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We towed our 2014 G25, 24 hours each way from Kentucky to Lake Powell. Here is what happened, and some lessons learned.
On the way out, we had a flat on the trailer. I actually planned for this, and checked our spare, but should have been a little more prepared. We got lucky, and the flat happened about 200 yards from the largest tire store I have ever seen in my life, right in the middle of the day when they were open. 2 hours, back on the road, with 2 new tires, they only had 2 or we would have replaced them all. We figured 2 spares better than 1, since all the tires were older and we might have problems with another tire. My experience is these things happen in sets, often.
Once we got to Lake Powell, we were meeting people on a house boat down the lake a bit, and needed to haul several people and a lot of gear 30 miles down the lake. In the process, we hit ground and severely damaged the bottom of the boat - tracking fin, prop, rudder, and some spider cracks in the fiber glass, plus more, and I really don't want to run into the details. No one was hurt, so we were lucky. We got lucky again, and drifted to a place we could put the boat where it would not sink, as we were taking on some water around the prop shaft, the bilge could keep up, but still needed to secure the boat, as it would be morning before we could get a tow.
I hope this is helpful to someone else. If I think of any more lessons, I will add them to the thread.
By the way, the vacation wasn't totally a bust, Lake Powell is beautiful. Feels almost like being on an alien planet if you are not used to that scenery.
Regards,
DL
On the way out, we had a flat on the trailer. I actually planned for this, and checked our spare, but should have been a little more prepared. We got lucky, and the flat happened about 200 yards from the largest tire store I have ever seen in my life, right in the middle of the day when they were open. 2 hours, back on the road, with 2 new tires, they only had 2 or we would have replaced them all. We figured 2 spares better than 1, since all the tires were older and we might have problems with another tire. My experience is these things happen in sets, often.
Lesson 1: My F250 tire iron is the right size for the lug nuts and will remove the spare, but the lug wrench is too thick to fit around the tires on the trailer due to the clearance with the hub cover. A $15 4 way from Walmart worked fine. Check your lug wrench in your truck to make sure it will work on the spare AND the wheels.
Lesson 2: Your trailer needs to be level connected to the truck, this sounds like a real no-brainer. However, unless you looked closely, you would have thought my trainer was level. But we were slightly nose down, and that put more weight on the front tires on the twin axle trailer. Although the tires are 5 year old tires, they look great, one of the front tires over-heated and popped. I raised the adjustable hitch up 1 notch, and we were level and balancing the weight between the front and back axle.
Lesson 3: If you are taking a long trip with your boat, check to see how hot your tires are when you gas up. We noticed that that tire was hotter than the others at the prior gas stop, but it was a fleeting thought and we should have discussed it. Odds are the damage was done at that point, but we would have noticed lesson 2 if we had thought about it. (you can also check hub heat for other issues, if one hub is hotter than the others)
Lesson 2: Your trailer needs to be level connected to the truck, this sounds like a real no-brainer. However, unless you looked closely, you would have thought my trainer was level. But we were slightly nose down, and that put more weight on the front tires on the twin axle trailer. Although the tires are 5 year old tires, they look great, one of the front tires over-heated and popped. I raised the adjustable hitch up 1 notch, and we were level and balancing the weight between the front and back axle.
Lesson 3: If you are taking a long trip with your boat, check to see how hot your tires are when you gas up. We noticed that that tire was hotter than the others at the prior gas stop, but it was a fleeting thought and we should have discussed it. Odds are the damage was done at that point, but we would have noticed lesson 2 if we had thought about it. (you can also check hub heat for other issues, if one hub is hotter than the others)
Once we got to Lake Powell, we were meeting people on a house boat down the lake a bit, and needed to haul several people and a lot of gear 30 miles down the lake. In the process, we hit ground and severely damaged the bottom of the boat - tracking fin, prop, rudder, and some spider cracks in the fiber glass, plus more, and I really don't want to run into the details. No one was hurt, so we were lucky. We got lucky again, and drifted to a place we could put the boat where it would not sink, as we were taking on some water around the prop shaft, the bilge could keep up, but still needed to secure the boat, as it would be morning before we could get a tow.
Lesson 4: Know your lake - Although I was using the charts on the boat to review depth and I was generally keeping in the channel, I didn't know that Lake Powell was 30 ft below full pool. That would have been good information to know. Where we hit the depth went from 100+ ft, to 30 ft depth (according to the charts), just a few feet outside of a 200-300 ft depth channel. In reality, 30 ft depth turned out to be 12-18 inches of water, and with a little bit of afternoon shadow, we didn't see it until it was too late. We were the 10th person in 5 days to hit this same rock.
Lesson 5: the 2014 Link system's charts are too slow and too small of a screen to use effectively in more difficult situations like Lake Powell. Fine for situations where depth doesn't change as rapidly.
Lesson 6: Always carry a radio, we were just outside of cell signal when this happened. I now own a hand held marine radio, been planning to get one for a long time.
Lesson 7: Although the boat batteries were not dead, the bilge pump stopped running through the night. The boat would have sank if it had not been secured. This is troubling, and my dealer is looking into why this was the case. I have not figured out why this was the case, so I am not totally sure of the lesson here, I will add more details if I learn, but you should always know if your bilge works.
Lesson 8: Lots of dealers are booked up and busy, it too some research to find someone who could fix the boat right away. We are still at risk of not having the boat this summer, but we dropped the boat off in Dallas, at Buxton's because they had the capacity to get to it. It was also only 2 hours of the way coming back from Powell. It makes the repair a little more expensive, but shipping the boat can be more reasonable than you might expect, so check your options at distance.
Lesson 9: We made the trip too complex by meeting a group half way down a really long lake. If possible, keep vacation simple.
Lesson 5: the 2014 Link system's charts are too slow and too small of a screen to use effectively in more difficult situations like Lake Powell. Fine for situations where depth doesn't change as rapidly.
Lesson 6: Always carry a radio, we were just outside of cell signal when this happened. I now own a hand held marine radio, been planning to get one for a long time.
Lesson 7: Although the boat batteries were not dead, the bilge pump stopped running through the night. The boat would have sank if it had not been secured. This is troubling, and my dealer is looking into why this was the case. I have not figured out why this was the case, so I am not totally sure of the lesson here, I will add more details if I learn, but you should always know if your bilge works.
Lesson 8: Lots of dealers are booked up and busy, it too some research to find someone who could fix the boat right away. We are still at risk of not having the boat this summer, but we dropped the boat off in Dallas, at Buxton's because they had the capacity to get to it. It was also only 2 hours of the way coming back from Powell. It makes the repair a little more expensive, but shipping the boat can be more reasonable than you might expect, so check your options at distance.
Lesson 9: We made the trip too complex by meeting a group half way down a really long lake. If possible, keep vacation simple.
I hope this is helpful to someone else. If I think of any more lessons, I will add them to the thread.
By the way, the vacation wasn't totally a bust, Lake Powell is beautiful. Feels almost like being on an alien planet if you are not used to that scenery.
Regards,
DL
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