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Side steering a pontoon, anyone ever tried something like this?

FIRE UP said:
Hey BigKahuna,
I'm incredibly sorry for this late reply. Our DROP program "was" 5 years. I say was because, as stated, the City decided that the benefits of the DROP program, specifically the part that keeps senior, well seasoned vets around for longer periods so they don't have to hire and train new and lazy people, was not a good enough benefit vs cost for them. They've had that stab them in the back several times over ever since they nixed the DROP. Then there was the fact that like M Jay Farr stated below, the city also benefitted from not paying into each individual retirement account when a person entered the DROP. Apparently that MASSIVE savings wasn't of interest to the city comptrollers or council members. Well, that too has backfired SEVERELY on that city.

There are some citys/county governments etc. that are run by competent people and have forward thinking abilities. Where I retired from, none of that existed and doesn't exist today.

As for my length of tour in the DROP, 4.9 years.
Scott

M Jay Farr,
Concerning the statement "It seems that some don't undertand that once in the Drop......" As stated above, yes, where I retired from, there were (and still are) so many city officials, council members, comptrollers etc. that simply refused to fully understand all the immediate as well as the future benefits of the DROP. All those benefits were explained to all those officials multiple times IN DETAIL and they still refused to acknowledge them. Oh well, that program did drastically augment the retirement income of all us retirees that participated in it, at least for a given/chosen amount of time.
Scott

P.S. Still contemplating the procurement of the Side shift system.
Scott
Click to expand...
Thx Scott! Hope all is well!
 
Big Kahuna,
Well, I guess the old cliche is "better late than never" huh? Sorry for the late reply. Everything IS well over here in our little oven of Lake Havasu. I'm still on the fence about pulling the trigger on the Sideshift stern thruster system. I have done a bit of research on this subject and there actually are quite a few other systems out there. Supra boats is using *Liquid Propulsion* systems on their boats from the factory. It's almost the same as the Side shift unit only it's integrated into the dash for controls and adjustments/fine settings. I'm pretty good at adapting and remodeling stuff outside the box but, what it would take to change/adjust/modify/alter just about any other side steering system out there would be:
#1, Not nearly as good as the Side shift system
#2. A considerable pain in the a$$ to change/modify/alter a system to do what Side shift does right out of the box.
#3, While the initial cost of some of those "other" systems might be considerably less than Side shift, by the time you purchase each and every additional part/component you'd need to actually make anyone elses system work, I don't have a doubt I'd be rapidly approaching the cost of a Side shift unit.

And, and this is pretty darned important, Side shift also supplies a *Remote control* with their kits. Soooo, you can stand on the dock and control your boat if and or when something like that is needed. Or, in the case of the CEO piloting the boat back onto the trailer and the tail starts (as it does quite often) drifting to one side or the other, I can sit on the edge of the tail gate of the truck and simply push the appropriate button/direction on the remote and steer the back end FOR HER!!!!!!!! How about them apples????
Scott
 
Man I thought you would have had it and mastered it by now! Ha!
 
Well Big Kahuna,
When it comes to spending THAT MUCH on basically a luxury item that for the most part you (or I) can live without and have been for around 4-5 years now, however long we've owned the Benny, it was a tough decision. $4,000 don't grow on trees. I know the value of this item. SHE knows the value of it. It's not going to put us in the "Poor house" if we spend that on something like this. But never the less, for us, it's a SERIOUS decision. While out and about on that boat, we've encountered some very close sets of circumstances where damage to the boat was almost inevitable due to wind gusts and the inability for what we call "tight quarters" handling and even though we were stationary at the time, before we knew it, we were being guided a right out of nowhere wind, right towards some very steep, almost straight up rocky shelf/bottom.

Based on the fact that trying to steer a tight get-a-way with only the prop as guidance, it was dam....d close and to this day, I'm not sure how we escaped that set of circumstances without harm to the toons but we got lucky. And, there's been plenty of situations where retrieving the boat back onto the trailer, with very close proximity to other boaters that don't have a clue as to common sense in backing and were between 1 and 1.5' away from us while there was wind present with no ability to move our boat away from those idiots.

Yes, situations like those would have warranted the spending of that kind of money waaaaaay back when. But, in retirement and basically a pretty fixed income, I still have to use a lot of common sense in my larger purchases. Sorry for the long explanation to a simple statement but, let's put it this way, PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE! We pulled the trigger yesterday! The order has been taken and Sideshift will be sending out an ST230 Sterndrive unit IN GRAY (since it perfectly matches the Yamaha 350HP paint job) in a few days. It was a big pill to swallow but I'm actually relieved I made the decision. Can't wait to get it all installed and go play with it.
Scott
 
FIRE UP said:
Well Big Kahuna,
When it comes to spending THAT MUCH on basically a luxury item that for the most part you (or I) can live without and have been for around 4-5 years now, however long we've owned the Benny, it was a tough decision. $4,000 don't grow on trees. I know the value of this item. SHE knows the value of it. It's not going to put us in the "Poor house" if we spend that on something like this. But never the less, for us, it's a SERIOUS decision. While out and about on that boat, we've encountered some very close sets of circumstances where damage to the boat was almost inevitable due to wind gusts and the inability for what we call "tight quarters" handling and even though we were stationary at the time, before we knew it, we were being guided a right out of nowhere wind, right towards some very steep, almost straight up rocky shelf/bottom.

