Any Idias for installing a swim ladder that will work well and not look Goofy!! on the back of a 35 lightning... Looking for input thanks...
Bob

I seen one last summer on a customers 89 280 Baja sport with a molded on swimplatform. It was a stainless 3 step ladder that bolted under the platform, and you pulled the ladder straight out and let it drop down. It had a 90 deg curve at the top to stop it from comin all the way out. When done you just lifted back and pushed forward till it was all the way under the platform. It had a snap on both sides to hold it in place once it was up. BUT, at the end of the season, the snaps came undone and it must have droped down, and the drives from turning left and right, bent the $hit out of it. Worked great till the snaps let go. Probably from jumpin waves.

Saw the same setup on a friends sonic last year...looked at putting that type on but saw no way to gain access to the inside of the swim platform to back up the mounting hardware...Idias??
Thanks 10x

Check these out. I looked at these before but I am not sure how much material is in the Fountain plaform to mount to. Plus I was not sure I could reach the into the holes from the engine compartment to put a backing plate. Any ideas??? Anyone else mounted anything to the underside of an older Fountain deck??http://www.aquaperformance.com/home.html

I posted this question a while back on a couple of boards. Seems like the only way to gain access to the inside of the platform is to cut a hole in the bottom of the platform and install an inspection plate. Not something I was real interested in doing. The best option that I found was the dive ladder that Fountain sells. A small bracket goes on the swim platform and the ladder slides down into it.

Blownincome: Here is the swimplatform that you need for your Fountain. It's made by Windline, in LA California, don't have a model # cause there was'nt one on the boat that had it installed in our shop (42 Sonic).

There's one for sale today under the "Parts for sale" forum of OSO, by SMYTH1.

This is exactly what you need. It ,ounts under the swim platform with 4 long bolts from the bottom. On the top, there are 4 T-nut kinda nuts that stick down into the top of the platform. The 4 bottom bolts are threaded into the T-nuts. The T-nuts have a rounded top with a phillips head in it so you can grip it. Diameter is about the size of a quarter. Depending on the thickness of the top of your platform, you may want to put a larger fender style washer under the nut. Your platform is hollow but I doubt you'll need any washers.

It's a 4 step ladder that when you pull it out, all the steps are stacked up and they just pull out and the top has a slotted rail on each side that this ladder runs back and forth on. Just pull straight out, let all the steps extend, and let it drop down.
When done........lift the bottom up and back and push forward, and it all stacks all the steps on top of one another. When it slides under the platform. you can hardly see it. All you see is the bottom of the bottom step.
The bottom step has a nylon strap with a snap in it that you put the other end of the snap somewhere on top or under the platform. Once it's snapped down in place, it can't go anywhere.

After seein this setup, if I ever get a newer boat with a platform, I WILL put one of these on for sure.

Best setup I've seen yet!!!

I may have the same ladder that 10x is talking about. It's a telescoping ladder from the Sonic factory that is through bolted from the top of the swim platform.

Unfortunately we are unable to use ours because it's mounted directly over the drive and the bottom step comes down over the prop. I don't want anyone to cut their foot on the prop and I don't want to scratch my drive. Anyone want to buy it?

(I think that there are some other models out there that I could buy that would fit in the center in front of the exhaust.)

10x,
i have thought of doing the same thing, using the thru bolts, But I was afraid bad things could happen since you really could not tighten it up as there will be a void between the top and bottom halfs. Just be trying to compress the 2 halves together while tightning. Guess w/o knowing how thick the decks are, it may not be a problem. Just didn't want to drill holes to find out.

1 thought. Drill the 4 holes thru the top only and pour something thru them to fill the void that will harden solid. After it hardens then redrill all the way thru.
???????????????????

The way my boat sits, it's actually easier to just step on the drives and climb up.

10X thanks for the heads up... see the issue with threw bolting .. thats the ladder that would work just need to work out how to mount without cutting a access hole.
seen that setup on a friends sonic.I used the drives to climb up before I put driveshowers on now those are in the way...
Thanks.
Bob

heres one on my 98 42