Ya'll wore me down.
Saturday AM at 5:05, as I was climbing the hill beside Lakeway on 333, I hit that bump at the bottom and immediately heard a crash and a loud scraping sound. As soon as it happened, I knew what was going on and just let off the gas. The trailer hit the ground and coasted to the shoulder and jerked me good to the right followed by the boat slowing slower than the truck and it came up and hit my truck then back and forth a couple of times until I stopped. When it hit the ground, I may have been doing 30 mph.
Before I stepped out, I prepared to see the front of my boat torn off followed by the gapping hole in tailgate and was wondering how it could have happened - failed pin? broken ball? latch failer, forgot to lock the hitch?
When I shined the light and started looking I had one of them oh blue paper towel moments. There lying on the gound was my receiver hitch and ball - aha! Pin failure. But, where's my pin and how am I going to restick the receiver without one? Kneel down and there's my pin complete with the retainer still in place right where it's supposed to be.
So, back up to Thursday, I went over to get my boat from my brother. I had a 2" rise receiver on and swapped to a 2" drop for the boat. I swapped it out and took it home then the next AM took off for the lake and fished all day, then back home. Saturday AM, I got my minnows and realized I had forgotten my ice, so back to the house, then on to the accident site. When I swapped the hitch, it was dark and I slid the pin in front of the hitch instead of though the hole. Doh
Somehow I managed to tow the boat for 2.5 days over that same bump at least twice at speeds up to 50 mph with the only thing holding it in place being the weight of the tongue putting the hitch in a bind in the receiver.
But wait, there's more. Now I'm running late to the ramp to check everybody in and I'm the last boat in the water and don't even get to leave until 6:10. Yep, left the plug out. No you say, what did you do? Nothing. Didn't even realize it until I pulled out of the water and up the ramp to the shade to pack everything down. And that includes letting the boat sit in the water for about 1.5 hours while we did the weigh in, prizes and released the fish. No water in the floor, no sluggish hole shot nothing.
But wait again, there's even more. When I came into the weigh in, I went and got my truck and pulled up to the scales to keep from having to carry everything back and forth. When I got in the truck, I blew my nose and started a nose bleed. And I mean a gusher. Soaked 2 wads of paper towels and a towel I keep in the boat. It was so hot and humid I just couldn't get it to stop. Finally had to send the boys to the boat and get a frozen drink bottle to help get it under control Ain't no fun trying to run a weigh in when you're dripping blood all over the weigh in sheet.
But, as with all my stories, there are lessons to be learned. ALWAYS keep a good jack in your truck and something to scotch your wheels on a trailer. I have a 2.5 Ton floor jack and some wood blocks. I scotched the wheels, used the floor jack to raise the tongue until the tongue jack could take over, repositioned the truck, reinstalled the hitch, tripple checked the pin was in place and was rolling in 10 minutes and made it to the ramp about 5:20. In addition, I also keep a set of jack stands and a 4 way lug as well. I could have made do with the truck jack, but that would have added time and difficulty, plus it would have slowed me down.
To save on printing costs, I've taken a majic marker to my JADA shirt and put this on the front just under JADA.
