Fit my G21 in my 95" Garage!

[Wakebum]

I'm posting this for future reference for guys that want to try to fit their G boats in a garage. I researched the folded tower heights extensively because for me, if it wouldn't fit in my garage I couldn't buy it. Seems like most G23's were in the 99" plus or minus range on their boatmate or ramlin trailers, usually with 18" wheels. My goal was 95", quite a bit off... Data on G21's was harder to come by, I went to the dealer and measured a G21 on a trailer with 18" wheels and got approx 98", so that was encouraging but still too high.

One of the first things I discovered is that the G21's can sit lower on the trailers than G23/G25's. Something in the hull allows them to sit a little lower on the trailers IF the trailer manufacturer takes advantage of this and lets the boat drop between the fenders.. There's a company in the northern california area called California Trailer Works (CTW) that makes a G21 trailer that sits super low, 93.5" approx tower height. There are about 3 nautique dealers that sell new boats with these CTW trailers, Superior in Sac, Rons marine in Fresno and a dealer near San Francisco. I tried repeatedly to get a hold of CTW but I could never get anyone on the phone and they didn't respond to my voicemails. I was planning on them making me a trailer for my new boat but it didn't pan out. There's also N3 Boatworks who has made custom, lower sitting trailers.

So back at the dealer (Sun Country in Ontario) they had a different G21 sitting on a "basic" (no ladder, 15" wheels, white) trailer made in central california by Sport Boat Trailers. By dropping to the 15" wheels with the smaller diameter tires vs. most trailers having 18", it saves about 2" on the tire diameter which translates to 1" on the radius, but here's what I didn't realize- by the trailer coming with 15" wheels from the factory, the factory set the torsion bar ride height lower than they would have if they spec'd the trailer with 18" so now the folded tower height was a full 2" lower, at 96 inches!

So at 96" I was able to lower the tongue jack all the way down lowest it would crank and gain another inch of drop when pushing the trailer in the garage. BINGO 95" - I'm in!

Here are some pics of the new boat, and the garage:

Hate to hop in late here, but do you know the garage depth? We have a 24' (net probably 23'6" garage 8' doors and I am debating between the G21 or GS20 and I would prefer the 21.

[jtryon]

The sidewall flex / pushback can be a problem if you have to shove your bow sideways to get the boat to fit. I'd never seen tires like jtryon uses .

I addressed it by buying a 10k lb Power Movers dolly. I backed the trailer tires onto large pieces of cardboard with garbage bags underneath to reduce friction, then used the dolly to push the tongue sideways and back for the final 5' of putting the trailer into the garage. Just another option--though the dolly was around $1,500 IIRC and probably more now. After I got used to it, it was under 15 minutes to get the boat in or out--including removing the swim platform and hitching to the truck.

i had thought of an option like that as well but my clearance is so low that i have to drop the tongue of the trailer onto a wheel dolly, basically inches off the ground, to get the high part of the folded tower just underneath the garage header.

[xrichard]

The sidewall flex / pushback can be a problem if you have to shove your bow sideways to get the boat to fit. I'd never seen tires like jtryon uses .

I addressed it by buying a 10k lb Power Movers dolly. I backed the trailer tires onto large pieces of cardboard with garbage bags underneath to reduce friction, then used the dolly to push the tongue sideways and back for the final 5' of putting the trailer into the garage. Just another option--though the dolly was around $1,500 IIRC and probably more now. After I got used to it, it was under 15 minutes to get the boat in or out--including removing the swim platform and hitching to the truck.

[Scooter G]

jtryon, that is one killer escapade. I've got a job to do, and nothing is going to get in my way. Storage tires, who would of thunk. If there is a need, somebody is making it.
Great share, thanks!

