Boat entry ladder????

J

JimG

Well-known member
I have to come up with some kind of ladder to hang off of the splashwell of my TDB. Anybody have any ideas?
 
For me. kinda hard to hop up over the rail when you are standing in 18 inches of goop under 18 inches of water. One of those worthless dog platforms came with the boat when I bought it. If the water is deep enough where I'd need the dog platform.......I'm in the wrong spot.
 
Jim, If you can wait a day or so I will get pictures of mine for you. I launch at a spot where there is no type of dock not much of a ramp either.
I have to walk the boat out to deeper water start it and get in.
I had an old swimming pool ladder that had the upside down U shaped handrails, I cut them up and made a hang on ladder out of it. Only drawback I wish it folded flat for storage nut it can be stowed under the front deck.
 
Jim, look at the 14 Hawk, it's a nock off from the old TDB.
They bolt a step to the transom. Its always there when you need it.
 
Jim, here some pics of mine basically we only use the bottom rung and step up over.
ladder003.jpg

ladder004.jpg

ladder001.jpg

 
The TDB does have what they call a "step" on the transom. Big enough for a 6 year old girl to use, not my size 13 gorilla feet. Rex, yours looks like a good system but I see what you mean about storage. I think I need something where the first step is at least a foot below the hull. I saw something in Cabelas boat section online that you hang off of a cleat but it looked cheezy and can a plastic cleat backed by two 1" fender washers take 250# of guy putting additional force leveraging himself out of the mud?
 
they used to make a boat ladder that the top hooks folded flat, dont know if they still do or not. I can probably modify mine to fold flat if I really needed it to. All it would take is a smaller or larger pipe to either go inside out outside with those squeeze buttons so one pipe would spin inside the other one. Wouldn't be that tough.
 
These over the gunwale style might work on the bigger boats, but what are folks using on sneakboxes and smaller boats? My first thought is just push into the shallows to board and disembark, then pole out until I can motor....

Anyone have a ingenious method?

Dave
 
Jim,

not sure what size boat you have, but here's what i came up with. it's rarely used because i hunt in the shallows most of the time (and it's a monster), but does come in handy when i have to go after a cripple or the dog ignores the whistle and goes to retrieve a bird that never fell (must have been bad shells like HuntinDave's). It attaches to the boat with hinges and can be removed by pulling the pins. the top part was custom made by the previous boat owner. the platform came off of one of those tree stands that i never used.

View attachment PotomacHunt 018 (Medium) (Small).jpg
 
just put 1 or 2 of these on the transom and you should be all set
Click to expand...


I'll mount them right next to the two factory installed steps that I can't reach I suppose. Remember, surface of the water is around crotch depth plus.

I have a couple of ideas now. On to the design phase.
 
Keep us all posted.... like you I need something a foot or 2 below the water line, and rigid enough not to dump me backward in the water! A couple of those steps (though they are too small for me with waders on) mounted on a 2x6 that is slide into a dovetail in the stern, or utilizing the rear grab handle is fermenting in my brain....Dave
 
Ridgid, huh? I was thinking of doing something with some chain so that it can be rolled up. NG?
 
My first thought was just a rope ladder, hooked over a cleat or onto the stern grab handle, but then I remembered climbing them as a kid, and how they swing away when you climb them if they are not anchored below. I just imagine myself stepping up, and my foot wraping under the hull, now laying flat on the water with my foot in the ladder!
 
I also have a 14' Wrangler and have been thinking about a similar situation. If I were ever to fall out of the boat in deep water I don't think I could get back in. I'm just not in shape to pull myself in over that high freeboard. So far all I've come up with is looping some stout rope thriugh the grassrails that I could pull down below the hull and get a foot into. Any other ideas??

Frank
 
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