View Full Version : Garage too short ????
Sound firmiliar? Is your boat too long for your garage? Ever hear of this before? I've got a few ideas that are free to whoever wants them. 1. invent a trailer with a telescoping tongue. 2. invent a trailer with a quick release removable tongue. 3. invent a trailer that allows the boat to be temporarily slide farther forward on the trailer for shorter overall storage length. 4. Call a carpenter to lengthen your garage. It might be cheaper than you think. 5. If you are planning to build a garage.... figure out how long it should be, then add another twelve feet. It won't cost that much more and you will never regret doing it. Longer garages are becoming more popular. You will be bragging to your friends for years about your foresight. Another extra four feet wide too perhaps? That would allow space for a freezer and a beer fridge and a fillet table.
Gilligan
04-13-2001, 06:25 AM
Building a larger garage is a good idea. Never know when you will need to upgrade to a larger boat.
Seriously they do make a trailer with a swing away tongue gives you a little extra room. Saw one last fall at a Starcraft dealer.
Hawgeye
04-13-2001, 06:50 AM
It is a vicious cycle. You save and save and save and save. Then buy the boat of your dreams. You get it home and because you spent sooooo much on the new boat, you MUST keep it inside and leave your cars outside.
Also, the boat is 2' too long for the double garage so you have to put it in sideways so you can get the door to shut. That causes both vehicles to be outside. The wife is annoyed because she has to scrape her windows on the frosty mornings so either you have to get up earlier and do it for her, warm it up for her or do the American thing and buy a new house with a triple extra deep garage!
Sorry charlie but because you spent all of your money on the mortgage and the boat, your 88' chevy is shot and you have nothing to pull the boat with. Time for a new rig.
Can you say bankruptcy!??!?!
Yeah, ALMOST been there done that. My old boat had a long trailer and yes, I did have to park it in the double garage sideways. The wife did see to it that her loving (boat owning) husband got 'his way' and so she had defrosted windows in the mornings (from her boat owning loving husband :) )
Instead of buying the boat of my dreams, I settled for a shorter version of the boat of my dreams. It has more room than my old boat and yes, with careful planning, by lining up the lower unit between the studs in the back of the garage wall, I can fit both the boat and my wife's car in my old, double garage. Heck, there is even 19/16" extra clearance between the tongue and the garage door as it comes down. Yes, I did readjust the garage door intensity for the down pressure to go back up if it hits a feather but that is another annoying story to be saved for another thread !! :)
AquaMan
04-13-2001, 06:55 AM
They have trailers that have swing away tongues for just your situation. Me? I would go for the bigger garage. aurh aurh aurh! (Tim Allen)
AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.·´¯° --- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"
Sluggo / NY
04-13-2001, 07:31 AM
I thought I had it figured out! I built a new house a few years ago and made my attached garage 30 wide by 32 deep. I even went with 9' high doors. The 1800 Fisherman slides in with the hi-top up, my 14' Sea Nymph sits next to it, the wife's Olds fits in next...My Jeep sits outside! Getting ready to add a second garage out back! My next house will be a 1 bedroom ranch with a 5 car garage! You NEVER have enough garage! Good Fishing, Sluggo
BAMBAM
04-13-2001, 07:39 AM
My 20 ft lund is sitting sideways in the garage..but cars are outside. I figure I need to add 6 feet to one of my garage bays.
Have any of you had this done? I was wondering what you paid to do this? Cheaper in the long run than putting into storage every time when you are done?
For some it might be a do-it-yourself project, but it is beyond my capabilities....
BAMBAM
I'm building a garage this summer. Going to have 9' foot doors, and be 28' deep x 36' wide. That should take care of me for awhile.
Right now the boat is in my Dad's garage (and one of their cars sits outside...doh...) and we did have to cut out a stud and frame it up differently, and knock the top of the block off with sledge to allow the lower unit to fit. And that is with the swing away tongue! ha!
Box in MN
Gilligan
04-13-2001, 08:13 AM
Whats even worse, the wife comes home in dead of winter opens garage to find husbands fishing partner sitting in the boat fantasing that it's fishing season... How bout it Sluggo??
Backwater Eddy
04-13-2001, 08:24 AM
I have a friend who had the same problem and came up with a interesting solution.
He lifted his motor and checked for clearance from the rollers to the transducers, then he moves the front wench upright way up tell his bow meets the hitch. He re-tightens the u-bolts and wenches the boat forward gaining a few feet.
The tong weight will be very high so you should use a jack stand to prevent any nasty things from happening if the trailer jack should fail.
If a foot or two is all you need this works well for long term storage.
Backwater Eddy
one other thing to do when you build a new garage make one off the doors 10 feet wide did it on my 3 car garge it makes it a lot easier to back the boat in and you can not tell it is a 10foot door by looking at it from the street
Gunga Din
04-13-2001, 08:50 AM
My next house will have one bay in the garage long enough so I can pull my truck and boat all the way in without having to unhitch. And it will be a drive-thru garage. Schuuwiiiiing!!
jerryr
04-13-2001, 11:57 AM
Funny stuff. You could do like my buddy did and just bust the lower unit of the motor through the back wall of the garage the first time he backed the boat in the garage. Slow down! OOOPS!
