How much do you love your boat?

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

I figured that I would post on the great lengths that I have gone to; to ensure that my boat will be safe and out of the weather.

The first hurdle that I had to overcome was that I only had a two car garage with a wall in the way. It is amazing what you can do with a few...scratch that...a lot of beer and two crowbars. Once the wall was destroyed and rebuilt to the side, the garage was now a three car or rather a two car/ 1 boat garage.

The second hurdle was the fact that I have a 90 degree driveway with a 16' drop-off that would not let me get the boat into the garage. My Mechanical Engineering buddy Big E designed a mounting plate for a Warn works 3200ACR winch; which was bolted into the concrete with six 1,500 psi lags.

With a little finesse and a lot of careful measuring and planning, loading the boat in and out of the garage is now a breeze. Thanks especially to my wonderful wife for letting me "modify" the garage and to two of the best buddies in the entire world - "Uncle Pete" and "Big E" (Tommy would have helped, but he was working on his Mustang..broken rear axle from racing! imagine that..working on a Ford!) So does anyone else have proof that they love their boat as much as we do?

Check out the entire process in the following links!
I made this a little easier. Here is a webpage with all of the pictures listed below.
Boat Project Page (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/MoombaLoad/index.htm)

Individual Pics on these - same as above.
Garage Before (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 1.jpg)
Garage During Deconstruction (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 4.jpg)
Winch in the floor (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 121.jpg)
Backing In (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 122.jpg)
Jack Knife Alignment - Scary (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 125.jpg)
Boat all Happy (http://lisaandjesse.5u.com/cgi-bin/i/MoombaLoad/misc 131.jpg)

[Smrtz]

Oh man.... FULL RESPECT!!!!!

Thats awesome... Im dealing with a similar situation right now in that I have a single car garage and I always kept my other boat in it ... but it isnt long enough for the outback. So the plan was to extend the garage and make it long enough for the boat . Behind the garage I have 4, 50 ft pine trees the roots are making it impossible to lay my concrete to extend the garage I will have to have all the trees cut down all the roots dug up and fill put in before I can lay the cement pad to extend the garage on. Just so this is clear I put my boat in indoor storage for the winter second weekend in October... I havent even been able to look at it!...Its killin me..

I know it'll be worth it just so I dont have to be away from my boat next winter!

104 more days until it comes out of storage...

[smokedog2]

Well,

You forced me to beat the forum into submission. Since I cannot post on this darn thing my pix are under:

www.boatpix.shutterfly.com

There is a pix of tube wars – finally, and a couple of my boat storage. I owned the storage before the boat and now rent out about half of it. My hope is that the property will appreciate about as fast as the boat depreciates, leaving me net zero in 10 years.

I’ll let you know if it works. The building coat about the same as the boat. I hade to reinforce the main support posts and fix a few leaks.

Yep it is huge and yep it is full.

SD2

[smokedog2]

Oh,

I had to build a road as well. 1000 feet of road. OUCH!

SD2

[smokedog2]

If you look close at picture 3 the left side is the tail light of a trailer and the right side is the hitch to my 18' Lund. When I say huge, I mean it.

Exhibit A for the theory that any man can fill any garage in less than a year :p

SD2

[Smrtz]

Lets all face it......It really is a small price to pay. Any task you have undertaken, any extra cash you have shelled out....totally worth it!

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

Thanks Smrtz a lot of prep and planning went into the entire project. Also, I forgot to add, the reason for the winch and chocks (by the way, the chocks are rated for a firetruck on a 13 degree grade) is that my driveway is sloped about 7-10 degrees towards the 16' dropoff! I know that it is over-engineered, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!

[Yellowmobius]

That looks like quite the project. I am glad to say I am lucky my garage did not need any modification (Glad to have the swing-away hitch). I have a little slope to my driveway I just back in at a good angle and then straighten out. I have about 2 inches on either side of the trailer when it goes through the garage door, depending on what we have been up to in the boat this can be a challenge at times.
As far as care for my boat I think I rate right up there with the best. It gets a wipe down every time it comes out the water, always stored in my garage, waxed frequently, vacuumed often with an occasional carpet shampoo. If the carpet is wet I always throw a fan in it over night to dry the carpet out.

[smokedog2]

I have found a few minutes work on the hull bottom while it is still in the water is way easier than 10 minutes after it is out of the water.

I just add that to the estimated pick up time.

SD2

[Smrtz]

Hey as far as wiping down the hull goes I have been concerned about that because I wipe it down with the rest of the boat of course the part of the hull that rests on the trailor I can never get at... anyone have any input on how I can wipe down or rewax those spots cause i figure those spots are where the most rubbing and removal of wax will occur

Thanks

[BensonWdby]

We bought a lake home so we would have a place to keep the boat (and ski). Little did we know we would be undertaking a a 75% remodel - But have not had to mess with the garage. It's just that the boat take up both stalls during the off-season. In season - on a lift.....

Dave

[Nafplio]

Nice job AL! You've got me beat. All I had to do was kick the wife's 4x4 out of the garage. She's been a great sport though. So, I scrape her windshield if I'm still home in the morning.
The LSV takes most of the garage. If I ever buy another house, it will have a shop like SD2's. I'm not posting a picture 'cause I haven't got a rackjack yet..

[Yellowmobius]

What the hold up on the RackJack, get one ordered!

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

Thanks Nafplio, it took a lot of planning to pull it off. I thought about the option of putting the wife's car outside because the driveway on her side is much more level than mine; but after she bought a new car I knew that was out. That is the reason that I took the wall out. Now the LSV sits in the back of the garage with my Tahoe in front of it. There is about 4 feet between the tongue and my front bumper and the wife got to keep her spot as well! The wall I took down was purposeless anyway. It just sectioned off the garage for no reason. I was planning on taking it down even before I had the LSV, but what a great reason to get it started!! So now everybody is happy. Wifes car stayed where it was and so did my Tahoe!

[qb12]

Ed, That thing has to get nasty.

Come on do it evey day.

doug, t-tulsa

[jburnside]

I extended the front of my garage 2 feet so the door opening would end up being flush with the overhang it used to have. I ordered the boat with a swing-away tongue because even with the garage extension it was not gonna fit with a fixed tongue. Well I get the boat home and back it into my now "OVERSIZED" 1 1/2 car garage (after removing the swim platform) and find out that the overall length listed does not include the hydraulic wake plate...

So I got the saw out and cut a hole in the back of the garage to let the plate stick out! Then I added a make-shift cover to go on the outside of the garage. My neighbors thought I was absolutely crazy but it fits and I never have to worry about what might be happening to my baby if she were out of my site.

[Yellowmobius]

WOW,

now that is a TIGHT fit!

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

Well I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. If you you manage to get your boat in the house and you have enough room for the tower to stay up as I have done. DO NOT roll your boat forward untill you remove all of the 300 watt bulbs that are in the path. They make a really cool popping sound and the filaments shorting out on the tower make a really neat sizzling sound, followed by the wife yelling "What did you do!" Now I have a broken bulb and a boat full of glass. Insert mass amounts of cuss words here....