Boating and Sailing.pdf - Moja ladja

Chapter 4: It Follows You Anywhere—Trailering Your Boat
cools—it makes it miserable inside the car in the summer, but the heater acts as a miniradiator
that helps throw off heat in a hurry.
If you tow a big boat, you’ll need a transmission cooler. It’s a radiator for the transmission
and sits in front of the regular radiator. Without it, you can boil the transmission fluid or
fry it—neither is good for your transmission,
and I speak as one who spent $1,400 a few years
back for a rebuild on my Explorer tranny.
If you’re buying a new tow vehicle, opt for the
tow package—transmission cooler, larger cooling
system, larger battery, trailer harness and sometimes
a hitch, and a lower gear in the rear end.
You won’t have any towing problems and you’ll be
glad you spent the extra bucks.
Pushing Off
It’s wise to tow the first 10 miles, and then stop and check out the rig. Touch the bearing
housing and the trailer tires to check for excessive heat. (They’re dirty, so have a paper
towel handy to wipe your hands afterward.) Both will be warm, but if they’re hot to the
point that they’re uncomfortable to touch, something is wrong—check bearing grease and
tire pressure.
Make absolutely sure that your hitch is secured and the ball is tight. A friend of mine had
his hitch ball come loose while he was traveling a four-lane highway in south Florida. The
trailer tongue dropped on the pavement and sent out a mighty shower of sparks as the rig
swerved into the left lane and passed the slowing truck at flank speed. It then went across
the median, dodged two lanes of traffic coming south, and ran down an embankment to
neatly deposit the boat into a river. The trailer was ruined, but the boat was miraculously
unscathed!
Had my buddy used safety chains, properly wound around each other to snub the tongue
in the event of hitch failure, he wouldn’t have lost his rig.
Don’t forget to attach the trailer’s emergency brake cable to the hitch, if the trailer has
surge brakes—it’s a small cable with a hook, coming out of the trailer brake mechanism on
the tongue. If things come apart, pressure on the cable will apply the trailer brakes.
Let’s Do Launch
Look Out!
Inflate the tires on your
tow vehicle to the max. The
added weight will otherwise
build up heat, particularly in the
rear tires. A hard, skinny shape
builds less heat than a soft,
flabby one.
Once you’ve arrived safely at the ramp, get the boat ready to launch in a parking area
away from the actual launching zone. This saves time and avoids jamming the ramp for
those who are ready to go.
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