Running from Irma with bent trailer!

[djetok]

Hi @djetok we spoke to him. We also spoke to a couple more people and decided that the best course of action is to get the trailer repaired properly even if it takes time rather than go the welding route (which you all have been saying all along). Going to Jacksonville now to a trailer shop that promised to fix it properly by tomorrow evening. Thank you for your support and help.

Great I was worried about you man. Its amazing my wife ever got pregnant I'm such a safety freak

 

[weaselman]

Keeping you in my thoughts. Hoping you get your trailer fixed and eventually make it to Virginia.

 

[zipper]

@Amar Nanduri .. I been following this... U had me worried!

I agree, been thinking about it all afternoon. All I could see in my mind was that thing breaking off, staying on the tow rig with the boat hooked to it, pulling it off the rest of the trailer which flips around and is pulled by the transom straps in traffic. That would really suck.

 

[bronze_10]

In my experience once that metal is bent it looses as much as 75% of its designed strength... moving around a yard prob fine short term but i was worried going down the highway for them. I am glad he is getting it fixed.. I would be worried jacking it up with the boat on it..

 

[Amar Nanduri]

5 more miles to destination. Crack slowly expanding vertically. We are crawling now at minimal speed.

 

[Amar Nanduri]

Finally arrived at this gentlemans place. Thank you all for all of your help and support my dear wonderful brothers. I am truly blessed to have found you all. I will keep you updated tomorrow on what happens. Take care and God bless

 

[Amar Nanduri]

Now that I had dinner and a drink it is time to reflect the madness of the past 24 hours. What made us play Russian roulette? 48 hours back we were having a whale of a time snorkeling in the Keys and preparing for a fun filled couple of days. Next thing I know is that we went to Key West to have a nice dinner and that is when reality struck. Shops started closing early and people were boarding up. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for the visitors on Wednesday morning and for residents on Wednesday evening. That sobered us up real quick. We decided then and there to leave the keys late night rather than wait till morning. Drove back to Marathon Key from Key West and started packing up. The winds have started to pick up and I decided to launch the boat and take it to the boat ramp 1.5 - 2 miles out. My friend went to pick up the trailer and drive it to the ramp and noticed a pull on one side but did not pay much attention. This was my first time navigating in the ocean in the night. The only night time boating experience was in Miami 3-4 days back where I was navigated the ICW from Miami downtown to the haulover marina. So I felt pretty confident that I can tackle the ocean in the night if I am very careful. It took quite sometime to reach the ramp as the water depths are real tricky and fall from 8-9 feet to 1-2 feet without warning. Once we reached the ramp and started loading up the boat we noticed that the tongue was not matching up to the line of sight of the boat . On close examination we noticed that it was bent at an angle. My first thought and suggestion to my friend is that we wait till morning and put the boat in a Boatel for a month and come back once things settle and collect the boat and the trailer once the trailer is fixed. My friend wants to get out of Florida asap and then fix the trailer as we want to get out of the evacuation zone and into safety. Besides our international colleagues flights out of Miami are on Friday evening and we cannot afford to be stuck in the Keys. So we started trailering the boat carefully and on the way changed their tickets to go Friday morning from Washington DC instead of Miami. We could not find any other tickets for them and so was stuck to this schedule . So now we are on a time crunch and on top of that Irma is bearing down. We could already see gas stations getting empty or having long queues.

All my brothers in the forum are suggesting to get the trailer fixed first before we attempt anything further and I completely agree with them 100% . The issue we are facing is that he needs to be in Canada on the weekend and after that will be flying out of the country for quite sometime. So he cannot risk having the trailer and boat here. He wants to get his boat winterized , wrapped in plastic and thrown in storage before he goes off on his travels. At the same time we want to get our colleagues safely to DC so that they can get back home without any issues. So it was a catch 22 we are facing (Irma on one side and a damaged trailer on the other ).

In the end we made a decision to go forward and try to get to Virginia before having the trailer looked at. The trailer ofcourse couldn't keep up and we finally ended up in Jacksonville. We sent our colleagues to DC in a separate vehicle and holed up here hoping the trailer gets fixed by evening.

 

[bronze_10]

Oh you definitely were in a situation with no good answers thats for sure. I was just fearful of the trailer failing and you having a much, much , much larger problem that would potentially include serious injury or worse. However I am not the one stuck in the keys with the monster irma bearing down on me. But the greatest thing about this forum is how everyone is concerned for each other and how badly everyone wants to help. I am glad you are getting it fixed... and I hope its done quickly and you get back to Va with no more drama!!

