My towing disaster (pictures)

[xadiohead]

On Sunday I was towing my 2005 Glastron after a weeklong boating trip in Arkansas for a small family reunion. I was driving a 2000 Explorer that I had since new and was by myself. I am pretty experience towing boats with my Explorer. It had rained in the morning but the sun was out when I left. I only got a couple miles away when heading down a pretty steep curvy hill I could no longer slow down due to the slickness of the roads and weight of the boat. I was tapping on the brakes trying to slow down with minimal luck. I managed to make one turn somewhat successfully but the next one was too much and I went straight into a tree. Airbags went off and boat came crashing through the cargo area.

I had all my straps on the boat on (two on rear, brand new winch strap on front, safety chain connected on front, and I also used a rope and a large yellow 8000lb rated sling to help secure the boat). The two rear straps ripped in half, the entire winch assembly on the trailer snapped off, allowing the boat to crash into the back of the Explorer. I think the sling prevented the boat from going further into the Explorer and snapped the boat back onto the ground.

A police officer was at the bottom of the hill leaving a wreck a mile away and pretty much saw the entire accident. I was going extremely slow up the hill (15mph) and pulled over at the top to let a truck pass me. That truck also saw a lot of the wreck. I wasn't issued any citations or anything because the officer could tell what happened. The driver and passenger of the truck also told the officer how slow I was going at the top.

I'm still not sure those rear straps should have ripped in half but in the future I am always going to make sure I have high quality and high force rated ones. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the ripped straps.

Fortunately there were no major injuries. I hit my nose pretty hard on the airbag causing some cuts but nothing serious. I was very lucky.
This is always going to make me very cautious in the future when towing anything. If I had been driving a truck or if somebody had been in my back seat there is a good chance fatalities would have happened from the boat.

Here are some pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fkey5jyr49zkkom/AAAYgPZEgRmp58tQhWj-d7Eaa

I have full coverage insurance on the boat and Explorer. I have a $9700 agreed upon value for the Boat and trailer. I am waiting to hear from insurance. I can't imagine anyway this boat is repairable, and at this point I really really hope it is a total loss.

 

[oldjeep]

Glad you came out of it OK. No brakes on the trailer by the looks of it?

 

[JASinIL2006]

Too bad about the boat and your vehicle, but I'm glad you walked away from it. Scary.

 

[JaCrispy]

Vehicles can be replaced, people can't.

 

[jkust]

Glad you were ok...sounds like a slow speed wreck. The hill in the background was flatter than I would have thought for the boat to have pushed you that badly even without trailer brakes. I had a much less severe trailer incident a few years back and one of the ultra heavy duty trailer straps also snapped in half. I think that some of the physics/force at play are just much greater than we think.

 

[haulnazz15]

I seriously wonder if you had a brake failure on the tow vehicle. The weight of the boat and the hill in the picture shouldn't have caused any real dangerous situation short of having to do a panic stop, even without trailer brakes.

 

[xadiohead]

Thanks guys. I know I am lucky. I'm just hoping Geico/Seaworthy take care of the financial part of it.

I too think there was some kind of brake failure but will never know. I just bought this bought in May and don't think it had trailer brakes. I've never had any issues with towing it and I drive to a lot of different lakes. The "hill" you see in the background is not the steep hill by any means. The steep hill is around that corner and is about a one mile decent with a few turns.. I managed to make the final turn but was going so fast with the boat I had no control and went straight into the tree. If I had to guess, I was going about 30mph when I hit the tree. It was very intense hit. You can see how bad the tree destroyed my brushguard. I thought for sure my nose was broken by the blood coming out but just cut it up.

 

[JimS123]

My very first boat was a family affair and 3 years after getting her I had a similar accident. I was sitting at a stop light on a sunny Sunday at 6PM and was rear ended by a drunk. Similar end result on the back of the car, but the boat never left the trailer frame. The tongue split in half, allowing the stem to hit the back of the car.

Based on your description, I would offer the following comments:
Not a driver error, but equipment failure.....brake failure or bad tires that couln't hold wet pavement, inadequate boat tie downs, including bow tie down. (the winch is to retreive the boat not hold it down.)

Not being able to stop and hitting the tree is one thing, but that boat should have sustained no damage because it should have stayed on the trailer.

 

[foodfisher]

Perfect storm. Possibility of it happening again- improbable.

 

[Barramundi NQ]

Looks like a bad day had by all! In Australia we have a law for weights of unbraked trailers. 750kg or 1653lb including trailer is the max you can tow without trailer brakes. We all have perfect 20/20 hindsight. The lesson is to never make the same mistake twice. By using the correctly rated straps the boat should not have left the trailer.
As always the most important thing is no one got dead. Always heartbreaking to see a glass boat on the tarmac
Insured...phew!

 

[bruceb58]

If you have ABS, tapping on the brakes is not what you want to do.

I see a bumper hitch but no receiver. Was the trailer hooked up to the bumper hitch? Was the trailer level?

What model boat is this?

Glad you didn't get hurt. Could have been way worse.


