--- title: "Outboard motor keeps running as a Tesla truck hauls a boat up a ramp in a clip spreading on Reddit" url: https://badiyaa.com/outboard-motor-running-tesla-truck-boat-ramp/ published: 2026-11-09T19:55:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-09T19:55:00+00:00 section: Offbeat publisher: Badiyaa --- # Outboard motor keeps running as a Tesla truck hauls a boat up a ramp in a clip spreading on Reddit Viewers say the propeller was still spinning and clattering on concrete as the boat left the water. An outboard depends on the water it sits in for cooling, and skipping two routine steps at the ramp can get expensive. The boat was out of the water. The outboard motor did not seem to have noticed. In a clip climbing Reddit’s “what could go wrong” forum, a Tesla pickup tows a boat up a launch ramp with the engine still running and, according to viewers, the propeller clattering against the concrete. The post’s title blames a simple lapse: forgetting to shut off the motor before pulling out. Commenters who own boats quickly added a second one. The motor had not been tilted up, so the propeller was low enough to strike the ramp. One viewer said it was still in gear too. We do not know who is in the truck, where this was filmed or when, and the post gives no details. Viral ramp clips can be set up, and this one cannot be ruled out. Nothing visible in the thread suggests it was. ## Two separate mistakes Boaters in the thread split the blame carefully, and they have a point. A running motor and a lowered motor do different kinds of harm. Turn the engine off but leave it down, and the propeller can still scrape along the pavement. Tilt it up but leave it running, and the problem moves inside the engine. The normal routine, as one boater laid it out, goes in that order: engine off, motor raised, then up the ramp. ## Why an outboard cannot run on dry land for long Most [outboard motors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outboard_motor) cool themselves with the water they sit in. A small rubber impeller in the lower unit pumps lake or sea water up through the engine, a design that has stayed standard because it is cheap and simple. The weak point is that rubber part. Spin it without water and it loses both its cooling and its lubrication, and leaving an engine running while hauling out is the textbook way to ruin one. There is a second problem, and it explains why a motor on a trailer can sound so alarming. A propeller in water is working against a heavy load. Take the load away and a motor with any throttle applied has nothing holding it back, so it can race. Boaters know a milder version of this as ventilation, when a propeller grabs air instead of water and engine speed jumps while thrust vanishes. Out of the water entirely, there is nothing to bite at all. Then there is the geometry. Outboards tilt, by power or by hand, precisely so the lower unit can clear shallow bottoms and debris. A ramp is a shallow bottom made of concrete. ## How bad is it, really The thread could not agree. One group declared the engine finished. Others with years around boats said a few minutes out of the water at idle is usually survivable, and that the impeller would fail long before the engine did. On cost, one commenter called the impeller a $20 part. Another replied that labor on a newer motor makes it a $500 job at minimum. The propeller was the one thing nearly everyone wrote off. A large share of the replies went after the driver for owning the truck, which tells you little about boats. A more useful question came from viewers who asked why whoever was filming did not honk or shout. Boat ramps run on that kind of courtesy, and one tap of a horn would have cost nothing. Viewers say the truck was slowing to a stop as the clip ends. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Outboard motor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outboard_motor) *Illustrative image. Image: Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*