first time towing
 

what a PITA... had to go get my trailer out of storage so i can pull the boat tomorrow... allways paid someone to tow/ move boat( dont have a truck)... today i borrowed my B inlaws dodge 2500 to go get the trailer so he can help me get the boat... had to pull into a small gas station to get gas PITA... got a flat ( kept going the last 5 mi) PITA... tomorrow he gets to take the wheel to bring the boat home... the trailer was enough for me :D

Re: first time towing
 

Welcome to trailer boating. Went 2 1/2 hours one way with my nephew to pull my boat to take to Total Performance @ Marine. Pull out my spare key to the storage building. These are special locks and keys furnished by the owner of the building. The key had never been cut. Drive to town and buy bolt cutters. Spend 45 minutes cutting his "special" lock. Need to recover two bunks on the trailer. Pull the bunk, get the carpet ready, go to load the electric staple gun with staples. Wrong staples, back to town. Now 2 P.M. and ready to load boat. Go to let the hoist down, it goes about half way, stops before the boat is floating. Fight this for 1 1/2 hours. Buddy comes down dock, looks at dock anchor sitting in left rear of my slip, and says "I think the anchor line is going under your hoist". Yep. Call dock office on radio and they come out and lower the anchor line out of the way. Boat still won't float free. Hoist is now got a slightly bent pole and jams. Three fat men on the swim platform float it free. Load on trailer and wipe it down. Leave boat dock for Total @ 6 P.M. Drive 12 hours and deliver boat.Ain't it fun

Re: first time towing
 

Last summer , three hours into an eight hour drive , I broke a trailer spring :hothead: .Six hours later found a spring and put it on. By this time it was 6 pm and we still had about 275 miles and 5 and a half hours to to for vacation. Phuque it! Went back home :hothead:
Welcome to the wonderful world of trailers :D :D

Re: first time towing
 

Launched boat. Drove trailer home. Get out. Notice entire rear axle assembly missing. Panicked, run back to ramp expecting to see axle assembly sticking out of "Grandma's car" decapitating her. Lucky no damage. Unlucky never found the damned axle. Worse, $ 1,400.00 trailer repair bill.

Re: first time towing
 

HOLY SMOKES!!! :eek: :eek: Must have freaked you out missing a whole axle!!!!Makes these other guys problems seem trivial!

Re: first time towing
 

I'll say it did. The ramp is a mile from my house and when the springs broke and the axle went wherever it went, it took out the right rear tail light assembly. We figured we just look for the broken red lens. NEVER found a sign of that either. We made over 20 trips back and forth and never found anything at all.

We finally surmised that "aliens" came down and took it. No other possible explanation. I mean we didn't even find any of the shattered tail light lens. REALLY wierd. :rolleyes:

Re: first time towing
 

Guys, in my household, we simply call all of the above "boating experiences". As in "Yep, we had another boating experience last weekend".

My favorite was when the rear trailer tire on the passanger side passed us on the Interstate around 4:00 pm on the 3rd of July. There is a horse trailer manufactuer in the middle of nowhere who stayed open late on a holiday weekend so we could get the parts neccessary to fix the hub. There are a lot of good people out there.

Re: first time towing
 

Try not to do this!!!!

Re: first time towing
 

Ouch, that guy was REALLY lucky the boat didn't roll off the trailer/truck. Or just keep on going.

Re: first time towing
 

My worst trailer experience: One long holiday weekend we were heading down highway,kapow,flat tire,got out of truck,looked at tires,2 flats on one side,tread seperated on 1 tire on other side,put our (1) spare on the tottally flat side and limped down the road at 25 mph 45 more miles to cabin. Inspecting the damage at cabin,4th tire was also seperated!! Tried finding tires ANYWHERE next day(sunday) or monday on holiday weekend turned out to be futile. Took all four tires home,checked air in ones that weren't blown,had 75 psi of air(these tires were rated for 50 psi and had about 8000 miles and were 1 year old). Turns out oldest son had checked air and added air before we left,found that the gauge he used was off 25 psi!!! Smashed gauge and threw it in trash so would not happen again,bought 4 new tires and 2 more spares!! We don't go anywhere now without out 2 spares and on long trips we take 3 spares,Smitty