wheelchair friendly models

[JerryTx]

Flanker - that link works, but it's a private group, invite only. Well shoot, I may have to breakdown and get on FB. Besides the SCI forum, there is a big forum for the lake we're going to be on, my wife joined and she gets all kinds of good info. I might as well join, they have our IP addresses all linked evidently, I can go to a pontoon manufacturer website on my computer, and sometimes within an hour, my wife will get FB ads on her phone for that boat mfr.

Rick - Sorry, I thought I had replied to your last post. I guess I would have to find out if they do custom gate requests, definitely need wider than that. My wife is kinda psyched about that floorplan you posted before, she likes the seats outside the fence, and the two back couches fold out to make a layout bed. Could be trouble.

[Rick McC.]

Flanker - that link works, but it's a private group, invite only. Well shoot, I may have to breakdown and get on FB. Besides the SCI forum, there is a big forum for the lake we're going to be on, my wife joined and she gets all kinds of good info. I might as well join, they have our IP addresses all linked evidently, I can go to a pontoon manufacturer website on my computer, and sometimes within an hour, my wife will get FB ads on her phone for that boat mfr.

Rick - Sorry, I thought I had replied to your last post. I guess I would have to find out if they do custom gate requests, definitely need wider than that. My wife is kinda psyched about that floorplan you posted before, she likes the seats outside the fence, and the two back couches fold out to make a layout bed. Could be trouble.

Yeah man!

I’d think that they’d do some special order door work. The dealer had a Qwest in the showroom next to ours that had a special order two foot deck extension on the back, which made a good five foot (at least) deck beyond the back playpen fence. Compared to what that entails; a wider door should be a no-brainer.

This is their rear deck with the “lanai seat” on the back:

72A908B2-BDC4-4BFA-8F5A-A6DD8AEF5D45.jpeg (132.76 KiB) Viewed 16071 times

[JerryTx]

Rick, that is a big ol' back end play space, would be great for swimming activities. Sounds like gate mods should be a fairly easy request, as long as the furniture arrangement allows for the width I want. Thanks.

Question about fishing;
I tried finding pics of possible Bimini top settings. If the top is rolled, what is the best position to not interfere with casting? If we have rear fishing seats, would be nice to get the top out of the way, but only pics I see are either rear stowed or up all the way. Is there a forward stowed position? Captain(me) would still need to be able to see of course.

Question about posting; As I branch out into other questions, should I make a new post for that question, or keep them here? Lots of them won't be wheelchair specific, just general boat, dock,pier type questions. Don't want to miss good input because they might skip the "wheelchair" thread.

[STEVEBRENDA]

We have a 2014 Tracker Party Barge Regency, the upscale version.(not bragging but layout may be different). I comfortably fit thru door with a transfer chair. The biggest problem is the transition in height for our dock into our boat when the lift is down to the point of floating yet still on the lift. We glue two 3/4" of marine plywood. It works but is not the best. I am lucky to have a determined mind to keep us active.

We are pushing 60 so I do not know how much longer we will be able to do the transfer to chair at end of dock from an atv or utv.

I will post some cool pics of my lift from the water onto the boat that a friend made for me. Yeah, I will brag on the lift - really slick!

[Rick McC.]

We have a 2014 Tracker Party Barge Regency, the upscale version.(not bragging but layout may be different). I comfortably fit thru door with a transfer chair. The biggest problem is the transition in height for our dock into our boat when the lift is down to the point of floating yet still on the lift. We glue two 3/4" of marine plywood. It works but is not the best. I am lucky to have a determined mind to keep us active.

We are pushing 60 so I do not know how much longer we will be able to do the transfer to chair at end of dock from an atv or utv.

I will post some cool pics of my lift from the water onto the boat that a friend made for me. Yeah, I will brag on the lift - really slick!

Hang in there; I was 70 last January.

[JerryTx]

We have a 2014 Tracker Party Barge Regency, the upscale version.(not bragging but layout may be different). I comfortably fit thru door with a transfer chair. The biggest problem is the transition in height for our dock into our boat when the lift is down to the point of floating yet still on the lift. We glue two 3/4" of marine plywood. It works but is not the best. I am lucky to have a determined mind to keep us active.

We are pushing 60 so I do not know how much longer we will be able to do the transfer to chair at end of dock from an atv or utv.

I will post some cool pics of my lift from the water onto the boat that a friend made for me. Yeah, I will brag on the lift - really slick!

Howdy Steve,
Thanks for input from another wheeler. I'm getting dangerously close to being 65, so I feel ya on the transfers, I'm almost 18yrs into sci.

Is your boat lower or higher to the dock, in the position you referred to? I'm guessing it is higher, if it was lower the simple solution would be to lift it a bit more. so to have a non-moving boat to transfer to, you get it slightly on the lift to hold it steady. That's kind of what I am thinking of doing too, but using that bolted to the boat ramp I linked to in my first post. If possible, next time out, could you measure both the dock to water, and the boat(at gate)deck to water. We will be building a boat house, and I am still waffling on the height of walkway at the boat.
*it is not a constant level lake, so all I can do is go by their intended base level. They are usually battling too high after heavy rains, so I am probably going to make my walkway higher than the base level, I can always raise the lift some. If it gets too low, I'm probably not wanting to go out anyway.*

The Trackers all seem to have good size port gates, I think most any of them will work. My problem with them is, all the fishing models include an "L" shaped couch, and the end of it is always sticks out right at the captains chair. I will need at least 30" of room by the seat, so I can align my chair for a transfer.

I would LOVE to see pics of your lift. That is one problem I have not tried to mentally solve yet, too much other stuff before it. But yeah, it gonna kinda suck not being able to get in the water, will have to mount a misting fan or something.

[steve1313]

....................... will have to mount a misting fan or something.

Or just add air conditioning!
https://www.pdbmagazine.com/2020/03/air ... -a-pontoon

[JerryTx]

Thanks Steve, I have bookmarked them, a swamp cooler on a boat, who knew?

That could be a good fallback way to keep myself comfortable w/o going in the water.

[JerryTx]

We are finally making some progress on our new place. The bulkhead is finished and now the dock/boat slip is starting. I have a couple questions in trying to set the roof height of the boathouse, we need to be able to get the boat high enough to stay out of any periodic flooding that occurs there. Being in a wheelchair makes it a little tough to make a mad dash for a ramp to get the boat out, not impossible, but would rather be able to ride it out.

Nobody lists how tall pontoon boats are, need from bottom of pontoon to top of highest point on the boat. Planning on ~25' non raised helm, with Bimini.

Planning on using a Touchless boat cover, and I have not gotten an answer back from them yet, as to how much space is taken up in the rafters by the unit. Was wondering if any members have one.

Essentially trying to tally, boat + cover + boat lift motor + flood level, and make sure I have some "air" in there somewhere.

boat + cover + 1.5'(from builder) + 6'( 500 year historic that hit in 2016). The odds of another 6' level hitting is pretty low, but worth thinking about.