Boat

[the.wilsons]

We have a 2014 XLR 395 AMP with a 14 ft garage, and was wondering if anyone has put a boat in their garage. I am thinking of a 12 ft Boston Whaler or a Carolina Skiff. My thoughts are to put a folding tongue on the trailer and use a small electric winch in the camper to pull it up the ramp. I found a good used one close by and am going to go look at it and take some measurements to see if it will all fit but was going to see what others thought here first?

[Karl4Cat]

I put a very large PWC in our 395. I could not utilize the folding tongue so I had to leave the slider open with the tongue going into the kitchen. I used a battery Warn winch to pull it in. The PWC and trailer were about 1300#. It was not a fun task getting the ski in or out with the winch but it did work.

[Oaklevel]

Just asking is not a 12 ft boat without the motor or out drive ?? A boat might work but it would have to be small and under the garage weight capacity.

Good Luck !!!

[the.wilsons]

I could see where it will be somewhat of a pain to get it to go where you want it in the garage, have you found a way to make it any easier? The weight would be no problem because it would be way under 1500lbs for boat, motor and trailer.

[the.wilsons]

In my mind it should work but never know until I try it. Was thinking about putting the younger jack/wheel as far back as possible and cut the trailer younger as close to that as possible. That way the trailer tongue would not be out much further then the boat. And like you did using a winch to pull the unit up the ramp door.

[Karl4Cat]

That would work on the fold away tongue. My trailer didn't have the space to do it. A fun thing is as you pull the trailer in the front jack's wheel will always fall sideways into the gap between the ramp and the trailer frame. Another thing to remember is you will be attaching the winch to the center forward d-ring in the floor. If you hook the end of the cable to the very front of the trailer, it will be all the way in before the trailer wheels are beyond the beaver tail in the floor. So, you need to find a place to hook it further back on the trailer. Also, remember to buy a winch with a brake. A standard winch will not have one and when you let go of the trigger any tension on the line will pull it back off the spool. Lastly, because it's attached to the floor and the boat and trailer will be below the breakover point on the beaver tail section of the floor, you will want to change the winch cable to synthetic. As metal cable drags across your rubber flooring it will gouge it up. The metal cable that comes with the winch is also too short. You need at least a 25 foot synthetic.

I used this winch. The ski is now sold as it was not our favorite toy and was too much of a pain to load and unload. (Remember, you will need the winch to unload as well so the boat doesn't go flying down the ramp...)

http://www.amazon.com/885005-PullzAl...+battery+winch

[ykdave]

well i suppose it depends if you want to keep the outboard on the boat and the trailer dimensions.

a 12ft boat with an outboard is going to eat up at least 14ft without a trailer. even a folding tongue trailer is going to add probably a foot. i dont doubt youd get it in there, but youll have to leave the slider open and the tongue would be in the kitchen

[the.wilsons]

The boat is actually 11ft 6in and figured a foot for the motor so that's a total of 12'6''. I know it would be tight but don't know any other way to carry it legally. And that is the same winch I was looking at to do this with.