Heads up, Slippery boat launch

[larry_arizona]

Had an eye opening moment at the launch yesterday.

I have launched at this lake 50x the last two years, but yesterday I had to back in a little deeper than normal, due to lake level being slightly lower.

Rear tires of truck were in the water and the algae on the cement was slick.

Truck started to slide deeper, truck in park, parking brake on and foot off brakes.

If I had exited the truck, there was no stopping it from sliding into the lake.

I had to put truck in 4WD so front tires would not roll.

I guess the videos I have watched where truck and trailers go into the lake and towed out, many of the trucks have the rear wheels locked up. This tells me my incident it fairly common due to algae growth on the ramp.


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[jrobb]

Had this happen to me this year. I have a place in eastern wa on the Colombia river. The level dropped so far one day that the entire ramp was covered in alge. I set the brake put in park, all good got out of the truck as I walked to the trailer to start loading the boat the entire rig slid down the ramp water went up over the bed. I was able to jump back in put on 4x4 and get it back out. Scary moment always cautious after that.


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[larry_arizona]

Easy fix is to throw truck in 4WD so that the front wheels can be locked in park.

But if you are in a 2wd truck, well you are kinda screwed at that point.


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[rdlangston13]

Scary for sure. I don't own a 4x4 so we always launch with a 2wd. Our ramps get super slick as well to the point where you have to hold on the to the vehicle and take baby 6" steps to get to the trailer to unlatch the bow eye but I have never had an issue with the vehicle slipping. Even on ramps this slick I have never even spun a tire pulling out, empty or loaded. I wonder if the texture of concrete or maybe the type of algae is the difference maker?

[larry_arizona]

I think as the season is winding down here in Michigan, the reduced traffic at this launch has allowed more algae growth.

Traffic would wear off the algae.

Some ramps are ribbed or textured (insert condom joke here), this one is not.

I won’t have a problem going forward, but just a heads up to others as it was a surprise.




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[sandm]

ramp in wisconsin was pretty steep. I almost ate $hit a couple times from algae.

our ramps here at mead are very shallow. guy that we bought our house from has a 30ft carver. he can't get it all the way on the trailer as he has to put the rear tires in the water to get it on. 2wd and all he does is spin in his f250. going to cost him 2 bills to get boat positioned to drive it to his new house in cali. we have to use 4x4 to get our boat out and diff is pretty much in the water. I see a lot of rear diff fluid changes going forward.

[larry_arizona]

The first few vehicles in this video are all in park or parking brake, rear wheels are locked as they get pulled out.

https://youtu.be/YOoYj-J21xs


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[Shoebox]

The first few vehicles in this video are all in park or parking brake, rear wheels are locked as they get pulled out.

https://youtu.be/YOoYj-J21xs


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I want to know how that dually ended up in there. The ramp was clearly not slick, he says toward the end that the parking brake doesn't work, and it's a manual transmission.

[larry_arizona]

Parking brake is pretty important on a manual lol


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[Shoebox]

Parking brake is pretty important on a manual lol


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Yeah don't I know it. That ended up, in a roundabout way, killing my dad.