Pontoon transportation/ hitch rack ideas

Tubbster

Tubbster

Steelhead
Just picked up a barely used CA Colorado Pontoon for a steal yesterday. I knew going into this transportation of it would be a challenge. I could break it down most of the way and carry it in my 2 door Bronco. It’s not hard to do but tedious. I could car top it, but broncos are tall. I’ve seen the EZ packer pontoon carrier which is no longer made. Anyone come up with something similar maybe modifying a bike rack for a hitch? I can’t weld otherwise I’d just fab something up. Just looking for ideas.
 
Just spit-balling, but how about modifying a folding hitch bike carrier to give you similar functionality to the EZ packer carrier. I would think you could bolt on a couple of vertical posts to lash the Colorado to. A bike rack suitable to two e-bikes should be strong enough for your Colorado.

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I have a bike rack that folds like that. I was thinking of modifying. Don’t know if it’ll fit with my spare tire in the way but I think there is extensions.
 
You should evaluate much the boat will extend beyond the sides or top of your vehicle depending how you could mount it to a bike rack. Wind is a powerful force.

Maybe fabricate/attach a roller bar assembly to the bike rack to help load/unload it on the roof?
 
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Tubbster said:
Just picked up a barely used CA Colorado Pontoon for a steal yesterday. I knew going into this transportation of it would be a challenge. I could break it down most of the way and carry it in my 2 door Bronco. It’s not hard to do but tedious. I could car top it, but broncos are tall. I’ve seen the EZ packer pontoon carrier which is no longer made. Anyone come up with something similar maybe modifying a bike rack for a hitch? I can’t weld otherwise I’d just fab something up. Just looking for ideas.
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You can't get there from here, there is just no nice way to do it. That is my take anyway, I gave up on hauling my South Fork around as it was just too cumbersome. It weighed about 40 or 50 pounds and once I turned 75 it was a real grunt to get that thing on my Explorer. I bought a Scadden Predator that weighs more like 18 pounds and can easily be carried on top of my Subaru. My fishing buddy who is now about 72 has a trailer with 2 levels that will carry 2 well equipped pontoons that are easy on/easy off. And I have a trailer that will contain an 8' pontoon locked inside and another on top, plus a mountain of stuff carried inside out of sight. Even the cheapest Harbor Freight DIY trailer will haul a pontoon with ease and can be loaded with a pontoon in seconds instead of minutes.
 
electric air pumps plus K-pumps are your friends....unless it's the frame breakdown that's tedious. I should ask, what do you consider tedious? 5 min setup? 10? Just curious. I happen to drive a baby Prius and while not apples to apples (since I have a frameless Stealth Pro), go from fully deflated to fully inflated plus fish finder rigged and everything ready to go in under 10 min. I don't consider that to be tedious in the slightest, but YMMV.
 
clarkman said:
electric air pumps plus K-pumps are your friends....unless it's the frame breakdown that's tedious. I should ask, what do you consider tedious? 5 min setup? 10? Just curious. I happen to drive a baby Prius and while not apples to apples (since I have a frameless Stealth Pro), go from fully deflated to fully inflated plus fish finder rigged and everything ready to go in under 10 min. I don't consider that to be tedious in the slightest, but YMMV.
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I guess I shouldn’t have said tedious. Maybe more impatient. Once I get to the spot I just want to hit the water right away!

I’m going to assemble the frame fully and see if I can squeeze it in. I have a pretty nice pump for my float tube but an electric one would be even faster.
 
Tubbster said:
I guess I shouldn’t have said tedious. Maybe more impatient. Once I get to the spot I just want to hit the water right away!

I’m going to assemble the frame fully and see if I can squeeze it in. I have a pretty nice pump for my float tube but an electric one would be even faster.
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ah, totally get that.

it should be noted that my electric (I have a bunch of Ryobi tools/batteries, so use a Ryobi pump just for that) really only fills it 95% of the way due to lack of pressure, but doesn't take long to top off with a K pump
 
iveofione said:
... Even the cheapest Harbor Freight DIY trailer will haul a pontoon with ease and can be loaded with a pontoon in seconds instead of minutes.
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^^^ This ^^^

I put my Southfork on top of my truck cap for a few years, and it's way lighter than the CA Colorado. Finally bought the trailer and modded it to store all the motor, oars, and other accessories. Even if you just slap a piece of plywood on the bare trailer frame, it's the way to go.


Trailer.png
 
Triggw said:
^^^ This ^^^

I put my Southfork on top of my truck cap for a few years, and it's way lighter than the CA Colorado. Finally bought the trailer and modded it to store all the motor, oars, and other accessories. Even if you just slap a piece of plywood on the bare trailer frame, it's the way to go.


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What size tires on that thing, and where did you get it?
 
I took this old snowmobile trailer, and modified it a little bit , glued down some outdoor carpet, the pontoon slides off , and on smoothly. Also tows well behind my fifth wheel in my trips to Montana , and Wyoming . It solved my issues getting it to those places with the fifth wheel , having to disassemble to transport in the fifth wheel and assemble once I was there . Also I had no desire to give up my framed Scadden pontoon boats . This trailer also solved the problem of having to transport back , and forth to the lakes in the back of the pickup . Getting close to 80 makes this easy with a framed pontoon. IMG_1979.jpegIMG_1927.jpeg
 
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Triggw said:
^^^ This ^^^

I put my Southfork on top of my truck cap for a few years, and it's way lighter than the CA Colorado. Finally bought the trailer and modded it to store all the motor, oars, and other accessories. Even if you just slap a piece of plywood on the bare trailer frame, it's the way to go.


View attachment 146048
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I considered doing that , but with my truck , all I needed to haul was the pontoon boat on the trailer . Plus I wanted to keep as low as possible. But that is a nice setup . One asked about tire size , I suspect they are at least 13” . I went 13” on the old snowmobile trailer, I wanted to go 14” , but a bit too big being underneath .
 
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_WW_ said:
What size tires on that thing, and where did you get it?
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It's the Harbor Freight Heavy Duty trailer. Was about $350 at the time, more now. The tires are 5.3 x 12, so limited to 55 mph, but where I go, that's fine. I have towed it to the Bighorn and back and couple of times (2000+ miles on the Interstate) at 60+ with no problems, though.
 
Carried our Woods River float tubes throughout the west using our bike rack, secured with just two bungy cords, off and on in seconds. Slipping EMT extensions over a U shaped rack like this should well support your pontoon, key would be length of tubes from support to ground.
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