How the hell?

[18406ej]

I was driving on I-5 Friday afternoon when I passed a 3/4 ton pickup with a rack over the cab. No, nothing special there, but upon the rack over the cab was a full-size jet sled, the type of sled with an open top but with the built-in windshield.

In addition to wondering about the logistics of handling the top-heavy Fred Flintstone mobile, I would like to know WHY the boat was being carried up there in the first place. And HOW did it get up there?

While this method of trailer-free carry offers the obvious ease of launch (Remove hold-down straps, accelerate towards the boat ramp at 35 mph and then whomp on the brakes 25 feet from the water's edge), the reloading of the craft with the rack needing to be two feet below the surface certainly seems problematic. Maybe a snorkel of some type shared by vehicle operator and engine?

I would (seriously) like to know if anyone has insight on this manner of transport.

Thank you,

Eamon

 

[TimberTodd]

I would (seriously) like to know if anyone has insight on this manner of transport.

Thank you,

Eamon

With enough beer all things can appear to be possible. It does make a person wonder.

 

[eugene1]

Sounds like an interesting rig, I have never heard of anything even remotely similar or seen one like it.

At least like the person doesn't have to deal with any trailer problems though.


Best,

 

[rogerdodger]

At least like the person doesn't have to deal with any trailer problems though.

Best,

based on some peoples difficulty backing up their trailers at boat launches, the 'launch from the roof' approach might be better for them...

 

[Modest_Man]

Just jump it in there-

 

[ChezJfrey]

Those guys are a touch crazy...let's hope those hulls are some mixture of carbyne, kevlar and diamonds to withstand the torture they put them through

 

[bernduffy]

Eamon, Is it possible you observed the gentleman transporting his spare vessel, the primary boat/trailer having been left at another location, most probably underwater at a local ramp?

Redundancy, once the refuge of the aerospace industry is now finding application in most modern recreational system platforms.

Not to be confused with "re-dunce-dancy", which is the repetition of incredibly stupid acts in the face of witheringly painful consequences...such as your boat and trailer languishing underwater at a boat ramp.

 

[18406ej]

Bern-

If the boat that I saw was a "spare vessel" then the owner could probably afford to helicopter his craft(s) around in style. This was a large and nice boat... It would also seem logical that a person lacking the sense (SEE ALSO: Stupid) to NOT sink a trailer would, by relation, not be clever enough (SEE ALSO: Dumbsh*t) to NOT also submerge the truck in turn).

I did consider that perhaps the truck was part of a travel trailer combo, but it didn't have a fifth-wheel hitch or any other apparent cumbrance that would require a need for bed space in the truck. Besides, such an arrangement still wouldn't provide answers to my previous questions.

Some day I will figure this all out and be able to sleep again...

E

 

[halibuthitman]

its my opinion, not professional, but an opinion none the less, that you should never wash your lithium down with 12 year old scotch... I have field tested this theory... 11 times... just though I'd throw this out there.

 

[OnTheFly]

Maybe what you saw was one of those amphibious car/boat combo things...

 

[bernduffy]

Um...yeah, ok...nevermind that, then. Back to your engine snorkel device. What if the submerged tail pipe had a reverse hydro-fluxinator coupled with a quantum infuser? That would work wouldn't it?

"... you should never wash your lithium down with 12 year old scotch... " Listen guys, I'm tryin' to talk Eamon down from this hallucination. Let's not introduce obvious reality-based cause and effect solutions. The shock could have serious consequences.

 

[Hawk]

I was driving on I-5 Friday afternoon when I passed a 3/4 ton pickup with a rack over the cab. No, nothing special there, but upon the rack over the cab was a full-size jet sled, the type of sled with an open top but with the built-in windshield.

In addition to wondering about the logistics of handling the top-heavy Fred Flintstone mobile, I would like to know WHY the boat was being carried up there in the first place. And HOW did it get up there?

While this method of trailer-free carry offers the obvious ease of launch (Remove hold-down straps, accelerate towards the boat ramp at 35 mph and then whomp on the brakes 25 feet from the water's edge), the reloading of the craft with the rack needing to be two feet below the surface certainly seems problematic. Maybe a snorkel of some type shared by vehicle operator and engine?

I would (seriously) like to know if anyone has insight on this manner of transport.

Thank you,

Eamon

Eamon, there was a man I used to talk to on www.rv.net who had his boat rigged up like that. He & his wife are fulltime snowbirds who live in their 37' bumper pull trailer. The truck pulls It. He has a motor & cable, also shock absorber like pistons, in his truck bed attached to the track rack/ramp below his boat. He backs up into the water, then tilts the track ramp while extending it & lowering his boat. sliding down into the water while he is releasing cable. Anyway, something like that......

