Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hi Guys.... well it was saturday morning and my son ( who has a pontoon and who was instrumental in me buying one last fall ) was coming into town for the day to visit and wanted us to take the boat out. No problem, but he wants to take grandpa too.. again no problem except that he's 83 years old and getting him in and out of the boat is hard ( bad knees ). So anyway, just happens that my boat is at the dealership for her 10 hour service, I run by to pick her up and pay the bill and head to the house. Ok, now i'm knew to boating so when I got the bill for the 10 hour service I paid it without even thinking. $228.22 But when I get back to the house, I'm looking at the bill... when I left the boat I told them that it appeared that one of the tires on the trailer was low and could they just check the air pressure in my trailer tires... they did, and they charged me $25 to put air in my tire.. how un believeable is that I call the dealer but the guy i need to talk to is out to lunch... I'll catch up with him monday.. Get everyone out to the lake, cloudy but only a 30% chance of light rain... I back the boat off the trailer and what do you know, no problem. ( my previous posts i've mentioned unloading and loading are issues for me being new to boating ). Get gramps and the family in the boat and we head out from northwest louisiana and go over into east texas.. that 30% chance of light rain turned into two bouts of torential downpours...we put the top up, got under some trees and tied up for nearly 2 hours til it passed. finally head back to the launch and all I hear is gramps complaining about how the boat ride is "too" long.. what are you gonna do? anyway run the boat up on the trailer, nail it first time my confidence is getting better.. then when we're taking all the stuff off the boat my wife says, wow, big dent at the back of the pontoon on the fencing right above the outboard.. turns out when I trim all the way up, the top of my motor pushs up against the fencing. No real problem, the dent pretty much popped right back out, but I thought it was weired the motor would go that far up..but like I said, no real problem as I dont have to trim her up "all" the way. Could my motor be mounted wrong for this to happen? All in all it was a blast, but I have to confess this was the first time my new little benny got her seats soaked out in the rain, kinda took the new off of her.. My son just laughed his ass off, kept saying,pop, it's a boat. I've got vinyl flooring, no carpet so thats good, but do you think the rain can cause damage to the inside of the boat.. we wiped everything down when we got home. Going back out tomorrow ( without gramps ) I love this stuff..can't believe i waited til I was in my mid 50';s to buy a boat... should have done this years ago.. Nothing like toonin

the joys of boating lol.. were you on Caddo?

wwind3 wrote:the joys of boating lol.. were you on Caddo?

Yes sir... we were on Caddo. put in on the Louisiana side from a small launch in Mooringsport ( just north of Shreveport ), but the heavy rains came when we got on the texas side near Uncertain, Tx. But the scenery over there is wonderful.....You familiar with Caddo?

ROLAND wrote:

wwind3 wrote:the joys of boating lol.. were you on Caddo?

Yes sir... we were on Caddo. put in on the Louisiana side from a small launch in Mooringsport ( just north of Shreveport ), but the heavy rains came when we got on the texas side near Uncertain, Tx. But the scenery over there is wonderful.....You familiar with Caddo?

Very--grew up in N La(Hanesville) and lived at Blanchard a couple years. A great trip is to launch at Hwy 43 or the state park and motor up to Jefferson--you can park the boat and walk into town. Good day trip.

You can also launch at the end ot state line rd at a house that has a ramp--costs 3 bucks i think--i think you could launch a toon there--i used to launch a 15 ft VIP bass boat there---you are just a few yds from the channel markers.

Your son's right, it's a boat, getting it wet is not a problem as long as you wipe it down so mildew can't form when it's covered! I know how you feel, the first time mine got rained on my son had to remind me too! Just wipe her down and keep boating and enjoying it!

It sounds funny that we worry about our boats getting wet. I am the same way. But just make sure it is dry before putting the cover on and you will be fine. A good rain washes the interoir and carpet down..

they charged me $25 to put air in my tire..

Shop rates should run around $100 and hour. Unless it took them 15 minutes to air up a tire, I would ask for some money back.