your trailer care routine/tips

[gregdeeth]

just wondering what type of routines people out there have to keep their trailers in top condition, could be a great way to pick up some new ideas.

Myself i spray off with the hose then once dry give a spray of lanolin oil over salt contacted areas.

anybody got some better tips that could help myself or others out?

cheers Greg

[Timmy94]

With water restrictions i just get a bucket of water and splash it on the springs and bearings around the tyres. When we get the new tank installed we will have a pump so will be able to use the hose.

[Shane Kite]

Trailers should be washed clean , and left to dry before storing. Watch the Lanolin products, I have found they are hydroscopic , and salt water can get through Lanolin , and eat at the gal from behind ! Try Inox , a simple machine oil. I am getting great results.

[SgBFish]

Tim.

I have a Karcher with the soap attachment option that I hook to my water tank. I soap up the trailer first then ballast it off. Guilt free and I use about a bucket to do the whole BMT.
I would pay special attention to the bolts and nuts on new trailers as they tend to be only zinc plated not hot dipped gal. I have since cold gal all mine and they are due to be done again after 12 months but they are looking good at the moment.

Scott

[Noelm]

geees this just reminded me of my weekend drama, had a look at the trailer on Friday afternoon, hhmm had a flat tyre, no worries, I will get the compressor out and pump it up, hooked up the air hose and broke off the valve stem SH!T, oh well better put on the spare, SH!T it was flat as well, so, out with the tools, off with wheel and off to the tyre service, 2 new tubes later, back on with the wheel, hhmm the wheel bearing feels a tad loose, oh well might as well pull it to bits while I have the wheel off, the bearing was shot, I had a spare, but the inner cone was so tight I stuffed a stud trying to bash it out, SH!T, so I fossick around and find a stud, replaced it and back together it goes, let down the jack and start to feel good, went round the other side and bugger me, another tyre was flat! SH!T thats 3 flats in 1 hour, it turns out the valve was leaking, I had a little tool and went to take it out and broke off the valve in the tube ,SH!T again what a day that was, needless to say, no Fishing/boating last weekend.

[Crocodile]

My ten year old trailer started to show some rust at the back.
I have treated it it with penetrol, a product that claims to soak right through rust etc. and make a non-greasy surface. I did grind with a wire brush to remove the worst of it. I now notice that the water beads, rather like a wax, but the trailer is not slippery.
How well does it work? only time will tell.
The inner channels, which are in-accessible, I have plugged off and filled with a 50/50 mix of diesel and fisholene. I removed the plugs and waited until that dried so that saltwater does not get in and slosh around. I can flush with freshwater.
Again time will tell.
Bearing buddies work well, the back seals have blown and grease all over the inner wheel, looks bad. I check the bearing every six months, so far so good. I think that the grease that escapes out the back is tainted by water so I let the grease pressure get rid of the bad grease.
I have replaced as many bolts as possible with stainless and nylock nuts, had to cut the old bolts with an angle grinder.
Next project is the axle which is rusty, looks bad but still has 99% strength (solidaxle). I intend to grind with wire brush and treat with fisholene.
Then I will add walkway held on with big zippy-ties, no drilling og the trailer and all non-ferrous metals.
Trailers cost more to maintain in terms of time and money than the rest of the boat.

[Noelm]

Crocodile, just be careful where you put Stainless bolts, Stainless, although a strong metal has a very low shearing strength, so in some cases they will just break, a bit hard to describe what I mean, but (say) imagine stainless bolts holding on your towbar, when load is applied the bolts will just shear off sideways, of course you would not use them on a towbar, but it was just an example, I have seen it lots of times in places where two objects want to "slide" on each other, in such locations, high tensile should be used, mild steel is much better than Stainless for shear strength, but stainless is very strong as a bolt for a thousand other applications, and I guess you could always use a bolt twice as big as you need.

[Crocodile]

Good point Noelm.
The springs attach to a channel that is then clamped to the box section trailer chassis. I have left the ordinary(high tensile???) bolts on the shackles and replaced the clamping bolts with SS. I figure that the channel absorbs most loads and the clamping bolts just stop it sliding.

[PWCDad]

Shane et al,

I too have found lanolin can trap moisture and have very early corrosion on two of my three gal trailers . I used lanolin on the first two but not on my new trailer (6months old now).

Its strange really, where they were dipped in the salt water at launch time (small section at rear) they are fine but at the front its copped a corrosion flogging ... especially the chinese zinc jockey wheels that were replaced at 3 months because of corrosion.

It was that bad I went looking for stray current ....the trailers were lanolin'd at the front after I saw a a very small bit of corrosion there ... then it just accelerated ! See pic of lanolin'd jockey wheel and winch post at 1 month old.

My trailers ....

I use a big plastic box to flush outboard .... hold 60 litres or more ... when finished i add a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and have a 12 v deck wash pump on a trolley with a battery ... place suction hose in box and wash trailer with warmish, soapy water !

Regards
PWCDad

[PADDLES]

galvanising is called galvanising for a reason. covering it up is just like painting the anode on your motor. i just wash my trailer thoroughly with the spear water and then park her up.

[bigjimg]

I just buy the bulk WD40 and apply every second trip.All bolts have been 'warmed' up then hot lano grease applied the heat aids in absorbtion into the metal. Trailer is three years and not a rust spot in sight.Axle has been thoroughly painted in hot lano complete encapsulation no problem and of course I check over before I put boat back on trailer every trip.Heat is applied with just a heat gun and lano grease heated up on camp stove and old saucepan DON"T use the ones from the kitchen.Jimbo

[artesian]

be careful of the detergents you use to wash your boat, a mate 'acquired' a fairly powerful commercial detergent which did a lovely job of cleaning his boat, but which b#ggered his trailer.

If you have one of those trailers (like mine) that has depressions in the top of the cross members, make sure they are empty before putting the boat away. Am thinking of painting mine.

F&B mag are fans of equal parts of turps and linseed from memory, to spray on springs etc that will get dunked. Spray first, then dunk

If you have a webbing winch strap, and it is exposed to UV, replace it if it is at all faded, and maybe think of a way of protecting the new one from the sun. I suppoe that would apply to transom tie down straps etc as well.