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Bad61SS's 1986 Ambassador
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
Hey, here's the story....
I talked my friend into going to pick it up with me in his F250 Powerstroke (to save on fuel costs over my gas F250). Anyway, the cotter pin on my friend's hitch pin broke and the ball mount slid out of the receiver at 70MPH on the way home with me at the wheel. The boat was going back and forth about three feet either way, held on just by the safety chains!! I thought we were toast (I wrote off the boat at that point). Luckily, I didn't panic, and everything was okay when I finally got everything stopped. This is the first story I've heard of a trailer coming loose without a disaster. I think we were VERY lucky.
I always tell people not to buy those type of hitch pins, and now I have something to back it up, other than that someone can steal your ball mount... I used a 5/8 bolt I had in my toolbox to get us to the next town, and I bought my friend a locking pin like mine at the store there.
Lessons learned:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Use locking hitch pins
Cross your safety chains (which I normally do, but that got missed w/ three of us helping to hook up the boat - could have saved the ball mount)
<LI>Double check your connections and parts for wear and operation before you leave and at fuel stops
<LI>Don't panic if something bad happens
[/list]
I'll get some more pics soon. I just wanted to get this one up here so I could share the road trip saga!
Adios,
Greg
1986 Ambassador 350 (+.040, balanced, cam, intake, mild porting) ~300HP. Time to buy a GPS!
I talked my friend into going to pick it up with me in his F250 Powerstroke (to save on fuel costs over my gas F250). Anyway, the cotter pin on my friend's hitch pin broke and the ball mount slid out of the receiver at 70MPH on the way home with me at the wheel. The boat was going back and forth about three feet either way, held on just by the safety chains!! I thought we were toast (I wrote off the boat at that point). Luckily, I didn't panic, and everything was okay when I finally got everything stopped. This is the first story I've heard of a trailer coming loose without a disaster. I think we were VERY lucky.
I always tell people not to buy those type of hitch pins, and now I have something to back it up, other than that someone can steal your ball mount... I used a 5/8 bolt I had in my toolbox to get us to the next town, and I bought my friend a locking pin like mine at the store there.
Lessons learned:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Use locking hitch pins
Cross your safety chains (which I normally do, but that got missed w/ three of us helping to hook up the boat - could have saved the ball mount)
<LI>Double check your connections and parts for wear and operation before you leave and at fuel stops
<LI>Don't panic if something bad happens
[/list]
I'll get some more pics soon. I just wanted to get this one up here so I could share the road trip saga!
Adios,
Greg
1986 Ambassador 350 (+.040, balanced, cam, intake, mild porting) ~300HP. Time to buy a GPS!
Eriktheviking
Member
Every now and then something like that happens and it gives ya a good wake up call
.Glad to see it worked out.Nice boat,it has the same color compo as my ENFORCER.
Yeah, I saw the pics of your boat. Super sweet man! I have mine sitting over at my buddy's house right now and he doesn't want me to move it because he loves how it looks in his driveway
The gelcoat matches his house!!
1986 Ambassador 350 (+.040, balanced, cam, intake, mild porting) ~300HP. Time to buy a GPS!
1986 Ambassador 350 (+.040, balanced, cam, intake, mild porting) ~300HP. Time to buy a GPS!
Very lucky. Nice job on getting it stopped.
1975 Checkmate Tri-mate 2, 2.4 200+ / Sky jacker 6" plate / 25p Laser 2 prop
1975 Checkmate Tri-mate 2, 2.4 200+ / Sky jacker 6" plate / 25p Laser 2 prop
Nice boat!
Something similar happened to me and my dad with a tow dolly.We were towing home a project car when all of a sudden at about 110 km/h the dolly with the car on it started to sway back and forth.The whole truck started to go with it, and we were in the middle lane of a 3 lane highway. We took up 2 lanes as my dad eased his way on to the shoulder, and it scared the sh*t out of us.
Mx-13 Merc 65 hp
Mx-13 Merc 65 hp
ilovecrashing00
New member
i like the checkmate set up with a wakeboard tower, i am using a ski pole until i can get something set up like yours.
Ed
Ed
The tower is sold by Monster Tower. They have a website http://www.monstertower.com It was a pretty good deal, because they're all universal, but solid as heck. My uncle just bought one for his Supra. I'm very happy with it.