captquest
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2008
- Messages
- 120
Re: Any hitch ever come loose or apart?
This hits on one of my greatest boating stories and it is absolutely true! In the late 1980's I owned a 15' boat with a 65HP motor. The trailer was an old home made trailer. It was well made, but was not galvanized, just painted. On the way home from a fishing trip one Saturday morning, a really freak thing happened. I was with two other buddies in my Chevy pick up towing the boat. I kept my eye on it in the rear view as we drove the 12 or so miles home. There was a bit of a curve on one of the streets that we had just passed on. A few minutes later I glanced again in the mirror and could only see the street behind me, I turned my head back in a semi-panicked manner to look directly back out the rear windshield, nothing was there! "Did we not just have the boat?" I yelled at my fishing partners. We all instantly and simultaneously turned our heads back and looked out the back windshield, no sign of a boat! I immediately pulled over and we got out to look at the hitch. The front part of the tongue was still attached with the safety chains, but the trailer had broken right off due to the rusty old tongue. As we drove back following our route, I imagined news teams and rescue helicopters arriving at a horrible scene about the same time we do. Almost a mile from were I had noticed it gone we could see the boat and trailer along the side of a small road across from a large field that was adjacent to the curved road. The boat and trailer ended up against a barbed wire fence with almost no damage. After analyzing what must have happened from the evidence, we were totally amazed that no one was hurt or killed and that the boat was not completly destroyed. The boat must have broken off as we were in the curve. Apparently the skid bar on the front of the trailer kept it from digging in the ground and allowed it to "ride along" the surface. The boat and trailer had gone across the field about 40 yards then crossed the small road, went down the bank of a shallow ditch and back up the other side and hitting the wire fence right between two posts with enough momentum to partially pull the posts out of the ground! WOW! Total distance was about 75 yards! The wrecker driver did not seem to believe our story. There were no witnesses that we know of and thank God no victims. Not sure where those buddies are these days, but I'm certain they would remember this experience.
This hits on one of my greatest boating stories and it is absolutely true! In the late 1980's I owned a 15' boat with a 65HP motor. The trailer was an old home made trailer. It was well made, but was not galvanized, just painted. On the way home from a fishing trip one Saturday morning, a really freak thing happened. I was with two other buddies in my Chevy pick up towing the boat. I kept my eye on it in the rear view as we drove the 12 or so miles home. There was a bit of a curve on one of the streets that we had just passed on. A few minutes later I glanced again in the mirror and could only see the street behind me, I turned my head back in a semi-panicked manner to look directly back out the rear windshield, nothing was there! "Did we not just have the boat?" I yelled at my fishing partners. We all instantly and simultaneously turned our heads back and looked out the back windshield, no sign of a boat! I immediately pulled over and we got out to look at the hitch. The front part of the tongue was still attached with the safety chains, but the trailer had broken right off due to the rusty old tongue. As we drove back following our route, I imagined news teams and rescue helicopters arriving at a horrible scene about the same time we do. Almost a mile from were I had noticed it gone we could see the boat and trailer along the side of a small road across from a large field that was adjacent to the curved road. The boat and trailer ended up against a barbed wire fence with almost no damage. After analyzing what must have happened from the evidence, we were totally amazed that no one was hurt or killed and that the boat was not completly destroyed. The boat must have broken off as we were in the curve. Apparently the skid bar on the front of the trailer kept it from digging in the ground and allowed it to "ride along" the surface. The boat and trailer had gone across the field about 40 yards then crossed the small road, went down the bank of a shallow ditch and back up the other side and hitting the wire fence right between two posts with enough momentum to partially pull the posts out of the ground! WOW! Total distance was about 75 yards! The wrecker driver did not seem to believe our story. There were no witnesses that we know of and thank God no victims. Not sure where those buddies are these days, but I'm certain they would remember this experience.