Boat rail system ramp

Looking at putting one in and looking for advice on them. i’m talking about the ones that look like a train railway, extends into water and winch up on to shore. thanks

What do you want to know?

looking for input from anyone that has one,and they bought theres or built from scratch,

At the old cabin we had a scratch built one that was there when we bought the place. Basically a bunch of steel pipe connected together and a dolly frame that used wheel rims for the wheels. Worked but a bit sketchy at times and only used gravity to get the boat to the water, which occasionally would hang up and backlash the cable on the winch if you didn’t catch it in time. It required either two people to operate it or you were running back and forth from the switch to the boat.

After about 10 years and a handful of close calls we had that removed and replaced with a Hewitt Roll-a-rail. Worked awesome. Had the cable setup as a push-pull system that no matter which direction the dolly was moving the motor moved it not gravity. Never got hung up and was awesome.

My biggest recommendation if you can get it is to get a remote control that allows you to be at the boat while it is moving just to have a better visual on it and aid loading and unloading.

first off how big of a boat?

My dad and uncle had 2 put in like 30 years ago and I have never been impressed. 1) I believe they winches were undersized. 2) The supports for the boat was terrible. a nice cradle like the new lifts all have would be a lot better. 3) There is no real weight rating system like when lifts are manufactured. 4) How many of these has your builder done?
I know for a fact that the ramps my dad and uncle had done were done on the cheap. It may be worth it to spend better money on something like this.

Lake Vermilion has some really nice boathouses 10 feet from the water with nice ramp systems into them. I am not familiar with them so I cannot comment on that system. I would be very interested in that setup if it was built properly- drive the boat onto the trailer/ cart and hit the remote. That would be awesome.

Do you homework and ask if you can get some references. Can you see some that were done 5-10 years ago and what the owners like or dislike. Would they make any changes?

The positive would be no installation and removal fees for boat lifts. On Lake Vermilion they are like $200 a year.

Good luck

Steve

As far as boat size, for now it would be either a 16’glass boat with a 90,but most of time just 14′ with 25. looking at having to ability to winch boat up and under cabin .