Learn about Triple Tube/Tri Tube Pontoons and Trailers
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Will the pontoon trailer fit your triple tube pontoon?
The answer seems obvious...it should. But there are a number of things that can
go wrong and you won’t know about them until you go to retrieve your boat from
the lake. If you're buying a trailer with a new pontoon, the dealer should make
sure everything fits, but it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the time of
delivery. Trailersforpontoons can adjust our trailers to fit any triple
tube pontoon. But here’s what we (or anyone else selling you a trailer
needs to know). Is the triple (center) tube larger than the outside two pontoon
tubes? Is it a round pontoon or elliptical or flat on the bottom? Does the
center tube project beyond of the front of the other two outside tubes?
Some center pontoon tubes are 1” to 4” larger than the outside two tubes.
We Can Fit Them All - we just need to know what you have
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This center tube extends 14” in front of the two outside tubes |
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Some center tubes are not round. They may be flat or one popular
manufacturer has an elliptical shape. Some are longer than the
outside tubes with engine pods that sometimes cannot be supported by
bunks. We know how to fit them all, but we need to know the brand. |
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Our Deluxe Stand, standard with the Tri Tube kit, fits all known
triple tube pontoons. The front arms swivel to accommodate boats with radius or pointed bows, like the one shown above. There is 12” of depth to accommodate center tubes that protrude beyond the front deck. |
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| What kind of trailer do
you need? Most triple tube pontoons are big heavy boats with big engines and cost $40,000+. You need a well build trailer that will carry a #3-#5000 pontoon boat. This requires at least a tandem axle trailer with a capacity of #4500+. The two sides of the frame should be connected by at least five cross members to prevent the frame twisting and flexing. We’ve had several (bad) experiences with customers who bought triple tube pontoons and discovered their boat was heavier than stated. One customer had a 25’ triple tube with a big outboard. The selling dealer told him his mid-sized SUV could tow the package. The literature stated the boat weighed #3200 and our trailer was stated to weigh #960. The SUV could barely tow the package. The boat weighed #4100 and the trailer weight was also incorrect, it weighed #995. Instead of a boat and trailer package that weighed about #4000, the customer had a package that weighed #5000. We changed the weight of the trailer on our MSO, the incorrect weight of the boat, three years later is still incorrect in the boat manufacturers 2013 sales brochure. |
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Brakes If you purchase a pontoon trailer from a marine dealer he will probably insist that you buy brakes. Most states have a #3000 weight law regarding brakes and marine dealers are reluctant to sell a trailer without brakes when they package it with a boat that they know to weight over #3000. Even if your not going very far there are liability issues. We realize that a percentage of triple tube pontoon trailers will probably not travel very far and that some customers just don’t want to pay for brakes. Like marine dealers, we have liability issues but we will sell a trailer without brakes because we are not involved in packaging it with the boat, technically we don’t know what your boat weights. However, in the future this whole brake law issue is going to blow up. Law enforcement generally doesn’t pay much attention to trailer brake laws. But, there are a lot of big heavy boats being towed on unsafe trailers. After one bad accident with personal injuries, law enforcement and state license branches will start paying more attention. If you buy a trailer without brakes for a big boat, it may end up being unsalable in the future if more attention is paid to the law. |
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On Page 1 we showed a 29’ pontoon that weighed #4500 on a 26’ tandem
axle trailer with a #4500 capacity. When the customer saw the difference, he upgraded to a 28’ triple axle trailer with a #6000 capacity. The proper trailer is cheap insurance when it comes to protecting your investment in a luxury pontoon. |
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| Click here to learn more about brakes | ||||||||||||||||||
| The point of all this information about triple tube trailers is to illustrate that there are a lot of ways to get it wrong. The real estate salesman working part time at the boat show may not knows anymore about pontoon trailers than you do. That’s why we’ve provided so much information. In the past four years trailersforpontoons has sold hundreds of trailers for triple tube pontoons. We have cataloged the specifications for just about every brand of pontoon boat and update the changes yearly. Give us the year, make and model number and we’ll fit your triple tube pontoon boat perfectly, the first time. | ||||||||||||||||||
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