DjDaoust
Member
So this happened during my wife and I's week-long boating vacation without kids leaving La Crosse, WI to Dubuque, IA. Waiting to lock through at Lock & Dam 10 in Guttenberg, IA, I noticed that our swim platform was filthy from all the floating debris (flooding up north from us, check out the photo of the water). I plug in the hydraulic controller and drop the swim platform all 4-5 feet under water. Once I went to bring it back up and return it to it's normal position, it locked up on us. Needless to say, we were 100 miles from our home port. So we locked through and pulled into a marina a couple miles north at idle speed. Looking in the bilge, I noticed one of the fluid lines sprung a leak. Trying to think quickly, I called Mr. Frank Webster for advice. He gave me great advice on best way to patch the leak.
The patch was not successful, so the next morning, the local marine tech came down. We was able to pull the 8 ft. line off and bring it into town to have a new one built for $225. SUCCESS!
He replaces the line and fills the reservoir up with fluid. Goes to try the control, NOTHING!!! After going over fix scenerios in his head for two hours, he gives up and says there is nothing he can do. Now what?!?!?
I tell him & my wife that we need to get north. I asked him where the next travel lift might be for a 13 ton vessel. 23 miles upstream north in Prairie du Chien. At idle speed, that 23 miles took 7 hours!
We pulled into a little marina, Regal Marine Group, and two gentlemen began to diagnose our issue. 2 hours into it, we are notified of an inbound storm. They tell us to return the next day at 9am and they will continue to work on it. Fortunately for us, we had friends that were in town camping and we stayed with them in their beautiful park-model.
The next day, we returned and one of the techs informed me that a TNT lift guy will call to help diagnose our issue. He never called....
After a few hours, they decided they needed to pull her. Once pulled, they used a forklift and bleeding the lines to raise it back up into place. 2 hours later, she was up. They rigged it to stay with a chain system.
$1,400 and 24 hours later, we were on our way. The entire family at the marina, and other slip holders were amazing and very accomidating.
Needless to say that those days were a disaster.
The patch was not successful, so the next morning, the local marine tech came down. We was able to pull the 8 ft. line off and bring it into town to have a new one built for $225. SUCCESS!
He replaces the line and fills the reservoir up with fluid. Goes to try the control, NOTHING!!! After going over fix scenerios in his head for two hours, he gives up and says there is nothing he can do. Now what?!?!?
I tell him & my wife that we need to get north. I asked him where the next travel lift might be for a 13 ton vessel. 23 miles upstream north in Prairie du Chien. At idle speed, that 23 miles took 7 hours!
We pulled into a little marina, Regal Marine Group, and two gentlemen began to diagnose our issue. 2 hours into it, we are notified of an inbound storm. They tell us to return the next day at 9am and they will continue to work on it. Fortunately for us, we had friends that were in town camping and we stayed with them in their beautiful park-model.
The next day, we returned and one of the techs informed me that a TNT lift guy will call to help diagnose our issue. He never called....
After a few hours, they decided they needed to pull her. Once pulled, they used a forklift and bleeding the lines to raise it back up into place. 2 hours later, she was up. They rigged it to stay with a chain system.
$1,400 and 24 hours later, we were on our way. The entire family at the marina, and other slip holders were amazing and very accomidating.
Needless to say that those days were a disaster.