Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

hi guys we went out to ute lake this last weekend and saturday was perfect not to hot calm waters and not very many people on the lake. i couldent of asked for a better day to spend on the cruiser. but "ya i know there is always a but" on sunday the wind was about 15 mph not bad until we went to load up the two docks point to the east an the wind was blowing to the north. i didnt think we were ever going to get that silly thing loaded. finally two guys got tired of watching us struggle and gave us a hand.

so how do you guys handle the wind???? are there any special tricks to get a party cruiser loaded ????

thanks

i don't think it has to be a party cruiser for the wind to give you fits i have guides on my trailer on the inside of the tanks so i get a running start and slide it in there if things go wrong put yer head between yer knees and kis yer butt goodbye LOL because at that point you cant do anything anyway

Loading in the wind is fun, if you have room to angle the trailer it helps some times, sometimes you just have to fight it.

yup, I agree.

We put some rub rails on the trailer, they mounted up on the inside of the bunks. Night and day differance. I'll try to post a pic for you in a day or so.

Best thing you can do is intall guide-ons on the back of the trailer. Second would be to get a slip

Drink a little more beer, I find its easyer to dock that way. It takes away from me thinking about ramming something.

If the wind is blowing I line up to the side of where I want to go

let the wind blow me to be lined up. Also going too slow can cause more problems than it is worth, in a wind or on water with a current slower doesn't always work out so good either.... not saying to come in on plane, but too slow can be frustrating.

rub rails ok does any one have some pics???? how long should they be??

arbuckles3 wrote:rub rails ok does any one have some pics???? how long should they be??

Mine are bolter to the frame of the trailer and stick up about 20" above the slides i like them they work good only trouble i have had is if the ramp is real steep you have to watch the "fins" on the front of the tanks so they dont hit the guides if they do they make one hell of a racket (i wont say how i know this LOL

here is a couple links to what some look like... mine is just the straight up pipes with pvc pipes over them to protect the tanks...they look a lot like the last picture here but my trailer is a lot longer and wider and more guides

If you have the factory Tracker trailer, you already have the ones in the last pic. Unfortunately they are useless if the ramp is steep. The ones I am talking about go on the outside of the logs like so:



I never installed them on the PC's trailer because I use my trailer just twice a year, in and out of the slip. Our ramp has a tall bulkhead that blocks the wind as well.

ya i have the factory trailer with the ones in the middle the ramp is steep enough that the boat floats right over the top of the last set the the wind took it an put it sideways on the trailer i will look into the ones on the out side of the logs thanks bad moon

Be careful with the factory guide-ons too. Someone at PDB had an older PC that came down on top of one of them and ruptured the log, BIG hole. He had to have a patch welded over it afterwards.

Greetings...I keep my trailer higher on the dock than usual, get the front of my toons' ligned up, then power up the motor to push me about 3/4 of the way on to the trailer. I then hook up my winch, and have my wife winch while I throttle up again. With the trailer up higher I have less "float or drift" so I am locked into the groves almost all the way up. I am running an 09 party barge 24 which is actually 25' 10" so I understand the frustration when the back end wants to go where it wants to go.

I hate the wind too! Ruined an outboard log serveral years ago. Thought I was lined up on the trailer racks pulled out and the inboard side of the log road up on a guide.

About the only thing that works for me is kind of approaching it like an airplane landing whether coming in the slip or the trailer and that is to start up wind quite a ways but under power and hopefully, by the time you approach your trailer and "your drift" was gestimated properly, then power up on the trailer (leaving high out of the water) like most of the other gents had said to try. Good luck.

i was scared of the guide poles poking into my tanks so i cut pieces of sch 40 pvc pipe anout 4" short of the floor and when i had the toon off i put them over the guides and also my guides are only about 4 feet apart so the trailer sit high on the ramp and i power load it just like my bass boat