That gut feeling that says don’t do this…

[casts_by_fly]

Hi guys,

 

you know the feeling I’m talking about. When you’re doing something and know that it’s going to cause you a problem later.  “It’s fine, I’ll remember to fix it”.  Had one of those yesterday.  We got home from traveling Sunday and Sunday evening I put my kayak in the truck so it’s always ready. I thought I might have bad jet lag and be up at 3am. I planned I’d get out an evening or two this week. On Monday when I didn’t wake up early, I decided to loosen the ratchet straps so that the boat didn’t warp in the hard sunlight. Sure, I’ll see it and remember when I jump in the truck next.  I have to walk right past the straps.  I’ll see them hanging. 
 

or not. 
 

I had to run to the hardware store. My wife had her car at work, so I just jumped in the truck. On the way home I heard this metallic squeaking/ringing that sounded like my brakes. But I just had my brakes done 4k miles ago so surely it can’t be that. When I got home, I swung around to back into the driveway like I always do. When I looked in the passenger mirror, my kayak was hanging 3’ off to the side. I realized what happened immediately. I use a doubled strap around the full nose of the boat that can’t pull back further than 2’ from the nose (the boat tapers). When I pulled out of the hardware store, the straps were loose enough for the boat to slide and the first ratchet strap to unhook. When I turned the other way on a bend the kayak slid the other way and the other hook popped off (and the doubled strap fell off). The last mile and a half home the boat wasn’t strapped or otherwise held in. Good thing I don’t drive like a maniac. Coming up the hill to the house it slid back and out of the bed until the weight out of the bed was more than the weight in the bed.  At that point it tipped, but the tonneau cover caught the boat and held it in the rest of the way. The hooks were rubbed raw and what was making the noise. 
 

very near miss, but crisis averted. 

[Way north bass guy]

I did pretty much the same thing last week. Picked up a bunch of 16’ lengths of wood siding for our chicken coop. Strapped them down like I always do with long lumber, two heavy ratchet straps. Got home after a 20 min drive from the lumber yard, and when I backed in the barn driveway, I thought “ boy those boards look stretched way out there in the backup camera”. I was lucky, I literally had 2” of space between the first board and the ground. Guess a strap let loose somehow, thankfully I didn’t lose anything, and I was in all backroads all the way home instead of the 4 lane Hwy.