EZ Dock boat port - AR250 getting stuck

[NJboater]

Looking for advice from other ez dock boat port owners..

I have a 2022 AR250 (not the boat in the photo with the dock) and am struggling to get the boat to slide off the ez dock as it should.

The EZ dock has the added float tank that raises and lowers the dock with an air pump station. With the air all the way out, the back end of the boat sits in the water (as do the drives), but I am unable to back the boat off as it should. It just sort of gets stuck and won’t move.

Potential issues are the bunk height and roller height, but I can’t seem to figure it out.

 

[David Martin]

The jets may be in the water but its where the jet/water intake that may be your problem..........the intake grates need a lot of water flow to move the boat......add to that the jet thrust....... in reverse is approx. 1/3 the thrust as it has in forward. Add poor intake flow to the low reverse thrust and it would appear she can't overcome the friction needed to slid off.

Does she rev real high like cavitation that would explain the low water flow into the water pickup gates but if she is not cavitating its just the low thrust of the jets can't over come the friction/weight of the AR250.

I hate giving you the why........you all ready knew that. Friction is the problem.....are the rollers turning freely? if they are not free to roll that adds to the friction. You need buoyance.....dock lower in water to help lesion friction!!!!! I'm too old to push............a windless on a rope and a pully could crank her back a couple of feet to help.

Good luck....... sorry I was not more help

 

[NJboater]

Thanks for the input. My drives are fully in the water and producing thrust and my entire keel appears to be touching all of the rollers. and you are 100% right: friction on the bunks seems to be my problem.

My neighbor has a 2013 AR240 on the same type of ez dock setup and has zero issues pulling on/off the dock. I’ll be copy/pasting his bunk and roller height set up over to my dock and see if that solves my issue, as mine are setup slightly different.

I am not sure how different the hull shape is from a 2013 AR240 to a 2022 AR250, but that seems to be the issue I need to solve to make the dock work as intended.

 

[jetboater4life]

I've used an ezboat port for 7 years with the air bladder underneith. Here is my experience. It's always tough to push my boat off the lift. Usually takes two people and I don't load anything when I initially push it off a few feet. To push it off you have to push up first to get the bow off the lift and then forward. It can be difficult and my boat is only 21ft and lighter than yours. Sometimes I will turn around and put my back on the bow and use my legs to push up and back. I've had success doing that by my self but it takes a considerable amount of strength. What helps a lot and makes things much easier is when I put a fresh coat of silicone spray (Mary Kate liquid rollers spray) on my bunks and the front portion of the ezdock where my bow contacts. If I have a recent application of liquid rollers then my board slides right off.

Another thing to consider is the height of the rollers and the bunks. The rollers have two settings, hi and low. You simply flip them upside down to get one or the other. Initially my rollers were in the high setting and my boat leaned considerably to one side or the other. I put mine in the low setting and that's what it looks like they are in your picture. My blue bunks have a high and low side. Initially I had the high side out and low side in to cradle the boat but I was still getting some lean. The lean can be weight related but what I found was that my boat always leaned to the side closest to the dock. Here is why, the dock connections hold the ez port down in the water more and allow the other side to float higher which gives a slightly uneven look to the boat port. I swapped the blue bunk on the dock side to put the high side in and the low side out to counter this and it's worked well.

And another thing to be careful with is not coming in too hard when putting the boat back on the boat port. I've bent my first roller so that it won't spin. The business that sold me the ezdock boat port, makes custom rollers with much thicker metal rods and I haven't had a problem since. I have a keelshield and it's not warrantied for drive on docks. I unload as much people and gear as I can off the nose of my boat before I run it onto the boat port to avoid any extra pressure on the keel.

 

[Cambo]

I saw someone that had a floating dock far from any power connections so no way to lower it. He had a winch system hooked up that pulled the boat off this video has the basic concept but shows it on a pontoon, obviously it needs to be mounted to the sides and not the center. I met the owner he was in his 70s so no hard pushing for him, still enjoying his SX240 out in the bay.

 

[jetboater4life]

A couple of pictures of my setup.

 

[jetboater4life]

I saw someone that had a floating dock far from any power connections so no way to lower it. He had a winch system hooked up that pulled the boat off this video has the basic concept but shows it on a pontoon, obviously it needs to be mounted to the sides and not the center. I met the owner he was in his 70s so no hard pushing for him, still enjoying his SX240 out in the bay.

I store a 2000watt Yamaha generator in my dock box to power my air pump.

 

[David Martin]

I guess it could be the camera angle or my eye balls........but his look like it is deeper/lower down in the middle and the bunks look lower also than yours so his would be deeper in the water.

 

[jetboater4life]

I guess it could be the camera angle or my eye balls........but his look like it is deeper/lower down in the middle and the bunks look lower also than yours so his would be deeper in the water.

Yes his bunks look symmetrical and further back. I think they have updated the boatport since I purchased mine many years ago.

 

[NJboater]

Yes his bunks look symmetrical and further back. I think they have updated the boatport since I purchased mine many years ago.

Ez dock makes 2 kinds of bunks: long and short. The short are intended for V bottom hulls while the long bunks are meant for flatter bottom hulls. My ez dock dealer doesn’t even sell the short bunks and won’t order them which is a pain.

I raised all of my rollers so (in theory) the keel would have more weight resting on the rollers than the bunks.

My set up is almost identical to my neighbors (AR240) and he can take the boat on and off the dock alone using only the air assist and motors. His dock looks like this (as does mine at the moment). Only difference is are:
-he has 3x6’s under the bunks (I have 2 2x6’s)
-his rollers are all in the lowest setting (mine are all in the highest + front 2 rollers have extra 1/2” spacers)

 

[NJboater]

My boat lists heavily to the port side. I do have 3 group 27 batteries on that side, but usually pull onto the lift with an extra person on the starboard side to distribute weight more evenly.

the dock on the left is now a 5ft wide ez dock and I added and 80” x10’ section to the bulkhead side of the dock. I don’t have a photo of that at the moment

 

[Julian]

No idea if this would help, but have you tried spraying pledge on the bunks? If you do that on your trailer, the boat will slide off the trailer on a ramp!!! Perhaps you just need a little lube to help it slide?

 

[NJboater]

No idea if this would help, but have you tried spraying pledge on the bunks? If you do that on your trailer, the boat will slide off the trailer on a ramp!!! Perhaps you just need a little lube to help it slide?

I will certainly try some kind of lubricant, but probably not pledge lol I don’t know how that would react with the plastic and sun

 

[jetboater4life]

I will certainly try some kind of lubricant, but probably not pledge lol I don’t know how that would react with the plastic and sun

like i said, either a can of silicone spray or a can of liquid rollers. it will last you 2 or 3 seasons

 

[David Martin]

The boat sits up fairly high and forward out of the water................I would add a simple trailer wench and a block pully and crank that bad boy off.

 

[NJboater]

The boat sits up fairly high and forward out of the water................I would add a simple trailer wench and a block pully and crank that bad boy off.

That’s my last resort. This dock system is supposed to be ride on/off without the need for a winch. The trick is proper bunk and roller height settings

 

[NJboater]

A couple of pictures of my setup.

That’s a sick setup. I’m going to be swapping in all orange rollers tomorrow and hope that fixes my problem

 

[WiskyDan]

Would it be possible to try and load/unload on your neighbors Ez Dock or have him try and load/unload from yours?

 

[NJboater]

Would it be possible to try and load/unload on your neighbors Ez Dock or have him try and load/unload from yours?

Yes I did this and it works perfectly on his dock