How I got my 242-S through an 8' tall garage door

[amccoy]

So I've been worrying all season about getting my 242 into my garage with an 8' tall door. According to everything I've read the height of the 242 on the trailer with the tower down is 102". I had schemed up some wild ideas about cribbing the trailer, taking the wheels off, and pulling the boat into the garage on casters. Turns out none of that is necessary.

First about the boat. It's a 2017, 242 Limited S, on the factory steel shoreland'r trailer.

The garage is 30' x 40' x 10' ceilings. It has 2 garage doors that are 9' wide x 8' tall.

Here are the steps and some pictures to get through a 8" tall door.

1 - Remove the wake board rack from the tower.

2 - Make sure the garage door is all the way open. I used a c-clamp to hold the door up.

3 - With an assistant (beautiful wife), pull the pins and lower the wake tower to the down position.

4 - I used an adjustable saw horse (actually a roller stand from Harbor Freight) to support the tower so that the steel cables holding the wake tower were loose. I then removed the 8mm hex drive bolts connecting the 2 cables to the tower.

5 - Lower the tower until it has reached the lowest possible head room, prop the tower in this position.

6 - I made 2 steel linkages to hold the tower in the new low position. The linkages were steel bar stock with 1/2" diameter holes drilled about 16.75" apart. Install the linkages through the pin locations on the tower and frame. Use the factory pin in the top hole and a bolt and nut in the bottom. Then I removed the saw horse.

7 - I got the boat lined up with the door and started backing into the garage. With a 9' wide door there is only a couple inches clearance on each side. Make sure you have a spotter for this.

8 - When the tower got to the door opening it was clear that it was still too tall. I deflated the tires to about 10 psi each. This dropped the boat by about 2-3 inches and was enough to fit. A few people on the boat will also help by adding weight and lowering the trailer suspension.

9 - With the deflated tires the boat cleared by about 1 inch. After backing into the garage I pumped the tires back up so they don't sit all winter deflated and form flat spots.

 

[BigAbe75]

@ZGhost I suspect this is about as good of info as you’re going to find. I think taking the bimini off your X and doing this stuff will get you on the right track. Obviously, it’s gonna be a tight fit.

@amccoy Great write up.

 

[ZGhost]

Holly crap @amccoy, talk about a slip fit for largest Yamaha boat thru a garage door!!! Amazing work.

No kidding @BigAbe75, I have not seen anywhere near this detail on this topic here. No offense to others.

The two of you rock!!!! I’m sure many more people will benefit from this. Next spring when I take the boat out of hibernation, I am going to give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks so much to both of you guys for making this thread very informative and useful!

 

[Shady28]

That is some impressive work. I too would have had that on my mind all summer till putting the plan into action.

Still glad I'm not presented with the temptation....garage length is too short!

 

[Weeb]

Just a thought, maybe a 6 or 8 inch drop hitch would help.

 

[Eagles Wing]

That looks great. For my older boat, I installed a replacement composite header board with screws that I remove each time I need to get the boat in or out of the garage. I drop the board and deflate the tires and in she goes. Mine is a older 2011 242 Limited S so I take the tower off first, but still had to devise the removable board aspect to ease the transition.

 

[haknslash]

Just extend the cables like I did for my AR tower and you won't have to do half of that. https://jetboaters.net/threads/how-to-get-your-2016-ar192-or-ar195-in-a-garage-less-than-7.10369/

+1 for using the drop hitch in this situation. Airing up and deflating tires would get old. Swap the hitch would take a few seconds.

 

[ZGhost]

Thank you @haknslash, what isn’t clear to me from your instruction or video is how you loosened the bolt from the washer. The space is very tight and my guess the washer and bolt are all the way up in this very confined and hard to get to space. I am not sure if the 2016 AR192 has more room than the 2019 242X-E and I can’t confirm what this looks like on my boat since it’s in storage now. Can you please elaborate on accessing the bolt and washer and what tricks and tools are used to get up there in this tiny space and what you leveraged to take them apart. Thank you!

 

[haknslash]

Thank you @haknslash, what isn’t clear to me from your instruction or video is how you loosened the bolt from the washer. The space is very tight and my guess the washer and bolt are all the way up in this very confined and hard to get to space. I am not sure if the 2016 AR192 has more room than the 2019 242X-E and I can’t confirm what this looks like on my boat since it’s in storage now. Can you please elaborate on accessing the bolt and washer and what tricks and tools are used to get up there in this tiny space and what you leveraged to take them apart. Thank you!

