Not too happy

[sparky216]

Having a great weekend out on the lake, we decide that it's a good time to teach the wife how to trailer the boat. BTW any suggestions would be GREAT!!! Needless to say it didn't go so swell Her approach was great, good speed, direction..........then out of nowhere she cranks the wheel and slams into the guide cover cracking the PVC in halve, then the bow makes a perfect head on connection with the other guide hence breaking it in half all the while making some beautiful racing stripes down the side of my BOAT!!! AUGH

Also lost part of the E decal.....any ideas where to get new decals?

[sparky216]

[sparky216]

[Coach]

#1 rule is never yell at the wife or you will be out of boating fast. My wife made some mistakes at first but is a pro at putting the boat on. Just talk them throught the process and don't be scared to walk out, get wet, and hook up the winch and crank the boat in. Key is keeping the wheel straight and don't yell. Scratches suck but not worth having your wife not want to go boating.

[mtnsmith]

I never yell at my crew, I just raise my voice so that I know they understood the instructions I have given
I used to have to give many more instructions when we had our sailboat, the Tige has made life more pleasant

[sparky216]

I didn't yell, no point in that, she makes the boat payment too and didn't try to scratch the boat. Just sux that's all. She get's soo nervous when it comes to trailering the boat or backing up the trailer.

[talltigeguy]

My wife and I share duties. She backs the trailer and I do the boat. She tends to get nervous too. I think it would be easier and safer to take her to a parking lot and let her practice backing the trailer many times. Or let her practice just nosing the boat into a buoy or life jacket in the water, so she gets the feel. The key with trailering the boat is that you will never get into bad trouble if you go really slow. From the looks of the scratch, she should have went slower or just stopped the engine when things were going bad.

Congratulations on not yelling at her. When your wife is nervous and you yell at her, you are mixing several very volatile elements. Unfortunately, I know from experience.

[Tequilasun]

Congrats on not yelling! That's tough to do sometimes.

My wife is an excellent boat driver, but does get very nervous when trailering. I just let her know that if she has to go around a couple dozen times or something, then I will defend her in the parking lot fight!

But seriously it's just a practice thing, the more you do the better.

I haven't loaded the boat on the trailer for years, and I was very nervous when I did it this last weekend. Stiff wind, big rollers and a cross current didn't help either! So I got a chance to remember what they are dealing with while I am sitting there waiting to hook up.

[dogbert]

Originally posted by talltigeguy
My wife and I share duties. She backs the trailer and I do the boat.

Dude, your wife rocks!

We always tease my buddies when they have trouble backing a trailer, telling them they back like a girl. That all came to an end when we got a new neighbor who's wife knows how to drive the boat better than any of us and knows how to back a trailer. Her husband doesn't know jack about boats, but he's a good cook so it all works out

My wife tried numerous times to back a trailer and finally she gave up and agreed to drive the boat, which she does much better than she gives herself credit for.

As mentioned before, the keys to success are patience (on both ends). In fact, the number 1 rule in boating is don't be in a hurry! If you are, bad things happen.

BTW, a good fiberglass guy can fix your scratches for not a lot of money and you can order new decals from your dealer.

[Moki]

Both my wife and I are making the transition from stern drive to V drive. Right now, I pull the boat up to the dock, run and get the trailer and then drive the boat on the trailer. In the next few trips, I will transition getting my wife to drive the boat.

[Carter13]

I load and unload our boat and my wife drives the trailer. She didn't want me to do both duties. I definately had a learning curve loading our V drive. We have walkie talkies one in the boat and the other in the truck, they really come in handy to let her know which ramp is open.
I wait a good distance from the ramp and when I load I click it into gear with no throttle, at this slow of speed you need to keep correcting your rudder to the left and right to keep the boat straight. I keep it in gear until about 3 feet of my bow is past the guide posts and then click it out of gear. The boat usually glides another 8 feet or so and stops, at that time I throttle up and bring the bow lift ring to around a foot away from the trailer roller. I jump out hook the lift ring and have my wife back the trailer up until the boat floats, about 3 feet then crank it up the rest of the way.

[David Baker]

If your PVC guide post covers float then I suggest adding a screw to keep them in place. I've broken one because it floated up, making the PVC easy to break. Those scratches looks like they can be buffed out and you can order new stickers from any Tige dealer. I'd wait until the end of the season in case you pick up a few more scratches.

My wife has mastered backing the trailer while I put the boat on. We have it down to a science and take pride in our ability to get on and off the ramp in record time.

[sparky216]

David,
Thats good advice about putting a screw in the pipe, a guy at the ramp suggested that to me. I've got new guide covers and will give it a shot, and I will absolutely wait untill the end of the season to fix the scratches.

[xpjim1]

I have tried to teach my wife but she gets too stressed out. Last trip I started to teach my daughter who was with me in the truck, she did a fine job of backing the trailer. This weekend she will be solo with the walkie talkie and I can drive the boat on the trailer instead of pulling it on with a rope.

[BrentRR]

My wife is a pretty good driver also. I know of a couple of guys who can't get their wives to drive so they miss out on wakeboard/ski runs unless someone else is along.

We just don't try to get too fancy when loading the boat. I stopped long ago trying to pull the boat all the way up the trailer bunks.

Now, I back down the trailer, my wife drives the boat to just within the guides and I winch it up. Not that hard to do. She is getting comfortable with this and it seems to take off some of the pressure of trying to drive it all the way.