I was talking to a guy at the docks last week......he was telling me it takes him roughly 60min of drive time to get to the lake! DAMN! So I thought I would ask what is your average time? We trailer our boat for the past two years....by the time I get her out of the garage, cover off, cooler filled and kids in the truck I can be on the lake in 35mins. Well that is IF my wife isn't deciding on another damn bathing suit. My actual drive time is only 15mins though.
Excluding the wife factor...I can have the boat loaded and be at the lake in 15mins. The drive time is actually about 8mins. This is assuming i don't need fuel.
im a 300 foot walk down to my lake. it takes me about 5 mins to pack a cooler and hit the water. ;)
I am lucky to keep my boat in the lake all the time. Right now I am at work, my boat is ~100 feet from me. If I keep it at my family's house on the lake, it's about 6 min from work, 15 from home.
But now with a 1-year-old, even if we're already at the lake, it's at least 15-20 minutes from the decision to go boating to actually leaving the dock!
20 minute drive from my house to the lake house where the boat is. Push of a button and it is in the water 3 minutes later.
My boat sits in water (6 month/year) 20min from my home, 10min from my work. I just come with fuel cans, and we are 5min from the speed zone :)
From the time I pull into my driveway to being in the water is 15 minutes. Boat launch is 1 mile away. I'm spoiled but not as much as some on here!
I have everyone topped. I drive roughly 2 hours 15 minutes from my house to my cottage every weekend. I live in Syracuse ny and have a cottage on devil lake in ontario Canada. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Beautiful pristine lake with very little boat traffic. Even on the windiest of days I can always find flat water for skiing.
Wow, after reading all the first posts a was really starting to feel sorry for myself! I'm about an hour drive from either of the lakes we frequent. Just goes to show, everyone has a little something to be thankful for!
From my house to the first lake we frequent is an hour, the next lake just south of there is another 20mins, so anywhere from an hour to an hour twenty each way. This does not include packing the boat and dealing with the wife.
We live at the lake full time( a life long dream for us) so the boat sits on a lift at our dock. A three minute walk!
11 mile drive, 18 minutes drive time from home to the launch. Once we launch, one of our typical play areas is about 5 to 10 minutes via boat. The other requires that we cruise through like 25 minutes of no wake zone to get there. We have a friend that we sometimes go out with that lives on a houseboat in the no wake zone, so if he is coming along we pick him up off the water.
"getting ready" involves:
- take off boat cover if necessary (me)
- unhook float chargers from batteries (me)
- Take 4 boards out of garage and put in boat (me)
- Pack cooler with snacks/beverages (wife)
- Pack bag with towels and dry snacks (wife)
- Grab parking pass off the fridge (wife)
- Hitch up the truck (me)
- remove wheel chocks (wife)
If we're going multiple days in a row, we might leave the truck hitched up to the trailer.
There's other launches on the river that are farther away. There's a smaller lake about 30 minutes away. There's a few more that are 45 to 60+ minutes away.
We haven't done any lakes yet, just have been riding on the Columbia River. We kinda like the idea of a quick drive there/home and can usually have enough fun on the river. We have some amazing lakes in Central Oregon that are a few hours away for weekend trips...
45 to the closest, up to 2 hours If I want nice glass.
We live across the street from the lake. My in-laws live on the lake 2 houses down from us. We keep all our toys there. Not a bad deal.
I'm pretty lucky. GF usually gets home before me and has the cover off, carpet vacuumed, charger unhooked, cooler iced up and everything else ready. I leave the truck hooked up about 90% of the time so it's usually just throw a suit on and go....Quote:
Originally Posted by trayson
Not bad. We both get off work at 4pm and it's about 15 minutes from work to home. If I really wanted, I could prep some of that stuff and shorten our lead time. It hasn't been a huge deal thus far as our 3rd is typically not ready as soon as we could be.Quote:
Originally Posted by wotan2525
"Our" truck is really *her* truck. So, to have it hitched up ahead of time means that she isn't driving her vehicle. I have a Jeep, BMW, Audi and Motorcycle for myself, so giving her the Audi to drive is no biggie; but she likes to driver her own truck, so I indulge her most the time. Hey, I have to be nice to the tow rig owner, right???
700 meters from driveway to boat launch. About a 2 minute drive.
I hate every one of you that is closer than my 15 minute drive.
:p
I think my friend Vince has one of the best though... He lives in a house boat (rented) on the Columbia River. He walks about 15 feet out his sliding glass door and his boat is tied to the deck of his houseboat. (although he does have the "downside" of having to idle at 5mph for 10 minutes until he's out of the no wake zone).
O bumber, have to be on the water to get to the play area.. I would live to have a commute to work that I can choose the boat or the car in the morning.
