No, I don't have any pix and the damage is so slight that they wouldn't show it anyways but here is how to wreck a boat in your yard. Remember this when you are "just pulling it out or putting it back in the barn" next time and you dont' bother hookin on at least one safety chain. Really who needs any safety chains to pull it into or out of the garage right?
I had been gettin my Bayliner 2252 Capri ready for the season a couple days. Not quite done but rain coming in overnight so it had to be towed back to the barn and backed in. It is a hard swing to make and get by the edge of the horse corral so I ask my daughters boyfriend to help me. I back the pickup into the trailer and he hooks it on. My trailer has the round turn down type of lock that I prefer, not the flip down sort that is more common. Anyways the boyfriend has lots of farm and trailer experience so I don't think twice about it and just tow it to the barn to get directions backing it in. Its dark and as usual with that truck I don't manage that perfect swing with the big tires and it takes a few tries. There is a slight hill there leading to the doorway which has been no big deal for 10 years. On the third or fourth try you guessed it the boat popps off the ball and rolls down the hill 20 or so feet and hits the pressure treated 8 by 8 that forms the pole barn's doorway. It hit just off to the side of the outdrive by 3 inches on a 45 degree angle to the pole dead into it so hard that I felt the ground shake way up front in the truck.
Strangely and for absolutely no good reason beyond someone looking out for retards and their victims alll it got was a dent in the molded swim platform. The newly reconditioned prop I had just put on the day before had 2 tiny nicks in the paint where it got pushed out of the way but beyond that nothing but a big dent in the post it hit. I am sure if it had straight armed that raised outdrive directly it would have busted the transom, outdirve and motor mountings. Lesson learned, at least hook one chain to handle any boat just around the property. Second lesson, never fully trust anyone but yourself to hook up your valuable stuff no matter what they seem to know.
I had been gettin my Bayliner 2252 Capri ready for the season a couple days. Not quite done but rain coming in overnight so it had to be towed back to the barn and backed in. It is a hard swing to make and get by the edge of the horse corral so I ask my daughters boyfriend to help me. I back the pickup into the trailer and he hooks it on. My trailer has the round turn down type of lock that I prefer, not the flip down sort that is more common. Anyways the boyfriend has lots of farm and trailer experience so I don't think twice about it and just tow it to the barn to get directions backing it in. Its dark and as usual with that truck I don't manage that perfect swing with the big tires and it takes a few tries. There is a slight hill there leading to the doorway which has been no big deal for 10 years. On the third or fourth try you guessed it the boat popps off the ball and rolls down the hill 20 or so feet and hits the pressure treated 8 by 8 that forms the pole barn's doorway. It hit just off to the side of the outdrive by 3 inches on a 45 degree angle to the pole dead into it so hard that I felt the ground shake way up front in the truck.
Strangely and for absolutely no good reason beyond someone looking out for retards and their victims alll it got was a dent in the molded swim platform. The newly reconditioned prop I had just put on the day before had 2 tiny nicks in the paint where it got pushed out of the way but beyond that nothing but a big dent in the post it hit. I am sure if it had straight armed that raised outdrive directly it would have busted the transom, outdirve and motor mountings. Lesson learned, at least hook one chain to handle any boat just around the property. Second lesson, never fully trust anyone but yourself to hook up your valuable stuff no matter what they seem to know.
