Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[WinterDeere]

More acceleration than brains.

Prolly forgot his stern strap, and the winch strap was old and brittle. You can see the winch strap still dangling from the bow eye. Whether the boat slid off the back due to straight-line acceleration alone, or flew off the side of the trailer in a turn before snapping the bow strap, is anyone's guess. I've seen the latter, and in fact had my own boat once blow clean off a trailer while parked in a parking lot, right after pulling it from the water and before I had a chance to get the stern strap on.

 

[flyerdan]

I saw a boat come off in downtown Salem some years ago. It was on an intersection where the cross street was crowned higher so it had a noticeable hump when going over, energy release was obviously more than the restraints.
My dad had a 23' Uniflite, and he was concerned about it coming off so he installed another bow eye for a separate chain below the winch, and tied the bow lines around the winch post as well so there would have to be three failures to salvo it. Or a winch post failure...

 

[WinterDeere]

I saw quite a few boat trailer accidents over the years, spending summers at LBI as a kid:

1. Large conversion van pulling a full 48' offshore racing boat down the Boulevard, when a lady in a parked car opened her door directly into the path of the boat trailer. Yanked the door out of her hand and folded it backwards, and left a nasty gash down the side of what would today be a $500k+ boat. She was actually yelling at the driver of the vehicle towing the boat, as if it was his fault that she threw her door open into the side of his trailer.

2. Construction van pulling a 28'ish foot Baha racing boat rear-ended another car at a red light, and the boat pushed straight thru the winch post into the back of the van. Bow folded dual rear doors in, damaging both boat and truck.

3. Another van, this time a Ford Econoline, Surf City ramp (locals know the one, it has a drop off). Guy backs his trailer down the ramp, hops out of van, and the whole rig starts rolling backwards down the ramp. He's a big tubby dude, but still quick enough to hop back into the van, slam on the brake, and save the whole rig from ending up in the bay. I see him fiddle with the shifter and brake, then hop out a second time, just to watch his van and trailer roll down the ramp and out into the bay! I was only maybe 12 years old at the time, so I don't know the details of what happened, but still wonder what exactly happened in that van before he hopped out the second time.

I guess the only consistency is vans. Maybe they were just the boater's vehicle of choice in the 1980's, when all three of these incidents occurred?

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

I saw quite a few boat trailer accidents over the years, spending summers at LBI as a kid:

1. Large conversion van pulling a full 48' offshore racing boat down the Boulevard, when a lady in a parked car opened her door directly into the path of the boat trailer. Yanked the door out of her hand and folded it backwards, and left a nasty gash down the side of what would today be a $500k+ boat. She was actually yelling at the driver of the vehicle towing the boat, as if it was his fault that she threw her door open into the side of his trailer.

2. Construction van pulling a 28'ish foot Baha racing boat rear-ended another car at a red light, and the boat pushed straight thru the winch post into the back of the van. Bow folded dual rear doors in, damaging both boat and truck.

3. Another van, this time a Ford Econoline, Surf City ramp (locals know the one, it has a drop off). Guy backs his trailer down the ramp, hops out of van, and the whole rig starts rolling backwards down the ramp. He's a big tubby dude, but still quick enough to hop back into the van, slam on the brake, and save the whole rig from ending up in the bay. I see him fiddle with the shifter and brake, then hop out a second time, just to watch his van and trailer roll down the ramp and out into the bay! I was only maybe 12 years old at the time, so I don't know the details of what happened, but still wonder what exactly happened in that van before he hopped out the second time.

I guess the only consistency is vans. Maybe they were just the boater's vehicle of choice in the 1980's, when all three of these incidents occurred?

What is lbi?

 

[Too many Kubotas]

According to Google it could be Long Beach Island.

To me, Long Beach is in CA, though.

 

[lilranch2001]

I don’t understand why people feel the need to abbreviate everything when typing out a simple name doesn’t take that much more effort, and it makes people able to understand a story…..

 

[WinterDeere]

What is lbi?

Sorry about that. Too many Kubotas (or "TmK", for lilranch2001 ) already nailed it. Long Beach Island.

I'm not sure why, other than our place names take longer to sound out than the letters, but everyone around here just calls it "LBI", even in conversation. We also say "P A", rather than "Pennsylvania". I guess local customs are funny, like that.

 

[goeduck]

According to Google it could be Long Beach Island.

To me, Long Beach is in CA, though.

To me, Long Beach is in WA, though.

 

[lilranch2001]

I guess you just have to know who you’re speaking to and since TBN (TractorbyNet) is a worldwide forum, I think common sense tells you to understand not everybody’s going to understand Pensy speak….

 

[lilranch2001]

After all, we already have to figure out what Fetterman is saying half the time….