Cobaltchat.com

Any body know where I can source a replacement? The ladder on our new to us 2007 232 is missing one of the rubber tread wraps and takes a ton of effort to deploy. Also won’t completely stow. We’ve tried various lubricants, but it still takes some muscle and is problematic for the missus and the 11 yo. Looks like an easy swap with a single bolt if I can find a new ladder unit. Thanks ahead of time! (Reposted from parts chat)

No sure you will be able to find a new one. I was told they are not being made anymore. They made the same ladder but in a 3 step version that came on cobalts starting around 2011 from my understanding. I would love to find a 3 step version to replace my 2 step. That’s exactly how mine looked, all cleaned up now.

If you can't find a direct replacement or repair parts, Garelick makes a variety of under-platform swim ladders such as:



and

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/garelic ... r/19636-01

I found this one in a search which appears to have a Cobalt part number
https://www.greatlakesskipper.com/cobal ... nder-mount?
- not sure of the origin of these.
The best part is that it IS 316 Stainless.
So that is a 2-rung and a dual slide with full-width steps, vs the OEM 222/232 of that generation which was a single centre slide - great images of @CBO ladder which looks amazing!

One consideration I have in looking, is that it MUST be 316.
MOST appear to be 304, but 316 is going to hold up much better in Salt Water.
One reviewer of that Garelick one on Amazon said it was already rusting after couple of seasons in Salt Water. That would suggest the Garelick are 304 (but I cannot state this with certainty)

I did find what appears to be a nice 3-rung 316 ladder directly out of China - not sure how our community feels about that though.

Update: had the marina pull my ladder over the winter and spent the better part of a Saturday following @CBO directions rebuilding the original ladder, then dropped it off for installation prior to spring put in. Boat went in the water last weekend and ladder deploys and stows smooth as butter!! Even color coordinated the bike grips to my gellcoat, black on upper rungs, yellow on lower. (Bonus- yellow provides super hi vis when deployed). Big thanks to this forum for getting me a like new ladder for a total cost of bike grips on Amazon and a little bit of elbow grease!! Had so much fun last w/e I forgot to snap pics of the restored unit. Looking forward to pulling my old butt out of the water to the swim platform many times this summer. Happy boating, all!!

Nice. Thank you for the follow up!

Nice job! Looking forward to pics of your restored and colorful ladder.

Where would I find the CBO instructions?

Sorry. Had this convo going in 2 different threads. Here’s the post from CBO that I loosely followed:

I rebuilt mine this past winter. Put in new Teflon washer, stainless washers and straighten everything out. I noticed that when extended the metal appeared to be tarnished. (Lots of brown color) I ended polishing the entire ladder and mount with my bench polisher which removed all the brown tarnishing and works a lot better. As for the missing rubber tread, I replaced all of mine with bicycle handle bar grips.

Thanks for that info.

Did you have to straighten yours? Are the Teflon and stainless washers internal to the telescoping part or are they just the external ones on the main cylinder?

I picked up a spare ladder off of eBay years ago, but never could figure out how to remove the telescoping part from the main cylinder.

Mine didn't need to be straightened, just cleaned and lubed. I didn't take the telescoping part out, just shot a bunch of WD40 into it and worked the mechanism back and forth after cleaning and polishing the extension. Polishing wheel wasn't quite enough to remove the amount of corrosion I had built up, nor the adhesive residue after I cut off the other three treads, so I used a superfine wire brush to get the worst of it off. The bike grips work perfectly. slide right on after heating them up for a couple minutes with a hair dryer.

Finally remembered to have the wife snap a pic of the restored ladder. Hope everyone here is having a great summer on the water!

JDboater wrote: Sat Jun 22, 2024 12:56 pm IMG_3946.jpeg
Finally remembered to have the wife snap a pic of the restored ladder. Hope everyone here is having a great summer on the water!

Thanks for the follow-up JDB.