Boat Ramp stories, let's hear 'em.

[trayson]

We've all got 'em. Let's hear some of your best boat ramp stories.

2 years ago, I was at the ramp and saw this:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XvrD6PjHLZ4/UlLWMgPKtKI/AAAAAAAAPK0/MHe1pBDjrWk/s800/20131006_130427.jpg

I guess the owner jack knifed so bad that he flipped his tow rig on its side and shattered the window, and if you look close you'll see that the trailer tongue is snapped. (DIY fold away tongue anyone???)

I don't know what the hell the tow truck was doing either. That poor tongue jack!!! Just bad all the way around. I didn't stick around to see any more after this... The bow of the boat is pointing towards the water...

[kaneboats]

I once saw a monkey back his boat down into the water, hop out, pull it off the trailer around out of the way, tie it up and run back to his truck which he promptly moved off and parked. He then came back down and untied his boat and took off. All in the space of about 2 min. It proved that anyone can do it. Or at least they should be able to.

[sandm]

kane, have seen that same monkey vacationing up here on the shores of lake michigan fishing... amazing how quick he can put the boat in the water..

http://www.woodyboater.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gallery-big-img-41bbe947c5179d464f84504da76208ef.jpg

his son, a tad high strung...
http://viralgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/chimp_boat.gif?fb43fe

[kaneboats]

Well, the first one looks like the guy I saw but he had more gray around the chin and a fishing hat on. Still. Pretty close.

[CookieMonster]

Didn't see this one in person, it was when I was a kid. Apparently my uncle was unloading his boat, got out of the truck (standard) didn't lock the e brake or put in in reverse and well... you can guess the rest.

[uniwarking]

It seems a vehicle makes it into our local lake every year. I've also seen a group of four people in the water trying to get a boat on a trailer (engine running). I've dinged a prop on a trailer in non-ideal conditions in the first month of ownership so I can't say I'm perfect... But I've seen some crazy stuff. My wife can back the trailer and load/unload the boat as well... Which is more than I can say about a lot of people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sivs1]

This was a few years back, shortly after we bought our first boat. Took the wife out and worked with her on docking, loading and unloading. Little bit later we went to a new lake for us, ramp area was pretty tight and part of it was military restricted making it even tighter. She drops me off at an area closer to where the truck was and swings around to the dock. Come time to load there were four County Sherriff's standing there, she loads perfectly, all four of the guys look at me and say "Good Job". :cool:

[mmandley]

Just the other day at the lake, end of a great day for them I am sure. I see the wife backing what looks to be a sharp looking Ram truck and trailer down the ramp. Looks like she knows what she is doing. She puts the trailer in right next to the doc as to allow others plenty of room to pick up their boats.

Guy in the boat comes in slow and steady, wind gusts up and starts pushing his boat away from the dock side where his trailer is.
Just as he gets the nose of the boat past the guide poles a roller hits the dock and him pushing the rear farther away. Since there is no official NO WAKE markers by the dock.
He jumps in the bow and grabs the guide pole to muscle the boat straight so it won't go side ways from the roller.
Guy grabs the wrong guild pole and physics kick in actually causing the boat to go even more side ways, nose is still in between the poles but to much angle to trailer.
Then he realizes what he is doing wrong, jumps to the other side of the bow and grabs the correct guide pole, gets the boat straight, pulls it on the trailer, powers up a couple feet.
Then jumps out over the bow and winches it up like a boss.

Was a show to watch, wish I had my camera.

Later I found out that guy was up 27hr at this point to get his first day on the lake, and his wife to surf before she left town for a week..

Yea It was This Guy <----

We all have our not so good moments LOL

[yz 2smoke]

My wife and I get to the ramp, I pull way to the side get everything ready. I notice a couple already on the ramp. I get everything ready and back the trailer down the ramp. I get it in far enough for my wife to crank the boat. It fires up and back up a tad hit the brake, off she goes. As I'm pulling out I hear the lady next to me tell her husband that our boat just slid right off the trailer. I park and walk back down to the ramp and they are still trying to get there boat off the trailer. I tried not to sound like an azz as I walk by and tell them if they want their boat off the trailer they will need to back it into the water. The only thing they had in the water was the lower leg. (They had an I/O)

[gregski]

I watched one guy who forgot to remove his transom straps and couldn't figure out why the boat was floating but wouldn't get off of the trailer until he realized that the whole boat/trailer combination was floating and starting to drift sideways...

