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Sea Legs (Ultra Legs) full extension vs. hydraulics

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Pbakk

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Hello,

I have Ultra Legs (similar to Sea Legs) on my 2019 22'GSR. I always raise the pontoon up about 6" out of the water. Given my docking situation and water level, this results in the Ultra Legs not fully extended. I was always under the impression that you don't want to risk having wind blow over the pontoon. Fully extended would raise the pontoon significantly higher.

I sent an email to the manufacturer who responded "It is best to extend the legs all the way. The way hydraulics work this is less stress on the pressurized system."

Now I am wondering if I am putting too much stress on the system by minimizing the height out of the water.

Does anybody have any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks.
 
I have 2021 22SSBX with Ultra Legs. I asked the same question on this forum when I first took delivery of my pontoon being new Ultra Legs. I don't keep my legs fully extended otherwise it's going to look jacked up on shore. Rather, I keep my pontoon level and high enough so that waves don't hit the toons based on recommendation from others on this forum. Hopefully others who have more experience with Sea Legs or Ultra Legs will chime in and share their best practices.
 
We've owned our tritoon since 2016 and the boat sits on Sea Legs from May to September every year. We keep it 6" to 8" off the water with the legs far from fully extended. We've never had an issue with the Sea Legs by not fully extending them. Fully extending the legs would make the boat very susceptible to wind and likely result in it being flipped in a storm.
 
I am a retired engineer with experience in hydraulics and related structures. Sea Legs hydraulic cylinders see a lower load when legs are fully extended. The advice from the manufacturers representative although flawed may have come from that perspective. Indeed when you lower a fully loaded boat from the full up position it passes thru the full working range. This product could not have survived in the market place unless it can withstand full rated load throughout its full working range. I would not worry about it.
 
I am finding this thread very interesting, and very much appreciate the experienced input from DVW. I am hoping to remember to call Sea Legs directly this upcoming week and pose the same inquire to them.

Like everyone else above, we have always put our boat about 1-1.5’ above water level, but nothing close to fully up. Given the shallowness of our lake shoreline….Fully extended would be SIGNIFICANTLY above dock level. I want it high enough to avoid high waves during rough water/storms, but otherwise as low of a profile as possible with an eye towards a) boarding and exiting the boat, and b) minimal updraft lift from wind during major storms.
 
I will be curious if Sea Legs responds the same as Ultra Legs. I think I have the same shore conditions as Vikingstaff. If I extended all the way up, it would be way out of the water.

Thanks to all.
 
Sorry for delay. Update.

I just got off the phone with the Sea Legs customer service/tech rep. for Michigan. I inquired first about the issue before sharing “why” I was inquiring. Paraphrasing what he said.

Sea Legs Tech Rep:

Sea Legs: They have really built them up significantly in regards to durability specifications of all parts while trying to reduce weight of their overall system, over the last 20 years. They are built for the boat to be extended to ANY HEIGHT in the range of motion and set at rest that way. In particular, their triple tube legs are built to hold up boats with 2-3 large motors. Sea Legs stands behind that engineering, and has no restrictive recommendations on their usage within their range of motion. He recommended putting them 8-10” above water if on a calm lake, perhaps 1’ or slightly higher if on a rough and wavey lake.

After hearing WHY I was inquiring (this thread), he shared perhaps this is a specific concern of some competing legs, or specific year or models of some of their competitor’s legs. He spoke in particular about Ultra Legs as an example. He said the hydraulic cylinders and seals in the Ultra Legs do not seem to be as robust as theirs. He said that for 2 motor triple tube pontoons Ultra Legs does not install their system, and recommends those customers directly to him over at Sea Legs. He said he does not know in detail their engineering specs or deployment recommendations/restrictions. However, his understanding is they can sometimes have issues with their hydraulic cylinders and seal leaks due to supporting too much weight. Thus, he said it makes sense on some of their customers set ups that they might make a recommendation such as fully deploy when the boat is put up on them to reduce hydraulic system stress. However, he said that is just speculation based on what he knows about their limits on much heavier triple tube and multi-motor triple tube pontoons vs. the weight and lift capabilities of the Ultra Legs product.

Me:

None of the above is my opinion, and it is coming from a specific manufacturer commenting about their product as well as speculating about a competitor product. Take that for what it is worth. Maybe he is being 100% straight and is correct. Maybe I was getting a bit of salesmanship and marketing sprinkled in. I don’t know, and don’t really have skin in that game. Just passing along the contents of our conversation.

My Takeway: Minimally, for those of us with Sea Legs, he was 100% clear on their being NO deployment restrictions, or even restrictive recommendations. He echoed what some of us have shared over the years and even a bit above. Kind of a balancing act between minimizing the possiblity of wind updraft underneath a pontoon in a MAJOR storm with always staying above any potential wave action that might provide bouyancy and floating lift on pontoons.

He said for my boats weight range (24’ Bennginton with a 200HP Mercury), it should take in excess of 100mph straight line winds to really lift and flip a setup such as mine. Thus, the chances of lift and a flip or tip on a boat like ours is VERY minimal. So he also said, that likely is not a likely scenario in most cases. He did say though with lighter boats, that becomes more of a concern, and thus keeping the boat raised just above highest wave possibility so as to minimize chance of wind updraft is more highly recommended with those lighter boats.
 
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Thanks Vikingstaff. Much appreciated.

I have a 22 GSR with a 115 Yamaha, thus less weight than some of the larger triple tube setups. Ultra Legs doesn't identify any restrictions in their documentation thus I am going to try not to worry about it. I think I would worry more about raising it up all the way to the top given my setup. We have had a few boatlifts with boats flipped in storms.

Thanks again.
 
Pbakk said:
Thanks Vikingstaff. Much appreciated.

I have a 22 GSR with a 115 Yamaha, thus less weight than some of the larger triple tube setups. Ultra Legs doesn't identify any restrictions in their documentation thus I am going to try not to worry about it. I think I would worry more about raising it up all the way to the top given my setup. We have had a few boatlifts with boats flipped in storms.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
My thoughts for you as well.
 
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