Boat Trailering Safety: Tips and Tricks

Trailering a boat can be dangerous (read Avoid This Trailering Disaster for one example why) and you need to make sure you head down the highway with safety in mind. This is front-and-center in my head these days, since I just finished shooting the Ram/boats.com Tips for Trailering series. The first video, Safety Tips for Trailering a Boat, focused on the things you can do before and during towing to keep things safe, and naturally, working on this one hit close to home. Whether you’re a full-time tower or a newbie, you might want to check this out.

In the second video of the series we focused on the special challenger hunters face—towing in mud or sand, launching at ramps that are sub-standard or too shallow to properly launch, and those sorts of problems. Again, safety is a key word, in this one. If you’re a waterfowl hunter or you use your boat to get to remote hunting locations, believe me, it’ll be of interest.

We put a ton of time, research, and effort into developing these videos to cover all aspects of towing that we trailer boaters face on a regular basis. But since we focused on towing with a new vehicle, there was one thing we didn’t cover—something I’d like to touch on right now: back-up cameras. Our Ram came equipped with one, as do most modern vehicles used for towing. But if you have an older tow vehicle, you may not have one. Here’s the cool thing: you can get a wireless aftermarket back-up camera which will both increase your safety margin when operating in reverse AND make it a heck of a lot easier to align the tow hitch properly on the first try, for a mere hundred bucks. If this is news to you, just hit Amazon or Google and see for yourself. Since they’re wireless you just hang the camera on your license plate, and put the LCD display on your dash (or in some cases, clip it to the rear-view mirror). And, did I mention that they only cost a hundred bucks!?!?

After spending a week with the camera-equipped Ram, I knew my next purchase would be one of these aftermarket back-up cams. They really do make life a lot easier—and safer—for a trailer-boater.