 

[Amar Nanduri]

Oh you definitely were in a situation with no good answers thats for sure. I was just fearful of the trailer failing and you having a much, much , much larger problem that would potentially include serious injury or worse. However I am not the one stuck in the keys with the monster irma bearing down on me. But the greatest thing about this forum is how everyone is concerned for each other and how badly everyone wants to help. I am glad you are getting it fixed... and I hope its done quickly and you get back to Va with no more drama!!

I totally agree with what you are saying. I have missed out on 2 potential catastrophic disasters due to the support from my brothers here.

1. When @Bruce told me to check my trailer tires. I did so within the next 10 miles when I got to a reat area and saw a badly worn out tire and changed the tire immediately.

2. When all of you were warning me about the crack expanding due to the damage and to keep a close eye on it and I did see it go from bad to worse. I also was provided the suggestion to wrap extra chain from the trailer to the truck to atleast give a fighting chance to bring the trailer under control in case the tongue breaks, while I duly did.

I was not happy with the decisions we had to make. If it was my boat and trailer I would have left it in the keys for sure (Boatel or no Boatel) and spoken to my insurance company on my way back from running away from Irma. Safety is more important to me than a favorite toy that can be replaced. This thing on the road is a runaway missile if the tongue breaks and that has been on the back of my mind every minute. The Bimini crossing felt far easier compared to this in my mind.

I feel that I am alive today due to the help knowledge and support of all my brothers here and I owe you guys a lot.

 

[GoVols01]

Just read through this entire thread and am happy / relieved to see you came to your senses and got the tongue fixed. For me, the liability from an accident alone would have that boat sitting on the trailer in Miami still. You could have killed yourselves or someone else! What's more, with this nice long post with people warning you about the dangers, you would have been very screwed in court, if bad went to worse.

Glad you're all OK now and properly prepared to run from the storm.

 

[dnicholas47]

Obviously a no win situation and arm chair quarterbacking from the comfort of a safe dry home does no good at this point. What I took from this story is the absolute brotherhood (sorry ladies, couldn't think of a better word)of this site. People springing into action looking for repair shops, supplies, etc. Its just flat out amazing and reason #4,192 I am so glad I bought a boat from a member here.

 

[Amar Nanduri]

Just read through this entire thread and am happy / relieved to see you came to your senses and got the tongue fixed. For me, the liability from an accident alone would have that boat sitting on the trailer in Miami still. You could have killed yourselves or someone else! What's more, with this nice long post with people warning you about the dangers, you would have been very screwed in court, if bad went to worse.

Glad you're all OK now and properly prepared to run from the storm.

Thank you. It was my friend driving his truck and boat. I am sitting in the passenger seat with him when this is happening providing him updates from the forum. When the crack started becoming large he finally agreed that we need to get it fixed first before any further movement.

 

[GoVols01]

A little background about me. When I was 10, my parents were taking my brother and me to an event at The Pyramid in Memphis, TN. Somewhere around Memphis on the interstate a tow truck traveling at interstate speed threw a wheel (tire and rim assembly), which became a 200lb wrecking ball barreling down the interstate. First, it hit a car in the rear traveling in the same direction, which caused it to bounce up and over the cement divider and into oncoming traffic. It then bounced completely over a car in front of our van, which is when my dad finally noticed it. It was about 30 ft in the air and heading right at our van. With traffic on both sides, all my dad could do was hit the brakes, but he couldn't avoid it. The tire struck the hood of our 3 week old GMC Safari minivan right beneath the passenger side windshield and then bounced straight into the windshield striking my mom. Even after striking us, the wheel assembly continued rolling down the interstate along the divider until it came to a stop another 500 or so yards away. First responders were amazed to find my mom alive in the carnage. Blood was everywhere!

My mom suffered a shattered wrist, ulna, and radius in her right arm as well as deep cuts to her face, neck, and arm. She underwent several surgeries and a couple years of rehab to repair her arm and wrist, but never regained full movement. Despite plastic surgery, her face too was permanently scarred.

Since the wrecker lost a wheel, the truck had to stop, as he couldn't go anywhere. Police cited him and the company he worked for. Investigation found improper maintenance for the truck and knowingly operating it on a bad axle caused the wheel assembly to sheer off the axle. My parents sued the company, but only got enough to pay for some of the doctor bills we had to pay.

