How to backing down the ramp

[Tiki35]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

I also am new to backing a boat trailer and have found it is a lot tougher than it looks. What my wife does is speak to me via a cheap walkie talkie. I have mine just lying on the passenger seat and never need to reply. She can then give me directions without yelling at me and drawing more attention from onlookers that only makes things worse when you're already messing things up.

 

[ekinnee]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

The bottom of the steering wheel is how my old Platoon Sergeant taught me how to back the flatbed trailers when we had to haul 'dozers. It seems the "backwards" steering is what trips folks up, trying to convert in their minds as the back which way to turn.

Also, as has been mentioned, small movements of the wheel and follow through with the tow vehicle.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

I also am new to backing a boat trailer and have found it is a lot tougher than it looks. What my wife does is speak to me via a cheap walkie talkie. I have mine just lying on the passenger seat and never need to reply. She can then give me directions without yelling at me and drawing more attention from onlookers that only makes things worse when you're already messing things up.

First time my wife "helped" and this was the last time as well we were backing a 24ft house trailer into a campsite in the dark. Worked out that she was giving me direction on which way the front of the trailer needed to go not the back end. When we eventually worked out the problem we were in place in less than a minute !!!!
Lesson learned by me there !!!

 

[ebry710]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

I started my daughters at seven. I used them to guide me when back up my big travel trailer. I sounds crazy, but they learned the four hand signals and always looked to see my face in my side view mirror. Never a mishap.

When my daughters became teenagers they learn to talk. Hand signals became words. I now do it myself. I just get out of my truck more.

 

[krakatoa]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Practice, practice and practice is the best method.
By the way in all the excitement......dont forget the Plug !!!!! or you will be practicing your "emergency retrieval" in a hurry !!!!
Good Luck.

jajajaja you`re right, we all forgot to mention that 'little detail"

 

[krakatoa]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Wow! I woulda thought that that far in the future tow vehicles would back themselves down the ramp!

My bad, it is 2004

 

[yb240]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Along the same line as the hand on the bottom of the wheel this is how I learned. Put both hands on the wheel at 10 & 2. If you want the trailer to turn left turn the left hand towards the top of the steering wheel. If you want to turn right, turn your right hand to the top of the wheel. Oddly, I prefer to turn into the ramp instead of lining up with it. I find it easier to see what is going on. Practice, practice , practice using the mirrors.

 

[stl]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

I asked my best friend about backing up a boat after I bought my boat. His response was It all about forced learning now. Then he told me about the bottom of the steering wheel trick and told me to go to an empty parking lot and practice. I have no problems now.

 

[Mn Warrior]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

If your trailer has "roller bunks", leave the safty hook on the bow when backing down the ramp, unhook it when there is no danger of the boat falling onto the dry landing. I have seen this several times now and it is hard to get the boat back onto the trailer to look at the LARGE cracks in the hull when you have a HUGE group of people watching you.

 

[roger-s]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

dont forget your front safety chain or strap
when launching by myself i tie a long rope to the boat so that when it is floating you have a way to retrieve it
when you go to pull it out i back the trailer in the water to wet the bunks then pull it ahead so that when you drive the boat on it slides easier
also set your emergency brake when pulling your boat back out it makes it easier to put your truck back in gear

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

when you go to pull it out i back the trailer in the water to wet the bunks then pull it ahead so that when you drive the boat on it slides easier

also set your emergency brake when pulling your boat back out it makes it easier to put your truck back in gear

Good points, and to expand a bit... You'll need to figure out how far in the water to put the bunks so that the boat goes nicely onto the trailer and straightens itself out. The first few times to the lake with my current boat I backed up a bit far to where the bow would try to ride under the bow-stop roller instead of nestling on top of it, and sometimes the boat would sit ****-eyed after pulling out. I finally figured out that everything fell right into place nicely if I only had a little bit more than half the length of the bunks in the water.

 

[flycaster]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

One thing that has not been mentioned here and is a major problem when the lake levels are going down:
BE AWARE of where the end of the hard surfaced ramp is. I have witnessed several boaters just back their wheels of their trailers off the end of the concrete and the trailer frame is resting on the ramp. The spring shackles become lodged against the edge of the ramp and you can't pull the trailer up with out doing damage to the axle.
Most ramps have a large void at the end of the concrete because when you power load your boat you are washing the sand, dirt, stone, whatever away and it is being deposited into a raised barrier just beyond the ramp. This makes it interesting for those deep draft boats, when the motor is fully trimmed down and you do a full reverse to back away from the ramp, time for a prop repair.
SAVE BOATING

 

[CATransplant]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Whenever I go to a new ramp, I walk the courtesy dock to see what shape the underwater part of the ramp is in. If the ramp's busy, I'll watch a couple of launches to see if there's a problem with the ramp.

