Old Ironmaker
Captain
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2015
- Messages
- 3,050
I have been launching my boats in the Erie Canal for 52 years. 51 of those years was with a 2W RWD "Car", not a truck. Half of those years the car had a 3 spd manual trans. The biggest boat weighed in at about 3000 pounds.
If you are talking about the Niagara end of the canal (Pendleton to Tonawanda) there are 4 ramps available, and none are steep and all are hard faced. If you want to use the Service Road ramp, just don't back in too far since the end of the ramp past the concrete is totally worn away from people power loading.
You won't have a problem.
Jim. My Uncle that still lives in N.T. towed, launched and retrieved his big heavy 18' cedar strip with a huge 80HP Johnson strapped to it on the river and the canal in the 60's with an AMC Rambler, rear wheel drive. I remember those huge bolt on side view mirrors he put on every time he hit the water. That was before it was mandatory in North America to tow anything heavier than a Tinny with a full size 4X4. Have ramps changed that much? I'm seriously asking how they did it then without 1/2 ton 4X4's?
Back when we had real winters in Ontario and the southern tier we hit the Ski slopes anytime we could. From Georgian Bay in Ontario to the hills in the Southern Tier (Western NY) in out rear wheel drive V8's, my old Ford Econoline van that had zero weight in the back and even Dad's VW Beetle. We got stuck a few times, that what shovels, old pieces of rugs, floor matts and Kitty littler was for. I knew no one that had anything close to a 4X4.