Yea, it was This Guy <----


When our water goes down later in the season, you can start to diagonal park on the "shore" just off of the ramp. But our lake bottom is extremely sticky mud/clay and there is always some guy who was a bit too greedy and squeeze in one more parking spot and ends up needing a heavy duty wrecker to get out. I always chuckle a bit thinking of all the time they saved by not just going up to parking lot.


On the flip side, we are usually pretty efficient at loading/unloading and generally are faster than most of the other boats; but one day, a 3-some crew with a ski boat launched so freakin' fast that I just stood there with my mouth agape in total awe. It was like a pit crew changing a tire!

[trayson]

Just the other day at the lake, end of a great day for them I am sure. I see the wife backing what looks to be a sharp looking Ram truck and trailer down the ramp. Looks like she knows what she is doing. She puts the trailer in right next to the doc as to allow others plenty of room to pick up their boats.

Guy in the boat comes in slow and steady, wind gusts up and starts pushing his boat away from the dock side where his trailer is.
Just as he gets the nose of the boat past the guide poles a roller hits the dock and him pushing the rear farther away. Since there is no official NO WAKE markers by the dock.
He jumps in the bow and grabs the guide pole to muscle the boat straight so it won't go side ways from the roller.
Guy grabs the wrong guild pole and physics kick in actually causing the boat to go even more side ways, nose is still in between the poles but to much angle to trailer.
Then he realizes what he is doing wrong, jumps to the other side of the bow and grabs the correct guide pole, gets the boat straight, pulls it on the trailer, powers up a couple feet.
Then jumps out over the bow and winches it up like a boss.

Was a show to watch, wish I had my camera.

Later I found out that guy was up 27hr at this point to get his first day on the lake, and his wife to surf before she left town for a week..

Yea It was This Guy <----

We all have our not so good moments LOL

Well, Saturday morning, I put the boat in the water with the trailer to the tops of the fenders. I remembered our recent conversation about powering off the trailer, which I did. And yes, my stern pulled towards the dock on my starboard side. I found myself sideways in 3' deep water with my stern a couple feet from the dock and the boat NOT wanting to turn towards the port side to get my bow pointed out towards the river. so I had to toss my phone and jump into the 55 degree water that was waist deep and manually push my boat so it was pointed out, and push the boat out of the shallow section so I didn't cash my prop... The guys in the fishing boat that were launching next to me were of course watching and I just smiled and said it's the first time THAT has happened to me and I guess we all have to be "that guy" sometimes... They laughed.

Better suffer a little embarrassment, some cold water, and wet shorts than have to pay for a new prop and ruin the whole day.

[mmandley]

Yup I agree Trayson,

We all have those days when we aren't 100% The trick is look back laugh and learn.

[trayson]

Last year I watched a guy that was able to get his Direct drive about 2/3 of the way back onto his single axle trailer. The bow winch was hooked up but the boat was still a few feet from the roller. The trailer was squatting and the boat had water in the bilge all the way to the top of the floor at the rear of the doghouse.

He told me that it was a new to him boat and he now knows that it has a center plug. He was letting the bilge pump remove the water. I suggested he remove the rear drain plug because his bilge pump was taking forever. (and if his boat was like my DD, the bilge pump is actually beside the driver's seat, so it wouldn't get it all). When I came back to pull my boat out he still hadn't removed the rear plug. I'm sure he was there a LONG time.

[trayson]

Yup I agree Trayson,

We all have those days when we aren't 100% The trick is look back laugh and learn.

