PowerLoading

[lncoop]

Re: PowerLoading

Ok then DJ settled it once and for all; Powerloading is a good thing.
There is no such thing as a propwash hole. Everybody powerload, or better yet, let me powerload that baby for you, I'll get her on there. Just a minute, have to get my vest and helmet.

Helmet?! PFFFT!

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: PowerLoading

Sure is an interesting thread. Looks like there are definately different rules in different parts of the country.

There are plenty of people ready to tell you that your rules are stupid and don't apply to them. We get them here in the mountain lakes and reservoirs all the time. There are people who think that we should have bass instead of trout in the lakes so the bring them in. There are also people who think that the rules about using minnows for bait in the mountain lakes don't apply to them. We're constantly battling invasive species because some people think they know more than the forest service, fish hatcheries, and the conservation department.

Maybe it's a regional thing and ramp specific about powerloading. We have some ramps that are concrete 20' below the waterline when the reservoirs are full. Powerloading is probably acceptable at that particular time but that's the exception and not the condition of all the ramps year round.

 

[JimKW]

Re: PowerLoading

I think I'm having trouble understanding exactly what PowerLoading is? What I do is drive my boat onto the trailer at a little more than idle speed. When it comes to a stop I see where I am in relation to the bow stop. If it's more than two feet or so, I will give it a little nudge on the throttle. If it's about a foot away or less (which is the case the majority of the time), I shut the then engine down and winch it in the rest of the way. I never gun the heck out of it when putting it on the trailer, but I do see others doing that and it looks dangerous to me. If I can't get it on doing it like I said, I will back the trailer into the water a little further and that has worked for me every time.

Is what I'm doing wrong to some of you guys?

 

[DJ]

Re: PowerLoading

Everyone seems to miss the last idea, in my posts. I shall repeat.

I'm not saying that powerloading is NOT a factor. However, it's NOT the only one". Lumping all malodies together leads to a faulty diagnosis. That's akin to saying that eating chocolate is the ONLY factor in lung cancer. Nonsense, I /you know, but people think differently.

But today, we seem to be in a "funk" and we LUMP everything together. SNAP out of it! THINK!

There is a key word here that everyone seems to gloss over.

"Correctly".

May I take a moment to define.

There is a differnce between loading "under power" and "Powerloading".

Under power, means: loading with engine idling and trimmed up, driven onto said trailer. Possibly a short burst of power (trim up) to seat the boat on the trailer. That's what I do. TRIM UP. There is NO possible damage other than the jetflea holding onto my transom.

Powerloading" means: Giving it all it has to get that last 6" on the trailer. I agree, no use for that. Use the dam winch.

With all that said, we seem to be a bunch of "Villagers" out there with picks and axes ready to chop off the heads of anybody that has their engine running on their trailer.

Agreed, there a bunch of knuckleheads out there. That hasn't changed-ever-in boating history.

This is a much bigger societal problem than ramp etiquette.

Let's keep this tread non Political-agreed?

You have my opinions, a very experienced boater.

 

[SnapperHunter28]

Re: PowerLoading

Everyone seems to miss the last idea, in my posts. I shall repeat.

I'm not saying that powerloading is NOT a factor. However, it's NOT the only one". Lumping all malodies together leads to a faulty diagnosis. That's akin to saying that eating chocolate is the ONLY factor in lung cancer. Nonsense, I /you know, but people think differently.

But today, we seem to be in a "funk" and we LUMP everything together. SNAP out of it! THINK!

There is a key word here that everyone seems to gloss over.

"Correctly".

May I take a moment to define.

There is a differnce between loading "under power" and "Powerloading".

Under power, means: loading with engine idling and trimmed up, driven onto said trailer. Possibly a short burst of power (trim up) to seat the boat on the trailer. That's what I do. TRIM UP. There is NO possible damage other than the jetflea holding onto my transom.

Powerloading" means: Giving it all it has to get that last 6" on the trailer. I agree, no use for that. Use the dam winch.

With all that said, we seem to be a bunch of "Villagers" out there with picks and axes ready to chop off the heads of anybody that has their engine running on their trailer.

Agreed, there a bunch of knuckleheads out there. That hasn't changed-ever-in boating history.

This is a much bigger societal problem than ramp etiquette.

Let's keep this tread non Political-agreed?

You have my opinions, a very experienced boater.

Agreed with your "definition" and as I said before...IT IS THE POWERLOADERS WHO ARE THE PROBLEM!

 

[SnapperHunter28]

Re: PowerLoading

I think I'm having trouble understanding exactly what PowerLoading is? What I do is drive my boat onto the trailer at a little more than idle speed. When it comes to a stop I see where I am in relation to the bow stop. If it's more than two feet or so, I will give it a little nudge on the throttle. If it's about a foot away or less (which is the case the majority of the time), I shut the then engine down and winch it in the rest of the way. I never gun the heck out of it when putting it on the trailer, but I do see others doing that and it looks dangerous to me. If I can't get it on doing it like I said, I will back the trailer into the water a little further and that has worked for me every time.

