Funny Rookie Mistakes

[bergermaister]

Just got done talking to my buddy and had a good laugh at his expense.

Revisited the story of his first wake boat - a 2004 Malibu Wakesetter bought new the Spring of 2005, a leftover basically. We were having a big bbq at a another friend's house, about this time of year actually, and they were going to be late because they had been at the dealership finishing things up, getting their new owner orientation on the water, etc. and then they were bringing it home to show off.

So finally he comes rolling down the street in his Lincoln Navigator towing this beautiful big 24' Malibu. He swings around in the culdesac to park and we all gather around to ogle over it. It's a sweet boat, all white with black trim. Matches his white navigator nicely but we can't help but notice the ass end of the Navigator is just hanging really low.

He said he was worried that he was going to burn up the compressor that runs the auto air-ride because the thing had been going non-stop trying to level out the ride towing the boat home from the dealer for about the last hour. Was thinking he was going to have to get a weight distribution hitch or something but had no idea how that would work with a swing-away tongue let alone the surge brakes. He was really concerned though because those air ride systems are pretty spendy to fix.

We climb into the boat and start poking around, checking out the stereo gear, lights, etc. Sitting in the driver's seat he goes, "hey, what's this for?" and flips one of the switches. Then we sit there for about 10 minutes laughing hysterically at him as probably 1,000+lbs of water drains out of the front ballast tanks into the culdesac...

Amazingly the Navigator sat nice and level after that!

[you da man]

Still kills me that rookies and veterans lose track of their ropes only to find them in the prop.

[rdlangston13]

how exactly does a weight distribution hitch distribute the weight?

[mmandley]

how exactly does a weight distribution hitch distribute the weight?

In short you have torsion bars connected tot he trailer and the hitch. It requires a speacial hitch and the torsion bars press against the truck, raising its rear end and appling pressure to the front axle.

this is a good read on how it works.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-p...on-systems.htm

[rdlangston13]

"As the gross trailer weight creeps up on the scales, a weight distribution hitch might start to look a lot more attractive. Usually if your trailer weighs in at more than 50 percent of the towing vehicle's weight, you'll need one of these hitches."

My boat weighs almost the same as my truck, probably at least 85%. Guess i need weight distributing...lol

[bergermaister]

Yeah I figure if you have some monster boat you might need one but they would pretty much void a surge brake from working at all.

They're more common on travel trailers and actually make a world of difference compared to just riding on the ball.