From Binghamton, NY to Keuka Lake (our house to my grandmas cottage) 2 hours door to door. Hop on I81-S, go through Binghamton to RT17-W pop movie in, hit cruise 74 mph...
I am 1 hour drive time to the Potomac river with good traffic on the interstate, and 2 1/2 hours to the closest lake in the next state(PA). My dream is to live on a lake, but the one closest to us does not allow any homes within about a mile of the shore. Plus with the kid in college, and my job near D.C. it will have to wait....one day....
It takes about 20 minutes for me to get to the closest lake. Depends who is going out. During the week I kind of like going to Griggs which is about 35 minutes away. But it is pretty much just boarders and surfers. The water is always nice and flat. This year most of my regular crew quit going boarding with me. Really just one, he started dating my daughter and I guess she doesn't like him going on the boat with me. Apparently she is jealous of the boat, since I no longer have much interest in horses.
A dusty hot horse arena or having fun on the water. I will take the water every time.
And since he doesn't go, his friends don't go either. So I have some new guys that go out now. One is an awesome barefooter and pretty good on the airchair. I bought an airchair and few weeks ago and have been trying to learn it. But it isn't easy. So Griggs is a little closer to the new guys. I get off work at 2:30 pm and can be home and on the water by 3:30 or 4 at the latest. Just depends if the boat needs fuel.
On the weekends it is usually the wife and I and maybe some family or friends that aren't into boating or boarding very much. We usually go to Deer Creek and take a ride around the lake and then sit in the cove the rest of the day. It is busy and usually choppy from the traffic so just sitting and relaxing is what we do.
Planning on going out after work tomorrow. Supposed to be 95 degrees tomorrow and by Friday a high of 66. Water temps will be cooling off soon. Not looking forward to putting the boat away. Hoping to get out into October.
That's the beauty of having a closed bow or a bow cover for the open bows. Get out earlier in the season and stay out later. I didn't pull my boat out of the lift or winterize until a week or two before Halloween. :p Not bad for Yankee country as I am sure the Georgia boys will point out that they only take a month or two off from boating.Quote:
Originally Posted by gogger
I have a bow cover, but have only used the snap in air dam that goes from the bottom of the windshield and blocks the walk through.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetlink
The heater is nice too.
I'm in GA.......so yes my boat does NOT get winterized til early or mid November at best. While saying that, at the same time my boat isn't outside so it doesn't really need to be either. My garage is heated, so no worries about cracking a block or anything(yes I do regular maintenance). I was thinking my drive sucked in some ways but reading some I feel a lot better, grass isn't always greener I suppose. With a boy in college and a daughter that will be following him next year my lake house will have to wait so I guess I should be thankful I still own a boat and can get out a couple of times a week.
its better to have a full tank over winter rather than empty. Reason being, air expands and contracts very easy with temp change. An empty gas tank in a boat has tons of air is empty, this allows moisture to build up giving you some nasty gas for next year... I always fill up with gas and sta-bil. Never had a problem...
It's best to run it dry and change the water separator in the spring. Cheaper too. It will also give you about a month of gas in a fuel efficient car to burn over the winter!
We put Stab-il in our gas when we winterize and NEVER had a problem with "old" gas.... stuff work greatQuote:
Originally Posted by villain
That's just we were taught at mercruiser school. It's way easier to fight condensation in the fuel than it is to fight bad gas. This comes from experience and school.
Do you even know what one looks like or where it is in that Rider of yours? Wait, don't answer that...we all know that you know every square inch of that boat.Quote:
Originally Posted by ngavdba
hmmm... Is the little orange Fram fuel filter in my comp even a separator?? I've never touched it, dont think my dad has either...
In spring I emptied the water separator in our CC (has a proper full sized filter/separator with water bowl and drain from factory) for the first time since buying it in 2010 and boy, for the first few seconds that sure wasn't gas!
The orange 'Fram' housing is a separator. It should have a small drain on the bottom of it. I replace the filter every year, and use 'Stabil'. Boat sits out in the cold. I feel sorry for her, But have not had any problems yet!
I use seafoam myself. never had any issue. even with 8 months of storage in the barn.
I can never seem to find the wheel bearings on my PCM! Are they under the flux capacitor?
Every spring I repack mine. Cheap insurance.
ohh I am guilty of not checking the bearing on either trailer for a while. We packed the Supra bearings (bearing buddies) when we moved from TX to NY. But haven't done them since... Haven't done the CC since we bought it in 2010... :(
I grease my wheel bearing everytime i trailer the boat. A few years back i watched my trailer tire fly past me on my old CC barefoot nautique because i forgot to grease them. Thats a mistake you only make once.... good thing my boat is moored on the lake all season, so i usually only have 2 opportunites a year to forget.
Now it is 10 mins but I used to have about 15-20 mins or even an hour if we stayed at my parents shorehouse.