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Isn't there a bonehead moments thread?


isellacuras

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16 hours ago, isellacuras said:

I just got back from a four day trip and boy, was it eventful. The actual trip was great but getting ready was full of bonehead moments, enough to start my own thread. I had more "oops!" moments in the last 4 days that I have in the last 3 years.

First, hooking boat up and pulling out of the driveway, boat slammed into the back of the truck

image_42.jpeg

turns out I forgot to put the pin in the swing tongue.  I put the pin in every time I hook up the boat.  

I get the trailer situated and pull out of the driveway to park it on the street to finish loading up.  I pull into the cul-d-sac across the street from our house and circle back in front of our house.  Again I do this every time I hook up the boat, only this time my rack fork catches on our portable basketball hoop which causes the basketball hoop to go flying and this...

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Rest of the trip was uneventful and we had a great time.  Then when we're all done with our 4 days on the water, my wife is wiping down the boat and notices a screw coming out from the inside of the boat.  Damn!!  Looks like I used to long of a screw or screwed into the wrong spot to hold in my amp rack on my new diy stereo install, which by the way, had some engine noise through the tower speakers.  

I guess that's what happens when you get in a hurry.  ?  Since I didn't have enough time to get everything done properly, it's now going to take a lot more time fixing the things I messed up.  

 

 

I know of two threads: one that I started, "Boy, Do I Feel Dumb" and "What's Your Biggest Kook Moment?"

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7 hours ago, DUKENO1 said:

Plenty of boneheaded moves of my own...lol.  I am the other half of Ndawgs idiot!  I worry about the pin on my swing tongue.  I rarely remove it because I don't need to at the moment for storage.  I can just see some smart-ace at the boat ramp doing it for kicks though.  I probably need to pick up a spare or figure out how to vandal-proof it.

I pull mine out and keep it in the boat. Fold the tongue so you remember to put it back in though.

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man, am I REALLY glad to hear you guys have those moments too. lol 

 

My bonehead moment this season was spending 5 hours troubleshooting a problem that wasn't a problem. ha

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17 minutes ago, mikeyg said:

I know of two threads: one that I started, "Boy, Do I Feel Dumb" and "What's Your Biggest Kook Moment?"

Both appropriate titles for the way I was feeling. 

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Scariest one for me was when I showed up to help my brother attach the boat at the storage unit (since I was obviously in a hurry to get to the lake!) and took him out of his normal routine since he usually kept it at home.  Since he had the key to the tongue lock I just though I'd get the boat onto the tongue to save some time and let him finish his routine, since I never really do it...we get rolling down the road and I keep hearing a knocking sound that I've never heard before.  Then it dawns on me, I turn and ask "did you latch the tongue?" as we are driving down the freeway at 60mph.  "WHAT?" he incredulously yells and slowly pulls over.  No chains, no lights, no pin, no latch, just the tongue RESTING on the ball, and we had gone over some rough railroad tracks and through some intersections with fairly steep crowning on the road.  WOW, what a cluster that would have been. 

And that is why I refuse help with certain things on the boat...

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I did something similar a few years ago @isellacuras.  I was loading the sleds on the trailer for a week sledding with the boys and forgot to latch the trailer to the tongue.  As soon as I drove the first seld up the trailer, it popped off the hitch and punctured a nice big hole in my tailgate.  It was the last time I did that.  I double check that all the time, now.  Will be doing the same with the pin in the swing tongue now, too. 

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I laminated a checklist for taking the boat out of garage and putting it back in. This was after I bent a rack fork just like yours. I am always in a hurry when getting to the lake, so it is just a little insurance to make sure that don't forget anything

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My favorite was our old boat; 17' I/O.  7/3/2007.  Had been dating my wife for 8 months.  Her condo was next to Griggs Resevoir.  Her sister and her sister's two friends came in from Newfoundland that day to stay for a week.  Red, White and Boom was that night...figured we could play around on the boat and do some water sports.  So four girls, me and my buddy on the boat...it was packed.  Filled the cooler up, had to go back to shore so they could go back to the condo and fill it again.  We found it odd not a single boat was on the water...seems you couldn't see the fireworks from there but had a blast anyway.  Literally no one there.  Anchored out, all drunk, no one to bother where we were parked.  Swimming, breaking rules, but not endangering anyone.

