Panicking at size of boat needed! Talk me down, please.

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chrislrob

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Hi, all.

Been lurking here for a few weeks after the site was recommended on another forum. Great place. I'm a newbie fisherman that has decided to buy a boat. Been reading a lot about "rightsizing" your boat: making sure it's big enough and stable enough for your plans.

I am 6' 1", 280 lbs. I was originally going to get a 10 foot jon boat to fish small lakes and rivers around Chicago. I want a very stable boat and I *might* want to mod it later, so I was told to go bigger. I am currently scouring craigslist for a 1448 or 1442 aluminum jon.

The main reason I wanted a smaller boat in the first place was that I have a two-car garage with two cars in it. And a fairly small backyard. And no friends nearby that really care about fishing. Yet. So that means that I'll be wrestling with the boat every time I take it out.

I have a side gate and a garage with a side door. That means that I will have to take the boat off of the trailer and get both it and the trailer into my yard through a doorway each time I go out.

Today I paced off fourteen feet by five feet and thought to myself, "Self," I thought, "That is a LOT of boat and trailer!"

Am I fooling myself here? Can I do this? *Will* I do this? How much is this sucker likely to weigh? Can one man move a 14 foot trailer sideways?

For me, if I have to put the boat in storage somewhere, it defeats the purpose of having one. Plus, the cost kills the deal.

Should I go smaller? Wait until we buy a bigger house? Stop whining? What? :?
 
6'2" 235lbs here and I move a 1448 Big Jon with no problems. I have fished from a 10ft jon boat remember trying to stay in the boat more then actually fishing.
 
chrislrob said:
I have a side gate and a garage with a side door. That means that I will have to take the boat off of the trailer and get both it and the trailer into my yard through a doorway each time I go out.

That would be enough reason for me to not get a 14' boat. YET.

Do you have to have a trailer no matter what you buy? (Specifically, what is the toe vehicle?) As a newbie fisherman, you could also consider buying a kayak, riverhawk, crawdad etc...that wouldn't require as much "wrestling" to take out and put away each trip. Naturally, there are trade off's with any option....

IMHO, A 10' boat with someone your size (same as me) is trouble waiting to happen. The trouble goes up significantly when someone else gets in that size boat with you.
 
I'm about your size and last year I bought a 10'6" pond boat, thinking it would do the trick for me. It lasted about about 3 weeks, until the day i tried to get in the bow of it off the dock. and ended up in the lake. While the 14 footer will be a challenge to store, it will be a joy to fish out of. Ended up with a 15' Mod V Mirrocraft.

Is it possible to just widen the gate so you that you can push the trailer through with the boat on it?
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but... first, you do not want a 10 foot boat if you are wanting something stable. They are a bit more stable than a canoe, but not much.

Second, you are not going to move a 14 foot boat trailer on it's side through a door. Just not going to happen.

I have a 1442 with 18hp outboard on a tilt trailer. I can push/pull the entire rig anywhere I want to (including through the back yard to the driveway, roughly 100 yards of turf at a slight incline) but there is no way I could flip the trailer up on it's side and move it anywhere without tearing something off of it by dragging it. I'm 6'5" @ 250 and don't know that I could even pick it up to attempt to carry it like that.

A 1448 is a super stable platform for a "small" boat but most of them are not lightweight by themselves, either.
 
When I said I move a 1448 easy, that would be ROLLING it, no way you could flip it on its side and move it...
 
Thanks for the replies, guys!

Just to be clear, I'm thinking that I'll have to take my un-modified 1448 off the trailer, turn it sideways, and bring it through the door.

I would then do the same thing with the unloaded trailer: turn it sideways and push/pull it through the door.

In truth, my back gate is a little wider than my garage side door.

And, bassboy1, my garage ceiling is peaked and unfinished.

Maybe....

Lemme do some measurements.
 
With what you are describing, if you can not store it outside, I would go with either a kayak or canoe. A G3 1448 jon boat is going to weigh around 233lbs and is going to be very difficult to lift by yourself. A trailer, in my best guess, is going to weigh close to the same or more. Even if you can lift that much weight, it is going to be very encombersom to lift and move.

I personally have a kayak (I'm 6'2" and weigh 250lbs) and I love kayak fishing. The only reason I even bought a tin was so I could take someone with me fishing. I have a 14' kayak with a weight capacity of around 450lbs and it only weighs around 55lbs. I can toss it on the car to go fishing, and when I'm done I can easily carry it back into the garage, hook the ropes to it and pull it (with pulleys) to the ceiling of my garage and it's out of the way.
 
Second idea: If you can't store the boat in the top of the garage, but can still attach a chain fall up there, rig up a quick connect method to latch onto one side of the boat, so that when you lift, it lifts on it's side. Same for the trailer. Build, or have some custom dollies built that hold the boat and trailer on their sides. Drop on the dollies, then your back to pushing it by hand, which is easy.
 
