• Thank goodness for safety chains

    by
    M R Dux
    Published on 10-17-2013 06:00 AM
    17 Comments Comments
    I took a buddy and a friend of his out trolling Bandits on KY Lake this morning. I had hooked up my trailer to the truck well before daylight and thought I hooked everything up properly. We had a decent morning and went to load the boat back onto the trailer on a ramp that was pretty flat due to the lake being at winter pool. My buddy backed it down and I lined the boat up and showered down on the 75HP Yamaha to make sure I got the boat all the way up against the winch.

    When the bow hit the roller at the winch, something big time abnormal happened and since I was in the drivers seat of the boat, I couldn't tell what. It seemed something collapsed at the front and my buddy's friend started waving his arms for me to shut the motor down. I walked up to the bow and the trailer tongue was on the concrete ramp with the safety chains the only thing keeping the whole rig from rolling back down the ramp.

    Seems when I hit the winch roller, it was hard enough to jump the hitch off the trailer ball. Obviously I had failed to lock the hitch down on the ball when I hooked it up and we had trailered several miles from my house to the lake with no incident. We had to lift the trailer up so we could get the dolly wheel under it then use the chains and truck to pull it out of the water so we could scotch a wheel and hook it back to the trailer ball. It was pretty much a normal hook-up once we got the trailer scotched. Nothing was damaged but I considered myself lucky I had some help with me and that the trailer had been stopped by the chains. I've had to use a wrecker to get one truck and trailer out of KY Lake and am glad I didn't have to again.

    You can bet I will be checking all connections better the next time.

    This is not mrdux's trailer, but it is a crappie.com members trailer. I just used it as a stock pic....slab
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Thank goodness for safety chains started by mrdux View original post
    1. Categories:
    2. f) 2013 articles
    Comments 17 Comments
    1. NYHellbender's Avatar
      NYHellbender - 10-17-2013, 10:20 AM
      Close call, luck was on your side that day for sure.
    1. BulldogBruce's Avatar
      BulldogBruce - 10-17-2013, 10:34 AM
      I was headed to Sardis early one morning. My boat was only a few months old at the time I got about 20 miles away from the house where there was a left turn to be made at an intersection. All of a sudden the truck is being yanked from the back. I pull over and the safety cables kept the trailer connected. I still don't understand how I made it that far before it jumped the ball. So yes safety chains are a must.
    1. Rsw's Avatar
      Rsw - 10-17-2013, 11:24 AM
      Glade you and your equipment are ok.
    1. DCottrell's Avatar
      DCottrell - 10-17-2013, 12:07 PM
      Must be something in the air, Yesterday when leaving work I observed a guy working on his boat trailer on the side of the road. His issue was the magic tilt trailer tilted the wrong way when traveling down the highway.
    1. Billbob's Avatar
      Billbob - 10-17-2013, 12:56 PM
      luckey dog
    1. mdperson's Avatar
      mdperson - 10-17-2013, 01:26 PM
      lucky
    1. XtopwaterkingX's Avatar
      XtopwaterkingX - 10-17-2013, 04:42 PM
      Haha man, that coulda been real bad
    1. Crappiegirl1's Avatar
      Crappiegirl1 - 10-17-2013, 06:30 PM
      You could a been back fishing trail or And all. That would have scR Rd them crappie to death.
    1. boatdocksam's Avatar
      boatdocksam - 10-18-2013, 04:21 AM
      oops
    1. try'n hard's Avatar
      try'n hard - 10-18-2013, 09:05 AM
      easy to forget when your excited to get on the water... thanks for posting!
    1. ronetone's Avatar
      ronetone - 10-20-2013, 05:50 PM
      lucky nothing worse happened
    1. Eagle 1's Avatar
      Eagle 1 - 10-20-2013, 07:42 PM
      Dang ,thought I had done all things that could gone wrong! guess I skipped one !
    1. Gindog's Avatar
      Gindog - 10-20-2013, 09:35 PM
      good thing nothing bad come out of it
    1. skeetbum's Avatar
      skeetbum - 10-27-2013, 07:26 AM
      A friend of mine had a new 20' Cobia with a 200hp mercury that I was dying to ride in. Half way to the ramp from his house I told him to pull over, something was tickling my senses. Good thing. No chains, lights and the hitch wasn't closed. No incident but a lesson I've never forgotten. Good story.
    1. rpapworth1's Avatar
      rpapworth1 - 10-27-2013, 09:29 AM
      As a part-time truck driver who occasionally pulls doubles, I have a comment and I hint.
      When you hook up the chains to your vehicle, cross them the right side chain goes to left side hook, the left to the right.
      The reason for this is if the trailer should come unhooked while you're traveling down the road the tongue cannot reach the ground to wreak havoc on the trailer and what's on it because they chains being crossed catches that tongue before it hits the surface.
    1. prefers shiners's Avatar
      prefers shiners - 10-27-2013, 06:38 PM
      don't forget to use the rubber keeper straps that keep the S hook in place...

      Attachment 140492

      http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...classNum=50816
    1. Kaintuck's Avatar
      Kaintuck - 10-28-2013, 04:08 PM
      number of years ago I knew two brothers who had been commercial fisherman on ky lake for decades . they had a routine of each having a job to do each morning to prepare for the days fishing and always left before first light.this particular day it was very foggy and cold they decided to fish with one boat instead of the usual two rigs.drove about ten miles to the lbl side of the lake in the dark and fog arrived at launch ramp and went to back down to the water only to discover no boat attached to truck.each had thought the other had dropped trailer onto ball and hooked it up and being foggy hadn't noticed trailer wasn't there . so even old pros screw up would see them often when fishing in the years after incident and was always something to make me grin inside.

  • .

    Sufix 728x90

BACK TO TOP