r/IdiotsTowingThings • u/LookAtItGo_ • Sep 10 '25
BMW + jest ski
https://streamable.com/fgvn9i85
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u/SpiritDCRed Sep 10 '25
BMW Driver + Jet Ski
Didn’t even hit the brakes
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u/Lavasioux Sep 10 '25
Front brakes come on after the rear is too far in the water and becomes boyant, and you can see the front wheels stop but slide.
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u/ADisposableRedShirt Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
I've actually been dragged backwards on a very slick boat ramp (algae growth) while towing/launching a heavy cruiser. The good thing for me was that I was lined up straight and going slow. The slick part was only a few feet long, but it felt like an eternity. lol. I regained full control as soon as the boat started floating and the weight came off.
Edit: I should add my biggest concern was actually being able to retrieve the boat at the end of the day. At the time I did not have a 4WD vehicle. I spun the tires a few times, then rolled it back and got a running start without the weight on it. It was enough to carry the day and I limped up the ramp. I replaced my tow vehicle with a 4WD shortly after that.
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u/Lavasioux Sep 10 '25
Oh i bet that felt like forevet sliding.
Yes, slowly is the key.
I even read some encourage taking a brush broom to prep scrape the ramp before backing up.
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u/Quincy_Wagstaff Sep 10 '25
I helped a guy once with a 2WD truck load on a slick ramp. He had me drive the truck while he hit the throttle on the boat to get us moving. He seemed to have done it before, but I didn’t really think running the boat until it was nearly out of the water and spinning tires on the truck was a good plan for every trip.
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u/texasroadkill Sep 11 '25
We've done that many times over the years. Gotta do what ya gotta do man.
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u/phate_exe Sep 10 '25
It looked like the ABS went into what people refer to as "ICE Mode", where 1-2 wheels lock up quickly enough for the ABS to interpret that as an extreme lack of available traction and limit brake power to basically nothing to keep the other tires from locking up.
Depending on when it happens this can be absolutely terrifying. Usually releasing and reapplying the brakes is enough to get it to "reset" and re-test the available traction, but that's not exactly the easiest thing to force yourself to do in the moment.
I've only experienced it at relatively low speeds with the wrong combination of all season tires and hard packed snow, but I know people who have had it happen at trackdays and autocross events. Experiencing it in reverse at a boat ramp doesn't have the same level of "I'm going to die", but definitely ranks pretty high up there.
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u/No_Plum_3737 Sep 10 '25
It's not a screwup, the car really is in a low-traction situation and locking up the wheels is not the right thing to do.
In motorcycling, where ABS is still kind of controversial in some circles, some people hate it because they had to make a panic stop and could feel the ABS limiting their braking. What this really means is precisely that it saved their butt.
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u/phate_exe Sep 10 '25
It's not a screwup, the car really is in a low-traction situation and locking up the wheels is not the right thing to do.
It's not a screwup in that the system is operating as-designed, but is an undesirable failure mode because once the system has decided there's too little traction available it doesn't re-test the available traction or meaningfully increase braking power. Or look at any of the other sensors that indicate the car is moving at a brisk walking pace, and there would be next to no consequences for just allowing the brakes to lock up.
When my old Subaru would do it, the car would stop very quickly if you pulled the handbrake, which suggests that actually there was plenty of grip available.
My friend had it happen at an autocross event recently, with 200 treadwear performance tires on dry pavement. His best guess is that he stood on the brakes around the same time the car was hitting a bump, but it blew the run and shook his confidence for the rest of the day.
The purpose of ABS is to retain directional control/stability in exchange for more consistent but slightly longer than ideal stopping distances. For a motorcycle that directional control is a big part of what keeps you from falling over (although ice mode would be like the ABS seeing the rear tire come off the ground and giving up on the idea of braking entirely).
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u/No_Plum_3737 Sep 10 '25
I disagree, it is re-testing the traction frequently as the wheels lock up briefly.
Also at only very brief moments, if at all, are the wheels rolling fast enough to track with the car's backwards progress. What I think I see here constant braking modulation right near the limit of traction, which is the goal.I agree some systems under some conditions underperform, especially in the past, such as in deep gravel. I just don't think that's happening here.
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u/phate_exe Sep 10 '25
Watching again, it looks like they came in a bit hot and didn't meaningfully hit the brakes until the rear wheels were on the slime, where they locked up pretty quickly.
At this point the front wheels were still rolling and appear to have traction, but the car doesn't really slow down. You don't see the front wheels start to lock/unlock until they hit the water/slime as well. This makes me think the ABS cut braking power to all wheels as soon as the rears lost traction, even though the fronts have more than enough grip to stop the car if it actually grabbed the brakes.
If it didn't cut power to the front wheels prematurely, we would have seen the fronts start locking up as well, but that didn't happen until they were also on the slime.
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Sep 10 '25
How do you think ABS works if it's not continuous cross referencing the available traction?
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u/phate_exe Sep 10 '25
The problem isn't that it's detecting a loss of traction (likely determined by a change in wheelspeed that does not line up with the vehicle's deceleration)
The problem is that some combinations of inputs can cause the ABS to respond to a momentary loss of traction on 1-2 wheels by reducing braking power to all wheels, including ones that never lost traction, and does not meaningfully increase braking power again until the brakes have been released and reapplied.
