Garage depth for 21' bass boat

[Cgolf]

I am in the process of designing a downsized house for us, but need to know how much I need to upsize the garage to fit a 21' Bass boat with the fold away trailer tongue. I don't have an issue with have to slightly angle the boat in the stall, but want to make sure I have enough depth to cover me. My current 16 foot boat will look itty bitty in there, but I want to plan for the future.

[Jm526]

 I would recommend to go to manufacturers websites and look at the 21 foot bass boat specs. There should be something about trailer length with tounge closed. 

[tcbass]

Definitely make sure it's a little big vs. just right....things have a way of being larger than you expect.

 

Also make sure the garage doors width is important! My single stall doors are like 1/2" too narrow for my boat to fit.

[iabass8]

with motor trimmed down level and a fold away tongue, you're looking at +/- 29 ft in length. trimmed up on a motor mate or transom savor will add 1-2 ft. width will vary between boats but ballpark 10 ft of clearance and you'll be good.

[WRB]

I had a 26' depth garage for years and no problems with 21' w/225 hp engine, Jack plate, trimmed down, no reason to leave the engine up, should drain out the water. You don't want a transum saver on the heavy big engines, there are some good supports available. If you can make it deeper, go for it, 26' would be minimum.

Tom

[tcbass]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

I had a 26' depth garage for years and no problems with 21' w/225 hp engine, Jack plate, trimmed down, no reason to leave the engine up, should drain out the water. You don't want a transum saver on the heavy big engines, there are some good supports available. If you can make it deeper, go for it, 26' would be minimum.

Tom

 

Why don't you want a transom saver on the bigger motors? What are you supposed to use? What are some of the supports you recommend?

[Cgolf]

Thank you all for the answers as it helps out a lot. The extra depth and width needed will drive the location of the 3rd bay on the garage. We aren't fully set on a house plan so that helps too.

[Fishing Rhino]

Keep in mind, there are two dimensions regarding the depth of a garage.  One is the outside dimension, the other is the internal dimension.  Most building dimensions are external.  Ideally, you should be able to garage your boat and have at least three feet to spare.  That will allow you a foot and a half at each end of the boat.  My Z-8 will not fit in my 24 foot deep (external) garage on our lot next door.  It would be close if it were two feet deeper, but it would fit.

Problem is you need some one to tell you to stop when your motor is about to hit the back wall.  Otherwise it's back up, stop, get out and look, then get back in the tow vehicle and back up a few more inches.  I had to do that with my Z-7.  The garage attached to our house is 34 feet deep.  That's where the 8 goes now.

For the Z-8 which is just under 21 feet plus motor and jack plate, plus trailer tongue when folded.  Since you are in the designing stage, I'd opt for 28 feet deep.  Yes, it can fit in less space, but I think you'd be happier with a couple of extra feet, if the budget allows.

[webertime]

46' with doors on either side.  Drive straight in and park/un hitch and go straight out the back door.

One can dream can't he?

[Junk Fisherman]

Just about every boat manufacturer will list the length of boats on their trailer with and without a foldable tongue on their website.  Check out a few of the boats you think you'll be shopping for and you'll have your answer.  

[WRB]

8 hours ago, tcbass said:

 

Why don't you want a transom saver on the bigger motors? What are you supposed to use? What are some of the supports you recommend?

Off topic, transum savers that support the engine from the cavitation plate to the trailer rollers tend to transfer road vibrations/shock to the engine lower unit and vibrate everything loose.

Transum savers that go between the engine mounting surfaces like a jack plate or boat transum that support the engine trimmed up and balanced don't transfer vibrations or shock to the lower unit. My-Wedge is a very simple unit that works, Motor-Mate is another type, there are several others.

Tom

[Onvacation]

You can build it cheaper the first time than you can the second time.  Personally if I knew anywhere from 26 to 28 was the "yea it fits" length, I would be at 30 if I had the room to do it.  

[Ski213]

This isn't boat length advice, plenty of good already given above. Keep a couple things in mind when planning/designing though. Regarding materials, often it makes sense to work in multiples of four feet. If you go from 24' to 25' it might be cost effective to just jump to 28'. It depends on the situation. Just something to look at.  

As @Fishing Rhino said its important to pay attention to inside dimension. That is dictated by wall thickness as well as space taken up by the overhead door. Also in some instances, depending on grade at the rear, your foundation wall may extend several feet above finished slab elevation. It's only going to make a 3"-6" difference typically but if you're tight on space it's worth paying attention to. Lastly, it is easy to change a floor plan but when you move walls around you also may be changing roof pitches and how the roof lines tie together. It can easily be a non issue depending on the plan but it can also make a big difference.  

I apologize if I'm preaching to the choir on that, I've just seen some pretty major problems come from moving a wall 3' so I wanted to throw it out there. 

[tcbass]

1 hour ago, Onvacation said:

You can build it cheaper the first time than you can the second time.  Personally if I knew anywhere from 26 to 28 was the "yea it fits" length, I would be at 30 if I had the room to do it.  

 

Totally correct....you may also get a bigger boat someday.

Also make sure that the garage door height is high enough, especially if you add Talons or Power Poles.

[WRB]

Make sure the garage door width is wide enough between finished inside dimensions, 10' minimum if you plan to back the rig into a single garbage door opening.

Tom