Flipped over this trip~!

[piscivorous Pike]

IS THIS THE CORRECT WAY TO INSPECT THE BOTTOM OF THE HULL?[/move]

Things I have learned to make a successful spring bass fishing trip:

• 
  *Boat wider than axles = unstable tow
  *Too much weight behind the axle, 2-batteries, full gas tank, is too much, = unstable tow
  *Side wall failure = unstable tow
  *Avoid fast sharp turns = unstable tow
  *Three tie downs are very essential, including the bow saves boat
  *Carry AAA recreation vehicle coverage for towing a disabled boat
  *Hitch couplers are available at Wal-Mart, carry a spare
  *Carry tools
  *Get towed to Wal-mart, replace coupler and can be fishing in 3 hours
  *Match the hatch!

I made a left turn from a stop sign, unknown to me I had a sidewall seperation, a soft bubble in the right tire. Two batteries and 7 gallons of gas were in the very back of the 15 foot Star Craft which is on a trailer where the wheels are located insided the beam of the boat.

This is actually the second time I have flipped this rig. But being more prepared it only took 2 1/2 hours and I was back on the road and lines in the water for the evening bite! I had a great weekend and boated several dozen bass.

There was no damage to rods or tackle. I was lucky the batteries which had broken loose had not shorted on the leaking gasoline. The trailer sustained a bad road burn on the spring loaded hub that was later replace. The DIY guide on that has a yellow LED on top it was twisted, plastic demolished. The trailer coupler sustained all the twist you see in the photo. I replaced that about 30 minutes after the tumble in the parking lot of Wal-mart! Some of the twist is absorbed in the elastic ability of the tongue. The boat gunnel was gouged; Bondo and silver aluminum paint and 20 minutes fixed that.

After analyzing the mishap closely I believe I have the problem figured out and prevented from now on. Under the canvas I had built a three piece "Tonau" type cover out of plywood and have it locked down. It protects my 8 tackle bags, 13 rods and reels, down rigger and much more from the ****** and grab theft and best yet, keeps it all in the boat each time I decide to inspect the bottom of the hull!!

[Uncle Leo]

Second Time?

[-HAWK-]

Whats up with the moving text?

[Dan:]

I'm sorry, I don't have time to wait while that scrolls. I can tell from the picture that sucks.

[Grey Wolf]

As they say "learn from your mistakes."

That's how wise men are made.

Glad it wasn't a total lose.

[piscivorous Pike]

Second Time?

Yes, twice fooled, it was the side wall failure that defeated all of my previous precautions, the tire mushed over on the turn, I watch in the rear view mirror as it dipped and gave it the momentum it needed to keep going. Almost looked like slow motion. Now I move the gas tank to the front when I travel the highways. Batteries are anchored down very well now. I tried them up front but there was too much current drop to the motor and my electric motor is in the stern as well. :-?

Whats up with the moving text?

Post says,"Been Posting A Long Time" figured you seen it before. It did what intended, got your attention and now we met, friends I would hope, glad to meet you. Looking forward to see your fish stories. I taught myself programing one long period of recuperation from the "Saw Bone's" handi work.

I'm sorry, I don't have time to wait while that scrolls. I can tell from the picture that sucks.

Sorry that is lagging, it should complete right to left in under a second. If not it is the delivery or decodining in the recieving system. Yeah, it sucked but I was only delayed a couple hours. Teaches patience and living with adversity. The bass waited and I caught up to them. :

As they say "learn from your mistakes."

That's how wise men are made.

Glad it wasn't a total lose.

That is a gracious reply, thank you for your confidence in my ability to learn. I try.

[Uncle Leo]

This is entertaining to say the least.

[steezy]

The post is unreadable, STOP that scrolling text !

[simplejoe]

x2 on the scrolling text, either way that sucks.

[piscivorous Pike]

x2 on the scrolling text, either way that sucks.

Sorry.

Ok, tell me what you see. The scroll is part of BFF editor, in a correctly working system all you see is a slow scroll right to left.

If it is chattering up your download it has to do with your ISP delivery, the processor speed, cache or available RAM.

It also can be a browser problem. Likely it is a problem with the forums upload to you.

The problem is not in the programing but in the recieving; since I have used the format in several other forums with absolutely no problems it must have to do with the output of this forum.

Having some experience in web programing and languages I would be very interested if you could tell me what it did on your machines, what operating system and browser you use and what type of ISP you use. It worked with the machines I used

Thanks in advance...

My hobbies,  I'm a techy person 

Ichthyology and fishing

hunting and fishing

design & building high powered electronic flashlights and fishing

Making fishing lures, especially soft plastics and fishing

web programing, computer tech and fishing

well, you got it a note on what happened on the scroll would be appreciated.

[b.Lee]

Wow hope everyone was ok

[piscivorous Pike]

Wow hope everyone was ok

Yes, sir, a scratch and ding hither and thither adds character and testifies to the intensity to which I, (like all the members here)chase fish!

PS. That is a beautiful avatar, makes me homesick. :'(

[Dan:]

the scrolling was working fine, it's just annoying and harder to read than regular text. Thanks for disabling it, that makes it much easier to read.

[b.Lee]

Wow hope everyone was ok

Yes, sir, a scratch and ding hither and thither adds character and testifies to the intensity to which I, (like all the members here)chase fish!

PS. That is a beautiful avatar, makes me homesick. :'(

Im glad eveyrone is ok. Where are you from?

