Height of 2009 SANTE 210 with FC3 tower folded

[bdisney3]

So... I purchased a 2009 SANTE 210 confident it would fit in my garage with the tower folded (I have an 8' high door). If I leave the Z5 top on the tower but swivel it and fold the tower, I measure about 8' 6" to the highest point - no go. If I remove the Z5 top, I get a few more inches, but still no go. If I remove take the trailer off the truck and lower it as far as possible on the tongue jack, I get to 8' 2". The trailer is a VIP tandem trailer that came with the boat as seen in the attached picture. Any thoughts other than build a detached garage (which I am now considering)? Also, I'm maybe I'm doing something wrong when I remove the Z5 top - seems to take me 30 or so minutes to do. Am I doing something wrong or is there a way to leave it attached but get the tower to fold down all the way? I go to the lake generally weekly (except for a couple weeks in Dec and Jan) and don't really want a 30 min plus hassle each time I take the boat out and put it away. HELP!

[Dave Rittiman]

On the FCT 3 towers you can take out the stainless bolt that typically stops the tower from hitting the interior. When you collapse the tower you will see a 6 mm ( ??? ) Allen bolt that connects to a cable. This will give you about 1 - 2 inches more clearance, be careful since the only thing that will stop the tower from hitting your interior where the passenger seat is. I put a towel town when pulling it out of the garage for the tower to rest on for the 2 min it's down.

I had to do this with my 2009 230 SAN with the Z5 Bimini and Boatmate trailer to make it fit in my garage. What I did was bolt a 2 inch eye hook from the ceiling and once I get the boat in the garage to hold the tower up. I attach the tower via a chain ( that goes through a 2 inch rubber hose to perfect the powder coat of the tower ) to the eye hook.

Another good idea is that I created 4 hooks that hang from the ceiling to hold the Bimini up out of the way above my boat. So once I get the boat in the garage and the tower connected to the eye hook. The Z5 Bimini goes on the 4 chains it's a pretty good setup and can get my boat in or out in about 5 / 10 minutes.

I can snap a few pictures if you want tomorrow when I get home.

Hope this helps,
Dave


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[bdisney3]

On the FCT 3 towers you can take out the stainless bolt that typically stops the tower from hitting the interior. When you collapse the tower you will see a 6 mm ( ??? ) Allen bolt that connects to a cable. This will give you about 1 - 2 inches more clearance, be careful since the only thing that will stop the tower from hitting your interior where the passenger seat is. I put a towel town when pulling it out of the garage for the tower to rest on for the 2 min it's down.

I had to do this with my 2009 230 SAN with the Z5 Bimini and Boatmate trailer to make it fit in my garage. What I did was bolt a 2 inch eye hook from the ceiling and once I get the boat in the garage to hold the tower up. I attach the tower via a chain ( that goes through a 2 inch rubber hose to perfect the powder coat of the tower ) to the eye hook.

Another good idea is that I created 4 hooks that hang from the ceiling to hold the Bimini up out of the way above my boat. So once I get the boat in the garage and the tower connected to the eye hook. The Z5 Bimini goes on the 4 chains it's a pretty good setup and can get my boat in or out in about 5 / 10 minutes.

I can snap a few pictures if you want tomorrow when I get home.

Hope this helps,
Dave


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Thanks for the suggestions - I'm going to try this this evening.

[Dave Rittiman]

Couple of pictures of my setup my boat is usually forward about 5 inches.


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[Dave Rittiman]

Another thing I use a drop hitch so I can get the front of the boat down low as possible then swap to standard hitch.

The FC4 and FC5 towers have a lower break point and go basically to the windshield height. The upgrade to a newer tower is about 4 - 5 K so just have to be creative.


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[bdisney3]

Thanks so much for the pics. The bolt that get removed are the one's that help with the weight assist on the tower I assume. When I remove these, I got an additional 4.5 inches of clearance - more than enough to make it fit! When you remove the Z5 top, any tips on making the process quicker? Assuming you have a "helper" when doing it? Thanks again for the tip on how to make this fit! Great looking boat from what I can tell, btw.

[Dave Rittiman]

I usually have my daughter or buddy help me pull the Z5 and set it on the swim deck on top of towels. You should be able to pull the Z5 pretty quickly it's only 4 pins on mine. I have done it myself as well very much a pain I always through towels over my speakers so I don't scratch them.

Congrats on the new boat and getting it to fit in the garage.

Kinda funny story I didn't even think much about not having my boat fit in the garage ( assuming it would by default ). I drove 10 hours each way to pick it up and got home and it wouldn't fit 😂. Until I figured out the weight assist pins and some finagling to get it in my garage. Now it's second nature and I can get it out of my garage in about 5 min.

Dave


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