Is what I'm doing wrong to some of you guys?

That is considered UNDER POWER...not POWER loading.

 

[DJ]

Re: PowerLoading

Agreed with your "definition" and as I said before...IT IS THE POWERLOADERS WHO ARE THE PROBLEM!

We agree!

Please do not "lump" powerloaders/under power loaders with all ramp malodies. That is false and dangerous thinking-for the boating community. If we fight amongst ourselves, other parties will intervene with less than satisfactory results, for us. Read: NO POWERBOATS...........

As stated, I am a "under power" loader. I've spent days making my trailer/boat rig easy to load. Why? Because I'm basically a "get it done" guy. But more than most, I understand my "footprint" on local ramps. In/out-quick!


Please understand. I have NO problem approaching a guy/gal that is running their 400 HP I/O at WOT on the ramp. I've even read my brother the riot act.

It's all about education and preserving what we have. We cannot deal with the forces of nature but we can deal with uneducation.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: PowerLoading

I witnessed, as a youngster and teenager, those projects. That was in the late 1970's. As a teenager, I worked, as a laborer, on some of the crews.

By far, the most damage done to boat ramps was done by the following elements-IN ORDER.

1. Ice. (Buckling causing huge obstacles.)
2. Currents.
3. Run off (including floods).
4. Wave/wake action on unprotected ramps.
5. Low water launching (ruts and holes created by stuck vehicles).

You mentioned this might have been quite a few years ago... It wasn't until fairly recently that people realized what powerloading was actually doing. Reasons 2-4 could all be powerloading. All of those have the potential to cause the same type of damage.

 

[scca vette]

Re: PowerLoading

This thread was a interesting read. I have to be honest that I have never seen anything other than power loading at the ramp I have used. I have to say that I fit into the group that uses the boat power to nudge the boat on so it will stick on the trailer long enough to pull it on by the strap.

I have a feeling the main reason people have to power load around here is because they have no idea how to load. half the time the bunks on the trailer are dry, they are not back in the water far enough, etc. The good thing is our ramp is concrete pretty far in the water and is steep.

 

[JimKW]

Re: PowerLoading

There is no way I could pull my boat all the way out of the water onto dry bunks. Neither the strap nor I would be strong enough. If I have the trailer in the water at the right depth and it just goes right on. If it's too deep it gets crooked. If it's not deep enough I can't pull it on with the winch. I find that if the tops of my fenders are right at the water level things work fine.

 

[bob johnson]

Re: PowerLoading

the last two weekends i watched bass boat after bass boat power load at the state ramp..

they have bass ournaments and 250 bass boats totally swell the parking lot!! and you can wait an hour or more to load your boat or unload...sat out in the water and watched the five boats there before more do rooster tails 30 feet back runnign their 250 hp driven boats up onto their bunk trailers....no way they are gonna get out and winch...that would unbassfisherman like!!!

so no wonder the short ramp bed has a 2 foot drop into ramp wide ravine..

on the other side of the lake the other state ramp they have pushed 20 tons of rock gravel into a bar 10 feet off the ramp surface...with a 3 foot hole in between!!!

bob

 

[DJ]

Re: PowerLoading

You mentioned this might have been quite a few years ago... It wasn't until fairly recently that people realized what powerloading was actually doing. Reasons 2-4 could all be powerloading. All of those have the potential to cause the same type of damage.

You missed the underpoint. "Powerloading" was rare, at that time.

What changed? Answer-nothing.

Before we all go of half cocked, we need to understand all the players. Real or convinced of.

 

[jmarty10]

Re: PowerLoading

Used to power load off water at marina I was at last couple of years. Marina guy would load trailer on for me, I'd drive it up and he'd give me the "cmon more" sign to keep cranking it on the last foot or so until I hit the bow stop. Something always seemed wrong when I was looking at tach and I'm cranking my boat on at 3500 rpm???? His ramp is so bad from all the crap that gets churned up from power loaders that you literally had to drive onto the trailer with your drive at trailer high and then lower to crank on. Asked him to crank me on the last foot and they huffed and puffed. When my prop hit his beat up ramp at the end of last year, thats when i said see ya. I now use another marina and load and unload "correctly"

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: PowerLoading

Wow! There are alot of emotional responses here and in other threads on this subject. There are just too many variables to be able to make blanket statements.

Consider these facts;

Not all concrete ramps end just below the water surface, some lakes/resevoirs have large variations in water level and some areas of the world have large tidal variations, (we have as much as 26 feet here)

Loading under power can mean pushing in at clutch speed, WOT or something in between. The extremes are two very different things.

