Though I slept well Saturday night on the boat the Wife didn't fair so well, the river was raging pretty well about six feet above normal pool with plenty of debris to scrape along the boat bottom throughout the night and plenty of current which would contribute to make loading the boat a little more interesting the following morning.
Sunrise came and the fog was thick with dampness that made it feel colder than it probably actually was so we procrastinated with apprehension the big event until about mid morning when things began to clear up some.
Well the current and muddy water really made things interesting to say the least the trailer seemed to vanish two inches into the dark muddy waters of the Muskingum making it impossible to view the physical comparison of the bunks vs the pontoons and landing them appropriately into their cradles. Before getting it right involved at least six attempts and resorting to wading in extremely cold water to horse the boat to where it belonged and pull her ashore.
Once ashore we had the opportunity to view what we actually now had with some dismal disappointment. The boat was too far forward on the trailer creating to much tongue weight for both the trailer (some flexing in frame) and the truck sagging in the rear. To get it right meant re-floating the boat to get it back about a foot where it actually belonged but after what we just went though even getting it loaded the first time we were real apprehensive about doing that again. So we needed some sort of a plan of sorts. Well I reached into my bag of ropes binders and ratchet straps seeking a solution that would seem to work.
I found a couple of continuous loop ratchet binders and fastened them both around the frame of the trailer and the pontoon eyes leaving just enough slack to allow the pontoons to float but unable to escape the cradle bunks when they actually floated and back into the muddy Muskingum again.
Well I quickly learned my pontoons do have some excess floating capacity because when I got her in deep enough for the wife to power the boat to move it on the bunks the whole rig trailer boat and all floated downstream in the current!!
That part I never figured or considered what-so-ever as I'm viewing what appears as a real mess in the rear view mirror of my pickup truck. But to our great relief as I slowly pulled the rig up the ramp everything again settled into place perfectly with the rear of the pontoons setting right at the end of the bunks right above the tail lights where they belonged.Now it was time to pull the rig up on the flat ground again and view what we now had, and it still wasn't what I'd call looking pretty. It still appeared to still have excess tongue weight and needed more "work" so to speak. So after a hot cup of coffee and a dripping off period it was now time to go under the trailer and back to work again.
I'd brought along a couple of bottle jacks, cribbing and a floor jack "just in case" and was very grateful that I'd thought to bring them along. So after setting up a tripod and getting all the weight off the axles it was time to make some adjustments to same. It involved loosing three U-Bolts per side thus allowing the movement of the axles forward some and tightening everything back up to snuff again and view the results. Well thankfully for me I only had to make this adjustment just once and the results seemed at least by viewing appeared safe and OK. The bit of flex in trailer frame was gone, and though it did settle the truck suspension down some it no longer seemed excessive at only a few inches and moreover the rig now looked safe and roadworthy and ready for the trip home.
Our new to us trailer proved itself capable of handling the load and we had a safe and uneventful trip home and our rig is now safely parked in our yard where we can keep an eye on it and maybe complete a few updates before the next boating season begins. I'm just grateful that now that the boat and trailer are mated together I won't have to go through such an ordeal the next time the trailer is ever needed.
