It's okay to have the rear end sitting 3' or so unsupported.
I would want the boards supporting the front end to come as far as the seam where the nose cones are joined to the 25" toons.
It's hard to get boards over 16', so it sometimes requires two boards spliced together on top of a cross beam. I think my front boards (spliced) are about 4' long.
Like I've said previously, I mounted two 2x8's flat 3" apart, and my keel fits in the space. But when you do this, you've got to have bolsters lengthwise either outside of your toons or inside your toons to keep your boat tightly centered exactly over the space. The keels are very strong and solid however; it doesn't hurt your boat if it sits flat on the boards. It won't hook or dent the toons in any way.
It would be nice to use V shaped factory built brackets like trailer companies use. However they take up 10" vertically and cost a bunch. Most boat lift racks don't have enought cross members to place the brackets close enough together. At the winter low pool, I don't have 10" to spare for v shaped brackets.
Just got an estimate for lift guy to adapt lift for 2275 RCW. He wants to support outer 2 toons length wise and then put bunks at 90 degrees to the length wise bunks (locating them over the lift cross members). Will this be enough support for the middle tune that has the 50 gallon gas tank?or would it be better to just go with the 3 length wise to support the 3 tunes?
I don't have a lift, but if it were me, I would do the 3 length wise. There is probably a reason they make trailers that way, so I assume it would be better for a lift too. I know a lot of people have said, Bennington included, that if you are doing lifting perpendicular to the toons that you need to make sure the supports are positioned properly on the toons to give support in the right spots. To me it seems easier to just do the lengthwise and be sure.
I was down to the lake this past weekend to find my lift had been pulled, reworked / setup for my new Benni, and placed back in my slip ---- My plan is to finally get her in water in two weeks.....
So is the recommendation to not lift using the deck and just leaving all 3 toons just hanging free? My old set up had two 2 x 10's on edge. The boat was then raised by these two boards via the deck of the boat. My old pontoon was a 24' Harris with two toons and a 50 4 stroke. My lift was a ShoreStation.
Today, I stopped in at a ShoreStation dealer to look at a new 5,000lb lift for the new boat. I was planning on going with a 3 toon cradle and the dealer recommended a 2 toon cradle saying that most ShoreStation lifts don't really support the 3rd toon very well, so in his opinion was to go with a two tube bunk set up.
I just want to get the right set up first time around.
I bought the 6000# ShoreStation Hydraulic with the HA0132 under pontoon rack for all 3. It is a very nice setup and works well with the ESP's on our lake. Weather permitting, mine is going in the water Friday so hopefully I'll get some pics.
With a 250 hp Verado, go for three toon supports. The rear 10' of your boat really has a lot of weight. Tom's done it right, and obviously the manufacturer of the lift has engineered the lift for such uses.