[jtryon]

i found storage wheels/tires from guniwheel.com, the 45S model, and they dropped my overall height about 1.5", and that's with 205/75R14's. your trailer might have 225's, in which case you'd gain even more clearance. the guniwheels are 22.5" tall if you want to measure. they're rated for 2500lbs each which is way better than any wheel dollies i've found.

for me, maneuverability was the biggest plus with these because i have to store my boat at an angle across both spaces in my garage just to fit (23' Centurion), and i'm going under a 6.5' door. last year it took 4 hours to get the boat in the garage, partly because it was my first time storing it in there, but mostly because the **** trailer tires flex so much. any time we would try to push the tongue around the sidewalls of the trailer tires would flex then want to swing the trailer tongue back to the spot we just had it.

figured these might be useful for someone--it took a year+ of searching to find these because they'd never come up in my "trailer roller tire" searches i reached out to the company after getting my boat in the garage last week because i was so impressed, and they told me that i could use coupon code "GUNIBOAT" for 10% off on their site. i wish i had reached out to them sooner because i only got 5% off on the typical "you left an item in your cart" email discount

[xrichard]

When I bought my 2015 G23 from Superior, I had CTW make a 9' wide trailer that allowed the boat chines to sit between the fenders. I got it into my 94.5" garage (with room to spare because the angle of my driveway caused the suspension to compress as I backed into the garage). I think my static height ended up at 93.5". You'd have to compare folded tower heights, but I believe you could build a similar trailer for any G23 through 2020. Unfortunately, CTW went out of business in 2017 I think.

I don't know the legal problems. The rules in California let you go to 9' wide for tires and fenders, but not the frame or load--though some might feel it's a creative read of the max width rules. Today's (2021+) G23 is simply too tall to get this to work in my garage even with an over wide trailer. I think I determined I'd need about 100" even with an overwide trailer.

ETA: I found my calculations for 2022 G23. Bottom of prop to top of folded manual tower = 90.875". If you add 9" to that for prop clearance (e.g. 4.5" prop cage to pavement and 4.5" prop to prop cage), you're at about 100". That's too tall for me, so I never got to the point that I calculated minimum trailer width to allow the boat to sit that low. I rented a storage space instead. :-(

[dy9213]

Apologies for bringing back an old thread. Anyone have recent developments on this topic? I too have an 8ft garage door.

I just spoke to Superior Boats and they said CTW is out of business. Also not all CTW trailers were low/wide. They said vendors don't build them wide anymore because of legal reasons. I didn't dig further than that.

[xrichard]

FWIW, CTW made a trailer for my G23 that sits at 93.5"....to do that, they had to make it 9' wide to drop the boat between the fenders. 9' is not a problem in CA. If they did it again, I think they could get away with 8.75' wide. They can make an 8.5' wide trailer for a G21 because the 21 is narrower at the chine than the 23.

[Kenv]

Nice fit for a nice boat. I just cut a hole in my garage for my G21 to fit.....LOL

[F725]

Good info Jake. Sharp boat!

[Jakehere]

I'm posting this for future reference for guys that want to try to fit their G boats in a garage. I researched the folded tower heights extensively because for me, if it wouldn't fit in my garage I couldn't buy it. Seems like most G23's were in the 99" plus or minus range on their boatmate or ramlin trailers, usually with 18" wheels. My goal was 95", quite a bit off... Data on G21's was harder to come by, I went to the dealer and measured a G21 on a trailer with 18" wheels and got approx 98", so that was encouraging but still too high.

One of the first things I discovered is that the G21's can sit lower on the trailers than G23/G25's. Something in the hull allows them to sit a little lower on the trailers IF the trailer manufacturer takes advantage of this and lets the boat drop between the fenders.. There's a company in the northern california area called California Trailer Works (CTW) that makes a G21 trailer that sits super low, 93.5" approx tower height. There are about 3 nautique dealers that sell new boats with these CTW trailers, Superior in Sac, Rons marine in Fresno and a dealer near San Francisco. I tried repeatedly to get a hold of CTW but I could never get anyone on the phone and they didn't respond to my voicemails. I was planning on them making me a trailer for my new boat but it didn't pan out. There's also N3 Boatworks who has made custom, lower sitting trailers.

So back at the dealer (Sun Country in Ontario) they had a different G21 sitting on a "basic" (no ladder, 15" wheels, white) trailer made in central california by Sport Boat Trailers. By dropping to the 15" wheels with the smaller diameter tires vs. most trailers having 18", it saves about 2" on the tire diameter which translates to 1" on the radius, but here's what I didn't realize- by the trailer coming with 15" wheels from the factory, the factory set the torsion bar ride height lower than they would have if they spec'd the trailer with 18" so now the folded tower height was a full 2" lower, at 96 inches!

So at 96" I was able to lower the tongue jack all the way down lowest it would crank and gain another inch of drop when pushing the trailer in the garage. BINGO 95" - I'm in!

Here are some pics of the new boat, and the garage: