Launching a Boat and Submerging the tow vehicle muffler

[KJM]

just remember if you extend the tongue the turning radius of the trailer will change too. I learned that the hard way when I bought a new trailer this year, the tongue was longer then my old one and when I turned up my driveway the first time I had my boat on it I put one wheel out in the ditch because I turned at the same angle I always did with my old trailer and wasn't really watching as carefully as I should have been at the time as my truck was overheating and I was watching the heat gauge. of course all my family and father inlaw and brother inlaw just happened to be there for the show! luckily my neighbor across the road owns a backhoe and kindly lifted my boat/trailer back up onto my driveway, nothing damaged but my pride.

 

[Rick Stephens]

If your tongue was long enough, I don't think you would have 2 ex wives...... Too much?

Ha ha.

 

[redneck joe]

I could take this one way off the rails but I'll defer to keeping on topic.....

 

[Bad Pete]

I could take this one way off the rails but I'll defer to keeping on topic.....

good lord guys OP here. I thought my tongue was long enough, but maybe not. I have gotten through 5 launches now. submerged the muffler once. The small local lake is very low due to a drought. I had to back the trailer way down a shallow ramp to float the boat. My SUV wheel on the muffler side went off the side of the ramp, and gurgle gurgle. The muffler seems to have suffered no ill effects. All my other launches (on other ramps) went fI don't think the muffler got wet.

 

[dan t.]

I don't know much about exhaust pipes but I have had a bad experience with water and an exhaust. It was many years ago and wasn't on a boat ramp but I drove through a deep puddle of water. My car immediately lost power. It wouldn't shift out of first gear and I couldn't get over 20 mph even after getting on dry pavement. It would start and idle with no problem.

My mechanic determined the exhaust was restricted but couldn't see anything wrong on the outside. After cutting it apart, he told me that there was a double wall pipe and that when I hit the water it had caused the inner wall to collapse at one point and back up the exhaust pressure.

I have driven through water on other occasions deep enough to hit the exhaust without issues.

Used to be a real problem with G M exhaust, not made that way anymore so not a problem. BTW I have been submerging my exhaust and rear brakes for over 20 years with no issues.

 

[tlombard]

I'm late to this discussion but with my boat there is no way it is getting off of the trailer without the exhaust tip getting wet. We've used a couple of different vehicles to put the boat in and out but good lord it takes a ton of water to float the thing off the trailer and it's only an 18 foot open bow. Our ramp is a bit shallow but I don't remember ever needing to get nearly as deep with any previous boats so I guess it is just how mine is. Definitely wider and heavier than the boats I've put in there previously however. Those were all either bass boats or pontoons and even the 18 ft VIP was a fish/ski combo that didn't draft as much water.

When loading the boat I just get up as far as I can and then winch it up the rest of the way these days. Much quicker than telling whoever is in the truck to keep coming back if they haven't helped me before because they get really nervous about going so far down the ramp even though I tell them it is OK and it isn't their truck.

Hopefully next summer I can get the girlfriend to learn how to help me with the boat... and actually get down to the lake with me. That is if she hasn't gotten sick of me by then and moved on. We've only been dating about two months and she's had to work on the weekends I've gone to the lake and I've been busy with other things during the day when she wasn't working so she's never seen anything more than pictures of the boat.

 

[garbageguy]

submerged the muffler once... and gurgle gurgle...I don't think the muffler got wet.

tailpipe or muffler being submerged? either way, my vote is OK (as long as you drive enough afterwards to dry it all out) - depending on where in the exhaust system the tailpipe ends, and where the muffler is - lots of variables - now, about that tongue...

 

[JimS123]

This is one of the craziest threads I have read in a long time. Personally, if i had to back my pristine classic car far enough to get the tailpipe wet i would wait until the water got higher and go to the casino in the meantime. No way my prize and joy would get its bottom under water.

I hadn't posted because I figured that it was just a drought thing for just some people. Then, this past week I had the misfortune of going to a ramp on a lake that I hadn't been to in quite a few years, and found that the water level was "gone" and the ramp was almost flat.

So, what did i do? Well, I backed in so that the back of the car and winch stand were just out of the water (I won't get my feet wet - just too much trouble, I'm lazy). At that point the trailer wheels were barely wet and the transom was at about a foot of water. The boat was near level. Then, after disconnecting the winch, I pushed on the bow ( took a little more force than usual) and the boat just effortlessly glided off the trailer. We then walked the boat out far enough to be able to drop the outdrive.

Say what you will, but having an all roller trailer will get you everywhere and anywhere regardless of what adverse conditions you might encounter.

 

[hemi rt]

One other thing I think most of us are forgetting, the muffler on most vehicles is in front of the rear axle with the tail pipe going up and over the axle so to get water in you muffler you are going to have to bury the rear axle so what you are getting water into is just a pipe. If you are burying the axle you had better make sure you extend the breather hose or you're going to fill the diff with water.

 

[thumpar]

Unless you are shutting the engine off you engine will keep the lake water out of the exhaust. Even if it does get in there you have water in your exhaust and anything that was made in the last 30 years because the cat makes water. If you look at any car that is just warming up you can see water out the exhaust a lot of times. It takes heat to burn it off.

 

[Bad Pete]

OP here, easier said than done when launching and trying not to get the muffler wet when the lakes are low. Now that I have a little bit of experience I have had no problem on steeper ramps. However here in Mass/central New England we are in a drought for the ages. The lakes are very low. On my local lake yesterday I had quite a bit of trouble launching. I was alone. First the ramp is small (very narrow) and not deep at all even when the water is high. To hit the sweet spot where there is a drop off at the end where both trailer tires will sit to allow the boat to float is so narrow, it took me 3-4 tries to find it. You cannot simply line up the boat at this ramp and back it in. The water was so low to float the boat I had to back it in until the muffler was wet and it would still not float. So I loosened the retention strap a couple of feet and slightly "jerked" the truck forward and it floated off the bunker trailer.

The water is so low in this area I had the prop as far up as possible and I was still kicking up a lot of mud. I figure if I learn this ramp a lot of the others will be easy. Thank God there were no launch spectators and wife was not there.