Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Going against the weather forecast for showers, we decided to risk it and go to Lake Malone, ky..to spend the day with our daughter and her hubby and kids, since they live 5 hours away and rarely get the chance to ride on our boat. I had a bad feeling.....

It had showered at the ramp before we got there. The ramp at shady cliff is steep and the concrete is old and fairly slick when wet. I didn't think of that, and backing our large and heavy 26 footer down the ramp I touched the brakes to slow up and the boat just kept pulling my truck towards the water, even with the wheels locked up and skidding. It started to jackknife, but luckily I finally got it stopped once the trailer got out of line, and just before it went too far...and the family was already sitting atop the boat. That could have been real bad. Got her straightened out and unloaded the boat, but when I "bumped' her off the trailer, I backed a little too far, with the water down, I didn't realize how short the ramp was, and off the concrete went the trailer and bottomed out on the frame. Every time I tried to pull it up it hung on the spring shackles...and by now its pouring down again. With the help of a couple nice fishermen we spent about 30 minutes getting it free, but in the meantime, my son in law got his foot under the wheel when we pulled forward and hurt it bad.

Couple of my bunk boards pulled loose thru all this, somehow, and I ended up with a bent axle to boot. We aborted the trip, as the rain continued, and I had to drive 15 miles to buy lag bolts to repair the bunks, so we could load the boat an limp her home. Wish I had stayed home!

Hate to hear about your misfortune! A lot of damage has been done to trailers "falling off the ledge" , so to speak. Hope the Son is ok. Good luck with the repair.

one trick I have seen to get the trailer back up over the ledge is to run the winch cable under the trailer and back up to the bow eye, crank up the winch and it lifts the trailer, allowing you to pull it forward.

Sorry for your bad day. Someone quite a while ago made some pieces for their trailer so it wouldn't get stuck if driven in too far. You might want to search for that.

Yeah, I will be doing some fab work to add skid bars in front of those spring shackles, so if I drop off any ramps I can "skid" it back up on the ramp till the tires bite again. Wish I had got the names of the two fellows that helped me. Without them I would have been stuck for no telling how long. I started a claim on my insurance for the repairs to the trailer, we'll see how that goes.

Fiddlebick... sorry to hear about your misfortunes at the ramp.... you're not the first one to drop a trailer off the ramp... my wife was backing our boat down the ramp last year ( I was up in the boat ) and she got a little cockeyed while backing down.. I yelled for her to stop but she kept going til the left trailer tire fell off the ramp... when she tried to pull the boat and trailer back up onto the ramp, all it did was spin the tires... luckily I was able to power the boat off the trailer, and once the boat was free she was able to ease the trailer back onto the ramp.... fortunately no trailer damage for us, but she's a lot more careful now...hopefully your damages won't be too costly...

Ray Jr. wrote:one trick I have seen to get the trailer back up over the ledge is to run the winch cable under the trailer and back up to the bow eye, crank up the winch and it lifts the trailer, allowing you to pull it forward.

This is how you get the trailer out if it goes over! I have seen someone do it I wish I had the camera at the time.

curtiscapk wrote:

Ray Jr. wrote:one trick I have seen to get the trailer back up over the ledge is to run the winch cable under the trailer and back up to the bow eye, crank up the winch and it lifts the trailer, allowing you to pull it forward.

This is how you get the trailer out if it goes over! I have seen someone do it I wish I had the camera at the time.

For clarity, that is run the winch cable under the trailer frame and to the bow eye ON THE BOAT while the boat is afloat.

Running a cable to the bow eye of the boat while its still on the trailer does no good and will break stuff.

Good catch...

wow I cringed the whole time I read your story. VERY luck nobody got seriously hurt, as they were all on the boat at the time.

It reminds me that just 2 days ago, the wife and I tried to get our 20' toon out of the water for the first time, with our brand spanking new trailer. With the help of another guy at the marina (he has a regular boat, so he wasn't very proficient at trailering the toon), we couldn't get the toon onto the trailer for over an hour. The current kept moving the back of the boat when I pulled toward the trailer, making it crooked as we got near. Come to think of it, I think we had the trailer way too far down the ramp, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we never got the toon on there, as we might not have been able to yank the trailer back up. All in all no serious damages, but could've very well been.

These newbie lessons can be quite pricey!

KylefromNJ wrote:wow I cringed the whole time I read your story. VERY luck nobody got seriously hurt, as they were all on the boat at the time.

It reminds me that just 2 days ago, the wife and I tried to get our 20' toon out of the water for the first time, with our brand spanking new trailer. With the help of another guy at the marina (he has a regular boat, so he wasn't very proficient at trailering the toon), we couldn't get the toon onto the trailer for over an hour. The current kept moving the back of the boat when I pulled toward the trailer, making it crooked as we got near. Come to think of it, I think we had the trailer way too far down the ramp, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we never got the toon on there, as we might not have been able to yank the trailer back up. All in all no serious damages, but could've very well been.

These newbie lessons can be quite pricey!

yep, if it's a 'cross winds' kinda ramp, i stay shallow with trailer, get a running start, and slide right up the bunks... if my speed is right, stops just before the bumper thingy... if not, i can adjust as needed

KylefromNJ wrote:wow I cringed the whole time I read your story. VERY luck nobody got seriously hurt, as they were all on the boat at the time.

It reminds me that just 2 days ago, the wife and I tried to get our 20' toon out of the water for the first time, with our brand spanking new trailer. With the help of another guy at the marina (he has a regular boat, so he wasn't very proficient at trailering the toon), we couldn't get the toon onto the trailer for over an hour. The current kept moving the back of the boat when I pulled toward the trailer, making it crooked as we got near. Come to think of it, I think we had the trailer way too far down the ramp, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we never got the toon on there, as we might not have been able to yank the trailer back up. All in all no serious damages, but could've very well been.

These newbie lessons can be quite pricey!

yep, if it's a 'cross winds' kinda ramp, i stay shallow with trailer, get a running start, and slide right up the bunks... if my speed is right, stops just before the bumper thingy... if not, i can adjust as needed

if having a problem trailering your boat in current or wind and if you have room on the ramp, back your trailer at an angel down wind/current,,, works for me

Another way to get that trailer over the drop is do what my Son and I did. Get wet. We lifted the trailer from the rear in the water while Joy pulled it forward just enough.

Two of us lifted the trailer from one side, and the good samaritan with the bass boat eased up to the rear of the trailer and stood on his front deck, pulling up on a rope I had tied on to the rear of the trailer. Between us, we were able to get enough lift. I'm really having a tough time getting past this, starting to rethink the wisdom of pulling, and loading a 26 foot behemoth of a boat every time I want to enjoy the water. Its a lot for my truck, a lot for the highway, wider than my previous pontoon...a 20 footer and much lighter! A boat this size is better suited to staying on the water all season in a slip.