I kind of hate to tell on myself. I'm blaming it on getting old. Has anyone else left the pin out of their Ranger Trail Trailer and headed down the road? You will know you did when you come to the first stop sign. I thought someone ran into the back of my boat. But it was the boat running into the back of my truck. I now have a caved in bumper where the trailer hit it and a small dent in tail gate where the nose of the boat hit it. At least the boat and trailer have no damage.
Have a good one and thank God for it!
My uncle did on his Xpress a couple of months ago. The bow left a pretty good dent in his Ford Platinum tailgate, didn't hurt the aluminum boat though.
Not with the Ranger...but Ive done it on another trailer. Lucky no damage though.
Not sure I understand....what pin? The one for the swing away trailer tongue or the pin to lock the trailer onto receiver ball?
2012 Z521, Yamaha 250 SHO
SOLD-1998 Ranger 519DVS, Mercury 225 EFI
Semper Fi
locks receiver onto the trailer ball. I have had that happen getting the boat out of its shed... I used to sometimes not use the pin stupidly because I was just putting it in the driveway. Popped off when I stopped to back up. Stopped not using the pin.
Never done that but I have a real bad habit of not putting the center wheel in it upright and locked position .
"Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day."
I'm 29, and forgot the coupler pin, good thing for me is I feel everything and as I pulled out of the driveway I felt the trailer bounce oddly, stopped took a look and felt so dumb, nothing connected, had I turned on to the next street it would have came off on a bridge for sure giving the lump to get on it, no chains would have Kent new boat for sure
Mercury 250 proxs 2B115089
No you aren’t, I forgot to latch mine down this spring, I was lucky though there was a slam but it never jumped off the ball. I try to leave my light plug on top of my latch so I don’t make that boo boo again lol.Originally Posted by FlFedAngler
never did that but I have a Trailer Valet which I use to maneuver boat into the garage and also attach to the trailer. Forgot to remove that one time in the down position and had a 20 ft black tire streak down the driveway. But I don't feel to bad ever see an F-16 on the tarmac with red flags all over the place reminding pilots and ground crew what not to forget and they are in their twenty's
Tournament-Fishing \"It\'s not a question of if you will be humbled but how many times\"
I believe (could be wrong) that he is referring to the pin in the swing away tongue. That's what happened to my uncle in my story above.
Anymore I walk around the boat twice before I leave. And I walk around it twice before I put it in the water. Trying not to do stupid stuff but it gets harder everyday
Thats the truth!
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
Ever since I got my first boat, I adopted a system to count down every item that needed to be hooked up before I left the garage. I count 15 items:
1 - left emergency chain in place
2 - right emergency chain in place
3 - lights plugged in
4 - coupler closed
5 - couple pin or pad lock in place
6 - dolly wheel up
7 - bow strap tight
8 - emergency bow strap/chain attached
9 - TM strapped down
10 - Tm plugged in
11 - TM rope secured
12 - starboard side transom tie down tight
13 - motor toter in place
14 - port side transom tie down tight
15 - plug tight in transom
Yes, I'm OCD about this. But, this system hasn't failed me since 1985.
"The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it…He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Started to say add a very years and it will catch up lol but you are right there with me in age lol
I check everything you mentioned twice before I leave the house and the lake. I've heard of people flipping up coupler latches at the ramp so I check everything at the tongue before getting in the truck then double check everything else before leaving the parking lot. I'm also OCD about flipping my breaker on right before the boat touches the water and off as soon as it comes out. One more tip I just figured out, I use a Moto-Stop transom saver so I have to tilt my engine all the way up to install it; if the jack plate is all the way down then the steering cylinder will press against the top of the transom which happens to be where my transducer cable runs up and into the rigging tube so I raise my JP then the engine, installed the Moto-Stop, lower engine, the lower JP all the way down for trailering. Regardless of my transducer cable running up the transom in that location raising the engine all the way up will cause the steering cylinder to pinch the plastic trim at the top of the transom you can look at mine and see where it's scared the plastic trim there.
I should have been a little clearer. Like Cestratton said. It's the pin that goes through the swing away tongue on the trailer. Now when I swing the trailer tongue away I put the pin back in the hole so this won't happen again.
Have a good one and thank God for it!
Ohhhhhh. That I haven't done, but probably only because I don't have one. I bet that makes a bit of clunk when you stop and go.
My swing away never swings, so no I haven’t done that one lol.
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