Backed in too deep

It was my birthday yesterday, so I went to the river for an evening therapy session.  We found a guy launching his nice MC, but he backed in too deep and the trailer wheels dropped off the concrete pad.  It was really stuck.  He called for help and a wrecker came.  However, I feared if they simply yanked it out, they'd destroy the trailer.  I'd seen this problem on misc ramp folly videos, so knew the solution was to lift the trailer, but the crowd of slack-jawed, nay-saying gawkers was causing in paralysis by analysis.  Finally, my buddy & I jumped in and demonstrated we could actually lift the trailer.  We gave it a go and his Traverse easily pulled it out in creeper gear.  

Takeaways were not to back in too far; the buoyancy effect on trailer weight and; not to get in the way of a man's ski run on his birthday.  

Sorry I didn't think to take pics of his trailer fiasco, but here's me succeeding!!!

Replying late to the thread ....

John, way to go in helping that guy out.  I try to always offer help at ramps if I'm waiting, especially for older folk (like my age ).  It's definitely a scene that is never boring.

I try to be patient, not everyone is experienced, not everyone is logical in how they go about it, but most people are just trying to have a fun day on the water, or are at the end of a fun day.  Yes, I've run into occasional aholes that know it all and hold up the ramp, but mostly what I see is if people are uptight it's because they are nervous or embarassed, just need some cheerful help.

Back to John's experience, I've backed off a couple of ramps over the years, when water was lower and I didn't realize how far back on the ramp I was.  I've been able to yank the trailer out without damage, I think in both cases rather than the wheels hanging they were on a muddy bottom behind the ramp so there was some rubber to bear against the ramp end.  Not fun.