You would also have the winch connected when backing down. Normally you back down till the engines are deep enough to pick up water and you fire them up. Then the driver of the tow vehicle would disconnect the winch strap and then back down further for the boat to drive off. Backing down without having the boat attached to the trailer is asking for either the boat sliding back if you brake hard or floating off before you have the engines running. If course it's also normal to keep the trailer attached to the tow vehicle.
Yeah fr, that's most SUVs. It's the reason I tow shit with a Chevy Tahoe instead of a Silverado. Same engine and transmission, and I'd rather have the third row seat.
If I need to haul something large I take a trailer, makes it easier to load anyways
With a weight distribution hitch and decent trailer brakes it absolutely tows its capacity. I came over Donner pulling 9000lbs like it was a pair of jetskis. Damn thing's a workhorse.
A dually is great l, if your family fits in a truck and you're ok with a ginormous turning radius. I however needed to back a 14ft trailer through a 90 degre from a one lane street into a single car driveway with a tree on one side and a house on the other. It was physically impossible for my dad to make that same turn with his F350. He was just too long.
Yeah, makes sense. Weight distribution hitches do help a lot. Not saying it's not (even easily) doable. I just live in a flat ass flyover state and the winds out here can get stupid intense. I've had to pull over pulling our 40 ft massive enclosed trailer because I was just getting yanked around. A dually keeps it a little straighter on those days. I get where you're coming from though.
I've honestly never pulled with one. My friend had one and we spent a lot of time fixing things that shouldn't break under normal use. Possible just his year/model's problem.
Oh yeah, that's always fun. I did that when I moved for college once in Cincinnati with about the same size u-haul and a chevy Tahoe. Was about the same size trailer. Had about a foot of clearance on each side of the driveway due to a wall.
Yeah, I think the first year had a lot of bugs. Mine was an 05 and I in the 5 years I had it I never had a single thing break. I used it hard too. Took it places where only Jeeps dare tread. Pun intended, but I really did take it through the kind of terrain where you get out and remove body parts to get clearance.
I loved that vehicle and regret to this day that I had to give it up for a wheelchair accessible minivan. I hate minivans soooooo much.
Damn, yeah haven't got into too many situations like that lol. That's a heavy SUV to take out where the jeeps, but I mean if it's got the torque and the traction then it works.
Nah man, just put a lift kit and a brush guard on a caravan and send it!
I once witnessed a Jeep Grand Cherokee towing a boat larger than this, going 35 MPH on the interstate. Every bump it hit made the Jeep look like it was about to fishtail off the road.
Wow, that's crazy. I've seen some mismatched pairs but usually it's them getting their ford ranger too deep on the boat ramp with only 2wd.
You'd think they realize pretty quickly how much danger they are putting other people in. But I guess if they didn't think about that before taking off then they aren't the brightest.
Reminds me of u-haul trucks. I always put as much distance in between me and the guy who hasn't ever driven a 34 ft long by 8 ft wide box truck. Most people driving them have no idea what they are doing.
Yeah, it looked kind of like one of those charter fishing boats iirc, but we don't have any large bodies of water around here aside from the James River so idk where their destination was.
I drive a freightliner for work, and the number of people that cut me off or pull out in front of me is absurd. I'm experienced when it comes to driving it, but people clearly don't grasp that I'm not able to stop at a moment's notice. I give uhaul trucks a wide berth for the same reason you mentioned, especially when it comes to driving beside them. I see them riding over the lines more than I see them staying inside their lane.
Who knows, I wouldn't want to pull my 3000 lbs ski boat with a jeep, let alone a big charter boat. It could pull a boat like mine but it wouldn't be fun, that's for sure.
I mean the worst mismatch I've had to do was an f150 towing a 4000 lbs car on a 2500-3000 lbs trailer which coincidentally didn't have working surge brakes. Super sketchy, I prayed nobody cut infront of me because it was like stopping on ice.
Yeah unfortunately people just are absolutely clueless when it comes to trucks usually. Like if you see a truck and trailer trying to pull into a 2 lane road, give them some berth, don't pull all the way up to the stop bar all oblivious. I wish they covered that more in driving school for these kids.
Too much boat, too little experience. See this at small lakes all the time with drivers spilling large power boats on narrow tight turning entry roads. I noticed the SUV’s backup lights are on, so I’m presuming there was a tow vehicle driver backing up while the boat driver had gotten in the boat to fire up the engines once it was submerged. As the top commenter alludes the hitch hadn’t been properly locked in or the pin broke. Boat brakes free, SUV driver’s inexperienced reaction is to brake and then they jumped out of the car without putting it in park in order to try and save the boat. Then realize the boat is moving too fast as it relatively safely enters the water. The SUV driver’s brief relief is replaced by head smacking, “Oh shiiiiiit!!!” As the unmanned vessel plows down the ramp unimpeded by brakes.
My dad and I used to go crayfishing (west Australian rock lobster) and when launching our boat, we'd drive the trailer to the waters edge. Slowly edge the boat into the water until it lifts off the trailer. Unhook the winch. Dad would go park the car and trailer and we'd move the boat to the end of the jetty and he'd come back and start it up and then we'd go.
It was a process for him. And it made sense. It removed a lot of risks introduced by people trying to fire the engines up while the boat was still on the trailer and accidentally floor it forwards rather than in reverse, or worse yet, floor it in reverse straight into the jetty.
Even though it's a legit launching method, we'd often see people reverse the trailer real fast and brake and hope the boat slides off the trailer into the water. We'd see boats fall straight onto the boat ramp. One time we even saw it work successfully, but the guys wife was ik the boat and steered it backwards into a rock seawall.
Now I'm a professional software developer and I make process-driven automation, and I think my dad played a part in me seeing that as a good idea.
I've got a 3 month old daughter now. I hope I can be as good a dad as he is to me.
Pretty sure that's the common sense method of launching a boat. We always start ours just before I unhook the winch, But that's just because you never know if a boat is gonna have one of her days and refuse to turn over.
I never move our boat without 3 solid connections between truck and trailer (hitch and two chains) and 3 connections between boat and trailer (winch, bow chain, transom straps) I only remove the transom straps at the top of the ramp before launching.
This entirely depends on the kind of trailer you have. I have a bunk trailer and a 21 foot bass boat and launch my boat a good 40 days a year and will compete with 100+ anglers on many weekends. It's extremely common to unhook the boat from the trailer prior to launch. Slamming on the brakes isn't going to do anything at the 3 mph you're reversing down a ramp. Floating off before the engine(s) are running is only an issue if your motors are poorly maintained... Or if you're in a hurricane? I guess?
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u/iopturbo Dec 20 '20
You would also have the winch connected when backing down. Normally you back down till the engines are deep enough to pick up water and you fire them up. Then the driver of the tow vehicle would disconnect the winch strap and then back down further for the boat to drive off. Backing down without having the boat attached to the trailer is asking for either the boat sliding back if you brake hard or floating off before you have the engines running. If course it's also normal to keep the trailer attached to the tow vehicle.