Some of us are loading on a dirt ramp at a quiet pond, some are loading at a ramp exposed to strong currents, seas, and/or wind.


Personally I load on a concrete ramp that is quite steep. We have large tides so unless I am loading at a zero tide, I am no where near the bottom of the concrete. If I was the bottom of the ramp, it drops off almost vertically so I would be risking trailer damage. I have a bunk trailer and I am usually loading alone. I find that giving the engine a shot secures it so that I can climb out to winch it up without it moving on me due to wind or tide. If that makes me lazy, then so be it.

 

[jkust]

Re: PowerLoading

Wow! There are alot of emotional responses here and in other threads on this subject.

It is about more than just powerloading as someone mentioned earlier. Just like some of the things some people do are not about the thing they said it was about.

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: PowerLoading

I'm a loader under power. Never more than 20% throttle. Slide her on enough to keep it on the trailer while I jump off and winch the last two feet.

One point - If everyone here cranked their boats all the way up their trailers it would signifigantly affect retrieve times for everyone. In SWFL imagine a bunch of older guys cranking away.. They would need EMS support at the ramps - for me!

I think its courtious to be as quick as possible on the ramps; if that saves two or ten minutes each retrieve thats a few extra boats an hour.

 

[Dkrager]

Re: PowerLoading

I'll admit I once was a power loader when I first had a ski boat. I didn't know any better. I saw everyone else doing it, so I figured that was the correct way to do it. Until the water got low and everyone was dropping their trailers off the end of the ramp. Then I wised up and started control loading.

My new pontoon is the same way, I trim up and idle on as far as I can, then winch the last 2-3' or so.

There is no rules around here against power loading, so some people just don't know any better. You will still get the idiots that don't care, even if they knew that it ruined the ramp.

 

[LongLine]

Re: PowerLoading

No problem - IF it's done properly. Note the BIG IF.

I stand by the 1st reply. (mine)

I only crank mine on and can be in the tie down area in less than 5 minutes from the time my trailer wheels hit the water and not get wet feet. (You'd be surprised at the # of compliments I get from spectators.) River generally has a 2-4 mph current; boat is 18 ft & 2400 Lbs; trailer is 1/2 bunk/1/2 roller; crank between 6-8 ft; & I'm 60 yrs old.

Let's see - car accident are caused by:
1. Drivers not paying attention
2. Excessive speed
3. DWI
4. Talking on cell phone
5. Road rage &/or stress fm work
6. The weather
7. The other guy

Someday hopefully they may pass a law about the other guy.

I like the post on how the ramps are built with concrete slabs into the water then also claim a lot of damage from vehicle tires causing holes. (In the concrete?) I'd think tires wear out before the concrete does.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[CAVU V]

Re: PowerLoading

I can get my boat on my trailer by just floating it on, why can't other people?

 

[109jb]

Re: PowerLoading

I think people are talking about different things when they talk about "power loading". I use to call the way I load my boat "power loading", but I would no longer define it that way. Here are MY definitions:

1. Drive-on Loading: The act of driving the boat onto the trailer using only idle power and cutting the power before or as soon as the boat reaches the trailer. Still requires winching for this procedure.

2. Power Loading: The act of using the boat motor to propel the boat up the trailer bunks until the bow is against the bow stop. No winching required.

3. Winch Loading: Walking the boat onto the trailer using guide ropes and winching it onto the trailer.

First, let me say that I never use "power loading" by my definition above but I do use "drive-on loading". Now think about it for a minute. If you use my definition of "drive-on loading" are you doing any more harm than when you drive your boat to the dock to "winch load"?

Guys who load by my definition of "power loading" are a nuisance and I don't like the practice. However, I see nothing wrong with "drive-on loading". I personally don't see a problem with a slight increase in throttle to simply "stick" the boat to the trailer either as long as the motor is tilted up. I usually don't have to do this because idle speed gives me enough momentum to carry the boat far enough the bunks that the boat won't slide back down.

There are also cases that I can think of where walking the boat from the dock to the ramp just ain't happening. One of my most frequent ramps has 4 lanes and 3 of the lanes have no dock next to them. The 4th has a rail that makes walking a boat on a trailer a pain but still doable. To "winch load" at one of those other 3 lanes you would have to wade into chest deep water while trying to keep your boat from floating down the fairly brisk river current. Another ramp I go to doesn't even have a dock. I don't mind getting a little wet from time to time, but in the spring when fishing that darn water is COLD and I'm not going to wade in if I don't have to.

In my opinion, the problem isn't the people who "drive-on", but the people who "power load". The "power-loaders" give the "drive-on loaders" a bad name but there is a difference.