Earlier this month, a teenager taking his boat down to the water went viral after a driver caught his interesting tow job on camera. Without a car or truck to tow the boat, the clever owner was able to use a much more efficient vehicle: an electric scooter.
The Australian boater was heading to the water with his jon boat in tow, rigged behind his standing electric scooter.
In a setup that can only be described as a “don’t try this at home” scenario, he tied the boat trailer to himself using a belt and then stood on the scooter to tow it along the roadside path.
The 14-year-old rider told the local news that he had been taking the boat from his Rothwell home to the Deception Bay Mud Flats. If Google Maps is to be believed, that’s a distance of around 8 km (5 miles).
“When it goes uphill, it has some problems, but downhill and flat, it pulls it fine,” he explained.
It may seem odd, but the teen’s towing demonstration was perfectly legal. Queensland doesn’t have any specific laws on the books regarding the type of vehicle required for towing a boat, saying only that a “suitable vehicle” be used.
Based on how well it looks like the towing worked, I’d say that the electric scooter was adequately suited for the job.
Top comment by Bryan
Of course pulling is only half the problem. Stopping abruptly is the other... I'd call it tail wagging the dog, but I think that would understate the discrepancy.
Now that he’s seen how well electric drive works on land, I have to wonder if he’ll be replacing that combustion engine outboard with a quieter and more efficient electric boat motor.
Interestingly, this isn’t even the first time we’ve seen someone in Australia towing a boat with an electric scooter. However, last time it was a much larger boat and a slightly different type of electric scooter.
Of course this teenager’s towing job was a custom setup, but electric scooters used for towing have been seen as commercial solutions as well. Years ago I tested out an electric scooter that came with its own trailer for towing groceries and other cargo.
These days you can find plenty of trailers for electric bikes, and even kits that allow you to tow one e-bike with another e-bike.
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