First Sea Ray purchased and on its way home

RollerCoastr said:
No chaser required for that?

This girl towed too easily.

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I had her loaded tongue-heavy. The truck didn't care, and the stability was awesome. The problem was it was too heavy for the actuator, so at one point in traffic and slick roads, I dragged the brakes. My first "thought" was actually, "bummer - someone's losing an engine". Then I realized the smoke was coming from my trailer brakes. (brand new btw)

She's now sitting 15" further back. I haven't pulled her yet. The actuator will be happy, but I can only hope I don't lose stability.

Funny thing about a 280: They're 28 feet long. The 330 is probably close to 37'?
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That’s a nice boat you got there!
It’s 35’ with the bow pulpit, the trailer is 40’, with a 2’ hang over the rear. As far as any pilot cars, none are required in any of the states I’m going through. But they all have different rules. I think Iowa was 12’ with no pilot car but South Dakota was 14’. Then some of the states you can run 24/7 up to 12’ or 14’ then some like NY say no oversize loads on Sundays or between sunrise and sundown and only until noon on Saturdays. Have to look at the permit instructions for every one and plan the times of your trip around that. Also, I have to avoid toll booths because in most states they are 10’ and only some have an oversize lane. You are actually required to plan your whole route through each state for each state’s permit process and some need extra insurance like Montana needs $1,000,000 of liability insurance. Truckrouter.com made planning a route for the overwidth pretty easy and Mercury Permits has been awesome getting permits.
 
RollerCoastr said:
I meant rear or lead. Did you use one of those services to pull all the permits, or do it yourself?
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Also Mercury Permits gives discounts to BoatUS members if you happen to be in that group.
 
RollerCoastr said:
Cool - I hope you keep up updated throughout the trip!
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So far smooth sailing, had a couple of trailer flats when I first started out in New York. Stopped and got the trailer all new tires. Now I’m in Billings, Montana for the night. About 12 more hours to go.
 
Now this is a boating story - nice boat, impressed at you taking on a cross country tow like that. Be careful as you bring it back to the barn!
 
Harborite88 said:
So far smooth sailing, had a couple of trailer flats when I first started out in New York. Stopped and got the trailer all new tires. Now I’m in Billings, Montana for the night. About 12 more hours to go.
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I made the mistake of putting only 40psi in a 50 psi trailer tire. Didn’t make that mistake again. I’m assuming your tires were just old?
 
Todd320 said:
I made the mistake of putting only 40psi in a 50 psi trailer tire. Didn’t make that mistake again. I’m assuming your tires were just old?
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Yeah, the tires were just old, the new tires have been right at their 90 psi rating for the last 2,500 miles and no issues.
 
BillK2632 said:
Now this is a boating story - nice boat, impressed at you taking on a cross country tow like that. Be careful as you bring it back to the barn!
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Thanks! Definitely taking it easy on the last leg.
 
Boat hauling update for today, I’m at a Loves truck stop outside of Ritzville, WA about 240 miles from home. Too exhausted to think that making the rest of the trip tonight was a safe idea. Plus I think the truck stop food is starting to get to me. LOL

Had some complications, was pulled over by Montana Motor Carrier Services for a random weight/dimension/permit check. Everything was squared away except I forgot to put a strobe light on the truck when I got into Montana so I was cited $130 for that.

MCS then escorted me to an Aquatic Invasive Species checkpoint where they found one of the infamous Zebra Mussels on my starboard trim tab actuator. So the AIS guys had to hot pressure wash my hull and locked my boat to my trailer, so I couldn’t launch it.

Shortly afterwards a Washington state boat inspector called me and said that Olympia was freaking out that I potentially had Zebra Mussels on or in my boat and that I would be checked by Idaho AIS then by him at the state line.

Idaho didn’t find any more and Washington hadn’t either but they couldn’t take the lock off yet without consulting some higher ups. All these inspectors and enforcememt officers were all real nice and professional people. But, this did take some time and add some stress to one of the end stages of a long journey.

As I was pulling into Loves a Washington state fish and wildlife captain called me to make sure that I was going straight to the Puget Sound and if that was the case I could cut the lock off. He was also real nice and appreciative of my cooperation.

So that’s where I’m at now. Thanks everybody for listening to the journey of the wandering Sundancer and offering all the kind words, advice, and asking questions. Decided after all this to name her “Wanderer”, like the sailboat in Captain Ron. Plus it goes along with the saying around the vegvisir in my profile pic, which is kind of cool. I’ll update with a pic when she’s finally in the water. Might be Saturday though so I don’t get in the middle of point defiance ferry traffic.
 
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Turns out 2018 F250s are made out of aluminum and magnetic strobes won’t stick, so duct tape.
 
Quite a story! I love the duct taped strobe. Nicely done.

Invasive species are no joke. It's kind nice to hear they are taking it so seriously though it sounds like a hassle. At least you've had good experiences with the folks you've dealt with.

Get that thing home already!
 
Great story! I really love reading the updates. Could a zebra mussel really say alive for the entire trip?
 
Stee6043 said:
Quite a story! I love the duct taped strobe. Nicely done.

Invasive species are no joke. It's kind nice to hear they are taking it so seriously though it sounds like a hassle. At least you've had good experiences with the folks you've dealt with.

Get that thing home already!
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Thanks I thought it was innovative. LOL

The WDFW captain told me that their main concern is the Colombia River. He said that if they were to get an infestation there it could cost the state around $100 million to mitigate as well as deal quite a bit of damage to the ecosystem of a bunch of protected species. I definitely understand the emphasis.
 
NotHerDecision said:
Great story! I really love reading the updates. Could a zebra mussel really say alive for the entire trip?
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Thanks! Not sure how long a Zebra Mussel can live out of the water, but the Idaho inspectors told me their policy was vessels out of the water for 30 days before saying they are "safe". Also, one coming from the Great Lakes is considered an even higher risk.
 
BillK2632 said:
I don't know, but the same sort of attention is on trailer boaters on lakes around here because of Hydrilla, which is just as bad as Zebra Mussels.
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In my previous job we would have to take power pole trailers and line trucks to different state park locations and some times they had noxious weed checks. This was for any truck or trailer. Sounds like when an outside species of anything starts to invade it can really cause some damage.
 
The zebras are terrible. We're on Lake Ontario, where this boat came from, and they're everywhere. They've destroyed fish populations (with the help of the Gobi, which eats all the food that bass usually live on as well as their eggs)

Just last year a 19' bow rider scraped his boat in the fall after a season in Irondequoit bay, he filled TWO 5 gallon pails with them
 
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