I wish I had Diggers luck

[TuxedoPk]

Getting to AOTH with a boat has now turned into a religious quest.

My marina was supposed to have my boat ready with fresh oil and filters, polished and cleaned ready for AOTH. Not only did they fail to do all of this but they were unable to replace the bearing for my outboard prop.

Phil (MOP) comes to the rescue with a friend of a friend who was going to replace the bearings today but had to reschedule for 7:30am in South Jersey tomororrow. With another 14 hours to travel, I'd miss getting together Thurs, but at least I'd be in by 1-2am Friday morning.

I had my first trailer accident tonight about 2 miles away from the marina, once I got on the highway and hit about 60mph.

Although I must have been mistaken when I checked the hitch was secured and locked to the ball, it popped off doing 60mph coming down the Palisades Parkway.

It is scary to watch your boat doing it's own thing, and slamming forward into your bed. Those chains certainly did their job tonight.

Thankfully nobody was hurt, and I think my total damage will be about $1000-$1500 for the truck and boat combined.

Lenny- Do you have room for any fiber and resin in your suitcase? (Some fiber repair needs to be done where the hull meets the trailer- I guess it's not used to meeting repetatively at 60mph as the trailer slams the back of a truck. The limitted damage is a testamnt to great construction)

I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU WHO RECOMMENDED A 3/4 TON REAL TRUCK- It might have made the difference between an annoyance and a serious accident.

Short of any new surprises tomorrow, I'm lookin forward to seeing all of you Friday morning.

Rich

[RickR]

"Murphy's Law" :rolleyes:
Hope everything works out/ and we see you Friday :yes:

[Audiofn]

Man that IS some bad luck. Hope you have a great trip from hear on out.

Jon

[Fish boy]

Tux,
man I am sorry about your luck. Even though it might sound a little cliche', it could have been a whole lot worse. You are alive, the boat can be fixed, no one was hurt, and you are on your way to AOTH to hang with the best people anywhere Surrounded by Donzis.

Have fun this weekend and worry about all the crap when you get back. :)

Fish

[mattyboy]

sorry to hear that Tux, could have been much worse!
BTW what the hell are you doing on the Palisades pkwy with a 3/4 ton truck towing a 21 foot boat???? :eek: hope you had your PIP light truck pass!!!
jeesh :rolleyes: I go thru more PBA cards on the PIP with a ford tarus wagon with COMM plates
be careful!!!


Matty

[Marlin275]

Although I must have been mistaken when I checked the hitch was secured and locked to the ball, it popped off doing 60mph coming down the Palisades Parkway.


My hitch came off once, never again !
Simple test
Once you think its on good
Crank up your swivel jack
When the back of your truck starts to rise off the ground
You know you're good to go ! :smile:

[Walt. H.]

Sorry to hear that TUX,

I was thinking the same thing as Matty commented on when reading your post. What the hell we're you doing on the Palisades Parkway.! Thats a no-no with a trailer. I'm very surprized a troop car didn't swing a "U" turn and come up behind ya!

Make sure you have the correct "ball size" for the trailer. And no i'm not getting personal! :) :rolleyes:

Walt

[TuxedoPk]

After that incident the boat trailered great for the 1800 mile round trip ride to Cumberland.

Walt- I deliberately licensed the truck in NJ so that I could get passenger plates and be able to run on the NJ Garden State Parkway, the NY Palisades, and the NY Taconic.

NJ just doubles the tolls for pulling the boat, and I was totally CLUELESS that I couldn't tow on the Palisades even with passenger plates.

A State Trooper did pull up behind me and I was fortunate to get a lecture rather than a ticket. He saw where my tail light used to reside and told me to consider that my penalty.

The tongue jack 'died' and had to be replaced when I got to the prop shop in South Amboy. Preparing to come home I saw that the power winch brake is broken- I'll be replacing it with a good quality manual winch tomorrow.

Making it to AOTH and having my completely untested boat run great after a 16 hour tow makes all the problems seem like minor inconveniences.

[Walt. H.]

Tux Pk,

Glad to hear all went well afterwards, regarding all the bad luck you we're hit with in the begining of your trip. I'm impressed with your positive out look to go on after all that. I don't think I would have continued. So my hat is off to you and Congrat's for making it through the difficult tow to AOTH. You should get a trophy or a plaque for the most difficult tow attendee to the event, just like the attendee for the longest traveled gets at some events.

Ps, even with passenger plates towing a trailer has always been a no,no on any parkway, i'm surprized it's ok on the Gardenstate.

Take care, :wavey:

Walt

[Marlin275]

Ps, even with passenger plates towing a trailer has always been a no,no on any parkway, i'm surprized it's ok on the Gardenstate.


You can legally tow on SOME parkways,
and on parts of the Gardenstate.
This is the problem, which ones are legal?
I called many state offices and never got a straight answer?

[mattyboy]

NY STAE PKWY's
passenger vehicles only!!! no commercial traffic ( plates) or charter buses, no trailers
the GSPKWY can have RV's , buses and light vans and trucks no heavy trucks or 18 wheelers north of exit 105

the Palisades offers a pickup truck permit but it must have a cap or lid and non commercial plates

like I said I go thru more pba cards on the pip !!!


Matty

[Scott Heidt]

MY GOD! I'm glad I live down south. Where you can drive were ever the hell you want to with a boat trailer! I never heard of such craziness! :)

[TuxedoPk]

Well Northern NJ has the highest concentration of toll booths of any location in the country.

During the first hour of my trip to KY I had to stop at 7 toll booths on the Garden State Pkwy paying double the .35 toll at each because I was towing.

Even being just down in South Jersey has it's advantages of minimal toll booths.

A trip out to MOP's sans boat- (2) GSP tolls at .35, George Washington Bridge- $6 round trip (would be $9 with boat), Throgs Neck Bridge- $8 round trip (would be $11.50 with boat)
Tolls- $14.70 w/o boat
Tolls- $21.20 w/boat

[RedDog]

what's a "toll booth" and why can't you tow a trailer over the highway?

us hicks down here just don't understand what yall are talkin' about ...

[TuxedoPk]

LOL- I was looking for a picture of a toll booth to post and I just read that "vehicles with trailers may not exceed 8' in width"