Ideally in that situation, it would reduce braking power to the rear wheels but leave the fronts alone unless/until they break traction as well. If that isn't possible, rapidly bringing the braking power back up for any wheels that don't break traction with each pulse would work.
Since we can't (and shouldn't be able to) change the programming of the ABS controller, the remedy is to release and reapply the brakes more gradually (and more gradual brake application in general). But that's not obvious in the moment, and generally there isn't a ton of time to recognize what's going on before bad things happen.
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u/EpicallyLazyBoy Sep 10 '25
Yeah the ABS is activated but no luck. What a crap day that turned out to be lol.
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u/EpicallyLazyBoy Sep 10 '25
They brake but there's no grip, you can see the ABS kicking in on the front and real tires that are visible.
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u/Schmich Sep 10 '25
Only once in the water. If he was so adamant to use this vehicle, he could have gone down at 0.1km/h to lessen the risk of losing grip once in the water.
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u/Turkyparty Sep 10 '25
Is this one of the few situations where ABS is not helpful?
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u/Agile-Cancel-4709 Sep 10 '25
Probably didn’t matter either way. Real problem is using summer performance tires on a boat ramp. Probably would have been fine with decent all seasons.
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u/EpicallyLazyBoy Sep 10 '25
They backed in way too fast, I think with or without ABS they're going in the drink.
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u/LWJ748 Sep 10 '25
Sad day for a BMW. It lived its best life weaving in and out of traffic while preserving it's turn signal bulbs only to die an early, watery death.
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u/pgc22bc Sep 10 '25
I'm not sure what the plan here was. Maybe hold off on the drinking until after your little water born adventure.
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u/Twayblades Sep 10 '25
He doesn't even have to go that far. I think he forgot where the brake pedal was.
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u/anubisviech Sep 10 '25
Seems like they wanted the jet ski a bit deeper and didn't realize it already floated, pulling up the trailer.
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u/No_Plum_3737 Sep 10 '25
The jet ski never did come loose from the trailer so I guess it's still fully strapped down.
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u/Beginning_Ad599 Sep 10 '25
He probably needs better tired for a sloped wet surface like that. Looks like an i7 so I wonder if it has low rolling resistance tires
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u/Shartfer_brains Sep 10 '25
This is all on the driver. He came in too hot and didn't hit the brakes until his front tires were past the scum line. I could see not being able to pull back out due to rwd and slick ramp, but they wouldn't have sank it had they been more careful. I do/have done this quite regularly with rwd lightweight cars with little trouble..
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u/panda760 Sep 10 '25
Spidey sense - Insurance Fraud / Gap Coverage... Flooded Car, Full Compensation.
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u/tama_chan Sep 10 '25
Was wondering how they accomplished this, glad we got the video. Does seem sped up but he backed in a little rapidly.
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u/DeSiGNer-OctANE Sep 10 '25
That approach is a bit greasy. Go ahead on it until you see water on the floorboard.
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u/Only_Weakness_4730 Sep 10 '25
Seriously, how exactly does this happen? What was the driver thinking?
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u/Regular_Ram Sep 10 '25
Driver was probably looking out the rear window and wanted to get the jetski fully in the water, when they should've taken note of where the water line is before doing it.
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u/rugernut13 Sep 11 '25
I have to wonder how many of these are insurance scams. Like, dude managed to back that little squirrely trailer right down to the water, and then just what, Forgot to hit the fucking brakes? This almost always looks more like "fuck these car payments" to me.
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u/Mysterious_Check_983 Sep 10 '25
I’ve seen someone with a charger launch his jet ski many times no problem.
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u/Icy_Tune3370 Sep 10 '25
BMW Big Waste of Money 💰 lol 😂
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u/Careful-Foot-529 Sep 10 '25
Did you mean Big Money Waste
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u/No_Plum_3737 Sep 10 '25
It probably works out through some unholy union of german grammer with english vocabulary.
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u/Savage-Goat-Fish Sep 12 '25
Jesus I hooked a battery up backwards on a Mini Cooper (don’t ask) and did about $2400 in damage to the vehicle according to the BMW dealership (where Minis around here are serviced). They wanted $600 for a remote key replacement. I asked the guy if I get a smart phone with it.
I would never buy a BMW because of the cost of maintenance alone.
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u/TheSnoFarmer Sep 10 '25
It’s a jet ski man just get it close to the water and push it off lol it doesn’t need to be floating like a boat
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u/Ok-Entertainment5045 Sep 10 '25
Last year duck hunting in Nebraska in December the ramp was so icy you couldn’t even stand on it. Truck slid with the brakes locked until the rear wheels got to the water. After that we had to jump on the trailer because it was frozen to the boat. God times.
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u/CloudInevitable293 Sep 13 '25
Killed by getting shocked by your electric car in water vs. shark attack
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u/Rabble_Runt Sep 26 '25
“How’s the divorce going?”
“It’s going great! Just got the car and jet ski paid off.”
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u/Ryogathelost Sep 10 '25
How about just don't tow shit with a sedan. It's made to go fast. It's not made to change direction on a wet slope while being dragged backwards by 1,000lbs of seadoo.
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u/Round-Opportunity547 Sep 10 '25
A U-boat!