Time to leave, I sobered up some.  Get the boat on the trailer.  Go to winch it up, hit moss on the ramp and fell...sliding my butt down the sharp edge of the trailer.  Ouch.  We get back to the condo and I show my cheek to the wife.  Mind you I've had a couple more since that point.  Somehow, I showed her sister my cheek at the same moment...the same sister I met just hours earlier.  It was a nice long cut on my butt.  Boat was fine...not so much for my a**.

 

I've had a few things on the Malibu:

- May 2012 - hit a submerged log.  Didn't know I sheared off a tracking fin and was taking in water.  Really didn't know that the bilge pump had come apart and was just aerating the water in the hull.  Luckily we were heading in, so no harm other than the work to replace the tracking fin (which after taking it apart and tightening the rear one, I was smart and did a lag-bolt version in the front, as it is a PITA job to replace the thru-bolt ones).  Bonehead move for not ensuring the bilge pump was functional.

- June 2012 - hit another freaking log.  I knew there were some around to, happened when powering down...would have been fine if I pulled the throttle back 1-2 seconds earlier.  Bonehead move for not paying more attention to debris in the water

- Left the drain plug out...noticed when walking back to the ramp to hop in the boat and the bilge was running.  Of course it just HAD to be Mastercraft day at the lake, so there is the dumbass Malibu owner pulling his boat out just enough to drain the hull (didn't feel like taking a dive to put the plug in).  No harm.

- Left the transom straps attached once.  Took a second to figure out why I couldn't get the boat off the trailer.   Ended up being a bad situation only because once I fixed that, I got turned around at the ramp, which then made the prop (not moving) touch ground, bending it slightly.  Good news was it revealed a bigger problem with that prop.

- To get the trailer where I want it in my garage, the port guide post just barely touches the wall.  Until I go more than barely and put a nice size hole in the drywall.

- Recently, forgot to put in one of the two tower screws.  Wife was wondering why the tower was rattling and moving around more than normal.  Whoops.  No damage.

 

 

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As others have mentioned, I too appreciate hearing all of these stories just to know I'm not the only one that has mental lapses. It's also good to hear what can go wrong to make me more mindful of things I've been lucky enough to avoid. On to my most memorable moments, not the only boneheaded moves, just the most memorable...

I have a nifty pin for my receiver which slides through like any other, but then you pull the end of it out and pivot it 90 degrees to lock it in place. After returning from a day at the lake (20 miles each way) I realized I hadn't flopped the end of that pin. I suppose it stayed put because of the tension there but it made me sick to my stomach to think of what could have happened. 

The other is after dropping the wife/son into the lake, I park the truck, wife picks me up the dock and we idle out of the no wake zone. I'm sitting in the back seat and when she gives it some gas to get going a whole bunch of water comes cascading from around the engine cover (DD). I thought the cooler had tipped over or something! Actually, the water was from the ski compartment where I had forgotten to put the plug back in. I hardly ever remove it but we had gotten caught in a rain storm the day before and I forgot that I had removed it.

The thing that works best for me in trying to avoid these mental lapses is to do the same routine every time, in the same order, and I don't stop until every step has been completed. It's too easy to get distracted and move onto something else and then miss a step when you come back to it, or just don't get back to it at all.

Best wishes everyone. Thanks for sharing!

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6 hours ago, Diesel86 said:

I've only had 2 bonehead moments so far, one was Boxing Day a few years ago, only had my old 04 VLX for a few months and the fuel gauge had stopped working somewhere along the way, anyway forgot to fill it up that day, got halfway through my first set and ran out of gas. The worst part was getting towed back by a JetSki ?

Second time was Aussie day in January this year, the river was glass and I was in a rush and forgot to put both bungs in, saw them in the cup holder 5 minutes after I got here the water, pulled up on the beach and put them in, the front bung by the drivers seat wasn't a problem but what a ***** the back one was. 

No harm done from either bonehead moment, but these days I always fill up before we go out and put the bungs in before I leave home. 

