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Random Quote: They talk of my drinking, but never of my thirst.
I have noticed on my new Sea Hunt that it is extremely difficult and dangerous to board the boat from the tongue of the trailer. I do alot of launching and retreiving by myself. I am trying to come up with a boarding ladder that will either bolt up or weld up to the trailer but don't have any good ideas in my head yet. If anyone has any good ideas, either home-made or manufactured, could you please post some pictures or links to whom I could buy something, it would be much appreciated. I have a TIG welder and would be able to do my own fabrication, but I just don't have any good ideas yet.
I have seen them, but it depends on the length of your trailer tongue. It didn't look homemade, but it would be easier to fabricate than it is to describe. I wish I could find a picture, but I'll try to give you an idea.
It started as a 1 1/4" square tube with a 3" x 3" plate welded to the bottom. This plate is what bolted to the trailer tongue, in front of the winch post. Is was raked back about 45 degrees, so it did not stick straight up, so the top was fairly close to the winch post.
Now picture 3 thin plates each in the shape of a triangle. These plates were about 4" high and maybe 6" wide. These were used for steps. The triangles pointed towards the trailer hitch, and had a notch cut out of the wide part where they were welded to the post.
It was narrow enough to stay out of the way, but easily let you climb up into the boat. They had nonskid on the steps. I wish I had a picture, as I'm probably not describing it very well.
I'm not going to try and describe it but find a dealership that sells pontoon boats. Most of the trailers have a ladder built into the winch post. I have seen some which actually have steps with a hand rail. This should give you some ideas.
Could do what I did on my trailer and put a big aluminum trailer box on the frame of the trailer, lets you jump off easy to the trailer and holds cleaning stuff, extra bearings, hubs, jacks, oil, etc etc.
My wife keeps saying I never listen to her...or something like that.
This may or may not work for you, but it's an idea. For dealing with the boat at the launch this works great for me, but I guess there is room for improvements?
I climb from the tongue jack to the winch stand onto the boat.
Salty,
You bugger, thats a pretty darn good idea. I should be able to weld one step onto the top of the box and wulah, I'm done. Plus, have some more storage. Never enough of that!