Pontoon Lift Question

[sikaso]

What do you find is the best setup for a pontoon lift.

1. Bunks for each toon

2. 2 by's standing on edge lifting against the deck

3. Other

I assume the 2X10 or 2X12 would be the best scenario because it would also help guide the boat on and off, but wanted to hear if anyone has any helpful tips.

Thanks,

Kevin

[IcePro]

sikaso....

I am in the same market as you.

Hope you do not mind if I throw out another question, could be considered other.

What are peoples thoughts on Sea-Legs instead of a lift?

Thanks

[leech~~]

I'm at a resort all summer which has about 40 boat slips so I get to see a lot of different Pontoon lift designs and watch people bring them in on their lift in bad weather. The guy right next to me has a pretty big pontoon and his lift has the upright 2 X 10 or 12's. He also has a canopy on his and I feel so sorry for him as he does the last minute fire drill with his wife and kids running back and forth trying to line it up on the boards just to have him smash into his lift anyway. He even has had to jump in the water a few times when the waves were really bad to guide it in which seems pretty friggen scary if you ask me.

The issue is the pontoon stringers underneath and the board ends catching when it's bobbing up and down. I have suggested a few times to him to get the bunks which would set lower and the boat would just bounce up and down on them until he can crank the wheel a few times and would give him more room to clear the canopy. And maybe save his wife or kids from losing their heads some day!

[leech~~]

sikaso....

I am in the same market as you.

Hope you do not mind if I throw out another question, could be considered other.

What are peoples thoughts on Sea-Legs instead of a lift?

Thanks

There are also two pontoons with Sea-Legs as well at the resort and there are two issues with them. Really uneven shore line that drops away more then they can adjust. And if you are at a set dock depth like at a resort where your slip is where you park it. On one bad storm where the lake level had raised over night his pontoon was getting beat to death on the dock because it could not touch anymore and the waves were coming in, which by the way was a brand new beautifull black pontoon until that night! If they would have been going out he would have found it washed up on the other side of the lake!

[Gus]

We had a lift for a year. Tried both the toon lift and center lift setup. With any type of wind it was too much of a bear to land. Sea legs went on the next year and have no regrets.

With a lift however, you can get a canopy and not have to worry about putting on a snap on cover all the time. You do then however also have to lower the canopy just to get it into the lift.

Plus and minus to them all, however Sea legs sure work good for us.

The legs setup nice and firm so you can use the boat as a nice platform at the end of the dock when not on water. Our shoreline is quite irregular but you figure out landing and raising pretty easy. And yes, if there is wind or storm coming, gotta get em up so they don't walk. Not really a big deal if you know what to do.

Just a few of my thoughts.

[sikaso]

I would think I could get more headroom from the canopy with the center lift because I could adjust the 2x's so the pontoons are only a couple inches from the lift frame. Also could angle cut the ends of the 2X's to eliminate any hang-ups.

My inlaws have Sea Legs on theirs and they do work pretty slick, also can work as an anchor when fishing in shallow water. However their 1yr old pontoon ended upside down after a big storm, not sure if the wind blew it over or if it was a wave/wind combination, he probably didn't have it up high enough though.

Since we already have a decent lift with a canopy probably won't be looking at Sea Legs, but hoping the canopy and bimini top isn't more of a hassle than installing the snap-on cover all the time!?!

Although I do agree with the convenience of using the pontoon as an extension of the dock, we used to hangout on our old pontoon quite often while it was docked with no canopy on the old lift.

[diederich06]

Definently go with option 2, pick up from the deck of the pontoon.. This will work as your guide also, if its setup correctly there will be no issues.

Sea legs are very dangerous and you run the risk of the pontoon tipping in a windy situation, also you will need to cover our pontoon each time where as a lift with canopy protects our investment..

Also, sea legs are roughly the same price as a lift, all they have is a cool factor at the sandbar..

[IcePro]

If you have a lift with a canopy how do you stop the birds from nesting in the lift.

[leech~~]

If you have a lift with a canopy how do you stop the birds from nesting in the lift.

On my lift they only seem to want to build nests right in the 4 corners. I tried all kinds of things like hanging an Owl and I have seen people hang old CD disks on fishing line to spin in the wind. None of that seems to work as far as I could see? What does work for me is to put rags-old beach towel in all 4 corners hung from one of the bungy clips and then tuck the ends into the bungy cords to make a triangle out of the rag. This blocks off the canopy frame and they never seem to try and build one then since there is not enough room. I have been doing this for about 4-5 years now and it works great!