 

Great stories, but the best part of this is I'm going to try to use the word bung instead of plug from now on!  When I get strange looks I will just say, "What, haven't you been to Australia?" 

 

 

 

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As others have mentioned, I too appreciate hearing all of these stories just to know I'm not the only one that has mental lapses. It's also good to hear what can go wrong to make me more mindful of things I've been lucky enough to avoid. On to my most memorable moments, not the only boneheaded moves, just the most memorable...

I have a nifty pin for my receiver which slides through like any other, but then you pull the end of it out and pivot it 90 degrees to lock it in place. After returning from a day at the lake (20 miles each way) I realized I hadn't flopped the end of that pin. I suppose it stayed put because of the tension there but it made me sick to my stomach to think of what could have happened. 

The other is after dropping the wife/son into the lake, I park the truck, wife picks me up the dock and we idle out of the no wake zone. I'm sitting in the back seat and when she gives it some gas to get going a whole bunch of water comes cascading from around the engine cover (DD). I thought the cooler had tipped over or something! Actually, the water was from the ski compartment where I had forgotten to put the plug back in. I hardly ever remove it but we had gotten caught in a rain storm the day before and I forgot that I had removed it.

The thing that works best for me in trying to avoid these mental lapses is to do the same routine every time, in the same order, and I don't stop until every step has been completed. It's too easy to get distracted and move onto something else and then miss a step when you come back to it, or just don't get back to it at all.

Best wishes everyone. Thanks for sharing!

PS!!!  Forgot one other moment which turned out great!  Forgot the gas cap on the trailer step. Had several first timers with us so I didn't want to waste an hour tracing my steps when we were already running late. Decided to trace my steps that night, figuring I wouldn't find it but at least I'd feel like I tried. At the point in which I gave up, I turned around at a convenience store that was closed and... wait... what's that?  It was a billfold with about $250 in it, credit cards, license, etc. Found the guy's phone number and called him. He hadn't realized yet that he was even missing it and had driven several hours away. I explained how it was odd circumstances because I was looking for my gas cap. He insisted that I keep enough money to pay for the new gas cap - I thought about not even doing that but I know if I were him, I would sincerely want the person to keep the reward so I did. 

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My driveway has a slight fall, 2' in 80', to the road and then on the other side of the road the neighbors yard has a steep slope about 7 feet.  Had my previous 21' I/O tucked in the garage for the winter.  Go to pull it out in the spring and the fit was so tight I thought it would be easier to roll it out not hooked up to the truck.  Get it out to just where the wheels start going down the drive way and was having my wife toss a 2x4 under the wheel every 2' to chalk it and reset.  Well the 2x4 was not enough once the boat hit the slope.  I sacrificed my ankle under the wheel on the jack and tried with all my 280lb might to stop a 4000lb boat but the boat was winning.  It was either let it go and watch it tear through the neighbors yard or try to aim it for a tree that sits at the end of my driveway.  I chose the tree.  End result was a very sore ankle, boat cover had a 18" long tear in it, rub rail had some scratches, and half of the tree had to be removed after the boat ripped it off of the main trunk.  Pretty sure my neighbors saw the whole thing.

Yeah its better to just take your time and do it right.

Edited by Bigstic
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Living on right now on my Chev 3500HD Dually.  Replaced  an inner hub seal and was rushing, decided just to jack the truck up to lube the hub. Not enough oil made it into the hub and I seized the inner hub bearing. Truck is in the shop waiting for a whole new axle as the bearing spun on the stub shaft and welded to it....... $6000.00 later on my $30 seal job.

First time I have messed up a job on my own stuff... still feeling a bit raw..... leaving on vacation next week... still wondering if we have a tow vehicle.....

Edited by G-Mack
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Drove to lake 100 miles away (Bullards Bar) with kids and their friends.  It was a nice hot summer day.  Just a perfect day to be on the water.  Got the boat launched and was coming back up to park the truck and trailer.  This is a weird parking area where you actually have to back into a bunch of the spaces with the trailer.  There's plenty of room and it's not that hard to do if you are skilled backing up, but if you aren't it's a huge pain.  So I get the trailer backed in and as I'm walking back down I see this lady that is still struggling to get her trailer backed into the parking spot after like 10 tries.  So I go over and wave and ask if she wants me to do it for her.  She nods and I jump in and have it backed in in about 10 seconds.  She says thanks and I'm off.