Totally. Remember a couple years ago when I put the Supra in w/o a plug? We pulled it back on the trailer quick and got it in. The bilge was mostly full but I figured it was nothing compared to the ballast I usually run so I just decided to let the bilge pump do it's job. It was July 5th and my buddy and I were out for some dawn patrol. We stopped at Govt Island where we knew some people camping and picked up some drunk guys that were still up partying by morning time and hadn't even gone to bed yet. (but hey, when you need a third, you need a third). I dropped in the water and got pulled up on the wakeboard just long enough for the boat to lose all power and have to come back in to see my tranny fluid all milkshaked. I had a tranny leak and with all that water in the bilge, I sucked some into the tranny and cost myself a cool thousand for a rebuild and over 3 weeks of downtime on my boat in the peak of July.

That one hurt, but in the end, I learned a lot and sold the boat with a freshly rebuilt tranny.

[gregski]

Totally. Remember a couple years ago when I put the Supra in w/o a plug?
Funny, the one time I did this was also an early morning. My crew was meeting outside the park so that they didn't have to pay an entrance fee. I was there early so I started doing the prep stuff: everything but the plug so that we would be cool with the ANS (mussel) inspection. We went through the inspection and I said "gee, I think I did everything, we're ready to go". I blame the break in my routine and the early morning. I jump in with my ski and the boat has zero power. They pull me in and that's when I realized what happened. We put the plug in and headed for the dock to drain on the trailer with the plug out. The worst part? At the dock, there was a couple of old hippies, totally stoned, with their fishing boat on the trailer draining. "Duuude, we forgot to put the plug in". Great, I'm no better than the old stoners.

[trayson]

One of my better stories so far was posted on the May Pic thread, but it most certainly applies here:


It was only when we got back to the dock when the day took a turn for the bad. I docked the boat and went out to get the truck. The way our launch is, there's an entry road and the parking is behind it. the trailers will angle park facing the road, and a 2nd row of truck/trailers can double park behind them (because the ones in front can pull out forward and the ones in back can back out. My wife parked the truck and was in the 2nd row... When I got out to our truck, there were trucks and trailers on either side of me (as appropriate), and then some jackweed backed his truck and trailer in behind us, triple parking and boxing us completely in. I was mad to say the least. We didn't have the luxury to wait around until the inconsiderate jerk came back as we had a ton of things planned for our day. It was a single axle trailer for what was probably a shorter boat (prob 16' or less) with just 2 bunks. He didn't have a lock on his trailer tongue latch, so I unplugged his trailer, unhooked his safety chains, lowered his tongue jack, and unhitched his trailer. Moving his trailer gave me enough room to back out. So that's exactly what I did and I left the jerk's trailer sitting in front of his truck. Hopefully he gets the message.

After all of that, I put my trailer in the water and go back to the boat (I do the backing and the boat driving on days like then when it's a zoo. I'm not going to put that on my wife). I am driving away from the dock and have one of our friends unclip the nylon webbing holding the bouy balls to the side of the boat. She doesn't realize that if you only hold one end of the webbing that the ball will fall off, and that's exactly what happened--so the bouy ball is floating in the river now. I turn around and pull up to it and my son is in the bow and reaches down enough to grab it, then loses his balance and starts to fall overboard (grabbing the handrail so not completely in the water). I get him back in the boat and manuver around again and get get the bouy ball this time.

Then I put the boat on the trailer. No problems there, and I latch the front winch and safety chain on the bow. When I'm walking back from the bow, I step down and slice open my big toe on the hinge of the fold up playpen seat. It's enough blood that it soaks a bandaid easily and I move on to a paper towel and a roll of electrical tape. That did the job.

For the record, blood cleans up very easily from hydroturf and Vinyl Sauce takes the blood off the white vinyl great!

What a crazy end to a fun day.

[bergermaister]

I found myself sideways in 3' deep water with my stern a couple feet from the dock and the boat NOT wanting to turn towards the port side to get my bow pointed out towards the river.

I don't get it. 3' is plenty deep to navigate. Back it, crank the wheel, burp it forwards to get the spin going. Back it again, crank, burp it forwards again. I can practically do a 360 in a 2 lane ramp.

Then tell the old guy in the fishing boat to piss off and that your prop cost more than his whole boat...