Okay, so thinking about this a little more, I think I can use a hoist to hang this in my garage.

Garage is 18ft wide, exposed joist ceiling, exposed brick sides.

I dismissed hanging it from the ceiling originally because I had no idea that there were so many systems for hanging boats and such.

I worried about the weight. I worried about having it hanging above my wife's head.

I'm doing some checking on how I can hang it crosswise at the rear of the garage, above the car's hoods. That way, it's both out of the way of my overhead door and not hanging like the Sword of Damocles above my family.

As for the weight, I figure that between brick walls, pulleys, ropes, straps, winches, and ceiling joists, there's got to be a way to get the boat up and off the ground.

I'm not the first person to need to safely raise a few hundred pounds.
 
bassboy1 said:
Second idea: If you can't store the boat in the top of the garage, but can still attach a chain fall up there, rig up a quick connect method to latch onto one side of the boat, so that when you lift, it lifts on it's side. Same for the trailer. Build, or have some custom dollies built that hold the boat and trailer on their sides. Drop on the dollies, then your back to pushing it by hand, which is easy.

A great idea!

Saw this after I posted. But I saw where you were going in your earlier post.
 
chrislrob said:
I'm not the first person to need to safely raise a few hundred pounds.

Maybe not, but you will be the first person that I have ever heard of to store a boat and it's trailer above their vehicles suspended from the ceiling. :lol:

Instead of all of this sideways movement through a door, why can't you back out both vehicles, roll the boat on the trailer into the garage, turn the entire unit parallel with the doors and then hoist the thing as one unit up into the ceiling?

You are going to need some high ceiling joists to clear your vehicles. You can expect the axle to hang probably 10-12 inches lower after you unload the springs than it does when it is sitting on the ground.

It would take some really tall ceiling joists to hang them on their sides.
 
If you want something small for rivers and such, I have a 1432 sitting in my yard collecting snow. I just have to get a duplicate title from Texas so I can transfer it to someone, but I've been too lazy. If you want the boat and very nice trailer and want to go thru the paperwork - pm me. I'll give it to you for $100 and the cost of paperwork. It would work great for small rivers and such, just not good for my kids who like to hang over the side and play.

During a huricane in TX, I flipped the boat & trailer over while they were strapped together so it wouldn't blow away. I can move the empty boat by myself - that's actually how I lauch it off the grass. I won't lie, the boat can use some paint and likely new wood in the transom in a few years. To my knowledge it doesn't leak. I just want it out of my yard before the city starts to complain about the 3 cars 2 boats and 2 smokers sitting outside. :?
 
wasilvers said:
If you want something small for rivers and such, I have a 1432 sitting in my yard collecting snow. I just have to get a duplicate title from Texas so I can transfer it to someone, but I've been too lazy. If you want the boat and very nice trailer and want to go thru the paperwork - pm me. I'll give it to you for $100 and the cost of paperwork. It would work great for small rivers and such, just not good for my kids who like to hang over the side and play.

During a huricane in TX, I flipped the boat & trailer over while they were strapped together so it wouldn't blow away. I can move the empty boat by myself - that's actually how I lauch it off the grass. I won't lie, the boat can use some paint and likely new wood in the transom in a few years. To my knowledge it doesn't leak. I just want it out of my yard before the city starts to complain about the 3 cars 2 boats and 2 smokers sitting outside. :?

That is a tempting offer, Will! Thank you. Give me a sec.

Let me put it to our viewing audience: I'm 6' 1" , 285 lbs., and I'm a newbie fisherman. I intend to take 1, maybe 2, much smaller friends out with me occasionally. None of us like getting wet.

I want to fish small lakes and rivers for walleye, catfish, and perch.

I would like to be able to stand up in the boat and lean over for the occasional fish without the boat rolling like a log at a lumberjack contest.

How tippy will a 1432 be for a guy like me? By myself? With a friend or two?
 
If you've got good sea legs, you could probably stand up in a 1432, but it wouldn't be easy. You and somebody else sitting down in a 1432, okay, would work, but it still wouldn't be easy. 3 people in a 1432. Nope, not gonna happen.
 
bassboy1 said:
If you've got good sea legs, you could probably stand up in a 1432, but it wouldn't be easy. You and somebody else sitting down in a 1432, okay, would work, but it still wouldn't be easy. 3 people in a 1432. Nope, not gonna happen.

Agreed. When we had a motor on the back, gas tank, fishing gear and my Dad, I could stand up and toss a cast net, but it was not that stable. When I went alone, I'd take extra weight to hold the boat steady. I'm 6'1" and 225. You will not safely fit 3 in a 1432, unless they are small. Not that it was right, but my parents fit them, two kids, cooler, motor and fuel, and fishing supplies and took us on the lake. Now I see they were crazy, but at the time, just rednecks having a good time.
 

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