Floating Dock question

JASinIL2006

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Hi all, we are considering adding a floating dock section to our current land-based, permanent dock. The current dock is wood construction resting on a crib filled with rock. It is quite stable and is about 20'x25'.

Our lake is a small lake (3 miles long x .75 miles wide) in Northern Ontario, Canada and our cabin is a small cove on the lake. The lake freezes completely in the winter.

We want to add some floating dock sections to extend our dock into the lack and to proved places to dock several boats (e.g., 20' pontoon, 19' bowrider). At a minimum, we're probably looking at floating sections that would be about 5' or 6' wide and that would project into the lake about 25' from the permanent dock. We're thinking about a system like EZ Dock (https://www.ez-dock.com/product/60-dock).

As we consider this, we have some questions. First of all, we've seem some things that suggest these floating sections could remain in the water over winter. (Supposedly they float above the ice and and immune to the kind of spring thaw damage that tears up fixed docks.) Not having to move the floating sections to the shore would of course be a big plus, especially as we're getting older.

A second question has to do with how (or how well) these floating docks connect to permanent dock. I assume some sort of hinged gangway would be needed to allow for fluctuations in lake level (not a huge issue on our lake, but we sometimes see water levels fluctuate 12-16" over the season).

Anyone with experience using these types of docks?

Thank in advance!

Jim
 

redneck joe

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i am zero help here but like to learn about this stuff so following along if you don't mind
 

alldodge

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I have 2 EZ ports (used for water craft) which are made by EZ Dock, they have been in the lake which has frozen over and have had no effect. They are mounted to my Marina floating docks. They don't go very deep into the water so the freezing just pushes them up.

That said, I have no first hand knowledge about the dock sections
 

rolmops

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The tricky part is the connection between the permanent and the floating docks. The floating sections will go up and down with the lake level,while the permanent dock does not go up or down. On top of that, the permanent part is stable , but the moment you step on the floating part things move around and up and down.
 

Lou C

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Our beach association has a floating dock but it is removed at the end of each season, even though the dock is free to move up & down with the tides.
We get freezing but it rarely freezes solid.
 
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