[trayson]

I don't get it. 3' is plenty deep to navigate. Back it, crank the wheel, burp it forwards to get the spin going. Back it again, crank, burp it forwards again. I can practically do a 360 in a 2 lane ramp.

Then tell the old guy in the fishing boat to piss off and that your prop cost more than his whole boat...

I was perpendicular to the ramp with the bow pointing at 3 o'clock (midnight being out towards the river), less than a trailer length from dry concrete. If I would have tried to spin, the 3' deep I was in with the boat sideways would have spun the stern into probably 1 to 1.5' deep or less. I gave myself a 50% chance or less of being able to spin w/o the prop getting so shallow that it would have struck. I had maybe a boat width from my bow to the next boat launching and maybe another boat width at best from my stern to the dock. If I would have been at all deeper, it would have been fine, but I drifted in toward the pavement as I had started the spin I've done a zillion times. Go figure.

It just wasn't worth the risk.

[mattl]

Tuesday while moving my boat from a friend’s house to my storage room. I came across what looked to be a 36 to 40 ft center console bay/ocean boat putting in at my local small lake. They had triple 225’s on the back of the boat (so you can get a complete picture of the boat size) and was being pulled by a ram 3500 dually. First, they blocked the 4 lane ramp for 10 -15 minutes straightening out the rig to back the trailer in due to the size of the towing rig and small let in area. Once the boat was partially in the water they struggled for about 5 minutes with the winch release until my friend went and helped them get the boat free from the trailer. After seeing the trouble unloading the boat I am glad I was not there for the loading process.

[Rakkasan]

Can someone explain to me why they would back their rig down the ramp about two feet from the water and then take ten minutes getting the boat ready to drop in. It puzzles me every time. Same goes for when their done for the day. They load the boat pull up about two feet out of the water and take ten minutes getting ready to leave.

Where we usually go there's a 6 lane ramp. It's huge that's why I like it. Parking lots big to that's why I do all my prep there and not on the ramp. I'd say 85 percent do everything on the ramp blocking two lanes because they can't back up. My wife pulled the truck around to back the trailer yesterday and had to wait because people had to get all there stuff put away on the ramp versus 100feet away in the parking lot.

Sorry for the rant just some people don't think of others.

[sivs1]

okay, I so wish I had extra time yesterday and a video camera. two pontoons running into each other, a guy with an older sea ray trying to trailer his boat side ways, a MB owner with boat still attached to trailer head down in the rear locker doing something all while taking up ramp space, someone with a brand new Mojo smacking the dock because wife can't drive the car or the boat, someone needing to put wheel chocks under the trailer tires while on flat ground while trailer is hooked to the tow vehicle. If I was a valley girl OMG.

[mjr119]

My fiancee almost took our escalade for a swim yesterday while loading up. I was having some issues loading the boat because of a strong side wind, when I finally got it on the trailer straight and hooked, she forgot she was in reverse still and she rolled back about 5 more feet before slamming on the brakes. The boat slid back and snapped the trailer winch strap and I had to start all over again! lol.

Between me looking like an idiot trying to trailer it and her almost backing the car in the lake, we looked like a bunch of tourists, but i swear this isnt out first boat :D

[viking]

Not my story but happened in Santa Barbara a few days ago!!

http://www.keyt.com/news/boating-mishap-when-pickup-truck-goes-into-harbor-too/33348950


https://youtu.be/__6DZM0LGoc

[mmandley]

Not my story but happened in Santa Barbara a few days ago!!

http://www.keyt.com/news/boating-mishap-when-pickup-truck-goes-into-harbor-too/33348950


https://youtu.be/__6DZM0LGoc

BWAHAHAHA

Funny last weekend one of the people on our boat asked what would happen if we just didn't unhook the trailer? I said if we unhook it from the truck the boat will float just fine. It will handle like crap but it still floats. We surf with 3500lbs no issue.