"Where there is the Will, there is a Way"......eace:eace::yikes:

He was catching big crappie at Alamo Lake & catfish & Striped Bass in the Colorado River & Lake Havasu.

 

[bernduffy]

An actual photo of heaven-

I know what you mean: that li'l red raft looks awesome!

 

[bernduffy]

Eamon, there was a man I used to talk to on www.rv.net who had his boat rigged up like that. He & his wife are fulltime snowbirds who live in their 37' bumper pull trailer. The truck pulls It. He has a motor & cable, also shock absorber like pistons, in his truck bed attached to the track rack/ramp below his boat. He backs up into the water, then tilts the track ramp while extending it & lowering his boat. sliding down into the water while he is releasing cable. Anyway, something like that....

Replying for Eamon- I think he's passed out - the jet sled was on the over cab rack, not in the bed of the truck. Thusly the proposed brake-slammer-jammer launch method. What you heard about actually makes sense. What Eamon "saw" was not possible and probably induced by food poisoning or early onset dementia.
BTW: I get to make jokes about that cuz I had to deal with it...so stand down, soldier. Holster that PC pistol.

 

[eugene1]

LOL buddy!

I was thinking on similar lines while looking at the sled!

Best,

I know what you mean: that li'l red raft looks awesome!

 

[DirectDrive]

New boats being hauled from the manufacturer to the dealer are sometimes loaded like this.
Possible that a boat/trailer were dropped off and he was making another delivery.

 

[18406ej]

Redundancy, once the refuge of the aerospace industry is now finding application in most modern recreational system platforms./QUOTE]

Speaking of aerospace redundancy, while I know that Air Force One is maintained more than religiously and that the pilots are the cream of the crop, wings and engines can still unexpectedly just drop off. Wouldn't it make sense then that the President and First Lady would have parachutes or some sort of ejection pod for when the sh*t hits the fan? I can't find confirmation of the existence of such an emergency escape on any Internet source, but I have heard through certain channels that the Presidential Bedroom aboard the plane is itself the pod. These same "channels" report that Hillary and Bill Clinton once came drifting down onto an Iowa cow pasture in the bedroom pod shortly after the whole Monica Lewinsky thing, when a vase thrown by the First Lady struck the triggering device instead of "Good Time" Bill's head.

E "Super Mod" B

 

[troutmasta]

Good ol Bill-

He always could dodge a vase.

 

[bernduffy]

New boats being hauled from the manufacturer to the dealer are sometimes loaded like this.
Possible that a boat/trailer were dropped off and he was making another delivery.

Speaking of Bill Clinton, while the rest of us have been screwin' around, I think Direct Drive probably hit the bullseye.

 

[18406ej]

Yes, thank you DirectDrive and Hawk for the only two common sense responses on this entire thread. Now I can sleep again.

Speaking of Bill Clinton, although the man was perhaps a bit of a strumpet, he was a hell of a President that knew how to build a surplus rather than accruing the trillions of dollars that we are now in debt. The man was also one hell of a socializer. I met him once when running a motorcycle escort while he was in Oregon. Once we had safely delivered Bill to the airport we all got to have a photo taken with him as a personal momento. When it was my turn he shook my hand and looked me in the eyes, and 4 seconds later he had his arm around my shoulder and was whispering sweet nothings into my ear that not only cracked me up but that had me blushing like a schoolgirl as well. He never did call me like he promised he would...

Speaking of Richard Nixon, he was one hell of a President as well and did more to help end the war in Vietnam than any of the Presidents before him had even attempted to do. His ground-breaking visit to Communist China is said to have had an enormous influence on the course of events that would eventually topple the USSR (Pope John Paul II was the second greatest influence of course, while all Reagan did was show up in Berlin to read a tough-sounding demand to Gorbachev written by a White House intern, while the Russians on the other side had already almost chipped through the wall anyway). Poor old Dick was a man haunted by a psychotic Quaker mother who had driven him to a fanatical desire to look good by way of political success. Of course it was the belted plaid-gabardine slacks and polyester leisure jackets of the time that pushed him to lie, and given everything else about the early 1970's I in no way, shape or form blame him.

I do not like to speak negatively about any man undergoing the mental and hair-greying physical stress of the Presidency, but I did hear on the news this morning that Obama has overseen a national deficit that has grown during his tenure to such a point that the increase itself is more than the increases of ALL of the other presidents combined.

A sad state of affairs- oh wait, that was Clinton!

Good night,

God Bless You and God Bless These United States of America.