Stupid ...Mistakes...Could be costly

Phil Nowack

Phil Nowack

Well-known member
Well...Sunday I am out hooking the trailer to the truck....the things we do at 0430!!!! I drive to Lansing... get a thermos of coffee....with a thermos full of hot dark roast... I notice the transom saver had broken the bungie cord. I had been drug down the hwy for some length of time, but not too far as most of the rubber was still there. Well... that is the shits... but, it happens.

SO… 56 miles into my morning, I am crossing the Blackhawk bridge at Lansing to put in at Big Slough landing. At this point, my morning started to unravel. There was an odd sound… as I look in the mirror….I see the trailer moving around a bit… Damn… I must have blown a tire. (for those that do not know this bridge…there is no place to stop or pull over)… I figure I only have a couple hundred yards to go to the landing… oh well… Now, as I am going down the east side of the steel grid bridge, I realize the trailer is no longer attached to the truck … HOLD ON SAFETY CHAINS!!!! I applied the brakes to use the truck to stop the runaway trailer at 0600. It is working!!!! Then it I see my boat in the oncoming lane… Thankfully no one else was using the lane…. I move over to continue to slow the runaway boats progress…

We come to a complete stop OFF the bridge and for the most part on the shoulder of the WEST bound lane! I turn my hazards on… grab the headlamp…and go to look at the damage! UNBELIEVABLE!!! The latch is was still locked!!!! SO this means, I thought it was on the ball, when it NEVER was!!! How did I pull this 56 miles riding ON THE BALL…not locked to the ball!!!!! Since, I have the wheels too far back… I have too much tongue weight… I can’t lift the tongue off the ground and put back in the hitch. I get the truck jack, and used it to lift the tongue off the ground enough to gain a mechanical advantage and was able to use the trailer jack to get the trailer back on the truck. Yes… the lights no longer work… the chains were ground off (still attached to the truck)… but the couple is not sliding over the ball… 3rd time was a success.. . There is a problem with the wedge… which is why I think I had the initial issue. I was able to pull the boat the 40 yards to the boat landing.

This was my entire fault… STUPID CARELESS freaking fault… but was really pissed me off is that not one of the 20-30 cars, trucks, or semi’s stopped to assist. I mean, I was at the entrance to a bridge at O’dark:30 on the wrong side of the road with hazards on… quite a sad state of affairs… L
So… believe it or not.. the boat had zero damage… (scratched paint) the trailer had a broken bolt… I launched late.. shot one bird… Kodi did a wonderful job on this diving cripple… I rigged a safety chain for the drive home… and all is fine … but it could have been terrible beyond words.
 
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Phil, that's almost as bad as launching one's boat without a drain plug! Seriously, that could have been a lot worse. I'm glad you took the time to share your story so we all will check our boat trailer connection before we drive off at O'dark 30. Always double-check:)
 
Phil,

Glad to hear the boat didn't pass you on the left. I actually watched that happen one day. A fiberglas bass boat simply exploded when the tongue dug in the the shoulder and catapulted into the air and came down on the highway.

I hate to admit it but I got to the ramp one morning and noticed I hadn't locked the trailer to the ball. I was lucky I had smooth roads and a good ramp. Sometimes in the excitement of the hunt or the complacency of doing the same thing over and over we make mistakes. Glad it wasn't worst. It's different today. Nobody helps. Scared to stop, to much of a hurry to get somewhere.....everyone has an excuse.

Glad you got a duck and Kodi did his thing.
 
Phil,

Glad it was not worse than it was. It is not surprising that crossing the bridge is when your trailer finally lifted off the ball. You know, if you put in at Village Creek, you don't have to cross the bridge plus there are docks to use at the launch. :>) :>)

Good thing I slept in Sunday and didn't go out. I might have seen you from the water and wondered what the idiot on the bridge was doing!! hehe
 
Phil- sounds like in the moment Someone was looking out for you. Glad no one was hurt. I borrowed my dad's boat once. He had just had the cooler replaced at a trailer shop and a bit of other work. The plan was to borrow the boat for several weeks making a trip from Pittsburgh to north NJ. My wife and I headed back for home, 4 hours into our drive and hit a bump and the whole trailer came off the ball. The safety chains did their job. They got scraped up but held on. I was able to get it stopped and to the shoulder without the trailer swinging out and hitting other cars. It was late a night and the highway was full of traffic. Bottom line was, I never thought to check the guys work at the trailer shop the cooler was not adjusted properly to grasp the ball and even when it was clamped down, the tongue could be lifted off the ball.

Something to double check on your end too if you send the clamp wasn't working right.

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Wow that's scarey Im fortunate to have a light enough rig where I can pick up on the tongue a few times to make sure the coupler is seated on the ball for safety
 
Wow Phil, glad you're alright. That could have gone so wrong in so many ways. I've had a trailer come off the ball before while going over railroad tracks and no damage, had all but one of the lug bolts fall off the trailer wheel and noticed it just as I was pulling off the interstate - again no damage, had a fender come loose and come down on the tire and tear it up. So many things can go wrong with trailers, again - glad you survived with just a bad scare. We can never let our guard down when it comes to stuff like this.
 