I like how the guy on the shore is like. "Bro Grab My Phone"

[trayson]

BWAHAHAHA

Funny last weekend one of the people on our boat asked what would happen if we just didn't unhook the trailer? I said if we unhook it from the truck the boat will float just fine. It will handle like crap but it still floats. We surf with 3500lbs no issue.

I like how the guy on the shore is like. "Bro Grab My Phone"

That's a good point! I never really thought of that. It'd be the "Moomba Trailer-Flow". hahahahha

[mmandley]

That's a good point! I never really thought of that. It'd be the "Moomba Trailer-Flow". hahahahha

Yea

Sunday it was a little bit of a show though at the ramp at the end of the day.

2 guys with there fishing boats, one has a fancy North River boat, the other an older 14-16ft boat. They are both trying to walk their boats on the trailer. North River guy in the center of the ramp, smaller boat by the dock, only a dock on one side of the ramp.

They are trying to pull their boats up with the North River guy pulling his boat around the other guy, ends up with his boat side ways, can't get the nose on the trailer, doesn't want to get in the water lol.

I backed down the fare side, Steve drove the boat up on the trailer, I winched it up lock it down, got on the tailgate and off we went.

[trayson]

By the way Mike, I have embraced your technique with the back another foot and hit the brakes. It's working fantastic. We launched at Willamette park and there isn't really room there for my typical 180 spin to drive out. and powering off would have surely put my stern into the dock. With being able to have the push off straight back, I was able to back straight out past the kayaks and other boat that was tied up like a boss. This is most certainly a technique I'll be using from now on.

[mmandley]

By the way Mike, I have embraced your technique with the back another foot and hit the brakes. It's working fantastic. We launched at Willamette park and there isn't really room there for my typical 180 spin to drive out. and powering off would have surely put my stern into the dock. With being able to have the push off straight back, I was able to back straight out past the kayaks and other boat that was tied up like a boss. This is most certainly a technique I'll be using from now on.

Sometimes, sometime I actually have decent ideas and practices. I try to keep it to a minimum so people don't ask me for help LOL

[wolfeman131]

Not my story but happened in Santa Barbara a few days ago!!


That gets more funny each time I watch it.

Wonder what the driver was thinking when he flipped in the windshield wipers?

One guy jumps off the boat as the truck starts to go under and another jumps on, dies the limbo under the windshield and, I think, tries to unhook the boat from the trailer.

Watch the guy to the left on the dock as the truck starts to go under. He takes off his pants like he is going to jump in, then realizes he just took off his pants and puts them back on.

[gregski]

I think the guy in the truck was in there the whole time. The first time I watched it, I saw movement in the cab and thought we would be seeing a real tragedy. I can't imagine what he was thinking staying in there the whole time. Maybe he was running the wipers thinking that they would paddle the truck back to shore? Not too many active brain cells in this group.

[mjr119]

WTF so the dude that is in the water at the end was in the truck the entire time?

[mcdye]

WTF so the dude that is in the water at the end was in the truck the entire time?

yep, not smart thinking

[viking]

WTF so the dude that is in the water at the end was in the truck the entire time?

Ya - funny stuff. The guy with the camera is yelling at him to "get out of the truck" for most of the footage. It does raise the awareness of some of the risk of using a 2-wheel drive when launching though. Why was the boat not unstrapped is another question :)

[mikenehrkorn]

Why was the boat not unstrapped is another question :)

It looks like the transom straps were off (as they should be) but the boat was still connected at the bow...that's the way I back my down too. Do you back your boat down the ramp completely unhooked from the trailer??

[sivs1]

It looks like the transom straps were off (as they should be) but the boat was still connected at the bow...that's the way I back my down too. Do you back your boat down the ramp completely unhooked from the trailer??

I keep my bow connected until in the water with the engine running. I don't want to be "That Guy" dead in the water blocking the ramp.

[liquid_acid]

It looks like the transom straps were off (as they should be) but the boat was still connected at the bow...that's the way I back my down too. Do you back your boat down the ramp completely unhooked from the trailer??

I do. I unhook the back straps as well as the bow. I use to loosen the bow and then unhook it in the water but after a while of doing that and it never budged, I just completely unhooked it. I just back down until she floats off the trailer.