Based on the fact that trying to steer a tight get-a-way with only the prop as guidance, it was dam....d close and to this day, I'm not sure how we escaped that set of circumstances without harm to the toons but we got lucky. And, there's been plenty of situations where retrieving the boat back onto the trailer, with very close proximity to other boaters that don't have a clue as to common sense in backing and were between 1 and 1.5' away from us while there was wind present with no ability to move our boat away from those idiots.

Yes, situations like those would have warranted the spending of that kind of money waaaaaay back when. But, in retirement and basically a pretty fixed income, I still have to use a lot of common sense in my larger purchases. Sorry for the long explanation to a simple statement but, let's put it this way, PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE! We pulled the trigger yesterday! The order has been taken and Sideshift will be sending out an ST230 Sterndrive unit IN GRAY (since it perfectly matches the Yamaha 350HP paint job) in a few days. It was a big pill to swallow but I'm actually relieved I made the decision. Can't wait to get it all installed and go play with it.
Scott
Click to expand...
Congrats! You got to spend that retirement money on something!!!
 
Yeah, I kind-a look at it the same way. My kids shure as heck don't need it, they got their own money AND retirements. So, why not!!!!!!!!!
Scott
 
FIRE UP said:
Well Big Kahuna,
When it comes to spending THAT MUCH on basically a luxury item that for the most part you (or I) can live without and have been for around 4-5 years now, however long we've owned the Benny, it was a tough decision. $4,000 don't grow on trees. I know the value of this item. SHE knows the value of it. It's not going to put us in the "Poor house" if we spend that on something like this. But never the less, for us, it's a SERIOUS decision. While out and about on that boat, we've encountered some very close sets of circumstances where damage to the boat was almost inevitable due to wind gusts and the inability for what we call "tight quarters" handling and even though we were stationary at the time, before we knew it, we were being guided a right out of nowhere wind, right towards some very steep, almost straight up rocky shelf/bottom.

Based on the fact that trying to steer a tight get-a-way with only the prop as guidance, it was dam....d close and to this day, I'm not sure how we escaped that set of circumstances without harm to the toons but we got lucky. And, there's been plenty of situations where retrieving the boat back onto the trailer, with very close proximity to other boaters that don't have a clue as to common sense in backing and were between 1 and 1.5' away from us while there was wind present with no ability to move our boat away from those idiots.

Yes, situations like those would have warranted the spending of that kind of money waaaaaay back when. But, in retirement and basically a pretty fixed income, I still have to use a lot of common sense in my larger purchases. Sorry for the long explanation to a simple statement but, let's put it this way, PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE! We pulled the trigger yesterday! The order has been taken and Sideshift will be sending out an ST230 Sterndrive unit IN GRAY (since it perfectly matches the Yamaha 350HP paint job) in a few days. It was a big pill to swallow but I'm actually relieved I made the decision. Can't wait to get it all installed and go play with it.
Scott
Click to expand...
Thank you Scott for sharing the details. As a fellow Havasu-onian, I understand how the wind can whip up suddenly! I know it is an extra $2K - but any key thoughts other than cost on why not the 360 Joystick system?
 
Hey another Zonie, cool!
To tell you the truth, I'm not familiar with that option of the 360 Joystick system. I tried looking it up but didn't get far. What is it?
Scott
 
FIRE UP said:
Hey another Zonie, cool!
To tell you the truth, I'm not familiar with that option of the 360 Joystick system. I tried looking it up but didn't get far. What is it?
Scott
Click to expand...
LOL - Right!
The PT360 model of the sideshift for pontoons - they look amazing!!!! (but $6K)

shop-us.sideshift.com

PT360 Joystick Docking System

Boat size Up to 35' Horsepower 2.5hp Voltage 12 V DC Current 300 Amps Layout Single Prop Datasheet PT360 Pontoon Joystick System Datasheet Introducing the industry’s first joystick docking system for pontoon boats. Sideshift’s patented fully retractable bow thruster and fixed-mount stern...
shop-us.sideshift.com
 
Ya know,
No one's ever accused me of being smart. When I first learned of Sideshift and their systems and components, I did look at the retractable bow unit as well as the stern unit. I do like the fact that you could spin our 26' Tri-toon 360 degrees practically within its own length. That's cool. Now, how much would one actually need to do donuts with a 26' Tri-toon, well, not too much other than to show off. Soooo, with all that being said, my thoughts and concentration leaned towards the fixed stern unit. I was so fixated on just the stern unit I completely forgot what the TOTAL system was/is called, the PT360 Joystick Docking System. That's why it (the term PT360 Joystick) was new to me, because I'd lost all recollection of anything pertaining to the bow system. Thaks for clearing that up for me.

The salesman at Sideshift Rod and I discussed the use of and worth of both the bow and stern units and he stated he has both on his Pontoon and rarely uses the bow one. My thought process on this is that this unit would help tremendously when off-angle is encountered during loading onto the trailer and, when either approaching or leaving a dock. I'm anxious to get it, install it and try it out.
Scott
 
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