Drive on or Crank on

[reelfishin]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Looks like a nice place to load a boat but a bit shallow looking.
Most of the ramps here are put in between pilings or sea walls. There's rarely a dirt area to use unless you find a beach that you can drive on.
I have launched off of rough drops before, but we usually just back up to the edge and dump the boat in if it's high tide, but only with a small boat. It saves waiting in long lines at the ramp. The ramp is a must though for retrieval. (I've actually tossed the 12' boat I have over guard rails into the water rather than deal with a busy ramp. Can't do that with the 18' cuddy cabin though.

 

[75reinell]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

One of the ramps I go to has 6 lanes and only one has the dock next to it. I always laugh becasue there is a big line to load and unload in that lane. I have a buddy that goes with me all the time and he is a master at backing trailers, does it for work everyday. He backs in one of the empty middle lanes. I drive up he clips on and we are gone. Never takes more than a couple minutes once the trailer hits the water. I usally have everything stowed by the time we clear the ramps. Hop out, pull the plug, check alignment, attach transom straps and head home.

 

[Wildcatin]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

How about loading a Pontoon on a bunked trailer......how do most of you do this???

 

[hubbard53]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

i bought my first boat last year - i've always rented so never needed to load / unload.

I guess the ramp i use is well designed b/c I am able to dunk the trailer mid-fender and push the 23' Yamaha from the trailer and tie her up. Of course I get wet.

Loading back on, I just idle onto the bunk trailer until it stops. My wife is in the truck so I have her slowly reverse down the ramp (on my queue) as I crank it up to the bow stop. It may take a couple minutes longer but I am being careful with my $35k investment on a public facility.

When I am solo, I admit i use a little bit if power to push it up bunks but only a little...

 

[StoutMann]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Silicone spray, or the more eco-friendly Pam cooking spray, on carpeted bunks works wonders for launch and retrieval when you don't want to use the engine to help. I always do it by hand. Off and on. After fireworks on the river last year, the water was so low that the end of my bunks were above the water. The ramp drops off at the end so you can only back in so far. People were having such a hard time loading up it was half funny and half irritating because there were about 300 boats trying to leave at once. Some boats couldn't power on or crank on hardly at all. Couple guys got their boats about 1/3 on, hooked the strap, tightened it down and pulled away from the ramp with the boat literally hanging off the trailer. One of them then, with the weight being so far back, had the trailer pop off the hitch which left the lower unit on the ground and the tongue in the air. Then the guy in front of me blocks both lanes with his truck and trailer. When I asked him what he was doing him and his wife got all loud saying how everybody was having a hard time because of the low water and I better shut my f'ing mouth and mind my business before, well you get the picture. Anyway, afterwards he tried to power on, hit his prop on the rocks and killed the engine, started it up again, hit the prop again and killed it again... eventually they got off the ramp and came back to watch and laugh at me when I struggled. As stated before, my bunks were out of the water. So I pull out my strap to the end of the trailer, hook it to the boat, and start to crank. The strap pulls the bow up onto the bunks and I easily crank the boat the entire length of the trailer along bunks that are out of the water. It's a 20' dual console with a Yamaha F150 on the back by the way. When I'm finished I say very loudly to my son, "that is why you put silicone on your bunk boards". The rude, loudmouth couple that threatened me in front of my family walked away quietly. My wife and kids thought I was cool.

 

[Wildcatin]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Great idea.......I loaded a can of Silicone spray in my truck today!!!!!

 

[Baylinercapri1987]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Idle on slow as possible, once it centers on the bunks its about 6 inches to the bow stop, and I crank it in the rest of the way, Sometimes a nudge of the throttle to get it up and centered. I have no trailer guides, just 2 long bunks supporting a 17" bayliner. Ramps around here are pretty deep, usually no worries as some end and go down 10 feet or so to rocks, other then going past the ramp...and the trailer gets stuck pretty bad!

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Silicone spray, or the more eco-friendly Pam cooking spray, on carpeted bunks works wonders for launch and retrieval when you don't want to use the engine to help. ........

I had a neighbor that used to use some sort of cooking oil spray on his bunk boards years ago, he had an old aluminum trihull. We used to laugh at all the bugs that were all over his bunk boards. He also used to coat them with lard as well. (Everything he did was a low budget, the boat was the same way inside.
His boat had a rubber steering wheel on which the rubber had cracked and fallen off, leaving only a steel ring. He fixed it himself his way. He took several hundred old plastic bags, cut them in strips and wrapped the wheel till it was at the diameter he felt it should be, then wrapped it with one of those el cheapo steering wheel wraps with the foam rubber and vinyl cover and vinyl lace. He then proceeded to 'preserve' it forever with about ten coats of varnish. Every thing in that boat was that way, from the steering wheel to the screwed down lawn chairs to the tin can rod holders. His bunks were round iron pipes welded in place with carpet over them. The ends were bent downward at the rear. the carpet was several layers thick and well saturated with oil and lard. The boat had many tape and varnish patches and lots of fiberglass resin and cloth patches. The bow stop was a piece of water pipe bent in a V and welded to another pipe with heater hose on it, it was rough but he always came back with fish, he towed the boat with an old AMC Rambler which he painted annually with house paint, we used to save him coffee cans which he used to patch the exhaust and anything else that rotted out).

 

[Jeepster04]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

Never had a problem using the engine to push the boat on. Usually I idle on then whom ever is in the vehicle will back down while I give it a little gas(not full throttle). Once its on they pull up a little and I hook it up from the front of the boat. Works great.

If Im alone Ill make sure its backed in far enough then idle on. If it doesnt make it ill give it some gas and push it on then winch it the rest of the way.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Drive on or Crank on

You would be surprised at how much land a pair of props can move. There are a few ramps where the tide keeps filling in the ramp and launch area. I've seen bigger boats back in, tie off and run hard against the dock to flush out the ramp and channel. Years ago, I had a slip that would get shallow as the season went on, they would do nothing to fix it. I finally had a buddy back his commercial boat into the slip and make me some depth when the tide was running out. I had several feet to spare after that.