We have a great day on the lake with the kids.... until it comes time to get off of the water.  Keys to the truck are nowhere to be found!  Ugh.  Must've set them down in the lady's truck as I was backing in.  We tear the boat apart and look on the truck to see if maybe she'd realized and left them but no luck.  End up having to call one of my friends whose daughter was with us to break into the house, then drive 2 hours to bring me the keys.  

Haha moral of that story is we always have a spare set of truck keys with us now.

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3 hours ago, formulaben said:

Scariest one for me was when I showed up to help my brother attach the boat at the storage unit (since I was obviously in a hurry to get to the lake!) and took him out of his normal routine since he usually kept it at home.  Since he had the key to the tongue lock I just though I'd get the boat onto the tongue to save some time and let him finish his routine, since I never really do it...we get rolling down the road and I keep hearing a knocking sound that I've never heard before.  Then it dawns on me, I turn and ask "did you latch the tongue?" as we are driving down the freeway at 60mph.  "WHAT?" he incredulously yells and slowly pulls over.  No chains, no lights, no pin, no latch, just the tongue RESTING on the ball, and we had gone over some rough railroad tracks and through some intersections with fairly steep crowning on the road.  WOW, what a cluster that would have been. 

And that is why I refuse help with certain things on the boat...

My Dad has had boats since I was a wee lad so he knows how to handle a boat.  A few years ago he was heading to the beach with my Mom towing their small fishing boat. He stopped at a stop sign and the boat passed them on the right!  Luckily it stopped without hitting the truck or anyone/anything else.  My Mom said he looked over at her and said "Look, there's a boat just like ours" ......lol   Everyone screws up from time to time.

 

1 hour ago, G-Mack said:

Living on right now on my Chev 3500HD Dually.  Replaced  an inner hub seal and was rushing, decided just to jack the truck up to lube the hub. Not enough oil made it into the hub and I seized the inner hub bearing. Truck is in the shop waiting for a whole new axle as the bearing spun on the stub shaft and welded to it....... $6000.00 later on my $30 seal job.

First time I have messed up a job on my own stuff... still feeling a bit raw..... leaving on vacation next week... still wondering if we have a tow vehicle.....

:rtfm:

Edited by DUKENO1
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Just remembered another one, actually more of a double. 

Back near the start of the year, a buddy and I spent the day cleaning and polishing the boat while drinking copious amounts of beer. It may have been because of this beer that we didn't think that having the stereo pumping all day might run the battery a little flat, so of course a week later when we took the boat out of course she wouldn't start. 

This brings us to the second part of the story, the day before we took the boat I spent he arvo doing the brake rotors and pads on the car, while drinking beer and with the stereo going (seems to be a pattern here), so of course the next morning the car didn't start either. 

So after we got the car started and down to the ramp and found the boat wouldn't start, we decided to pull the boat out of the water, bring one of the others up to jumpstart it and then get it into the water as quickly as possible, boat wasn't running out the water for even 10 seconds. My favourite part is that we accomplished all that and got her off the trailer (with the bungs in!) before the people that were already on the ramp got off the trailer, definitely something to be said about having a skilled crew. 

 

Cant mention polishing the boat without a picture. 

EE0E98E5-E6D9-4598-804B-E876A289BBB7_zps

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4 hours ago, Molarbu said:

 

Great stories, but the best part of this is I'm going to try to use the word bung instead of plug from now on!  When I get strange looks I will just say, "What, haven't you been to Australia?" 

 

 

 

Water is pouring in through my bung hole!

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#1: Proud owner ready to bring home my new 95 Sanger, sweeping the garage getting ready - then I start looking at the door - hmmm, hadn't thought of that. Called dealer, please measure trailer width - how bout that, door is 4" too narrow. (of course I measured the depth before purchase) NO problem, wife works with a contractor, he's happy to install bigger door, installation goes great, I'm a happy new boat owner - then...