I got my big butt down inside the compartment while the tower was raised. I weighed around 235 lbs back then too. You have to do this with the tower raised as it allows for the cable to have slack in order to get the nut and washer off. Yes it was cramped but if I could do it in a 19' boat compartment it should be easier with a larger boat. I went in with my head facing the rear of the boat and put my legs along the space that runs up to the helm. No special tools really just a socket extension on the ratchet.

 

[ZGhost]

You’ll never get me in that position! 6’2” and 280lbs, ain’t gonna happen!!!!
If it did, it’ll be permanent and will have to call the fire dept to pry my ass out.
Thanks for the info @haknslash !

 

[BigAbe75]

Do what I do.... recruit the wife!

Or, next time a buddy comes over tell him the price for an afternoon of boating is to help you for 30 minutes. Lol - and by “help” you mean “crawl in the hole and do it, while I stand over you and hand you tools”.

 

[haknslash]

You’ll never get me in that position! 6’2” and 280lbs, ain’t gonna happen!!!!
If it did, it’ll be permanent and will have to call the fire dept to pry my ass out.
Thanks for the info @haknslash !

Haha there was a minute or two I thought I might be stuck in there. I did it during the hot summer with sun beaming down on me so just imagine sweating your ass off in itchy carpet mixed with fiberglass shavings. Yea wasn't fun lol but glad I did the mod. You can also bend backwards and just have your upper body in there and leave your legs hanging out. Helps to have a hand and even better a smaller person to get them to do it for you

 

[ZGhost]

Sooooooo @haknslash , what are doing next summer? Got some free time

I believe the 2019 242X have the gas piston in there, I am not sure even with a longer cable you’re going to be able overcome the predetermined piston travel. But, worth looking into. Thx for info, great write up.

 

[haknslash]

Ah I forgot y'all get the gas shock. Good point!

 

[adrianp89]

Just stopping by to say great work. That is impressive.

 

[nesnah2]

Nice job!! That gave me anxiety just looking at the pics.

 

[Fish]

Just looking through threads about my 2017 242 S LTD (I purchase the exact same boat in Nov of 2019) and glad to see (through the very detailed pics and explanations) that this is possible.

Thanks!

 

[Sfriesen]

I wish the tower on our 04 was fold down. This is what I had to do when we picked it up and brought it home last weekend. Thankfully it isnt heavy so its quick work to remove it.

 

[markallan]

Wow, I'd love to able to that.

 

[jsmiles56]

So I've been worrying all season about getting my 242 into my garage with an 8' tall door. According to everything I've read the height of the 242 on the trailer with the tower down is 102". I had schemed up some wild ideas about cribbing the trailer, taking the wheels off, and pulling the boat into the garage on casters. Turns out none of that is necessary.

First about the boat. It's a 2017, 242 Limited S, on the factory steel shoreland'r trailer.

The garage is 30' x 40' x 10' ceilings. It has 2 garage doors that are 9' wide x 8' tall.

Here are the steps and some pictures to get through a 8" tall door.

1 - Remove the wake board rack from the tower.

2 - Make sure the garage door is all the way open. I used a c-clamp to hold the door up.

3 - With an assistant (beautiful wife), pull the pins and lower the wake tower to the down position.

4 - I used an adjustable saw horse (actually a roller stand from Harbor Freight) to support the tower so that the steel cables holding the wake tower were loose. I then removed the 8mm hex drive bolts connecting the 2 cables to the tower.

5 - Lower the tower until it has reached the lowest possible head room, prop the tower in this position.

6 - I made 2 steel linkages to hold the tower in the new low position. The linkages were steel bar stock with 1/2" diameter holes drilled about 16.75" apart. Install the linkages through the pin locations on the tower and frame. Use the factory pin in the top hole and a bolt and nut in the bottom. Then I removed the saw horse.

7 - I got the boat lined up with the door and started backing into the garage. With a 9' wide door there is only a couple inches clearance on each side. Make sure you have a spotter for this.

8 - When the tower got to the door opening it was clear that it was still too tall. I deflated the tires to about 10 psi each. This dropped the boat by about 2-3 inches and was enough to fit. A few people on the boat will also help by adding weight and lowering the trailer suspension.

9 - With the deflated tires the boat cleared by about 1 inch. After backing into the garage I pumped the tires back up so they don't sit all winter deflated and form flat spots.

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I followed your directions to a T and it fit perfectly. Thank god for the folding tongue. Great information.