[Rebel Angler]

wow that's unfortunate

glad everybody is ok

[simplejoe]

I might be an idiot, but I can't understand how you flipped it over by a blown tire.

I've blown a few tires before and never had a problem like that. That's still something. 

[piscivorous Pike]

Wow hope everyone was ok

Yes, sir, a scratch and ding hither and thither adds character and testifies to the intensity to which I, (like all the members here)chase fish!

PS. That is a beautiful avatar, makes me homesick. :'(

Im glad eveyrone is ok. Where are you from?

I grew up on a mostly private bass lake, 300-350 acres of water, small piece of public land on one shore, in UP MI, south of L. Superior about 70 miles.

That Avatar reminds me of it.

With DNR approval and help turned it into a pike lake! Neighbors were 5 miles away.  Had 160 acres completely surrounded, it was a realestate island, in Forest Service Land. That type of estate would be priceless.  Unfortunatley it got sold then subdivided.   

Spent last 40 years in the SW but my kin all went to MT, less people, more mountains and more cold water than you can fish in one lifetime! Went deer hunting 11/14 because the snowing kept me off the pike water, 127 yard shot off the front porch! In MT.  The next 5 days boated pike

[piscivorous Pike]

I might be an idiot, but I can't understand how you flipped it over by a blown tire.

I've blown a few tires before and never had a problem like that. That's still something.

Your not an idiot, you are just trying too hard to understand how the blown tire did that, you never will cause it did not blow. LOL

Here is how it happened, it looked like slow motion as I watched it in the rear view.

I stopped at a T-intersection. I turned left and accelerated.

The sidewall puffed out like a balloon on the right side of the right tire, this is the key. it allowed the right side of the boat and traile to dip and become lower then the left.

As the boat trailer began to move to the right as I pulled out of the turn that tire began to roll under itself and it began to drag.

Since I was turning left the momentum was throwing the weight to the right. The back end of the boat is almost 5 feet behind the axel so it is a huge mechanical atvantage like a lever as it hat 7 gallons of gas and two 825 amp batteries. That weight kept going.

Now that the back end was moving to the right and the tire began to drag on the right movement, no problem with going forward, the whole righ raised up.

As I straightened out add the drainage slope of the road to the rig now hoisted up on the side of the tire, it then finished by rolling to the right past the center of gravity instead of settling back down.

I pulled off to the right, skidding it out of the main intersection about 15 feet.

That is why there is so little damage, it did not go very far after rolling past the center .

I belive the fact that the tongue is bolted on and is a very flexible piece added to the problem. In the picture the coupler has a bend it and the tongue has twist that returned to normal when righted. The front is verly elastic. I do not think a stiff welded tongue would have allowed enough movement to go past the center of gravity.

Understanding the mechanics I hope has helped me balance the load out to prevent that from happening again. It has never had a problem without a contributing factor. In this case the tire sidewall collapsed, in the first case I made a u-turn on a narrow road and the trailer tire ran off onto the slope of ther berm of the road and about the same thing happened but the first time the difference was the right side dipped because of the difference in elevation, the second time it dipped because the sidewall collapsed.

So turning and allowing the outside side of the turn on the trailer to dip with weight behind the axel is the key to getting the boat into a postition to better inspect the boat bottom.

See, you ain't no idiot, you just were looking at the out come with a different impression.

[simplejoe]

OH now I understand.

[Glenn]

This underscores the fact that you can't tell the condition of trailer tires by looking at them.  Yes, in some cases, the sidewall will crack like a desert floor, but that's few and far between.

Trailer tires will wear out LONG before the tread will wear down.  The tires will look fine, but the rubber will deteriorate over time to the extent a failure is imminent. 

Trailer tires have a life expectancy of 5-7 years.  Sunlight will hasten the degradation process.

Therefore, it's absolutely critical you change your tires every 5-7 years.  Shorter if your boat is stored outside in direct sunlight, longer if stored in the garage.

A good protectant with 100% UV protection will help extend the life expectancy of your tires.  BTS provides that kind of protection for you.

[piscivorous Pike]

I cannot get 2 years form trailer tires! I put on 3,000 miles twice a year, I get about 15 to 18 k before they are not so good. My trailer as you see takes a 12 inch trailer tire. I buy the best I can get in plys from Big O or Discount. I park it with tire covers but the heat here is horrible 115 in the shade, so any local road trips bake them even worse. I change them as soon as the wear indicators say to do it or I get dry cracks with in two years. I wish I had larger hubs and could put light truck tires on it.

Likely the sidewall was damaged on a gravel road somewhere.

I am lucky I use the three point tie down is all I can say.

[Simp]

The only time I came close to flipping a boat was last year. I was driving along with the window partly down after a good day fishing with a friend. Then all of a sudden I hear a bug hit the side of the door frame. I hear a buzz buzz and see a GIANT HORNET!! I'm pretty scared of hornets or yellow jackets, and wasps because when I was 7 or so I stepped on a nest. I ended up being stung over a dozen times and if it wasn't for my late grandmother scooping me up who knows what might have happened. Anyways the giant hornet landed right on a very special place. The dang thing had its stinger out going nuts. So of course I pay attention to the thing trying to sting my own stinger instead of the road. The next thing I know my buddy is screaming and we're heading into the ditch on a turn. I swerved harder then I would have if I wasn't so panicked. I looked in the mirror as I swerved and I was luck the boat didn't tip over. I then stopped in the middle of the road and ran around like a little girl when they see a mouse.

[landscraper]

thats sucks! must have scared the poo outta ya

[bassfisherjk]

WOW!