Pontoon Bunk Trailer issues

[shardy217]

Hey iboaters -

I just purchased new carpet for my “work in progress” pontoon and trailer and after looking at the bolster and brackets I think I want to change those out as well.

I attached some pictures so you guys could see what I’m talking about - but the toons don’t sit in the bunk brackets well. It’s currently 2x4’s with no carpet and the 2x4’s are held on with 1 stainless lag bolt per side per bracket. I have 20” diameter toons and it seems this trailer was made for a pontoon with smaller diameter toons to seat properly. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for new bolsters/brackets for my setup and I could use with 2x6’s and have the toons actually seat in the bracket instead of just having partial contact with both boards. This could also be totally normal and I’m just being paranoid.

Thanks all!

EDIT: I should’ve added - this is a 24’ pontoon boat with a soon to be 90hp motor (hopefully) so it’s fairly heavy.

 

[NYBo]

You are only going to have that single point of contact with each bunk no matter what you do. The only advantage to going to 2x6 bunks is more strength.

 

[shardy217]

You are only going to have that single point of contact with each bunk no matter what you do. The only advantage to going to 2x6 bunks is more strength.

Thanks NYBo - is it normal to just have one lag holding it like that? If so - I’ll just go ahead and replace it and save myself some money on new brackets.

 

[NYBo]

Lag bolts are commonly used but if you are replacing the bunks, I would suggest through-bolting them. You can use carriage bolts and put the carpeting over them.

 

[Scott Danforth]

use a 3/4 spade bit to lower the heads of the carriage bolts in the wood

 

[ahicks]

Regarding the concern over the narrow "contact patch", consider the skin of the 'toon shouldn't be supporting much weight. It's the bulkheads inside those tubes that support it at rest like this - which is a real good reason to get something sturdy under that rear bulkhead - especially if you're going to go with a heavy engine.

 

[shardy217]

Appreciate you guys.

ahicks - what are you thinking for the rear bulkhead? Should I go with 2x6’s instead? I believe there was an 18-20’ boat on the trailer before I purchased it - the boat now is 24’. I could slide everything towards the hitch and add some more brackets.

Another thing I should’ve mentioned - the current bunks boards only measure 16’ which kind of scares me. Had no issues with it last year though but was only toting a 25hp around!

 

[ahicks]

I would need more pics to share an opinion that's worth anything, though I suspect a trailer purchased for a 18-20 foot boat is going to be struggling with a 24'. You can move the boat forward as far as practical, just realize your tongue weight is going to increase, possibly to the point you're going to want to scoot the axle forward to compensate.

How important this is will likely depend on how much trailering you do. If it's just in and out once a year, maybe not that big a deal. If it's every time you use the boat, it's probably something you want to do right.