Drive on floating dock

You know the drill..

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Opie
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Drive on floating dock

#1 Post by Opie » Sun Oct 01, 2017 6:04 pm

Anyone have these floating drive on docks? Let me know your thoughts, cost and experience.
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NonHyphenAmerican
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#2 Post by NonHyphenAmerican » Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:13 pm

Link?

Pictures?

Name of company even?

;-)
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Bamaman
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#3 Post by Bamaman » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:09 pm

They may be okay with smaller hulled boats, but pontoons are too large to manhandle. Our lake property is too wavy for any floating dock.
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Opie
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#4 Post by Opie » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:26 pm

I have googled several manufacturers, this is just one of them; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=legOtlpQN5Q
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Opie
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#5 Post by Opie » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:27 pm

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BobL
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#6 Post by BobL » Mon Oct 02, 2017 11:01 am

At one time, I had a drive on for my jet skis. When the water got rough (be it boat traffic or weather), it wasn't pretty. Jet ski popped a rope a few times and it tore the crap out of my cleats and pier (where the dock was tied to).
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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#7 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:51 am

We explored a bunch of different options. Due to a rapid change in the water depth off our shoreline and a mucky bottom, a lot of the lift options available were not a good fit with our needs. Also looked at inflatable bladder lifts eg. http://www.airdock.com/, enclosures that pump out the water around your hull eg. https://dockpro.com.au/products/what-is ... l-sea-pen/ and the Jetdock type drive-on docks. We ended up going with the Jet-Dock system. It was expensive! But given what we spent on the boat, and the length of time we anticipate using the boat, it should amortize out well over time.

Not going to lie. There were headaches and learning curve but in the end we're pretty happy. Having access all the way around makes putting the cover on way easier. Our boat is almost four years old and most people think the tunes look brand new. It can be a little bit tricky to thread the needle in a cross wind, but that's true of pontoons regardless of the lift style.

If I lived further south I think I would go with the sea-pen type enclosure, but for our uses Jet-Dock's been pretty good.

Should note, we're in a pretty protected area just off big water so wave action doesn't get too bad. Wakes and such hardly make a dent. Big boats mean lots more stability on the jetdock than a waverunner might have.
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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#8 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:52 am

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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#9 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:52 am

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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#10 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 12:01 pm

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Note that we added some bunk guides to make it easier to line up the boat and it provides some corrective guidance to the toons. this wasn't stock on JetDock, but the messed and sent us the wrong size for centre section and we repurposed them.
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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#11 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 12:02 pm

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Opie
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#12 Post by Opie » Wed Oct 04, 2017 12:03 pm

Jdiger, what did it cost you?
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jediger
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#13 Post by jediger » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:39 pm

Bring your wallet! :( Especially with the Cdn/US exchange rate, it wasn't cheap. But it did EXACTLY what we wanted it too. There's about 6 feet of water under the stern and about 18 inches of water under the bow. We were able to keep it parallel to the dock and not stick out significantly into the channel. We can walk around the boat on three sides, and get the whole boat out of the water. We can even dryboat on the lift if we don't feel like taking it out that day. Lift stays in the water all winter and there's no significant maintenance on it.

I'm not sure we've ever used the winch. Ended up taking it off this year as a tripping hazard.

It can also be a little tricky to line up the points on pontoons you can't see below deck with a target on the lift. Ended up putting two marker sticks in line that are visible in from the helm when in the correct position. If those sticks on shore are in line as I approach the lift I know I'm lined up. Don't even look at the lift itself anymore.

Another thing to think about is permanence. Those poles anchoring the drydock are twenty feet long. They stick up about 5 feet above the dock and go down about 12 feet into the muck. They are not going anywhere. Heaven help us if we ever wanted to move it though. I'd probably cut it off at the waterline and then pound the remaining stump down until it was completely submerged in the muck and not a hazard.
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tkrein
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#14 Post by tkrein » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:24 pm

just a side note if you put a hose down the tubes it would eventually loosen up the poles by the water force.
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Opie
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Re: Drive on floating dock

#15 Post by Opie » Wed Oct 04, 2017 4:06 pm

Ok.........how much?
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