A question about 4x4 with relation to boat ramps...

T

trist007

Member
I had a 2010 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 manual access cab. I love it but I needed more room. So I got a 2015 Sierra 1500 truck but it does not have 4x4. What concerns me is that if I have a boat and I back it into the water to the point where my rear wheels of my truck are in the water a bit, that some surfaces near boat ramps will be incredibly slimy and slippery. Without 4x4 I may just get no traction at all pulling the boat out or in the case that I back in too far. Or is this a non issue? and 4x4 is not really necessary. It would be nice to have in a situation like that. I only have a laser and sunfish so it's not a lot of weight but in the event that I get a heavier boat.

-Tristan
 
Tidal water? With the vast variations in ramps, tides and everything else the only answer is "possibly". I pull my 4500 lb Supra out with my F250 PS without ever using 4wdbut that is at the same ramp on fresh water.
 
i currently own a 4x4 and wont buy a 2x4 again. but if i got a 2x4 i would buy a locker for the rear, that way you put the power down, not just spinning the wheel with least traction
 
At all 5 boat ramps I use for sailing my Laser out here in California, I've had to use the 4WD on my 05 Toyota Tacoma at one time or another.

Most of the time I don't have it in 4WD as I'm backing down, but on a regular basis when I put it in gear and start to drive back up the ramp, my rear tires spin a bit.

Nothing like returning to the ramp at the end of the day to find it's dead low tide, the algae and silt at the bottom of the ramp are exposed and the full length of the ramp is soaking wet... from all the boats and trailers that have been removed from the water over the previous couple of hours.

- Andy
 
Here's a bit of a trick that actually does work- if you put a bit of tension on the parking brake (so it's dragging a little, not locking), it will minimize all the torque going to the tire with the least traction. Not limited slip, but it does help. 2WD trucks and boats don't mix very well, do they?!
 
Can you fit a front tow bar? That way driven wheels on 2WD more likely to be out of slippery stuff.
As an aside do you Americans really use your vehicle to take a laser out of the water? In my 45 years dinghy sailing in UK & now Thailand I can honestly say I have never trailed a boat out of the water that includes Enterprises, OKs, Solos. All heavier than a Laser which I now sail. I have always used a Launching Trolley (I believe you all call that a Dolly) pulled out by hand.
 
Ceebee2 said:
Can you fit a front tow bar? That way driven wheels on 2WD more likely to be out of slippery stuff.
As an aside do you Americans really use your vehicle to take a laser out of the water? In my 45 years dinghy sailing in UK & now Thailand I can honestly say I have never trailed a boat out of the water that includes Enterprises, OKs, Solos. All heavier than a Laser which I now sail. I have always used a Launching Trolley (I believe you all call that a Dolly) pulled out by hand.
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Almost exclusively dollies for anything single-handed. Double-handed, it depends on the boat. For anything up to the size of a 505 or 470, sailors try to use a dolly if they have one.

I have road trailer for my Laser that could be backed in the water (a Kitty Hawk), but in 15 years it has never been submerged. I had completely forgotten how to back a trailer, which presented some difficulty when I had to rent a trailer to haul off some landscape debris a few months ago. A little practice and I was able to back the trailer again.

Having the stepped mast and no halyard, the Laser doesn't really lend itself well to being backed in to the water. Would not be fun with the sailing flapping around in the breeze.
 
Ceebee2 said:
As an aside do you Americans really use your vehicle to take a laser out of the water?
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This is close to the definition of "cultural difference". Here in Scandinavia, using a motor vehicle to launch a boat the size of the Laser hasn't probably even crossed anyone's mind, ever. It's almost as if the American rule of thumb is "if you have a chance to use fossil fuel, do it".

torrid said:
Almost exclusively dollies for anything single-handed. Double-handed, it depends on the boat. For anything up to the size of a 505 or 470, sailors try to use a dolly if they have one.
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Except at a few regattas in other countries, I have never used anything but muscle power to get my Lightning back on shore, and it weighs more than 300 kg even without the road trailer which we use as trollies as well. And back in the 1980s and earlier, we didn't even have trollies for boats smaller than the 470... we simply carried them into and out of the water.
 
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LaLi said:
This is close to the definition of "cultural difference". Here in Scandinavia, using a motor vehicle to launch a boat the size of the Laser hasn't probably even crossed anyone's mind, ever. It's almost as if the American rule of thumb is "if you have a chance to use fossil fuel, do it".
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Introducing 'cultural differences' and 'fossil fuels' into this conversation is a non-sequitur. Just realize that many of us (like me) don't have the luxury of leaving our Laser on a dolly at a club (which can be quite expensive). Moreover, I sail at different locations.
 
Wavedancer said:
Introducing 'cultural differences' and 'fossil fuels' into this conversation is a non-sequitur.
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No it's not. Ceebee2 and I simply pointed out that people do things differently in different places. Collective favouring of either a motorized or a manual solution to a problem is actually a pretty good example of a cultural difference. Neither is necessarily universally better or worse, they're just products of different lines of evolution.
... many of us (like me) don't have the luxury of leaving our Laser on a dolly at a club (which can be quite expensive). Moreover, I sail at different locations.
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Isn't this a non sequitur? That is, does the method of launching by necessity follow from things like the level of club fees? I would most likely cartop my Laser and launch it on a trolley even in your situation, just because that's what I'm used to, and what I've learned to think in my sailing culture as "normal".
 
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