Ever lose a boat while trailering?

[captquest]

I posted this on another forum, but it fits this topic best.

This hits on one of my greatest boating stories and it is absolutely true! In the late 1980's I owned a 15' boat with a 65HP motor. The trailer was an old home made trailer. It was well made, but was not galvanized, just painted. On the way home from a fishing trip one Saturday morning, a really freak thing happened. I was with two other buddies in my Chevy pick up towing the boat. I kept my eye on it in the rear view as we drove the 12 or so miles home. There was a bit of a curve on one of the streets that we had just passed on. A few minutes later I glanced again in the mirror and could only see the street behind me, I turned my head back in a semi-panicked manner to look directly back out the rear windshield, nothing was there! "Did we not just have the boat?" I yelled at my fishing partners. We all instantly and simultaneously turned our heads back and looked out the back windshield, no sign of a boat! I immediately pulled over and we got out to look at the hitch. The front part of the tongue was still attached with the safety chains, but the trailer had broken right off due to the rusty old tongue. As we drove back following our route, I imagined news teams and rescue helicopters arriving at a horrible scene about the same time we do. Almost a mile from were I had noticed it gone we could see the boat and trailer along the side of a small road across from a large field that was adjacent to the curved road. The boat and trailer ended up against a barbed wire fence with almost no damage. After analyzing what must have happened from the evidence, we were totally amazed that no one was hurt or killed and that the boat was not completly destroyed. The boat must have broken off as we were in the curve. Apparently the skid bar on the front of the trailer kept it from digging in the ground and allowed it to "ride along" the surface. The boat and trailer had gone across the field about 40 yards then crossed the small road, went down the bank of a shallow ditch and back up the other side and hitting the wire fence right between two posts with enough momentum to partially pull the posts out of the ground! WOW! Total distance was about 75 yards! The wrecker driver did not seem to believe our story. There were no witnesses that we know of and thank God no victims. Not sure where those buddies are these days, but I'm certain they would remember this experience.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Ever lose a boat while trailering?

you did not hear the tongue dragging. must have been some good partying going on.

 

[captquest]

Re: Ever lose a boat while trailering?

you did not hear the tongue dragging. must have been some good partying going on.

Well I won't deny the partying,I'm always partying. But the tongue was well off the ground and hanging on the hitch, the boat broke off so clean I did not see, hear, or feel it.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Ever lose a boat while trailering?

My friend is driving his his chevy van pulling a 19' bayliner 92' i/o. I'm in the front seat and his soon to be son in law is in the back sitting on a 5 gallon pail.

Were on the way to the ramp to go fishing in the raritan bay. Maybe ten miles to the ramp from his house and mine we live around the corner from each other.

We go down the road maybe 5 miles and were talking about the noises were hearing from the trailer. We have to go down a hi-way 50-60 miles a hour no problem.

We get off the hi-way make lefts, rights go over railroad tracks and all we hear is a big boom. Feels like we got hit by a train glass all over the place flying.

I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack. He hits the brake and we get hit again, but come to a stop. We were only doing about 30 mph cause of a turn and the railroad tracks we knew were there.

Freekin son in law to be hooked the trailer to the van and didn't know what he was doing. Never checked to see if it hooked under the ball. Boat came off the ball went thru the 2 back doors broke the glass and the doors.

We cleaned off the glass from the boat put a piece of cardboard in the window and went fishing.

PS I was the only one caught strippers that day.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: Ever lose a boat while trailering?

My #1 Rule, never let someone else attach the hitch...

That happened to me at work, with an 18' covered trailer filled with about 8000lbs of glass and aluminum...my co-worker attached the trailer, and I asked him no more then 3 times if everything was connected. We checked the lights, and tires and chain. As I was pulling the trailer out of the shop I heard a wierd noise that I assumed to be something shifting in the trailer itself. Checked my mirrors everything looked fine. I proceeded to pull the trailer out, and around the corner, at which point the road slopes downwards. I give it some gas and hear an awful grind, bang....scraaaappppped. Look behind me and the trailer is chasing me down the hill and heading slightly off road towards a concrete barrier.

I'm crapping myself wondering if I should hit the brakes and stop the trailer before hitting the wall damaging the van or letting it hit the wall damaging the trailer and load or speeding up to keep the trailer on the road via the safety chains. Fortunately fate intervened and the safety wire for the brakes got caught under the tongue and fired the trailer brakes and stopped the trailer.

The cause of all this mayhem? My co-worker never put the pin in the receiver.

No damage other then a frayed safety wire, frayed nerves and a lot of sweat trying to lift the trailer up enough to get a jack under it to lift it back onto the truck. Thank god we had just changed the back-up brake battery on the trailer the day before....

Ian

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Ever lose a boat while trailering?

Yep, I had that happen to me, it was my boat I just bought and truck but I wasn't driving. The motor didn't have power and the transom saver obviously wasn't straped down well enough, and no pin or bolt in the hitch :redface:. My father was driving the truck we were coming from an area that he knew better then I did so that is why he was driving. We get a mile from the house when all of a sudden we hit a bump while going around a curve, I look back and the boat was chasing us. I told my father to speed up because the boat came undone from the truck. The boat ended up in a Teachers yard, thankfully other then skinning her yard up just a little bit it didn't do any other damage, it missed the water meter box by a foot.