Do you Launch your Boat Yourself or Always with a Truck Driver?

[Bassnailer]

A beaching bumper like Hamby's or Keelshield makes launching a boat by yourself a breeze. Like others here, just attach a rope between your trailer and boat, back down till boat floats, then pull the trailer out of the water. The boat follows and beaches itself on the ramp while you go and park the truck. I found I tied up the ramp less doing it this way, then motoring over to a dock while my trailer sits in the water. After someone slammed into my boat while it was tied to a courtesy dock once, I find my boat is much safer beached on the ramp than tied to a dock.

[250bassFL]

By myself.

[Crappie Bob]

Where I fish a lot it is no gas motors, so I learned to unload and load by myself also. I use a rope twice as long as the boat, clip to the winch eye, run it down the inside of the boat to the back and uturn it, then return to the front. The front has a loop I put over the winch. Back down till it floats off, pull up, grab the rope and pull the boat to the bank and park the truck. Takes less than 5 minutes. I can do that quicker than one person can drive theirs off if they are alone.

[Coastal Mountaineer]

Lately, I've used my Ulterra to launch. In the prep lane, do my usual things and check to make sure the Ulterra and remote are powered up, test deploy, and then stow.

Back down ramp a little ways, unhook bow strap and safety chain, continue backing, boat floats off trailer, once away from trailer, deploy Ulterra and power boat a safe distance away from dock. Hit anchor. Park car and trailer, return, guide boat back to dock and step in.

Saves time and keeps ramp clear for others to use while I park car. I am always concerned the Ulterra might fail me, but so far, so good.

[ChooChooSnakeMan]

I don’t use a rope. I just back down ramp until boat floats slightly off trailer. Then if it a shallow ramp, I open tailgate again top of ramp, back down until boat floats slightly. Put truck in park, hop in bed of truck via rear tire, walk from tailgate to trailer, unhook, pull off and go to dock. Then park truck. Same once you load it, climb in bed, out of bed onto rear truck tire and pull off ramp. That way, you don’t have to get wet any on shallow ramps....good luck

This works for me. Only problem going forward that I see is as I get older it is getting harder to pull myself on top of the rear tire of my truck and climb into the bed but at least for now it still works well. The long rope trick may be my next tactic when climbing on the tire is too hazardous / hard to do.

[Rumour2u]

Alone.

[bgibson]

Easiest way by far to do alone is to back down the ramp until about wheels of trailer are wet. Then put trailer winch on free spool so it will click when it is being pulled by boat . Get back in truck and slowly back boat into the water. You will hear the clicking when the boat is starting to float. This way you have real good control and can keep the boat on the trailer just barely floating. In real rough water I will back up just enough to here a click or two from the winch, then the boat (ZX250) will just need a little push or drive off the bunks but I can maintain complete control. Obviously I unhook the boat before I push or drive boat off the trailer. To get in the boat I have the tailgate lowered on my truck.. Sometimes I don't need to lower it but I do most times anyway. After I drive boat off trailer I tie off to dock or beach boat nearby on a sandy spot. Go back to truck and park it. EASY, been doing it this way for 35 years.

[MBDiagMan]

I want to follow up with my results and thank everyone for the help.

The biggest problem I had since it was the first time was finding the right level for the trailer. I backed it up the third time and it floated it off under power. Once in deep enough, which was with the fenders barely, but completely submerged, I climbed in the bed and over the bow. I tied on a rope in case it floated off the trailer without me. Since I knew how deep to put in the trailer, loading up was a piece of cake. The biggest problem I had was maneuvering in the tight quarters of some slips and the courtesy dock. I scraped the hull a little below the gunnel. I need some maneuvering practice.

I have a 2000, short bed, regular cab, step side 4x4 pickup with a five speed manual. The step behind the cab to get into the bed has never had much use until now. I can easily climb out of the cab over into the bed then over the tailgate onto the bow. I have over 50 years of experience with a clutch so that was no problem, but when I do have a driver they probably can’t a clutch on the ramp. Ive

Although it’s a pain parking the truck and trailer and then getting the boat and tying up the boat, I feel confident doing the whole thing without a helper.

Thanks to all of you for your responses.

[Rangerman2006]

Get a z launch cord and a Hambys. Easy peezzzie

[tr196]

Ditto again. I fish solo almost 99% of the time. Like others have said, you learn a routine and it becomes second nature.

[mossie3]

I've got this idea of partially raising my Ultrex, and tying a rope to the top of the Ultrex, float off the boat using the rope deploy the Ultrex, then hitting spot lock on the remote while I park the truck. Then walk out on the dock and summon my boat over with the remote.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Kevin R.]

