a little help on height

[Lake.OD]

I am looking at a new lake house. I have a 2005 LSV, full tower (the Malibu variety that swoops forward) with racks and gear and a trailer with the folding tongue. My question is how tall does the garage door have to be to get the boat in? The garage is plenty long at over 30 feet, but I am concerned I can't get it under the door way? I know the tower has to go down obviously, but will it fit???????

[skicrave]

With the tower folded 8' will give you plenty (you could probably get it through a standard 7' door) of clearance regardless of which trailer you have. If your door isn't that high, we need more specifics (like what the trailer is) in order to let you know if it will fit.

BTW, this has been covered MANY times, so search is definitely your friend on this one.

[Lake.OD]

Thanks, just discovered search. BTW, it is a boat mate trailer and the door looks like a standard 7 footer.....

[skicrave]

It's going to be VERY close. I just realized you said Sunscape LSV, but you didn't say what size. There's a big difference in height between a 20, 21, 23 and 247. I assumed you were talking about a 21 (shame on me), but if that's not the case there's no way a 23 or a 247 will fit.

[Lake.OD]

Just went through a ton of search... it is a 23 and on a boat mate. By the look of the photo (why did I not measure?????) it looks like a standard 7' door. It looks like a no go on getting it in by the sound of things. I wonder if anyone on here has raised the header and installed a 7'3" or other custom door. It is a few thousand but much cheaper than a new garage. What height must it be to work???

[skicrave]

Yeah, there's no way you're going to fit a 23 in a standard door. Unless it's a special garage to accommodate an RV or something it's not going to fit.

If you're going to change things make it 8' if there is enough room.

[chadwick02]

Our 21 LSV will not fit in our 7' door with the tower. We unbolt the tower from the boat, disconnect the light and speaker wires (quick disconnects), and remove the tower completely from the mounting feet. Its only 4 bolts total (for the illusion tower), and with speakers, but no racks, the whole thing must only weigh 70 or 80 pounds. Its a little awkward getting it out of the boat, but 4 people can do it in 5 minutes no problem. Our boat sits in the water all summer, so this only has to happen once a year for us.

[wakbord11]

my vlx would not fit under a 7' door. i now have a 7'3" door. just clears under that. customized the opening,,and then special ordered a 7'3" door. i would have to say a 23' would be lucky to clear a 7'3" door

[Lake.OD]

Anybody know what the exact height is for a 23 LSV with a boat mate trailer... taking off the upper ball and folded down tower... I am curious if I can "make it fit" with a custom door. BTW, if you don't mind, how much did that little project cost to complete? My problem is that it is a "double door" and I bet I will have issues with a header that will support that span unless I goto a steel product. Thoughts?

Edited April 16, 2008 by Lake.OD

[wakbord11]

if i remember correctly,,the door was arund $600--$700. mine also is the "double door". i had a 12 inch header. i ended up re-inforcing the header with ply wood the length of it,,and then cut out about 3" of it. that was a pain,,,but it all works good now. my garage only has 8' walls,,,,so my options were limited.

[SacRiverRat]

Anybody know what the exact height is for a 23 LSV with a boat mate trailer... taking off the upper ball and folded down tower... I am curious if I can "make it fit" with a custom door. BTW, if you don't mind, how much did that little project cost to complete? My problem is that it is a "double door" and I bet I will have issues with a header that will support that span unless I goto a steel product. Thoughts?

There are too many factors.. you'll want to measure yourself. What would you do with the "exact" height? 1) you don't know how high the existing opening is, and 2) you don't know how high your boat is .. You're going to need ~7.5-8'

Do you have a high enough celing in the garage, so that the new garage door can get out of the way enough?

[MalibuTime]

Anybody know what the exact height is for a 23 LSV with a boat mate trailer... taking off the upper ball and folded down tower... I am curious if I can "make it fit" with a custom door. BTW, if you don't mind, how much did that little project cost to complete? My problem is that it is a "double door" and I bet I will have issues with a header that will support that span unless I goto a steel product. Thoughts?

Do you need a double, typically 16' wide? If your going to just stuff the boat in there, put in a 10' wide door and a man-door instead, then you can cut down the header and throw in a post. Maybe even in reverse order (put the post in, then cut down the header!) Plus that way you can store a bunch of other important stuff in there (junk) and not feel guilty about taking up a parking space, since it would be a single anyhow.

[bofer84]

Im not sure if your talking about height or width here. If your talking about height, and its within 4" of hitting, just let the air out of the tires on the trailer, roll her in, and pump them back up gets you in and out really easily without having to take the whole tower off