Re: Pickup truck drowning at launch ramp?
If the boat ramps you deal with are anything like they've been putting in around me lately, nothing other than a super long tongue will keep the truck dry.
At one lake here, with my 2 wheel drive, 1996 F150 Super Cab with an 8' bed, towing a 14' aluminum Starcraft flat bottom V hull on a bunk trailer with 8" tires, drop axle, and a boat that sat so low on the trailer I had to fully tilt the 9.9hp motor to go down the road, my front tires had to be wet up to the rims just to get the boat wet enough so I could push it off the trailer with a lot of rocking and getting my feet wet.
I think it would have been easier to just dump it on the ground and slide it in the lake next to the ramp in the mud.
They keep making the newer ramps shallower and shallower. I can back down most ramps here to the end of the ramp and still not submerge my rear axle or wet my brakes and have a car length of water in front of me.
I solved the problem by installing a longer trailer tongue, one that gives me about 8' ahead of the boat when loaded. This is still often not enough to not get my front tires wet. The best ramps are the old ones, those that were just gravel or seashells with no concrete ramp to end and get tires caught over the edge. The trailer I have now, a Shoremaster, probably the lightest trailer, came to me with both rear wheels ripped off, someone backed over the edge of a ramp and both spindles were ripped from the axle tube when they pulled it free.
I built it a new, heavier duty axle and have been using it for a year now. I just found a clean used set of roller bunks which I hope will aid in dealing with shallow ramps. The only good thing about these new ramps is that you can wade out in just a pair of 12" boots and not get wet, but for launching a boat, they're about worthless.
Another location, with similar ramps, also has courtesy docks made from aluminum, when you back in, the docks are 6' above the boat, being your launching in a river, the boat almost immediately drifts under the dock. The far end of the docks are floating but they put a raised section the entire length of the ramp. I guess if they ever get a 6' over normal high tide flood tide, they're all set. The rest of the time it's just a hassle.
. And i've had to walk across the hood, onto the roof, into the bed and jump to the boat to tighten it up properly :facepalm:. I'm cracking up at myself while I write this, by the way. Its a homemade trailer (not by me), so I expect some problems.... just stuff i'm going to have to deal with since i got my heart set on using this one. Not necessarily looking for a root cause of the problem, just curious about tire/wheel sizes.
