A guy I used to know lost his truck to a slippery L. Michigan launch. Algae....I once had my truck break loose and slide down an icy launch ramp but once my rear wheels hit the submerged part of the ramp it stopped. No ice there. It was definitely a pucker moment...Back when I was much younger a friend and I used to be out with ice chiselss,scrapers and salt just to be the first on the river and the first to pound wintering holes. Occasionally - nowadays - some young guy will call us p-ssys for staying home when water temps are 35 and air temps are 25 and ice chunks are floating down river. If it's sunny and calm nice. If it's breezy and overcast? Let the young guys puff their chest out and act like they're the first to ever do it.

After reading this I just might pick up a wheel chock or two. I do the typical.. put it in 4-wheel mode, park and e-brake. Sounds like that might not be enough in the case of a one-off event. Sorry to hear about your vehicle, and good call not jumping in afterwards. The new VW sounds nice. Enjoy.

Sure, maybe they work better in forward motion depending on what type of brake they are but your original comment that "E-brakes are not designed to work in reverse" is not accurate. A properly adjusted parking brake is designed to be adequate to hold the vehicle from rolling forwards or backwards.

Kids are never in the truck at the ramp. I've laid in bed many nights having the horrible thought of the truck going in with the kids. Mine are in car seats so it's worse. Again please never leave the kids in the vehicle when launching. I'm sweating just typing this.

Will forever remain something very comforting about 5500+ lbs of of truck with substantial tires on a boat ramp.

A short piece of 4x behind the front tire will remove any lingering doubt.

I had a'78 half ton Ford that would merrily do the same

I had a 2004 Tahoe which developed an electrical fault in the door locks and would spontaneously lock the doors. Not a good feeling to hear that ominous "click-thud" when I saw that a buddy had rolled the windows up and shut the door behind him at the ramp, with the engine running and the trailer in the water. Fortunately the tailgate was up and I always carried the spare key after the first time (at work) it locked me out.

Question for OP: what did you do with your boat on the fateful day? I don't see it in the photo so I'm assuming there was another dock to tie up to. But did the tow truck also bring the boat home?

A note on chocks, be sure they're big enough to hold your vehicle on an incline. It only takes a minute to do a test run on a side road with a helper. I used to have an old Jeep J-10 PU (stick) that had weak compression and a crappy parking brake. I just put a set of 33" off-road radial tires on it. Next trip to the ramp, I backed down, shut the engine off and set the brake. Got out and stuck the chock (black rubber store-bought variety) behind the rear wheel and started unhooking the boat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the rear tire start to work its way over the chock like a big piece of jello. I was able to get back in the cab and pull forward a bit, then got one of my passengers to hop in and tend to the brakes while I launched. I now carry one of the big laminated chocks that the truckers use.

I watched my buddy's 2010 F250 pop out of park at work. He had the door open and had to hit the deck to keep the truck from hitting him. Luckily it just rolled into the street and stopped and nobody got hurt, and thankfully hasn't happened since.

huh? My e brake holds the truck and trailer fine. Always set it first, which nobody ever does and this defeats the while purpose which is to prevent your transmission parking prawl from being overloaded.

wtf Gawd what a day , sorry . I think after watching my car get pulled out of the water then seeing it catch fire would " Tilt " my brain .

yep , at least in older 4wd systems that locks the front wheels via the drive train otherwise the fronts are free spinning . E brake only brakes rears .

why did it catch on fire ???

The drum in the disc rotor hat parking brakes do require some maintenance. Eventually the cables stretch and corrosion builds up on the part of the backing plate where the shoes move. When you do a rear brake job its a good idea to check the parking brake shoes too. Sometimes they crack and fall apart, and people can ignore them for years till there is a problem. You can take off the rotor (a project in itself sometimes, you need to fully release the adjustment of the parking brake shoes by backing off the star wheel adjuster), and if the shoes are still good, pry away slightly from the backing plate and put some brake grease between the shoe and the backing plate with a thin screwdriver. Then after putting them back together make sure to adjust them with the star wheel adjuster. It can be a bit of a pain unless you are used to drum brakes.

Generalization perhaps. Example: Tundra rear rotor internal parking brake shoes are symmetrical and work in either direction.

No such thing as e brake btw but only parking brake.

Wheel chock.....Always!!! I don't care if anyone laughs. My F350 doesn't float.

Yup, I carry a 12" long chunk of pressure treated 8x8 in my Excursion just for the ramp

OP, sorry for to hear of your ordeal

The boat was just down the dock a bit from the ramp. When they pulled the car out my trailer was ok except for one broken off brake light. Called my nephew who has a Ford Escape with a class II hitch. We hooked it up and limped the boat home only about 7 miles.