Failed winch...almost lost the boat...(with pics)

[Danny C]

Every once in awhile it is good to hear a story like this to recalibrate your safety concerns, so I thought I would share. Also, while searching the forum, I noticed some debate on using bow eye safety chains and thought this may change some minds.

Yesterday, when I got home from a 45 min. drive from the river I noticed the boat was not sitting on the trailer correctly. The bow was off the rollers and about 8 inches in front of them. The spring that holds the winch locked failed allowing the winch to freespin. By the way, the winch is less than a year old. The safety chain is the only thing that kept the boat from possibly coming all the way off the trailer on the road. Now some people are probably saying, what about the transom straps? I had both straps on tight but one was off and the other loose when I found it. My thoughts are that once the boat was allowed to move around the shifting position of the boat allowed the straps to unhook. (i.e. when the boat shifted to the starboard and forward the tie down point of the boat was closer to the tie down point of the trailer allowing the strap to become loose and unhook)

Moral of the story, use safety chains and transom straps. Don't rely on bow strap and transom straps alone. I am very thankful I hadn't.

My question is what length do you set your safety chain to? I am not happy that the boat was allowed to move as much as it did and will be shortening the chain up today while I replace the winch.

Sorry for poor pic quality, not great at uploading pics here. Had to reduce size.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Captain Caveman]

That's good news that you didn't lose your boat. For most people, the transom tie downs keep the rear of the boat from bouncing around on the trailer.

I don't know why you'd need it to have much slack in the safety chain. I'd say a couple of links past tight ought to do it, as long as you have enough to hook it onto the bow eye.

 

[boatman37]

my trailer has a turnbuckle mounted on the winch upright that connects to the hull eye. not sure if that was factory or the PO installed it but the trailer end is permanently mounted with a loop. meaning that end can't fall off

 

[smokeonthewater]

You can add a bow tiedown strap... Hook a good ratchet strap to the eye, look under the tongue, possibly in front of the winch post, and back to the bow eye...

 

[oldjeep]

Some folks use a boat-buckle as an extra bow tie down. Pretty simple since you just have to drill for a bolt.

https://www.etrailer.com/Cargo-Tie-Downs/BoatBuckle/IMF14220.html

 

[Danny C]

I was just looking at those boat buckles on etrailer.com. I saw some guy at the ramp using them as transom straps for his wave runner and it looked pretty slick. Took him all of 5 seconds to strap in.

 

[oldjeep]

I was just looking at those boat buckles on etrailer.com. I saw some guy at the ramp using them as transom straps for his wave runner and it looked pretty slick. Took him all of 5 seconds to strap in.

I've got them on my transom - they are a factory option on a lot of newer trailers. Definitely nice since you don't have to toss your straps in the truck, they are always there.

 

[java230]

At least you had the chain! Mine has a hole with a slot (if that makes sense) so you adjust the length. I will definitely keep it tight now. Thats for the reminder. I had a turn buckle on my last one, may have to add that.

 

[gm280]

Danny C, actually you did everything correct. And the fact that you didn't lose a boat proves that. So I don't really understand all the options others are stating you need to do. :noidea: Your setup did exactly what it was supposed to do in the event of a single failure. You should commend yourself for taking the time to use the safety chain on the bow eye. That is the real lesson here for others, in my opinion. I use safety chain religiously every time. For a mere few seconds of your time to connect a safety chain, you saved your boat... Thank you for posting this thread. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Danny C]

Thanks GM, I think they are suggesting how to prevent the boat from traveling as far as it did as I was concerned with the amount of travel even though the boat stayed on the trailer. After a scare like that, it makes you want to hook up 3 safety chains just to be safe...

 

[thumpar]

At least you had the chain! Mine has a hole with a slot (if that makes sense) so you adjust the length. I will definitely keep it tight now. Thats for the reminder. I had a turn buckle on my last one, may have to add that.

My last trailer had that hole with a slot. It was nice and easy to use.

 

[JimS123]

A safety chain catches the boat as it flies in the air after something fails. A secure bow tie down won't allow the boat to move in the first place. Mine isn't home made, its OEM original equipment.

 

[keith2k455]

I'm very glad to hear you got out of this as well as you did. I use the chain all the time and have it just long enough so I can get it hooked. I too keep trying to think of a way to make it shorter, but as gm said, as long as it keeps it on the trailer, is doing its job

 

[gm280]

A safety chain catches the boat as it flies in the air after something fails. A secure bow tie down won't allow the boat to move in the first place. Mine isn't home made, its OEM original equipment.

Certainly not trying to be critical by any means, but yours has an obvious issue in my thinking and here's why. IF your strap or cable comes loose or breaks, and that does happen, your safety chain will allow the boat to move both rearward and forward because of the straight up and down setup. A better safety setup is with the safety chain near horizontal. In other words attached to the winch tower in more of a horizontal fashion. Then if the strap/cable fails, the boat can't move nearly so far because of the angle of the safety chain setup. What you have is obviously better then nothing, but with a little reattachment effort, it can be 100% safer as well... Please don't take any offense to this, just an observation. A better setup would be just below the strap/cable exits from the winch tower itself. If you attached the chain there it would be a lot less in length and more of a horizontal setup... JMHO!

 

[gener8s]

This is exactly why I always trailer with transom straps and the winch strap, safety chain, and a bow ratchet strap attached to the bow. It's a little snug, but they all will fit. On my old trailer I used to have to loop the ratchet strap around the frame, but my new trailer has an eyelet at the bottom of the winch stand for the strap. Glad everything worked out ok, scary thought.......

 

[JimS123]

Certainly not trying to be critical by any means, but yours has an obvious issue in my thinking and here's why. IF your strap or cable comes loose or breaks, and that does happen, your safety chain will allow the boat to move both rearward and forward because of the straight up and down setup. A better safety setup is with the safety chain near horizontal. In other words attached to the winch tower in more of a horizontal fashion. Then if the strap/cable fails, the boat can't move nearly so far because of the angle of the safety chain setup. What you have is obviously better then nothing, but with a little reattachment effort, it can be 100% safer as well... Please don't take any offense to this, just an observation. A better setup would be just below the strap/cable exits from the winch tower itself. If you attached the chain there it would be a lot less in length and more of a horizontal setup... JMHO!

No offense taken, but I do disagree a bit.

The boat can't go backwards unless the transom straps both fail. They are angled such that the boat could move forward, but not back.

The bow stop prevents the boat from moving forward, as long as the bow tie down is still in place. The tie down can't swing forward unless the winch stand moved too.

Many years ago I had a rear end collision while stopped at a stoplight while trailering a rig wit the exact same setup. The tongue of the trailer split in half and the boat careened off the back of my car landing in the oncoming lane, but the boat never left the frame of the trailer.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I installed those retractable transom straps this year, and they really are great. I never thought of using one in place of my safety chain, but that is an excellent idea. The retractable straps are very quick, and eliminate the need to stow/find the straps or chains when loading back up on the trailer.

 

[interalian]

I have the winch tower set so the roller is above the boat eye, and run the winch strap under the roller. That way, when I brake hard it presses into/under the roller and the boat can't move forward. Safety chain and stern straps too.