This past weekend, I installed a pulley system to store my skykomish sunrise in the rafters in my garage… the next morning, which was slightly cooler than the previous afternoon when I hoisted th boat up, the pontoons were sagging, enough to put what looked like a small crease in the pontoon right below where they strap to the frame. the pontoons are not completely inflated.
Later in the day… the air in the pontoons warmed… and the pontoons straightened out. having this happen within a few hours got me to worrying that maybe this isn’t such a good idea.
Is storing a pontoon boat up in the rafters of a warm garage a problem? Alternatively, I could remove the pontoons and uninflate them.
Any horror stories about people wrecking their pontoons doing this?
Hello Hextall, it sounds like you did a four point suspension…if that’s giving you problems, try hanging your toon by the d rings that you will hopefully find on one end of the pontoons, thus suspending your toon vertically. I think that’s what the big d rings are for. Maybe others will have better ideas though, so we’ll see.
You might call the manufactuer but unless you see stress from the weight of the pontoons hanging from the frame, you’ll prolly be ok. Mine just sits on top of my jon boat and everything seems to still be like new. I’m hoping others will chime in with how they store theirs, be it by the d rings, from the frame or just sitting on something.
If you can’t hang it vertically I would use a proper sized sheet of plywood and just lay the toon on the board…the board of course suspended by the pulleys.
I have been storing mine vertically, suspended off the frame by ropes and pulleys. I deflate it about 1/3 before hanging and yes it does expand and contract with the temperature and even a minor crease appears here and there. So far (7 years) no problems.
I have a pulley system to hang it by the frame in garage. Bottom of inflated pontoons are about 7 ft off the floor and no serious sagging due to temperature changes. How about not hoisting it so high?