#2: New garage door needs paint job, was going to throw tarp on bow to protect from paint but said to self "hay self, don't be a bonehead, pull the boat out of the garage so no chance you can hurt it". Always listen to self, he's a pretty smart guy; so hook it up, pull out of garage and "BOOM" - really bad noise and wife runs out of house wanting to know what happened. Stupid self forgot to close the stern gull wings ski locker, they are taller than the garage beam, they are now both half ripped off the back of my less than 10 hour new boat. Good news is I met a good upholstery outfit close to home!

Self beginning to wonder what resale value of new toy might be

Edited by Rednucleus
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3 hours ago, Bigstic said:

My driveway has a slight fall, 2' in 80', to the road and then on the other side of the road the neighbors yard has a steep slope about 7 feet.  Had my previous 21' I/O tucked in the garage for the winter.  Go to pull it out in the spring and the fit was so tight I thought it would be easier to roll it out not hooked up to the truck.  Get it out to just where the wheels start going down the drive way and was having my wife toss a 2x4 under the wheel every 2' to chalk it and reset.  Well the 2x4 was not enough once the boat hit the slope.  I sacrificed my ankle under the wheel on the jack and tried with all my 280lb might to stop a 4000lb boat but the boat was winning.  It was either let it go and watch it tear through the neighbors yard or try to aim it for a tree that sits at the end of my driveway.  I chose the tree.  End result was a very sore ankle, boat cover had a 18" long tear in it, rub rail had some scratches, and half of the tree had to be removed after the boat ripped it off of the main trunk.  Pretty sure my neighbors saw the whole thing.

Yeah its better to just take your time and do it right.

Oh my!  Thinking I have not done much and see this. Now I remember doing almost the same with my boat. I also chose the tree. If it made it much farther down the drive it was going to be bad so with one last try I got it heading for the trees. Lucky me other then looking like a dumb A$$ no damage.

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5 hours ago, Flyswatter said:

I laminated a checklist for taking the boat out of garage and putting it back in. This was after I bent a rack fork just like yours. I am always in a hurry when getting to the lake, so it is just a little insurance to make sure that don't forget anything

image.jpeg

maybe you could sell him yours so he has a matched pair!!

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Most recent: I was buffing out my wax and came too close to my gas cap.  The buffer unwound the cap, broke the chain and it went sailing about 30 feet, just barely missing my tow vehicle.  The worst part is that 5 minutes later I did the same thing to the stern light receptacle cover....uggh

Left transom straps on while launching...done that

Left out the "bung" plug...done that...at least 4 times

tried backing the boat out of the lift when it was too far forward...bent prop

dead batteries...too many times to count

I moved to California right out of college and forgot to winterize my boat and my convertible (radiator had a leak so I only ever put in water) before leaving .  I asked my dad to do it.  he just pulled the popcock on the radiator of my convertible and who knows what he did on the boat.  Anyway...cracked block on my 'vert and cracked water jackets on my boat.  $6K...oh well...he's my dad.

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At the ramp I got in from the platform. Wife backs boat in. Left flipflops on the platform by accident. Idling out from the ramp realize I left them on the platform. Leaving it in gear at idle i walk back and lean over sunpad that i just put protectant on. Fall out of boat onto platform just grabbing the rear handle before rolling into the lake. Still get anxiety thinking about it. 

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Great stories, guys. Love reading them.

Just today I was pulling a 38' Cobalt from the courtesy lane to the service lot, all mostly flat area, some paved, some gravel, using a 4WD Kubota tractor that I have used for boats this size in the past, but usually on a quad axle trailer. This time the trailer was only a triple. As I pull away I realize the steering is a tad light. I give it just a little gas & sure enough the front end of the tractor is riding high. I slow down & consider finding the bigger tractor, but figure WTH, I can take it slow & easy & make this work. I get to this one section where there is a very slight grade down hill. I'm taking it slow & easy but the boat begins to get a little speed..... it pops the tractor up & spins me about 90 degrees to the right. Guess I should have tried the gas & not the brakes? Anyway, I put the trailer down, reset up the tractor & try it again. I was careful & managed to get it parked without too much problem. Every now & then it would push the tractor around a little & I'd just goose it a bit & it was line back up right. Probably not the brightest thing I've done. But you know how it is when your in a little hurry.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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