Horror Tow

Phil Herring

Alien
Mar 25, 1997
4,918
- - Bainbridge Island
Most of us, at one time or another, have towed a boat behind our car or truck. And while towing technology has come a long way... sometimes your trailer doesn't.

Got a trailering horror story? Share your adventure here.
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AXEL

.
Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
'I had a friend of mine whose car slid down a very slimy ramp (with the engine running) and the windows open. Bad news. When the tow truck arrived, he was chest deep in the water. The driver asked him where the car was, his response was "I'm standing on it".
 
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Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Catching a twenty pound stripper with a car trying to launch a Minuet 18 daysailor with my car. One reason I am called Crazy
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Dave,
You are much better off catching stripers than strippers. That's how people get diseases that require shots of penicillin. ;) (or so I've heard).

- Will (Dragonfly)
 
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Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
I can't say why that guy was facing the water, but I'll bet he got out without putting the parking break on.

My wife, when she was a young driver, borrowed her father's truck and drove down to the boat ramp with her girlfriend, where they sat on the tailgate to watch the water while eating lunch. When she got back in the truck to go, it wouldn't move forward, but it would go in reverse. She kept trying and the water kept getting closer until the rear tires were under water.
Finally some guy, who was watching, said, "you got the parking break on. "

- Will (Dragonfly)
 
Oct 9, 2008
1,739
Bristol 29.9 Dana Point
That's a fantastically old picture.

I saw it during the 2008 election. Someone had photoshopped it and put a big "Obama" sticker in the truck's rear window.
 
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pateco

.
Aug 12, 2014
2,207
Hunter 31 (1983) Pompano Beach FL
When I was a kid, a friends dad was attempting to launch his boat behind a 1970's Eldorado convertible. The ramp was steep, and slimy, and the Eldorado was front wheel drive. He lost traction, and sunk the Cadillac up to the doors before it stopped sliding. He had to get towed back up the ramp. Water poured out of the bottom of the trunk for many minutes.
 
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Jun 8, 2004
350
Macgregor 21 Clinton, NJ
Almost happened to me. Had a smaller O'day knock-off with big ford van tow vehicle. was parked in line for the ramp but 40+yards away facing towards the ramp on the gentle downslope (made stepping mast easier) as there was plenty of room to spin around once rigged. While walking the mast up I spotted wife standing alongside the boat alone (!!). Asked "where's the kid (he was about 6) - could be a problem if he pulled the trans out of par..........." Close call - my buddy was much more nimble than I jumped off the bow and dashed to the drivers side and slammed the trans back into park before it picked up too much speed.
 
Jul 13, 2010
1,097
Precision 23 Perry Hall,Baltimore County
August 9, 2014 I reported here how I had a runaway boat ,down the ramp while I was pulling it out. Don't know how to get it out of the archives to here.
 
Apr 11, 2010
946
Hunter 38 Whitehall MI
Boat launch watching is one of my most favorite forms of entertainment. It ranks right up there with watching the comings and goings at our Marina fuel dock, or watching people back travel trailers into camp sites.

My favorite boat launch story is when in high school I was waiting in line to launch my parents 16 foot ski boat. The car / boat in line in front of me was manned by someone who apparently thought a lot of their own skill and had an ego show for it.
They were making a big show on how smooth and cool they were and that they had a launch technique that could best be called a "jerk launch". I didn't realize until after just how appropriate the name was.

Anyway the technique was to unhook the trailer hold downs, put a person in the boat, back down at a fairly fast speed and slam on the brakes. In the jerk, the boat theoretically slides off when the car stops. That is unless you have a fairly steep and quite slimy ramp. When the brakes were slammed the car didn't exactly stop and slid down the ramp until it was so far down that water began to leak in through the doors. To compound the fun, the trailer wheels dropped off the concrete ramp and sank into the muck effectively hooking them to the edge of the ramp. With the hooked trailer and the slimy ramp there was no way this guy was moving until a tow truck arrived to pull him out.

The jerk launch took on a whole new meaning when the ramp was effectively closed for hours waiting for the tow truck. The long line waiting to launch had to give up because the launch was totally blocked.
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
The best was a small truck with a big heavy boat trying getup the ramp and had the pedal to the metal but the whole thing was sliding back wards.
He had started backing up to put the boat in but wet slippery ramp
and very light small pickup with the tires smoking and were cooled off after sliding back into water.
Nick
 
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