Hey good morning all you good buddies,
Well ,we have progressed with the Mary E to the point where we were able to take it on our two week summer family fishing trip in NW Minnesota.
Needless to say, we will never be taking our 16' deep "V" Crestlier to the lake again. The Mary "E" is such a joy to fish from.
However, we did have a ton of difficulty getting it both in and out of the water. At times,I fear we looked much like an old keystone cop comedy to the observers.
We normally launch our 16' Crestliner in front of the cabin with out getting the spindles in the water. That is because our trailer is a tilt tongue model and we have added 5-roller bunkers on both sides.
In order to get the Mary "E" to float off the trailer, we had to get a tractor and back it out into the lake about 30' from shore.
My intention it to avoid this next year and for that reason I am planning on doing two revisions to our trailer. I am therefore hoping you good buddies will share more of your vast knowledge with me.
My plans are to first convert the bunkers from carpet covered to some type of material that will allow the aluminum pontoons to slide with less friction than the current carpet.
I would welcome any suggestions of material, sources and method of application to the current 2" x 6" wooden bunkers.
My second planned modification is to comvert the trailer to a tilt tongue design. I feel confident that it can be done by fabricating two saddles and a channel to fit on top of the existing tongue such that it will drop down out ot the channel/saddles when a pin is removed that pins the channel/saddle to the existing tongue. I hope this is described so that you have an idea what I am thinking.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge with me thus far. We would have never made it this far with the Mary "E" without your help.
Sincerely
MACAMATO
P.S. Our 50th anniversary cruise on the upper Mississippi is still scheduled to commence right after Labor Day. All we have left to do is finish the electrical wiring, do all the planned painting and transfer the camper to the pontoon vessel. We have located a launch ramp that will allow us to float the Mary "E"
off the trailer without getting the towing vessel into the water.
Well ,we have progressed with the Mary E to the point where we were able to take it on our two week summer family fishing trip in NW Minnesota.
Needless to say, we will never be taking our 16' deep "V" Crestlier to the lake again. The Mary "E" is such a joy to fish from.
However, we did have a ton of difficulty getting it both in and out of the water. At times,I fear we looked much like an old keystone cop comedy to the observers.
We normally launch our 16' Crestliner in front of the cabin with out getting the spindles in the water. That is because our trailer is a tilt tongue model and we have added 5-roller bunkers on both sides.
In order to get the Mary "E" to float off the trailer, we had to get a tractor and back it out into the lake about 30' from shore.
My intention it to avoid this next year and for that reason I am planning on doing two revisions to our trailer. I am therefore hoping you good buddies will share more of your vast knowledge with me.
My plans are to first convert the bunkers from carpet covered to some type of material that will allow the aluminum pontoons to slide with less friction than the current carpet.
I would welcome any suggestions of material, sources and method of application to the current 2" x 6" wooden bunkers.
My second planned modification is to comvert the trailer to a tilt tongue design. I feel confident that it can be done by fabricating two saddles and a channel to fit on top of the existing tongue such that it will drop down out ot the channel/saddles when a pin is removed that pins the channel/saddle to the existing tongue. I hope this is described so that you have an idea what I am thinking.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge with me thus far. We would have never made it this far with the Mary "E" without your help.
Sincerely
MACAMATO
P.S. Our 50th anniversary cruise on the upper Mississippi is still scheduled to commence right after Labor Day. All we have left to do is finish the electrical wiring, do all the planned painting and transfer the camper to the pontoon vessel. We have located a launch ramp that will allow us to float the Mary "E"
off the trailer without getting the towing vessel into the water.
