Thinking about buying pontoon trailer

[legalfee]

Hi everyone. Hopefully someone can answer this. I have a 24' Sylvan pontoon that stays in the water year round. I'm thinking about getting a trailer. What would be the best kind? The boat is 1950 lbs empty and I'm guessing the trailer will weight around 1000 lbs. My SUV supports an OEM class III hitch. Will that be enough? Thanks for any advice or recommendations.

 

[Scott Danforth]

the term SUV is pretty generic.

while a class III hitch is plenty, what is the towing capacity?
are you looking for a trailer just to pull it out in winter and put in in the spring?

for utility reasons, I love a scissor trailer. they pretty much print money in spring and fall if you charge to pull boats in and out

for long-haul reasons, go with a bunk trailer. they tow better

 

[ahicks]

Agree with Scott. For most towing around town, the scissor type work pretty darn good. The ability to set the boat down on flat ground and pull the trailer out from under it opens up a lot of possibilities, and servicing (tire pressure, wheel bearings) a trailer with that ability is about as simple as you can get. OTH, you do need to pay attention when pulling one. They can be tippy if pulled in a thoughtless manner. The bunk type trailers need more water to launch, and carry the boat much higher. Pulling a 'toon on a scissor type trailer is like pulling a parachute at highway speeds. Pulling one on a bunk type trailer is like pulling an even bigger parachute!

Difficulty to load and unload would be similar to my way of thinking, assuming you have a nice deep ramp to work with.

I've pulled a scissor type for the last 40 years or so, from Florida, all over Michigan, and the Great Lakes area of Canada.

 

[legalfee]

I have a BMW X3 and the towing capacity is listed at 3500 lbs. It sounds like a scissor type would work for me. I mostly want to take the boat out of the water to work on it occasionally or take it to a different lake less than 100 miles away. Our neighborhood ramp is deep. I live down south and have been leaving the boat in the water year round. Also the shop wants $150 to take it out and in.

 

[ahicks]

Yup, good plan. At 150 a shot, it doesn't take very long to justify owning your own! I've used all kinds of stuff to pull our trailer. Currently using a Honda Pilot that's doing a nice job - but clearly, it's no 4x4 pickup!

 

[H20Rat]

I have a BMW X3 and the towing capacity is listed at 3500 lbs. It sounds like a scissor type would work for me. I mostly want to take the boat out of the water to work on it occasionally or take it to a different lake less than 100 miles away.

That vehicle is fine for pulling it out of the water, but not sure I'd want to take it on a 100 mile road trip. Pontoons pull HEAVY (gigantic parachutes as someone else mentioned), and depending on which engine option, you might have a really poor combination. (looks like the x3 has a 4 cylinder turbo standard, that is not something you want to run at high boost for an extended amount of time)

 

[legalfee]

That vehicle is fine for pulling it out of the water, but not sure I'd want to take it on a 100 mile road trip. Pontoons pull HEAVY (gigantic parachutes as someone else mentioned), and depending on which engine option, you might have a really poor combination. (looks like the x3 has a 4 cylinder turbo standard, that is not something you want to run at high boost for an extended amount of time)

The X3 has a 2.5L six but I'm with you I wouldn't want to tow it far with it. I mainly want to tow it to the shop (10-30 miles) or take it out to work on it myself.

 

[jimmbo]

EZLoader makes several Pontoon Trailers, Single, Tandem. and Triple Axle models

http://www.ezloader.com/adjustable/trailers/page/45/pontoon