Someone was watching over you, young man. Glad to hear that it turned out all right. By the way, I agree with you 100% when you talked about no one stopping to give a helping hand.
Al
 
Thank God you're OK. Glad I read this....Tomorrow morning we leave at 1:30 am for a 2 1/2 hr ride to nw Ohio for a draw hunt my buddy won. I put new tires on it yesterday. This is a 1954 boat and trailer. After reading this I will spend some time today going over everything!!!
 
Phil
I did the same thing. Thought I had locked on the ball. Going over a raised railroad track it popped loose. My son yelled "stop"and rather than slowing down I hit the brakes and the boat came thru my back window. As to having help stop, the last time I stopped it was to help a young couple with a baby they asked if I would drive them home. The only thing was they lived in a town 40miles away. What are you gonna do? I never got a picture of that hump back shot gun to you did I.
wis boz
 
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Wow Phil, hell of a story. The worst I have done so far is forget to UNHOOK all the way. I took the chains off, unlatched the reciever, put the swivel jack down and lifted the tongue off the ball. Pulled up about twenty feet to notice that I just ripped all of the wiring off the trailer. Glad everything was alright.

dc
 
WOW....Phil, so glad you were not hurt....or worse.

thankfully it ended the way it did...

thanks also for the heads up, this year I have been having lots of "little" reminders of the need to be diligent in my pre dawn checklist.

have a HAPPY Thanksgiving, you have much to be thankful for.
 
Phil ,

I did something stupid the last hunt of 2011 , Wendal Avery and Scott Farris made the rip to Ri. for the last hunt , me being in a rush all the time got to the ramp to find Scott there with his boat ready for launch , i disconnected my whinch strap , as i back down the ramp the boat slides off the trailer at which time i floor the truck and the boat dropped on the cement ramp about a foot into the water !! Wendall helps me to pull it in to the water and i park the truck , returning to the boat i notice she is sitting lower than normal you got it i forgot to put the plug in!!!!! Bailed by hand because the fuse for the Bildge pump blew it was cold and miserable !! Thanks to Scott he has a hand pump that worked ,we did finish off with a few birds but i have now learned from this mistake !!


Be safe guys

Dave M
 
Phil if you pull enough trailers stuff like that will always happen. Seems you get to a point where you are comfortable with everything and that is when mistakes happen. I have had stuff like that happen before, safety chains are a savior.

I have been on the side of the highway fixing my duck boat trailer after running over a deer. Was passed by several duck hunters and not one stopped.
 
I had that happen with a State boat. Hooked it up, put down the latch and locked it with a padlock. Seemed like it was good to go.
Got out of the office parking lot, hit a bump and off the ball it came. Luckily the safety chains caught the tongue & it was a small boat, so I put it back on the ball and made sure it latch correcctoy this time.
Worst part was the boss was right behind me, stopped to see what happened.
But he had a much worse story to tell about runaway boat trailers back when he was just an intern, so I got off easy!
 
Phil

Speaking of stupid trailer hook-up mistakes I made one a few years ago. At that time I had my keys on a "valet" key ring. This lets you separate your car key from all your other keys so when you hand your keys over to a valet he only gets the car key and not the keys to your house, workplace, boat trailer locks, etc..

Well one morning I hooked up my boat the usual way, truck warming up and the ring of non-auto keys on the bumper. Locked the trailer down and took off down the highway with every key I own, except the truck ignition key, sitting on the rear bumper. I never did find them even after thoroughly walking the first 1/2 mile of road from my driveway. No telling where they fell off my bumper and onto the pavement. Worst part was every band that I'd ever recovered from a duck was on that key ring.

Eric
 
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Phil

Speaking of stupid trailer hook-up mistakes I made one a few years ago. At that time I had my keys on a "valet" key ring. This lets you separate your car key from all your other keys so when you hand your keys over to a valet he only gets the car key and not the keys to your house, workplace, boat trailer locks, etc..

Well one morning I hooked up my boat the usual way, truck warming up and the ring of non-auto keys on the bumper. Locked the trailer down and took off down the highway with every key I own, except the truck ignition key, sitting on the rear bumper. I never did find them even after thoroughly walking the first 1/2 mile of road from my driveway. No telling where they fell off my bumper and onto the pavement. Worst part was every band that I'd ever recovered from a duck was on that key ring.

Eric
Click to expand...
They probably went a long way. Last year I left my marine radio/Weather Radio on the deck of my marsh boat. Pulled out of the drive, made the 25 minute drive to the launch. While launching I realized I didn't have it. Had another issue that morning and boat was going nowhere. Driving back out of the launch area (1/4 mile dirt road) I found my radio sitting in the middle of the roadway, virtually no signs of damage. Not sure how it made all the other turns and the trip down the interstate only to fall off at the last possible turn???
Phil, glad to hear your issues wern't worse than they where. No doubt you realize you dodged a bullet on what might have happened.

~Dave
 
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