Fortunately, my little boat doesn't have to go too deep to float, so I'm almost always OK. If the ramp's hosed, though, or short with a drop-off, I can always launch and retrieve using the tilt feature on the trailer. I've had to do that a couple of times, after watching some poor guy drop his trailer off the end of the ramp.

 

[DutchMerc]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Another good thing to do might be looking at the position from your car on the ramp when you back in the boat. Take notice on the position where you stop on the way in, so, when retrieving your boat, you'll know how far you need to go back with the empty trailer. I always align my front wheel (from the car this is) with a big rock on the side of the ramp. Then i know i am deep enough in the water to hook up the cable and not get wet....

 

[cribber]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

After your dryland practicing... Go to you favorite ramp when it's not busy and practice there as well to get the feel of the ramp. If where you put in has multiple lanes practice on each one. Experience and confidence is key to successful launching and retrievals. Get your routine down and try never to deviate from it and you'll always have a great day on the water. Good luck and enjoy!!!

 

[wegngis]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

I always have gone with the "hand at the bottom of the steering wheel" trick. Just remember that you can't do that trick for too long or else you will jackknife. If the turn needs to be sustained in an arc, you will need to bring the wheel back to the other side eventually.

Also, you're bound to start over-correcting at some point in your launching career. The best thing I've found to fix your boat when suddenly you're 6-8 feet offline is just stop, and pull forward a little. The boat will fall in right behind you and you'll be reset. Generally I can get my boat back to normal by pulling up about a vehicle length.

My last trick is how to correct trailer drift. It's hard to explain, easy to demonstrate, but I'll do my best. As you're looking over your shoulder and you see your boat start to head off in the wrong direction, just give the steering wheel up to a quarter turn (usually an eighth) in the proper "correcting" direction, then bring it back to centered. How long you should leave the wheel that quarter or eighth turn is determined by your backing speed, but generally for me it's pretty quick, just a couple of seconds. What you'll end up with is simply being moved over 1-2 feet on your trip down the ramp, if that. (You're overall "line" will be off a little too, but generally it's pretty inconsequential. It's easy enough to correct with an opposite move further down the ramp, if need be.) When you go past a quarter turn, or if you don't bring it back to centered, is when you might start to get into over-correcting fishtailing.

Also, don't feel bad if you mess up, everyone does it at some point. Some days I'm great, some days I'm not, but I always try to keep a sense of humor, especially when my fishing buddies are laughing at me as I snake the trailer down the ramp.

 

[mdunn]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

The best practice for me has been backing down a slope and into our 2 car (1-car; 1 boat garage)
The key factor and major incentive here is that the car is my wife's car and I don't want to hit the wife's car.

 

[chrisg]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Put a hitch on the front and push it in. I won't touch the wife comments! But I like the idea, put her in the boat and let her steer!.

Also, you can practice till you make that perfect lauch, then remember you forgot the plug!!!!!!!

 

[gonefishin485]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

everybody has made good points, just want to add a couple

dont be afraid to turn around and look at the trailer, dont try to just back in with your mirrors, ive seen many boats hit the edge of the dock or fall of the ramp because someone wasnt paying attention, hell sometimes ill stick my head out the window, or even open up the door and look back there to check progress. (mainly because its a pain to see over the top my truck tool box and tailgate with an empty trailer!)

also, this may just be me, but i try, when possible, to use a ramp with a dock or pier along it, and i will use the edge of the pier as a straight line for backing in.

MAKE A MENTAL CHECK LIST!
when you get to the launch, TAKE YOUR TIME!
get out the truck, get into the boat and check to make sure you have everything in the boat and when it comes off the trailer, you wont have to make 5 trips back to the truck to get things

while your waiting to launch, start undoing your tie downs
ie: transom straps, bow straps, transom saver, put in your plug, etc etc

another thing i like to do, if the launch isnt too busy, ill back the boat far enough in the water so the water pick up on the motor is submerged, and i will start the motor and let it run for a minute to make sure everything is good.

two most important things i can stress, PRACTICE AND CAREFULLNESS!

im sure a lot of us here have been stuck at a launch waiting for someone to put in or take out, and it seemed like forever, knowing in our heads we were cussing the whole time, but think about it, when your putting YOUR boat on YOUR trailer, do you want someone rushing you? dont you want to take your time and make sure your rig in on your trailer right?

just remember, most (not all) boaters have a great degree of courtesy, and will even help you launch or land your boat, and they dont mind if you take a few minutes longer because they understand why.

good luck and great boating!

 

[Lawton5]

Re: How to backing down the ramp

Remember through all of this that the shorter the distance between your wheels on the trailer and the hitch, the faster your trailer will turn when you turn the wheel in the vehicle you are manovering with. It took me quite some time to figure this out when I drove tow truck. Take it slow and easy with small course corrections and remember when you turn the wheel, your load (trailer) will go in the opposite direction.