[mikenehrkorn]

I keep my bow connected until in the water with the engine running. I don't want to be "That Guy" dead in the water blocking the ramp.

My thoughts exactly.....Murphy's Law says if the engine is not running when the boat comes off the trailer that will be the day that it doesn't start for some reason!! :)

[mjr119]

Okay Im at work and I watched the video on mute, so I didnt hear the yelling.

I always back the boat down into the water, then start it up and let it idle for a minute before I unhook it. Same thing at the dock, i start it before I untie it.

I cant tell you how many times Ive jumped in a boat and untied/unstrapped it just to find out that it wont start, then I have to paddle in and winch it up etc.... Im sure that I am not the only one :p

[Myth]

I've never had a problem with the boat moving on the trailer while backing down. But still, we load all the kids and gear while waiting in line to launch. Then I back down until the water intake is submerged. Then me and my wife swap places. Me in the boat, and her in the truck. She doesn't like backing down the ramp with everyone loaded, so I do that part. Then I start the boat, unhook the bow, and make sure all is well. Then she just has to back us a couple more feet and we're off.

[mmandley]

I've never had a problem with the boat moving on the trailer while backing down. But still, we load all the kids and gear while waiting in line to launch. Then I back down until the water intake is submerged. Then me and my wife swap places. Me in the boat, and her in the truck. She doesn't like backing down the ramp with everyone loaded, so I do that part. Then I start the boat, unhook the bow, and make sure all is well. Then she just has to back us a couple more feet and we're off.

We are similar to this.

I am paranoid something will happen and the boat will slide off the trailer going down the ramp. So I always wait until shes in the water before I unhook her.

We also load gear and people at the prep area, I normally back the boat down into the water until the rear starts to float, when I unhook the bow, jump in the boat. Wife waits until I give the thumbs up and boat is running. She gets in the truck and launches me off the trailer. Parks the truck.

I watch people all the time unhook the boat on the top of the ramp in prep, then just back down and launch off the trailer. I always keep thinking, one day that boat is going to slide right off the trailer on your way down. All it would take is some jack ass letting his kid, or dog run behind you and you slam the brakes and the boat self launches.

[Woody929]

I still don't think I've ever launched or trailered my boat. I do the truck/trailer, the wife does the launching/loading. We sunscreen the kids, load all the crap, load the kids, remove speaker covers, unfold the Bimini, etc in the parking lot.
I unhook all the straps, back the boat down until the water intake is submerged. She fires it up & gives me the thumbs up. Once I get that, I back down a little further and hit the brakes. Boat slides off, I park the truck, walk to the dock where she picks me up & then we laugh at the people who are still clogging the ramp. Once it is our turn to launch, the process takes 45-60 seconds from the top of the ramp to me heading to park.

[rdlangston13]

+1 for Matt's method. I am so happy Heidi is seasoned boat launched/loader. I drive the truck, she drives the boat and we are in and out in around a minute. I don't unhook the winch until the boat is floating and running either.


Sent from my iPhone

[kaneboats]

I still don't think I've ever launched or trailered my boat. I do the truck/trailer, the wife does the launching/loading. We sunscreen the kids, load all the crap, load the kids, remove speaker covers, unfold the Bimini, etc in the parking lot.
I unhook all the straps, back the boat down until the water intake is submerged. She fires it up & gives me the thumbs up. Once I get that, I back down a little further and hit the brakes. Boat slides off, I park the truck, walk to the dock where she picks me up & then we laugh at the people who are still clogging the ramp. Once it is our turn to launch, the process takes 45-60 seconds from the top of the ramp to me heading to park.

I used to do it all myself as my wife is not really a boat person and just wants to relax. So I trained daughter #1 to drive the boat since she was very small. By about 14 she could do anything an adult could do with the boat, including pull me riding or surfing. She's gone or working most of the time now but daughter #2 who will be 17 next month has taken over. Twin boys 15 coming behind her will start getting more experience this summer. My Dad always let me drive from the time I was old enough to see through the top of the wheel. Gotta pass that on.

