Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hi All,

I dont have a trailer for my toon and it stays in the water at a small local marina. The lake will be lowered next month for about 10 days to allow folks to repair docks and boathouses etc.

Will it hurt anything to just let my toon go down with the water and just sit in the mud for a week? I can check on it when it gets close to bottom to make sure there are no rocks or anything that the toon will come down on.

Thanks

Should be like beaching it as long as the toons are sitting flat on the ground

It may sink down into the mud if you have a soft bottom---2500 lbs sitting on soft mud for 10 days---you may find it sunk below the pontoons---could be a bear to unstick it when the water comes back..

I would beach it now at the current level where the ground is dry.

It's mud, but it's not that soft.

wwind3 wrote:It may sink down into the mud if you have a soft bottom---2500 lbs sitting on soft mud for 10 days---you may find it sunk below the pontoons---could be a bear to unstick it when the water comes back..

I would beach it now at the current level where the ground is dry.

The pontoons will float on mud just as they do on water. It won't sink any lower than the usuall water line.

"The pontoons will float on mud just as they do on water. It won't sink any lower than the usuall water line."

Explain how that works please.

If you can get in and walk around on the lake bottom to fix piers, boathouses, ect after a few days then your bottom must be pretty hard. They lower our lake and only the top few inches get hard after a few weeks up to 4 months below the mud is feet thick. If your toon breaks through the hard top then it will stay there when the lake comes back up, Results a sunk toon.

Think the hard pan varies in different locations. I was surprised when they dug the footing for my sea wall. The hard pan was probably less than a foot down. We have red clay here in Ga. so it is pretty hard. Guess it also depends on the age of the lake, about the amount of silt being on the bottom also.
doc

Make sure you lift the motor. You don't want the lower unit in the mud.

Mud sucks....literally

Can't know where the poster lives or boats. But I would be extremely leery of leaving a boat sit on the bottom anyway. But if the mud is subject to the freezing and thawing of the northern states I'd be afraid of all the incurred stresses caused by the cycles and potential damage caused by such stresses.

Not knowing the "PH" of the mud I would worry about it attacking the aluminum. Just a thought.

could get some 2 x 6's for it to sit on, but run them long ways so the weight is even on the toons, that would keep it out of the mud.

Thanks for all the comments.

It will only be sitting there for about a week, so i am not worried about freezing (I'm in Alabama dont have to worry about that anyway) or ph of the mud affecting the toons.

Herb had a good suggestion about the 2x6's but unless i get really lucky i wont be there when the toons are just above the ground. I have to leave enough slack in the ropes to let the boat go down. So i wont be able to know exactly where it will set down.

I think like Herb said at the beginning...it will be just like beaching it for a week. Ill just make sure there are no rocks under the toons and let her sit on the bottom. I'll take some pictures if i get the chance and post them.

What lake are you on in Alabama? I'm on Logan Martin and when Alabama power lowers the water it's down for the winter til late March. They start lowering it in October

Yea a week shouldn't kill it no matter what.