I fish solo about 99%.

[itsahog]

I've got this idea of partially raising my Ultrex, and tying a rope to the top of the Ultrex, float off the boat using the rope deploy the Ultrex, then hitting spot lock on the remote while I park the truck. Then walk out on the dock and summon my boat over with the remote.

What could possibly go wrong?

1: remember to flip the power to your ultrex on
2: remember to have the remote with you and not in the boat

HAHA

[5 BASS ASSASIN]

Just leave a little slack in you winch strap and lock it, then back it down til you feel the boat slide. Then climb in and in strap it, start it and tie up to dock or pole. I can do this in less than 2 min including getting in my truck. It's all what u are used to

This is exactly how I launch as well.. already have my tie downs in place when backing in. Very quick and simple.

[Highcentered]

These days I put a few inches of slack in the winch strap and back into the water until the boat slides and takes up the slack. Usually there's a dock for me to walk down and get into the boat. I start the boat, unstrap the nose, and back off and run it up on the dirt bank.

Every once in a while I'll do the long rope thing if the situation warrants it. I coil the rope like a chain where it won't knot up and hook one end to the boat and the other end to one of the pegs the tailgate latches to and throw the slack rope in the bed of the truck. MAKE SURE YOU PULL THE TRAILER UP ENOUGH SO YOUR BOAT DOESN'T HIT THE TRAILER! Yes I've ruined a couple taillights on my trailer this way. I fixed this problem by getting a longer rope, lol. It's always good habit to not completely unhook your winch strap until your trailer tires are in the water just in case. Most fiberglass boats will stay glued to the trailer bunks but I helped a guy get his new Tracker back on the trailer just a couple weeks ago when it slid off and hit the ramp. No real damage though and he laughed it off once we checked it out good.

[JR19]

I fish solo 95% of the time and 99% of the time it is during the week. Also the boat ramps I typically use are wide enough to load 3 or 4 wide if they were busy but since I use them on a weekday they are seldom more than 1 person unloading at a time. When I am unloading I use the rope method as mentioned earlier in this thread but the way I stow and deploy my rope is a little different. I have my rope wound around a spool. On the end of the rope I have a large D ring. To keep the rope secure as I stow it I attach a bungee cord to the D ring and secure it to itself. Then I have the spool on a piece of conduit and I have that mounted in my truck bed. I leave it in there year round but if I want I can remove it in just a few seconds.

What I do is get everything ready to unload just like normal and leave the bow eye attached. I back down until the wheels are in the water then I stop. I get out and unhook the bow and attach the D ring. Then I continue to back down very slow. Once I see the boat starting to slide off the trailer I simply just pull forward and drive up the ramp. The rope will feed off the spool as I pull forward. The key to this is to do it slowly. I do not want the boat to go shooting out into the lake. I simply want it to break lose from the trailer and I will pull away from the boat. Once all the rope is deployed I simply put the truck in park and get out and retrieve my boat. I pull my boat to the ramp and beach it on the ramp. I have a keel guard so this does not hurt my hull. Then I simply spin the spool and wind the rope back up and attach the bungee cord to secure the rope.

This picture is from my old truck. I traded trucks and moved this system to my new truck...

[MBDiagMan]

Very nice setup JR! If there’s no patent,I might copy it.

Thanks to everyone for all the great ideas and advice.

[lperry]

I'm 81 yrs old and fish alone about 1/3 of the time. I know thats probably not smart but I do. I have the Ulterra but it failed me once steering it to the dock in that it started up on high then it would not respond to the remote and banged hard into the dock. I normally back down into the water until the back of the boat barely floats off the trailer but then unlatch the front strap to the winch, climb up my trick step and back off the trailer then beach my boat and park the truck. BUT the other day I unlatched the front strap, backed in and the boat floated off the trails with no one else around. I had the Ulterra turned on but the remote was in the boat. I waited probably 45 minutes for someone to come back to the dock to get my boat. I know I am certainly not the first but I felt really stupid-senile!

[JR19]

Very nice setup JR! If there’s no patent,I might copy it.

Thanks to everyone for all the great ideas and advice.

I have had several people ask me what that was in the bed of my truck and when I tell them they always say great idea. I had a few come over to me as I was winding up the rope to see what my contraption looks like. Plus at the ramp I have had several people freak out and start yelling when I drive away from my boat as I unload it with no one in it. They don't see the rope and think the boat is getting away from me.

[rockmike]

Hamby's, Ezee-Steps, and Drotto latch make life a lot easier for us old folks that fish solo.