the forklift will eventually tear up the boat or dent the toons.
 
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