NightTrain
07-17-2015, 11:26 AM
My brother finally got around to uploading his pics from the 4th of July.
One of our missions that weekend was to haul up a Suzuki King Quad 4-wheeler and a few sheets of 3/4" MDX plywood that weighs 70# per sheet.
Lee told me his wheeler weighed about 300 pounds or so, and the sheets of plywood came in at 350#. I figured it would be a bit heavy on the stern, but manageable, so we went for it. We loaded the plywood and then put his ramps on the gunnels, and he drove his wheeler up onto the plywood.
The first indication that his estimate of that King Quad's weight was WAY off was when the full weight of it was applied to the boat - the water almost came over the gunnel. When he parked it on top the plywood, the boat leveled off and the dive platform was a few inches under the water... hmmm.
"Hey, Lee, that wheeler is a hell of a lot heavier than 300. The gunnels almost swamped when you went up the ramp!", I said.
"I don't know.. maybe 350? I've never weighed it.", he said.
Since it was already loaded, I figured if I put some extra gas and Lee up in the bow to help balance it, we'd still get her up on step. The boat certainly wasn't acting like 700#, and if I couldn't get her up on step (hydroplaning), there's no way I could make it to the cabin because the river is only a couple of inches deep in places. Hydroplaning is mandatory. It didn't help that I had a full load of fuel on board.
So we idled down to the railroad bridge below the launch and I nosed into the current of the channel I needed to take. I opened up the throttle and the 302 came to life.
The bow came up so we were sitting at a 45 degree angle, and we weren't making any headway upstream. I pushed the throttle to max, and the 302 responded, screaming at maximum RPM... we started moving about 1 MPH upstream, the hull still at that ridiculous 45 degree angle. I yelled at Lee to lean over the bow, I needed more weight up front. I leaned out of the windshield to help get more weight shifted up front, we still weren't coming up on step.
At this point, we were right at the railroad bridge with Lee hanging over the front, plowing water and the engine howling, going nowhere fast. I looked up and as luck would have it, there were about 30 tourists standing on the railroad bridge right above us, all taking pictures and video of these two knuckleheads abusing a horribly overloaded (mostly poorly loaded) boat. They had plenty of time to get as many shots as they wished.
I could feel the boat wanting to come up, we just needed a little bit more thrust to get her up. After about 5 minutes, we wallowed over to where the water started getting shallow. I knew if I got shallow enough, I could gain extra thrust from the jet pushing off the bottom of the river, but the trick was not to actually get too shallow or I'd suck rocks into the jet - which is to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, it got shallow enough and she started to come up - the exhaust ports on the stern came out of the water and the roar of the engine got exponentially louder. 30 seconds later, we were up on step. Success!
As soon as it came fully on step, it started porpoising. Violently. Lee was holding on for dear life up on the bow. All I could do was reduce throttle, and I did so... and she immediately started coming back down. Full throttle. 3/4 throttle. Full throttle. 3/4 throttle. I found that I had to maintain a state of "almost all the way on step but not quite" the whole way up - it was a delicate balancing act, and I had to time it so that we went over the shallow spots when I was on step with the vicious porpoising effect. Lee was miserable up there, but it couldn't be helped. Besides, it was his fault for not knowing how heavy his 4-wheeler was, the bastard.
The good news was that I was burning fuel at an alarming rate, and that meant less weight. Those 4-barrels were kicked in and the Holley is a greedy unit at those settings. It took us an hour and a half to get up to the cabin and we ended up burning 20 gallons of fuel, where it usually takes me 40 minutes and 6 gallons.
That night, I went on google to look up the weight : the closest I could find was a King Quad 10 years newer and that had a dry weight of 699 pounds - and his was an older, heavier version, plus a front and rear rack and a winch.
Anyway, my brother got these pictures as we came in :
http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7488&stc=1
One of our missions that weekend was to haul up a Suzuki King Quad 4-wheeler and a few sheets of 3/4" MDX plywood that weighs 70# per sheet.
Lee told me his wheeler weighed about 300 pounds or so, and the sheets of plywood came in at 350#. I figured it would be a bit heavy on the stern, but manageable, so we went for it. We loaded the plywood and then put his ramps on the gunnels, and he drove his wheeler up onto the plywood.
The first indication that his estimate of that King Quad's weight was WAY off was when the full weight of it was applied to the boat - the water almost came over the gunnel. When he parked it on top the plywood, the boat leveled off and the dive platform was a few inches under the water... hmmm.
"Hey, Lee, that wheeler is a hell of a lot heavier than 300. The gunnels almost swamped when you went up the ramp!", I said.
"I don't know.. maybe 350? I've never weighed it.", he said.
Since it was already loaded, I figured if I put some extra gas and Lee up in the bow to help balance it, we'd still get her up on step. The boat certainly wasn't acting like 700#, and if I couldn't get her up on step (hydroplaning), there's no way I could make it to the cabin because the river is only a couple of inches deep in places. Hydroplaning is mandatory. It didn't help that I had a full load of fuel on board.
So we idled down to the railroad bridge below the launch and I nosed into the current of the channel I needed to take. I opened up the throttle and the 302 came to life.
The bow came up so we were sitting at a 45 degree angle, and we weren't making any headway upstream. I pushed the throttle to max, and the 302 responded, screaming at maximum RPM... we started moving about 1 MPH upstream, the hull still at that ridiculous 45 degree angle. I yelled at Lee to lean over the bow, I needed more weight up front. I leaned out of the windshield to help get more weight shifted up front, we still weren't coming up on step.
At this point, we were right at the railroad bridge with Lee hanging over the front, plowing water and the engine howling, going nowhere fast. I looked up and as luck would have it, there were about 30 tourists standing on the railroad bridge right above us, all taking pictures and video of these two knuckleheads abusing a horribly overloaded (mostly poorly loaded) boat. They had plenty of time to get as many shots as they wished.
I could feel the boat wanting to come up, we just needed a little bit more thrust to get her up. After about 5 minutes, we wallowed over to where the water started getting shallow. I knew if I got shallow enough, I could gain extra thrust from the jet pushing off the bottom of the river, but the trick was not to actually get too shallow or I'd suck rocks into the jet - which is to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, it got shallow enough and she started to come up - the exhaust ports on the stern came out of the water and the roar of the engine got exponentially louder. 30 seconds later, we were up on step. Success!
As soon as it came fully on step, it started porpoising. Violently. Lee was holding on for dear life up on the bow. All I could do was reduce throttle, and I did so... and she immediately started coming back down. Full throttle. 3/4 throttle. Full throttle. 3/4 throttle. I found that I had to maintain a state of "almost all the way on step but not quite" the whole way up - it was a delicate balancing act, and I had to time it so that we went over the shallow spots when I was on step with the vicious porpoising effect. Lee was miserable up there, but it couldn't be helped. Besides, it was his fault for not knowing how heavy his 4-wheeler was, the bastard.
The good news was that I was burning fuel at an alarming rate, and that meant less weight. Those 4-barrels were kicked in and the Holley is a greedy unit at those settings. It took us an hour and a half to get up to the cabin and we ended up burning 20 gallons of fuel, where it usually takes me 40 minutes and 6 gallons.
That night, I went on google to look up the weight : the closest I could find was a King Quad 10 years newer and that had a dry weight of 699 pounds - and his was an older, heavier version, plus a front and rear rack and a winch.
Anyway, my brother got these pictures as we came in :
http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7488&stc=1