best way to move 16' boat around

[leechlake]

I store a boat at my dad's cabin on a little lake that's near our cabin. It's a 16' lund with a 25 horse, I believe it's a model SSV but it's just a fishing boat, no floor etc.

The problem is that we pull it up on shore normally so water drains because my dad is too old to run the water out if it rains a lot. Pulling it out on shore is no problem because the shore is flat and I can use an ATV or my truck to get it out. The problem is getting it back in, it's just a little bit too heavy. We designed a roller device out of pvc and while it works pretty well but still when putting the boat back in the bottom of the boat usually gets stuck in the muck, it's like trying to plow with a transom.

I've finally thought the only good way to do this is to buy an old trailer and just use that to pull it out put it in. Any other ideas guys have to alleviate the back breaking/near impossible chore of getting it back into the water especially solo. I don't want to buy a boat lift for it

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I saw a slick deal at the Sport Show this spring. It used two plastic covered alum tubes that attached to an aluminum frame. The boat would guide between the tubes. The the tubes were modular so you could make it the length you wanted. I'll look for the name.

[nofishfisherman]

I friend on mine with a cabin has a boat house along the lake sure up at his cabin and they basically designed their own boat trailer that allows them to guide the boat on and then raise it up into the boat house.

They basically used a train track concept. They have some sort of metal rails that go down into the water like a boat ramp would and then they built a simple trailer frame using 4 car tire rims and some sort of simple axels. The tire rims run along the metal rails from up on shore down into the water. They have it all set up so the trailer assembly is connected to a normal tailer winch in the boat house so they can use the winch to haul up the boat/trailer. When they want to use the boat they just use the winch to lower the whole thing down into the water and the boat floats off like it does when loading a boat at any landing. When they are done they drive the boat back up on their homemade trailer and whinch the whole thing back up into the boat house.

[delcecchi]

I have a couple possibilities. The first is like nofisherman said. He build a thing out of wood with boat trailer rollers and winch that would pull the boat up and out of the water.

The second is something I did long ago, and have used it recently as well. I bought a bilge pump, put some of that corrigated hose on it, and put clips on the wires, extending them if necessary, so it could clip onto a battery in the boat. You just lay the pump in the bottom of the boat, aim the hose over the side, and clip to the battery. Relax for a few minutes and boat is empty. Unclip, roll up hose, put away.

If you wanted to get fancy you could install a bilge pump permanently.

[CaptainMusky]

While corrugated hose will certainly work for the bilge, a smooth hose is much more efficient in removal of water. The corrugations trap air which acts as a siphon when trying to pump the water out and makes it less efficient. Not a major deal, we arent dealing with a boat the size of the titanic, but regular old garden hose would work great.

[delcecchi]

I figured the corrugated stuff was made to fit over the outlet of the pump. And I didn't need 25 feet.

But sure, if you got something that works laying around use it. Never thought of garden hose.

[kerryd15]

Sounds like you need a center rail that will hold the back of the boat up out of the mud. Have you tried a 2x6 or 4x4 to slide the boat on. If you built it right you could put a pully on the end and winch it back into the water. You could put rollers on to make it slide easier or a plastice cover to make it slippery.