Anyone made home-made shore ramp for boat?

[shinde]

I'm looking to make one of those ramps you crank the boat onto for storage on shore. Just a small 14' boat, so doesn't have to be too heavy duty.

I was thinking of a couple of 2x6's about 16'-20' long, with rollers screwed onto it and a winch connected to the front.

Anyone done this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Gus]

you pretty much have the idea down pat. It will work. My gradpa had one for many years and it worked well. A couple of things I can add for you to consider. On his, the boards were spaced about 2 feet apart maybe a little less. This made the back half of the boat very tippy on top of the ramp. Not usually a big deal but say you want to walk to the back of the boat and hook up a battery charger or something. Just make sure you don't take a fall when the boat leans over to one side. It may be better to angle the whole thing outwards a little bit to give the boat some more stability to counter this. It may be a non issue for you though just something to think about. Make sure you use some rollers and hardware that will not rust even if you only do the last few that will be in more contact with the water. We had one pin that holds the roller rust out and snap off. This left just the hardware there and it put a big ole gouge in the aluminum boat until we realized what was going on. We often staked ours down with a fence post in the front and cement blocks in the rear because it tended to float. If you need to anchor the back, use a board that goes perpendicuar to the rails and is a couple feet wider. Then you can put blocks on them to keep the floating down and the blocks will not be in the way of the boat hull. That's about all I can think of. I'd get you some picturs of ours, but it was given away when my grandpa could no longer use the smaller boat.

Good luck.

[Finns]

In Canada they make them out of small pine trees. Two long poles with several shorter ones nailed across to look like a ladder. Cheap.

Finns.