larson 175
Recruit
- Joined
- May 27, 2002
- Messages
- 4
A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law bought a 1970 Evinrude tri hull. I looked the boat over with him, and the only thing we found wrong with the boat was the float in the gas tank had rusted away. My brother-in-law brought the boat to a job we were working on, out of town. So after work, we worked on the boat. The following day we took the boat for a spin. It ran like a champ. It was getting dark so we headed in. As soon as he throttled down for the no wake zone, the boat died. He could not get it to start. So we started paddling,made it to the dock just fine. the dock sat away from the launch, this made it difficult to load the boat with a current. So after about 1hr at the ramp we were out of there. <br /> The following day we found that the fuel filter had become clogged. So we bought a bunch of filters and headed out again. I knew we should have not gone out that day, I had a bad feeling about it. So we sought out a different ramp, to try to avoid the problems of the previous day. We find a ramp and start to launch the boat. The evinrude trailer sat very high in the air, you had to back in pretty far to unload the boat. As I'm watching the boat back down the ramp suddenly the trailer justs drops from under the boat. So we dock the boat and try to pull the trailer out. The truck begins to smoke the tires, as I'm yelling "STOP". Clearly we were stuck. As we're trying to figure out how to get the trailer unstuck, about 12 DNR Wardens show up with 2 boats. They tried to assist us but there wasn't much they could do. Someone had to get wet. We had a bottle jack, and the wardens loaned us some 4x4 posts. My brother-in-law jacked up the trailer and placed the wood under the frame of the trailer. He pulled forward and the trailer was free. Lucky we didn't rip the axle off. So that was good for another 1 1/2hrs at another boat ramp.<br /> I was ready to just go, but he insisted on taking the boat out. We ventured out for about 2 min. when the boat just died. We went to change the fuel filter again, but it was clean. "Great" The current was taking us away. I dropped anchor, and the rope was not long enough to reach bottom. finally the boat fired and we made it back to the ramp. It took another 1/2hr at the boat ramp to load this boat, on the trailer from hell.<br /> The next time the boat went out I was there, but I was in my own boat. I'm glad I was on my boat, because the boat will not engage an gears now. So I towed him in and the boat isn't running yet. I hope the repairs are not more than the boat is worth, for his sake.<br /> I think I'll stay on my own boat for a while. And thanks to the DNR for their help.