Safety 1st. Always.

 

[dnicholas47]

@GoVols01 I represented a dump truck driver a few years back. One of the wheels that is elevated when driving without a load came loose. Bounced across 4 lanes of traffic on I-75 N, went over the concrete and into the southbound lanes. It landed on top of a car driven by a 20 year old kid driving to the University of Cincinnati killing him instantly. I'm glad for your family that despite your mother's injuries it wasn't worse.

 

[Glen]

A day and a half not looking at the forum and 2 great things have happened.
1. I no longer have the most interesting trailer rescue story.
2. @Amar Nanduri has now had a worse experience than crossing with me to Bimini in '16.
Thank you Amar!!!

This day is looking up!!!

(BTW, just spoke to Amar and we are plotting our next FL boating adventure. Possibly in Dec.

 

[Amar Nanduri]

A little background about me. When I was 10, my parents were taking my brother and me to an event at The Pyramid in Memphis, TN. Somewhere around Memphis on the interstate a tow truck traveling at interstate speed threw a wheel (tire and rim assembly), which became a 200lb wrecking ball barreling down the interstate. First, it hit a car in the rear traveling in the same direction, which caused it to bounce up and over the cement divider and into oncoming traffic. It then bounced completely over a car in front of our van, which is when my dad finally noticed it. It was about 30 ft in the air and heading right at our van. With traffic on both sides, all my dad could do was hit the brakes, but he couldn't avoid it. The tire struck our van right beneath the passenger side windshield and then bounced straight into our 3 week old GMC Safari minivan striking my mom. Even after striking us, the wheel assembly continued rolling down the interstate along the divider until it came to a stop another 500 or so yards away. First responders were amazed to find my mom alive in the carnage. Blood was everywhere!

My mom suffered a shattered wrist, ulna, and radius in her right arm as well as deep cuts to her face, neck, and arm. She underwent several surgeries and a couple years of rehab to repair her arm and wrist, but never regained full movement. Despite plastic surgery, her face too was permanently scarred.

Since the wrecker lost a wheel, the truck had to stop, as he couldn't go anywhere. Police cited him and the company he worked for. Investigation found improper maintenance for the truck and knowingly operating it on a bad axle caused the wheel assembly to sheer off the axle. My parents sued the company, but only got enough to pay for some of the doctor bills we had to pay.

Safety 1st. Always.

Sorry about that @GoVols01 . I will keep your words in mind next time we decide to do anything foolish.

 

[tim h]

Wow !
I didn't have the time to read this whole thread , but I read enough to feel what your going through...
I have been preparing to exit Florida myself. I hauled my boat up to Tennessee and left it by a friend. I had lots of offers from the AWESOME FOLKS here but further west is where I think is best, at least right now. I'm back in Tampa getting ready to join the mass exodus of vehicles heading north... CRAZY, I was southbound I-75 all night and didn't expect to see a steady flow of traffic 3 lanes wide at 2, 3, 4 a.m this morning.... And LOTS of gas stations were out of gas...

I am hoping to get out while we can, and perhaps afterward look back and say "maybe we didn't need to leave" vs. staying back and the storm shifting west and hitting us head on...

Best wishes for you Amar and I hope they get you back on the road soon !

 

[swatski]

Wow !
I didn't have the time to read this whole thread , but I read enough to feel what your going through...
I have been preparing to exit Florida myself. I hauled my boat up to Tennessee and left it by a friend. I had lots of offers from the AWESOME FOLKS here but further west is where I think is best, at least right now. I'm back in Tampa getting ready to join the mass exodus of vehicles heading north... CRAZY, I was southbound I-75 all night and didn't expect to see a steady flow of traffic 3 lanes wide at 2, 3, 4 a.m this morning.... And LOTS of gas stations were out of gas...

I am hoping to get out while we can, and perhaps afterward look back and say "maybe we didn't need to leave" vs. staying back and the storm shifting west and hitting us head on...

Best wishes for you Amar and I hope they get you back on the road soon !

@tim h Saint Louis is looking pretty safe, for now .
Just saying. Drive through TN and we'll be glad to put you up.

--

 

[tim h]

We will keep that in mind !
Thanks @swatski !!

 

[Julian]

@Amar Nanduri hoping your repairs go swiftly!