Trailers for Pontoons

Launching a bunk style pontoon trailer in shallow water

Northern lakes boaters are often concerned about launching and retrieving in shallow water. That’s why center lift trailers are popular in Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan. Ramps on remote lakes are often shallow. Our bunk style trailers with 13” tires carries your boat about 28” off the ground. Generally speaking anywhere you can launch a fiberglass I/O you can launch a pontoon from our bunk trailer, but you’ll need about 3’ of water. Some trailers use 10” snowmobile tires to get trailers lower, but at 28” or 25” you’ll still need about the same depth. Modern pontoons with larger engines are heavier than older boats and need more water depth.

	Most fiberglass boats can launch in about 24” of water but when  you put the prop down you’ll need about three feet of water.

The answer to easy launching and retrieving in shallow water is not small tires that run hot, but plastic bunk wrap in lieu of carpet on the bunk boards that carry the pontoon tubes. One customer told us that with bunk wrap instead of carpet, his boat slid right off. He said it was like a tool box in the bed of a pickup with a plastic bed liner. It’s SLIPPERY when WET.  

Plastic Bunk Wrap is a way to help launch and retrieve in shallow water. Plastic offers less friction than carpet and boats slide more easily. Plastic bunk wrap is an option on our bunk trailers.

18’ Trailers +$70 exchange in lieu of bunk carpet. 20’ Trailers +$85 exchange in lieu of bunk carpet. 24’ Trailers +$95 exchange in lieu of bunk carpet. 26’ Trailers +$105 exchange in lieu of bunk carpet.

To save you money, we deduct the cost of bunk carpet when we use plastic. Our plastic bunk covering is one continuous piece of plastic. Other methods of putting plastic over bunks consist of joining 4’ pieces together over a 16’ to 24’ bunk. There are no seams in our plastic to snag and rip.

We launch and retrieve on a shallower ramp. The front of our trailer bunks is not under water. We power drive our boat about 3/4 of the way on and crank it the rest of the way with the ratchet winch on the winch stand. This year we’ll put the plastic on our bunks and we expect to be able to power drive the pontoon all the way onto the trailer even on this shallow ramp.

For Information Call