Boat landing disaster!

[Bambito]

Wife and I attempted to go fishing tonite and it didnt work out very well! Backed the boat in at the landing and had to go a little further in then usual to get it off the trailer. Not relizing the lake was so low when i backed the trailer in the tires ended up going off the end of the concrete ramp and when i went to pull the trailer out i pretty much tore the axle off the trailer. the concrete slab under the water caught either the axle itself or the leaf spring area and almost sheared the axle completly off! Luckily there was a mechanic in the near by town so we limped over there and they are going to weld it for me. Just another watch out for all u guys doing some fall fishing on lakes that are extremely low! The funny thing is is i didnt see or feel the trailer take a sudden drop when the tires fell off the slab! Dont really know if I could have avoided this situation! What a crappy day on the water......wait we didnt even get on the water! LOL!

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Bummer. I noticed that issue at the Father Hennepin public ramp today. I wasn't fishing, but wow look out if you use that one!

[Esox_Magnum]

Did that years ago myself, 2 ratchet straps got me the 30 miles home to a welder....

[EBass]

Owe that sucks. Had that happen on the river when it was dropped. We didn't make it out that day either. I didn't rip anything off though.

[paceman]

Lots of really shallow boat landings right now. Glad I have a smaller lighter boat that I can push off or pull up. The bigger boats that power load can not fish some lakes around here.

[TruthWalleyes]

Dont really know if I could have avoided this situation!

Been there, but there is a way to avoid ripping off your axel.

Once tires fall off the last slab. Stop the truck. Get out, push off the boat. If you can't push it off, back in a little further. Then push if off.

Now, you can lift up your trailer by hand (Yes you will be knee deep in water) and prop it up with something so the tires can easily roll onto the last cement slab.

With trailer propped up, pull ahead until tires are on slab. Remove whatever you had propping up your trailer. WInch boat onto trailer. Go home with only a "Close Call".

I used a 30# anchor on one side and found a log to prop up the other side of my trailer when i did this in the MN river last fall.

[SkunkedAgain]

That sucks about the trailer Hogwild. Your tires might have been right on the lip when you put your truck in park and/or applied the parking brake. When you then put it in drive and/or released the parking brake, your rig might have rolled the extra few inches to drop the trailer off the end.

Low water.....a great reason to have rollers!

[WillCFish]

That is a bad deal and I've seen it but not to that extent. At least you didn't get out with the trailer in the water and leave the truck in neutral and let it roll back down the ramp into the lake with the wife sitting on the passenger side like one of the guys did at Red Wing Minnesota this spring. She was sitting in water and not very happy. Everything turned out well and I guess that's the main thing.

[fish_eat_sleep]

A lot of times the biggest drop is in the middle of the ramp, caused by power loading. if you line up in the center of the ramp (not always parallel to the dock) you can avoid pushing a wheel over the biggest drop in the concrete. also, buy a roller trailer. I can power load with my trailer barely in the water. Grease the rollers enough and its effortless. Once i was on a ramp with a pretty big hole. and i had the motor off the ramp (not the wheels) after i drove it on. I think even my bilge plug was above the water line. rollers really help when theres a side wind, or with really shallow or muddy ramps. I remember in the Grand Rapids area i saw a guy with all 4 truck tires in the water (no concrete, just sand and mud) with a bunk trailer and a crestliner.. He stalled out due to his exhaust being under water. I pulled mine out with a Honda and had no issue due to my roller trailer, i just hooked the safety chain up and used the winch once i got it on land. Its worth the extra money.

[hitthebricks]

Loading and unloading is very particular to the type of boat and trailer you have but the rule of thumb I use is never go past 2/3rd's the depth of the wheels on a newer style trailer and the end rollers only go 3/4 s under water on the older style. This is only for roller trailers and the morel of the story is don't float the boat on or off, use your winch!

Happy fishing

HTB

[Borch]

Bummer. I noticed that issue at the Father Hennepin public ramp today. I wasn't fishing, but wow look out if you use that one!

Saw that a couple weeks ago too. Was fishing by myself and kept getting out to check how close I was getting to the end of the concrete ramp.

Seen it happen a few times and it's not good.

[TruthWalleyes]

A lot of times the biggest drop is in the middle of the ramp, caused by power loading. if you line up in the center of the ramp (not always parallel to the dock) you can avoid pushing a wheel over the biggest drop in the concrete. also, buy a roller trailer. I can power load with my trailer barely in the water. Grease the rollers enough and its effortless. Once i was on a ramp with a pretty big hole. and i had the motor off the ramp (not the wheels) after i drove it on. I think even my bilge plug was above the water line. rollers really help when theres a side wind, or with really shallow or muddy ramps. I remember in the Grand Rapids area i saw a guy with all 4 truck tires in the water (no concrete, just sand and mud) with a bunk trailer and a crestliner.. He stalled out due to his exhaust being under water. I pulled mine out with a Honda and had no issue due to my roller trailer, i just hooked the safety chain up and used the winch once i got it on land. Its worth the extra money.

And all the lakes right now have 6" of water at the end of the dock from this bologna hogwash boat loading process. Gun it...Works. Yep sure does. But washes the heck out of the landing in the process! Anybody have a working arm and a winch?

[bassfshin24]

Do to the shallow lakes in the metro area I never powerload. Most of the holes at the end of the ramps are caused by people power loading. Idle up as far as you can and winch that bad boy on the trailer. If its too shallow to do that I suggest finding a different lake until the water level comes up a bit.

[fish_eat_sleep]

It's probably best to pull the boat onto the trailer by hand most of the season. But that requires the rollers to be a little deeper. It's not worth ripping axles off in 45 degree water. Grease the rollers and there's no need for much throttle. Just use good judgement for whatever situation you are in. It's hard to dictate a right and wrong way to do it if your not actually there. Accidents happen. Get the wheels back on and keep fishing.

[bassfshin24]

+1...I did damage to my axle a couple years ago on a ramp that was missing a chunk of concrete at the end of it. I should have never even tried to put the boat in there. Oh well...it was a lesson learned.

[TR21HP]

Powerload properly and you never have to throttle on and cause blow outs.

It's the people that don't get their trailers deep enough, be it bunk or rollers, and have to give it too much throttle that cause the blow outs.

Learn to do it properly and you have no problems.

[sunniewally]

not too many have a clue on what they are doing!!!! just give'er and rip up the access!!

[Fish Head]

I did that a couple years ago on the rainy river. Strapped it together and slowly drove to Baudette to get it fixed.