Boat Storage

For those of you who have standard garages or even three car garages are you able to keep your boat in them. Mine boat sits in my driveway because it will not fit in my garage and it drives me nuts. Are most of you able to get your boat in your garage and if so, do you do it after every use}(collapse tower, etc)?

I collapse the tower to get it in the garage, then open it up. I have a 3 car garage and the boat takes up 2 cars -- I still have room for my '59 bug.

I built my garage to fit my boat (30 feet deep), but still have to collapse the tower. Probably not the answer you were looking for.

after every use i put her away....

Gerrett,

Does it have a fold-away tongue? You may be able to fold the tongue in and remove the swim platform to make it fit. If it does not have a fold-away tongue a good welder/trailer shop could probably add one.

Here's a picture of ours:



After all of the clams that we shelled out for her, I'll be d*mned if I'll let her sit in the driveway. So she gets the whole garage to herself (any bigger, though, & there'd be no way).

Mine takes all three stalls, so I decided this year to pay for a 10"X30" storage for 8 months. It cost me $600, but it is worth it to have my garage back and know my boat is safe. I have a friend who stores it for me in the winter, but it is too hard to get to for use durring the summer.

It fits in my garage, but takes up all three bays, so I usually keep it in storage. Runs us just over $1200 a year, but well worth it.

Thanks for the input. I have a detachable tongue but not counting the swim platform the boat is around 22'. It seems that most garages are about that length. I have a double door garage so it doesnt even fit width wise. I am seriously contemplating moving or remodeling the garage to make it fit but that would not be all that easy to do. I was just wondering even if I moved I might still have a hard time getting it to fit. It just sucks to have such a high $$ investment sit outside not to mention worrying about someone stealing stereo equip.

Thanks

I rented a Storage Unit 15 x 30, the unit is only 1/4 mile from where I almost always lanuch. so it worth it the $60 a month just in gas savings.

Although if I were to store it at home and had options available, I would build at least 1 garage stall double deep for boat storage. My dream garage would be 3 wide, double deep. So that means it would be to small by the time it was completed. To many toys not enough space.

You guys got it pretty good. I've looked around in So Cal and the best I could do was about $200 per month for a 10 X 30. So I got a parking space in the yard for $85 per month. That was for the old boat. Not sure what I'm going to do with the new one next winter. Maybe Havasu.

My garage must be shallower than most as neither my boat (Sanger V210 - about 20' 6") nor my Avalanche fits. So I have our two other cars in the garage, the boat down the side yard and the Av in the driveway in front of the boat parking.
When I had some work done to the house I had them convert the front fence into a gate (they had to take the fence down anyway) so I could park it down the side yard. It was already all bricked over and I didn't use it for anything other than storing the trash cans so this works for me.
I guess we were lucky that we have a wide driveway and the side yard as neither the boat or the truck blocks the 2 car garage. Am thinking of either building a carport of some sort or getting one of those Costco garage buildings to cover the boat up as I hate to leave it outside. Storage is expensive in San Jose, so this was the best option for me (plus I like to be able to keep an eye on the boat).

my house was built in '49. one great things about older houses is that the garages are much bigger. My 2 car garage is 22 feet deep, and i can fit my SAN in straight back with the fold away tongue on my trailer. I can even squeeze my Jeep Grand Cherokee next to it in a pinch, though i have to slide out of the drive door with very little space. It's great to be able to keep the boat in my place and still have some space. we looked at some newer homes in the area recently. the garages are so shallow, that i would stretch across all the spaces in a 3 car garage to get the boat in. unbelievable!

my friend has the 23' malibu and they fit it in there 2 car garage side. the take the swin step off and the theyhave a swingaway tounge on the trailer. Then they jack up the trailer while it is in the driveway and they put the shoprollers under the wheels. They do that to get the right angle so it will fit. They have a titan tower and they collapse it and it fits fine. i helped them put it away once and it did not take that long to put it away.

I have a 4 car garage and the boat it taking the double center stall. The two outside stalls are too narrow to get the boat into either of them. My Lincoln Navigator will fit, but I have to pull in the mirrors to have it fit in one of the side stalls.

I'm going to try a trailer dolly to see if I can work it easily to fit sideways in part of the double stall in the center and part into one of the side stalls.

That way I can put my Acura TLS in the center stall at an angle and my Navigator in the smaller stall.

It's too bad because both smaller stalls are about 29 feet deep while the center stall is 22 feet 6 inches. I would have to rip out the stairs and put them on the other side of the garage if I wanted a deeper center stall.

I had a similar problem 3 bays 8 foot wide door and 8 foot 1 width trailer. I turned two doors into 1 big door luckily my garage on that side is 29 feet deep. The pain was the upstairs was supported by posts in the garage so I had to get the project engineered new beefier beams to take the load so I could remove the post. here are pictures of before and after.

i rent 12X25 garage for $133/mo in a college town. nice thing is the 12' high door, no folding of the tower needed.

(Message edited by timmy on April 12, 2004)

Hey John D,

That is one deep garage. That sure makes it nice. Also the folded tower looks like its pretty close to the top, was that a concern at all? Im thinking thats the way to go, eliminate the double door and make it one big one but I still may have a depth problem. What did the modifications run (ballpark figure) if you dont mind. Thanks for the pics, turned out great.

Turning my two smaller bays into larger bays is also an option I'm considering.

However, since my two small bays are on the outside and my large bay is in the center, I'll have twice the work. I also have walls supporting the upper floor so I'll have to put in bigger beams also. I could also make the doors a little taller so I could just fold down the tower without having to completely break it down.

Gerrett,
Height was an issue as the tower folded is right around 7 foot 1. The old doors where 8x7. and with the radius top it actually cut the hole down to 6 foot 9 on the edges maxing out at the top at 7 foot. When I redid the door it is now 17 feet wide by 7 foot 6 high so even at the edges it is higher than 7 foot 1 so no problems but it is close. The total price was $6000. There was alot of work doone to beef up the structure and a 17 foot wide door is special order so that cost me a mint.

(Message edited by john d on April 13, 2004)

I'm almost there. Thanks to Bryce, I have a trailer dolly that helps me move the boat around.

Unfortunately, it's still a significant amount of work, so I'm going to try the wheel dollys with the casters on them in addition to the trailer dolly to make things easier.