How not to tow a boat

[JoyMonkey]

http://www.stingraysmadness.com/photohosting/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0

Note: Although I put this on Stingray's photohosting site (cheers!), there's nothing pornographic about it; it's office safe and wife approved.

[missioncontrol]

That is funny 

[Stingray]

I'll mark that off my list of things to try one day.

-S

[DrewKaree]

I got to see this in real life...or is that real-time?

The parents have a place in Fremont WI.  SirP, not too far from you now. 

There's a boat landing that splits their property right down the middle.  House on one side, boathouse on the other.  I was walking over to the boathouse.  Guy in a Suburban was gonna be pulling his boat out.  He backed too far into the water, and wasn't making any headway in getting out.  The part of the landing that's underwater is generally moss-covered, and all he was doing was spinning his wheels. 

This ass hat decides he's not gonna be able to get out the regular way, and figures out what he thinks is a crack scheme.  He has the wife get in the truck, and he jumps in the boat.  He starts it up, and runs it up as far as it'll go.  At this point, I'm thinking "this is gonna be a learning experience one way or the other, I may as well sit down and watch this"

He tells the wife he's gonna gun the boat to kinda "push" the trailer up out of the water, or at the very least, take enough pressure off it to allow the Suburban to get out.  I wasn't very old, but I was smart enough to see (and say to myself) the ass hat's boat was FLOATING in the water, and was only pushing the smallest slice of the trailer.  He says "Wait'll I say, and then gun it and don't let off the gas until it's headed up the ramp"

He has the boat moter in neutral, starts to rev it up, and yells "OK!".  She starts to slide, he drops the motor into gear, hits the smallest little piece of the trailer and shoots over it.  The point of the boat smashes his back window, shoves the Suburban, but at that moment, she must have been sliding one way and tried to compensate, and the force starts her sliding even more, and into the water she goes, right up to the windows!

He calls his buddy to come drag him out.  They DON'T have a winch, just 2 chains.  While his buddy is trying to drag out his buried Suburban, he ends up smoking one of his wheels and ends up with a flat!

The moral of the story?

Boats are bad, mmkay? 

p.s. It probably didn't help their mood at all that some smart-ass young punk couldn't help but almost laugh himself off his dock and almost piss his pants.  I didn't ask them, but I'm pretty sure knowing what I know now, I'd probably kill that little kid for laughing at the situation

[duffjr]

i don't understand what happened.  all that fancy towing tock.  was there a trailer, boat, and suv?  did the suv end up in the water?

[DrewKaree]

i don't understand what happened.  all that fancy towing tock.  was there a trailer, boat, and suv?  did the suv end up in the water?

Boat landing.  Slippery ramp + trailer + not knowing how to properly remove your boat from the water = one royal hosing!

Oh, and not all Suburbans have all the fancy towing package....a lot of them are simply 1500's....rear-wheel drive trucks that are designed to haul lots of kids or cargo.  BIG SUV's and 4x4's are something people take for granted.  They end up getting themselves into more trouble THINKING their vehicle can handle anything, instead of learning how to properly drive the things or realizing snow CAN cause you to wipe out even IF you have 4 wheel drive!

[DrewKaree]

Oh, and yes, it did end up in the water.  Water depth to just under the windows of the Suburban.  Shoulda called a wrecker to winch the thing out, but sometimes, your day seems so effed up, you think it just CAN'T get any worse! 

[AC.]

Nice video.

I remember getting my friends car stuck in the sand at some river around stlouis.  He had a Saab and a jet ski (not a sea-doo, old style/ smaller jetski), and NO trailer.  We would cram the jetski into the hatchback - and probably wedge it in there with beer cans.  ANYWHO - would take it to the river and, since we had to carry the jetski, would drive the car right down to the water, where sand is (no ramps), and where Saabs lose traction.  finally got it dug/pulled out.  But, another lesson learned!

[duffjr]

i was with this guy who only drove to this party because of the gas.  it was a bust, so he hopped the curb next to a park.  he drove around the basketball courts and then decided to drive around the sandbox.  apparently, he wanted to ride the swings, so he went all the way in the sand box.  coming out, the back wheels got stuck.  he decided to rev it, and mountains of sand flew past the windows.  his wheels were all the way in, so i dug for 10 minutes until his friend came to tow him out.

[Stingray]

Saw a similar event to the one you described Drew, minus the boat flying up over the trailer. In this case the truck went all the way into the water though, so it was still a lot of fun, being that I got to be the annoying little kid who was laughing his hiney off the entire time.

-S

[Ed_McCarron]

I used to drive a '90 Wrangler.  33's, 6" lift, locking diff in the rear, pretty much set up for mild off road.

Got a phone call one night about midnight from a friend who decided to try driving along some railroad tracks (all sand) in his Monte Carlo. 

I never did ask what possessed him to try it, but the bottom line was he got stuck perpendicular to the tracks - in a 15' wide space - there was no room to get in front or behind him to pull him out.

Solution?  Take my 60' tow strap, attach it to the front of his car and the hitch on my jeep.  Proceed to run out about 20' of strap, get a running start, and drag the front of his car around about 15 degrees at a shot.  4 or 5  tries later, he was facing the right direction and I was able to pull him out.

I don't think that car ever tracked straight again.  He finally traded it it for some little car.

I have some good pics of construction equipment being used to pull other construction equipment out of the mud near a riverbank.  YOu can guess the conclusion.  Need to find those pics.

[JDSkydiver]

Boats, Airplanes & Women....

RENT, Don't buy!

[MameJunkie]

Boats, Airplanes & Women....

RENT, Don't buy!

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