Adding a Bow eye to my toon

[captmello]

I'm switching to a Bunk trailer and need to add an eye to the front of my boat to hook the winch strap to.

here is a pic of the front of my toon.

Anyone had to do this? Any hardware suggestions? Do I need to add reinforcement?

Thanks!

 

[dls322]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

i don't see a picture on your post so i can't elaborate. But on both toons that i have had, they have a u shaped "bolt" that mounts horizontally to the front cross member. So find a beefy u bolt and drill 2 holes, and then secure with washers and locking nuts. You also want to make sure you have a section of metal the connects the first 2 cross members together. i believe this is for safety and load distribution.
I'm sure there are allot of pics out on the web.

 

[belairbrian]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

I had to add one on a previous pontoon. The previous owner had one attached only to the rub rail. I got a pice of threaded rod and shaped the end. By using rod I was able to drill through two crossmembers and secure it to both. Thus distributing the load to more than one.

 

[Capt Sully]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

you may be able to see in my pic, mine has a U bolt in the middle on the outside frame. yours should be the same, but check to see if it's beefed up to handle the u bolt. Good luck.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

If I read your post correctly you want to add a U bolt to the center to pull the boat on the trailer, correct.

You can get a really good stainless U bolt hear at iboats and the yare obviously easy to install but you also want to tie together the front 2-3 crossmembers, doesn't have to be much but you want to spread the stress of pulling the boat on over 2-3 crossemembers.

We use a piece of 1/8'' aluminum 3'' wide by what ever you need long .

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

I installed one of those fold down cargo hooks on the top of the deck about two feet back. It is bolted through the deck and the blocking it is bolted through is tied in to the first three cross members. This is so much handier than the under deck hook that came on it.

 

[MaPaHa]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

Definitely agree with previous posts that you need to get to several cross joists to distribute the stress. If you just put a hook on the front cross member and finished railing you will have a bow in the front in no time with the possibility of tearing it out completely. On mine I had two 2x2 angle aluminum welded from the first joist to the second one. It’s just too much pressure coming up the ramp and traveling down the road to hold with the front joist only.

You might be able to put a front eyelet on like you typically see and bolt it down to the front joist/rail normally with a heavy washer behind it. Then get an all-thread rod coupling and attach to the remaining threads and send the rod through the next joist or two with two jam nuts and heavy washers at each cross member.

Personally I like the welding method the best.

 

[captmello]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies.

One thing I left out of my original post is that I'm adding a third toon to my boat. So I will be bolting the third toon to each crossmember as well which will give it strength. I'm going to pick up a piece of 1/8"x3" "strap" as 5150abf mentioned, drill it out and bolt it on along with the bolts for the middle toon. I'll run the strap back four or six feet to catch a few crossmembers. I want it strong.

Pics to follow the install.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

Mine is a case of over kill but its 2 strips of 3/8 x 2 flat bar in a V shape bolted to 3 cross members with a ring welded at the front.

 

[captmello]

Re: Adding a Bow eye to my toon

Mine is a case of over kill but its 2 strips of 3/8 x 2 flat bar in a V shape bolted to 3 cross members with a ring welded at the front.

Nothing wrong with a little overkill, just means it will last longer.

Well, I finally got the boat on the new trailer. The winch lines right up with the front of the toon, The new bow eye should be an easy install.

Those of you who have had a front hitch know how nice they can be for those certain tough-to-get-into spots. My truck just happened to have one when I bought it.