Originally Posted by
SlaterSlinger
Not at all! I'm a complete OCD freak when it comes to strapping down EVERYTHING. Usually, when I get ready to go to the ramp, I anchor down and strap everything down ahead of time just to be sure. I got that habit from fishing with my grandfather for years and watching how he had a system whereby he started at the bow hook and worked his way back around to ensure all is in place.
I put a post up last year but with little details. Somebody asked, so here's the story below. And to stay on topic, when you read it, keep in mind how tough a Tohatsu lower unit is, by considering that it took a ride for 60 yards down the grassy right of way of highway 25 south and came out relatively unscathed:
I was coming back from the Rez one night after a long day and a full box of fish. I was very tired, and I was pulling my boat with my single cab Toyota instead of my big truck. This played into the sequence of events because that truck has (had) poor headlights on it and it was slightly squatted from the boat's weight, which made my lighting worse. The truck pulls the 2000 lb+ rig around like a rag doll and stops it fine, but maybe not at 68 MPH...
When I was closing in on an intersection near Lena where a gas station is at, I was keeping my eyes peeled on the intersection a mile or so ahead. The reason why is because it's a notorious intersection for folks pulling out in front of oncoming traffic. A MS Highway Patrolman told me that night that they have a wreck at least once every couple weeks and a far too many fatal ones at that.
I noticed a couple headlights as I was closing in on the intersection (all this is happening very fast, by the way) and then I saw a human run across the road from the median to the side of the road where a car was parked...
I was closing in (at nearly 100 feet per second) upon the scene of a very serious wreck- a wreck that I was still unaware of. Two men who were drunk pulled out in front of traffic and got nailed. Their car came to a stop dead center in the middle of the 2 lanes that I was headed in the direction of. Their car was tiny and grayish-black and turned broadside to traffic with no lights on. It was invisible until you came right up on it, and even more so to a tired fishermen who needed to upgrade headlights that were pointing up 15 degrees. In my defense, even cars with bright lights and no trailers who were coming up behind me could barely stop in time because the car was nearly invisible.
As I said, one of those 2 men was also still trapped inside the car unconscious...
There was 1 car other than the 2 involved on the right side of the road and the driver of it was the one who was running across the road back to their car and the other car's injured driver. The witness to The wreck was taking no evasive action to warn oncoming traffic- even after seeing me nearly miss them and the wreck...
Now I was slowed to around 85 feet per second was locked in on those people to my 2 o clock, wondering what was happening over "there..."
When all of a sudden I see the glimmer of a headlight from my peripheral vision at about 11 o clock.
And that's when my mind went into survival mode. I had a car and 3 bystanders to my right, and a wrecked car with a human in it to my left (still unbeknownst to me there was a man inside). I had about the width of my boat trailer to work with. I tried with all my mind to ease into the brakes as best as possible to keep from a total loss of control, and that's when all hell broke loose. Hell hath no fury like when the laws of physics go to their extremes...
By the grace of God I managed to miss all parties, but during the process my boat left the trailer- if for no other reason than because the trailer tongue broke midways. That's probably what saved me the boat leaving me. Well, that and the Good Lord, but you get my point.
I came to a stop and saw a car that was a little ways behind me fish tailing as they were laying on the brakes: because the wreck was so invisible, for lack of a better word. Naturally, they took the same route I did, but the only problem was that now I was in the way. I came "this" close to getting nailed myself.
I got out of my truck, grabbed my headlamp, cut the strobe on and started waving it at the oncoming 18 wheelers. I told the bystanders to get the heck off the side of the road because they were distracting drivers from the wreck.
The guy lived and so did my boat and motor. Not even a rod was broken. My boat was dented some, and I had to replace the prop. As I said before, the shaft tolerances were good. Kudos to PolarKraft and Tohatsu and Mr. Dale Earnhardt lol!. Boat runs fine and doesn't leak. Motor will scream or purr, your choice.
I had two 1500 lb transom straps in the back that snapped like a rubber band. The same tie down eyelets are in place to this day- the straps broke. When the laws of inertia raise their ugly heads, when you're towing what is, essentially, a beached and cumbersome whale on a trailer, all sorts of "breaking strength numbers" and "selling points" go out the window in a flash.
I strap my boat down with quality products and I run a tough-as-nails Tohatsu motor, and I thank the Lord that I was able to walk away and enjoy those fish the next day- the same fish that took one helluva ride on the side of highway 25 south!
