Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Boat Ramp

Great idea!!! I will have to come back and re-visit.

Construction materials would be determined by amount of usage expected? Concrete would be best, but until you know for sure the full pool line, where to place the forms? You'd want it to extend at least as far out into the water so that if the lake level were to drop the trailers wouldn't drop off the concrete ramp. Power loading would lead to washing the soil away at the end of the ramp, and that would be a bad thing if the loaded trailer tires dropped off the end of the concrete into a hole.

As for the seawall to load a barge, I'd want the water there to be 5'-6' deep so that there was plenty of water for barge draft if the water level in the lake were to drop 3'-4'

In the early 1980's we put in a seawall at the lake house with the"W" shaped steel pilings that interlocked and was made from CORE-TEN steel that was 3/8" thick. It's still there today. We cut the pieces 6'-7' long and used a piece of copper pipe on a garden hose to "wash" them down into the sand, then used a 2" sand point well driver to pound them the rest of the way into the dirt. We capped it off with a 4x4 or 6x6 by 1/4" or 5/16" thick piece of angle bolted to the top of the seawall to finish it off. The metal was in the dirt 3'-4' and backfilled with dirt.

If using stone for the ramps, I'd start off with larger rip-tap, and fill in the gaps between it with #73's. Then vibratory roll everything to pack it tight.

Slope? I looked on-line. They say between 12% and 15%. Less than 12% requires getting the tow vehicle in the water, greater than 15% creates too steep of a slope.

Both under water and out of the water, remember that things get slippery when underwater growth is on things, and pavement gets slippery when wet. The rougher the better. I have seen too many people slip and get banged up on trailers when required to step in the water at a boat ramp.