We should direct anyone who questions whether they should have working brakes on their trailer to this thread.

Another thing about straps. They should be taken off and stored out of the sun. Straps that are a few years old and left in the sun will not have the same capacity as when they were new.

 

[H20Rat]

Wow! Boats and vehicles are replaceable, don't sweat the small stuff, you survived. Insurance will take care of the rest.

Anyway, the rear trailer straps are not meant to keep a boat from sliding forwards/backwards. They have zero leverage in that direction, and in many cases, actually will go slack for a little while if the boat slides forward. Doesn't matter how big of a strap you have at that point, if the boat has momentum it is either going to rip the strap in 2 or rip the eyelets out of the fiberglass. 50 pounds of mass can easily snap an 8000 pound rated strap, given enough momentum!

Think of it this way, your entire winch post sheered off, which is fairly heavy gauge welded steel. That is just slightly stronger than winch strap, and it didn't have to deal with shock loading!

The rear straps keep the boat attached to the trailer in a vertical direction, say for instance you go over a curb at a decent speed. The winch post is what prevents forward movement, but in a crash, all bets are off.

All that said, there isn't really anything else you could have done to keep the boat on the trailer. Why it happened is a little interesting, you shouldn't have lost braking at that slow of a speed on a relatively minor hill. REALLY bad tires, loss of braking ability maybe...

 

[bruceb58]

Think of it this way, your entire winch post sheered off, which is fairly heavy gauge welded steel. That is just slightly stronger than winch strap, and it didn't have to deal with shock loading!

Yes...very good point.

 

[glenn property of pam]

In a good crash you want everything to bend and buckle to extend the time it takes a moving mass to come to rest. Nothing will keep a boat on a trailer past a certain limit so you want the boat to stay on the trailer as long as possible while the trailer fails reducing the force. Minimum speed a airbags deploys is between 12 to 15 mph frontal impact so that little boat suddenly becomes a huge boat in terms of mass. The question is how much force can the hooks on the boat hold before they fail. Most people wouldn't be happy to lift there boat from a crane just by the bow eye Now imagine lifting 10 boats from the same hook. Just accept that you did the best prep you could and everything you did failed (in a good way) which increased the time it took for the boat to come to a complete stop (or in your case before it left the trailer and hit the truck). If you had not had the straps on it would have been a lot worse.

 

[xadiohead]

(the winch is to retrieve the boat not hold it down.)

Hmm, then what are you supposed to use to properly secure the bow? I always thought that was the securing method, along with the safety hook. Never had a boat that came with anything else. I usually use rope and the sling, but always considered them backups. My sling didn't break, but sure got fatigued in a couple spots!

My tires were several years old, but still had very good tread on them. The Explorer was used about 90% to just pull the boat and only had 95K miles. In fact in the six months of winter I probably put under 400 miles on it. The tires were BF Goodrich AT KO tires which are some if not the best tires in the all terrain market.

I always thought you were supposed to tap on the brakes when you lose brake control. We are taught to do that on ice here in Oklahoma.

I used the same rear straps that came with the boat. My next boat I will buy brand new ones for it. I agree with the posts that they probably would have snapped regardless, but the better the straps the less impact.

I didn't have a trailer hitch per se, I just had a ball on the bumper. I think the bumper rating was 3000lb but can't remember. My boat was a 2005 Glastron SX175. I had never lost control or braking power even for a split second prior to this.


You guys sure know a lot! thanks for the info

 

[smokeonthewater]

no NEVER "tap" the brakes unless trying to flash lights for tailgaters.... On a vehicle with abs you push the brake pedal down (HARD if needed) and leave it there till stopped.

On a vehicle without abs threshold braking is the preferred method.. you apply the brakes as needed and if you reach the point that they begin to skid and let off just enough to stop skidding and reapply trying to get as close to skidding as possible without skidding....

There is also the "pump" method which is just almost worthless tho it has been taught for some reason wherein you apply the brakes hard till they skid, release, and repeat.... this is a VERY poor way to stop a vehicle but requires much less skill and experience than learning threshold braking.

 

[tx1961whaler]

With ABS and stability control, press and hold the brake down hard and steer where you want to go and let the computer take care of the rest.

 

[keith2k455]

That's pretty scary. Glad you are all right.

I too am curious to what other ways to secure boat to trailer beyond transom straps, bow chain and winch strap. Is there another strap to be used somewhere and how would it hook to the trailer?

 

[bruceb58]

My boat was a 2005 Glastron SX175.

2050# dry plus maybe 600# for the trailer and 300# for fuel and gear brings it close to 3000#. I would likely want brakes if I was towing with an Exploder.

 

[funk6294]

Glad your OK and everything was insured and replaceable. Dont beat yourself up to badly sometimes things happen. I saw someone else asked about trailer brakes, and it was one of the same ones I was curious about as well. I am particularly interested that if it had brakes were they surge brakes? Makes me wonder if the brakes couldn't function properly because the vehicle was skidding. In any case again I am glad no one was seriously injured and you can live to play another day.