I do like the drive through idea. I'm going to give that one some thought. Good fishing everyone.
Now that I live in the country my garage is a 30' X 60' pole building. No matter how large it is, it's not big enough!
BGunn
04-13-2001, 01:29 PM
LAST EDITED ON Apr-13-01 AT 03:30PM (CST)[p]Here's what I built for the new Lund:
http://ccorn.ne.mediaone.net/sixgunn6/bfrontbarn.jpg
http://ccorn.ne.mediaone.net/sixgunn6/pond33.jpg
The 30' x 70' barn has a 20' x 20' heated workshop with cement floor, 100 amp 20 breaker 230 volt electrical panel with 57 electrical outlets all on ground fault, refrigerator for "refreshments", 4 "carriage lights" that automatically come on if you drive or walk up, one porch light and one inside light that automatically come on as you walk up, automatic 10' garage doors, Compressed air stations at garage doors, and in shop, Sun porch with 3 carriage lights on dimmers, and two overhead remote controlled 54" fans, one on porch, and one in shop, 12 volt electrical system to run the stereo system in the shop, it also charges batteries on the boat and runs the winch for hoisting deer or what ever needs lifting, and it also runs the keypad door opener outside. Also has telephone, running water, intercom to house and 8' x 70' overhead storage in loft. Lightning rod protection on roof, Still working on porch railing, and also a small stream and waterfall that starts in front of the porch and go to lagoon,then into a 20' x 25' x 5' (11,000 gal.) deep pond around side of barn which is used to raise goldfish, koi, and golden shinners, for fishing bait !!
Gilligan
04-13-2001, 01:40 PM
I'd have to sell the boat, truck and all the gear to build that!!
walleyeman
04-13-2001, 02:44 PM
Well you could buy an all-alum enclosed trailer for your
boat and put your car in the garage. if you have an interest
in this idea , reply back
Yeah, I've got those same problems. Mine fits so tight it can only go in one particular way. I marked the concrete floor and driveway with a safety green paint line just so I could keep it in line to back up just once. It works.
Gunga Din
04-13-2001, 05:13 PM
No bathroom? Six urinals lining the wall, three full-size stalls, twelve heavy duty ventillation fans with auto-stank switches, and fourteen toilet paper receptacles? :)
Nice pics.
PWaldow123
04-13-2001, 07:01 PM
One word WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BGunn
04-14-2001, 12:08 AM
I live on a dirt road out in the sticks, The bathroom is out the back door next to the old apple tree !!
Dan(MI)
04-14-2001, 04:24 AM
Just traded boats, now I have an 18ft only one foot longer than my old boat, but I forgot, Tandem axles don't pivot sideways as easy as a one axle trailer. Not to mention the 200hp Merc. takes up additional space compared to 90hp.
My plan was always to cut out a dog house shaped addition to the back of the garage, you could insulate and keep your motor warm all year long.
Go Fishin
Dan
And thanks to the swingaway tongue it barely fits.
eyefish
04-14-2001, 04:25 PM
i just built a new house. i can fit my 20 ft. boat and truck still hooked up and ready to go fishing in the morning. took me 5 years to finely get my wife to agree. she is the greatest.
Fritz
04-14-2001, 07:01 PM
We built a house 14 years ago. Planned on having room for a boat. 28'X 28' should be big enough for two vehicles and the boat? Wrong. By the time I could afford a new boat, 2 years ago, boats got wider. The truck sits outside while the wife's car and my boat are inside.
I wish I would of built a bigger garage and will always recommend one to friends. It is cheap space, and always will be a great selling point. I like the idea of the pull through garage. But you probably need to be in the country or on a corner lot.
chrism
04-14-2001, 08:51 PM
Nice boat house...Do you have a workshop??!!!
Jigger
04-15-2001, 02:45 AM
If you only need to gain a couple feet, all you have to do is cutout a "bustle: in the back of the garage. Save the piece of wall you cutout for the end of the new "bustle" and all you have to do is roof it and side it. If you need more that a motor length, get one of those plastic quonset huts you see advertised.
Bottomfeeder
04-15-2001, 04:23 AM
I built a new house 4 years ago and had the perfect plan for the perfect garage. Car side-30X30, double door. Boat side, 60' deep,10' doors on each end with a driveway that went all the way around to the back. Pull in frontwards, stay hooked up and pull out tomorrow morning to go fishing. Like I said, the perfect garage. Needless to say that my boatside plan was vetoed by the real commander of the project. This side ended up with a 9' door and 30' deep. Now I am looking at a new boat. Triton 205 or 189 too wide for a 9' door. Looks like a Skeeter or Ranger will fit OK. I guess the moral of this story is no matter how large you make your garage, it probably will eventually be to small.
I think I need to build a storage shed to put my lawnmower in.
Good Luck
Bottomfeeder
Jethro
04-15-2001, 07:07 AM
Do those apples need a little extra sugar when you make a pie?
A guy I know bought a house with a single attached garage. It was a wide house that filled the lot from side to side, but there was a very large back yard. He turned the attached garage into a drive through tunnel by putting another garage door in the back wall. He then built a very big garage/workshop out back. It's big enough to meet all his needs and he is very happy with it. From the street you'd never know it was back there.