[gregski]

[Wife] Did you get the kids' life jackets?
[Me] No, I thought you did.
[Both] F$#%&!!!

In our defense we were out on Sunday, things were still drying and we only decided at 10am on Monday to play hookey and go to the lake.

Once we sorted that out, we launch and as I'm turning around, I see something floating that looks like a surboard. "Ha! Some sucker lost his surfboard"... "Oh wait, that looks familiar. S#$%! that's our swim platform". Some sucker indeed.


(The platform retaining pins were getting really hard to work, so I put a couple of bolts with lock washers and nyloc nuts in place of the pins. Apparently, the ever common platform rattle was significant enough, especially given the rough water on Sunday, to wiggle those loose and the angle of the ramp was right to just lift the platform out of the brackets.)

[sivs1]

[Wife] Did you get the kids' life jackets?
[Me] No, I thought you did.
[Both] F$#%&!!!

In our defense we were out on Sunday, things were still drying and we only decided at 10am on Monday to play hookey and go to the lake.

Once we sorted that out, we launch and as I'm turning around, I see something floating that looks like a surboard. "Ha! Some sucker lost his surfboard"... "Oh wait, that looks familiar. S#$%! that's our swim platform". Some sucker indeed.


(The platform retaining pins were getting really hard to work, so I put a couple of bolts with lock washers and nyloc nuts in place of the pins. Apparently, the ever common platform rattle was significant enough, especially given the rough water on Sunday, to wiggle those loose and the angle of the ramp was right to just lift the platform out of the brackets.)

Doh..... been there

[bergermaister]

Just remembered a good one. Day trip to the lake with my buddy's family and their Malibu. We launch and float around waiting for them. He backs down, jumps in the boat, she drops him in and goes and parks. He's floating there, engine running and looks concerned. A lot of looking back and forth. Engine revving. Finally goes back and opens the engine compartment. After a few brief moments of staring at something he motions me over to give him a pull back to the dock. But won't say anything more.

Runs up to get the trailer, backs down, pulls the boat out about 20ft and stops. I'm watching still not sure what's up and he still won't say.

He climbs in the boat, pulls out a big crescent wrench, and then..... the prop out of the rear compartment.

BWA HA HA HA!

Apparently after pulling it off and getting it repaired they were a bit hurried to get going and forgot to put it back on at home. To this day I'll ask if he remembered his prop and then dodge an incoming punch.

[dtank394]

We have a pretty steep ramp coming off a very flat parking lot at one of our lakes. Several years ago a van pulls in pulling a big ole I/o ski boat, on a trailer with rollers instead of bunks. Well the knuckleheads stop on the flat area remove tiedowns, and to our surprise, the bow strap. As soon as the trailer made the transition to the steep ramp, that boat just zipped right off the trailer onto the concrete. Skeg completely trashed, lower unit destroyed I'm pretty sure. Then the real fun started as they tried to figure out how to get it on the trailer. Their bad day turned into a very good comedy show for everyone around.

[kaneboats]

He climbs in the boat, pulls out a big crescent wrench, and then..... the prop out of the rear compartment.

BWA HA HA HA!

Apparently after pulling it off and getting it repaired they were a bit hurried to get going and forgot to put it back on at home.

I did something just as stupid one time. I had an Isuzu truck and had just purchased the Suburban. My brother had 3 buddies in town and I was going to take them out. On the way to the ramp about 20 min into a 45 min. ride the Isuzu truck started not pulling right at all. I thought the transmission was out. Pulled over, unhitched the boat and left it. Coaxed it back to the house and we jumped in the Suburban. Hey, we are going in the boat-- worry about the truck next week, right? We headed back to the boat. We got there and my brother jumped out to "direct me" backing up to put the hitch right under the trailer. He starts giving me the "stop" sign way too early and shaking his head at me. I'm like, "WTF?"

There's no hitch on the Suburban. Leave the boat and back to the house again.

BTW, the Isuzu truck had under 30k on it and the catalytic converter was all plugged up. They didn't figure it out till after they had replaced the transmission. POS.