Winter Time Trailer Maintenance

Friends will confirm that I’m more careful with boat trailer maintenance than back in our youthful heyday, when we towed small boats from Port Arthur to Key West on many summer trips. We had few worries in those days; even hurricanes were scarce, happening only every 10 years or so. In preparation for these much anticipated annual road trips, we’d splurge and buy brand new trailer lights at Gibson’s, the kind with holes in them to drain water. Install them on the single axle Dilly trailer before getting on the road. Not even a spare tire, much less checking the bearings or leaf springs.

The water was so salty in Key West that it burned the blisters on our toes (rubbed raw from dive fins) while launching the boat each morning. At the end of each day we’d car-wash the boat, costing a quarter, but somehow never thought about rinsing the trailer. As far as I remember, the trailer lights worked when driving back to Texas, but not much longer. They certainly didn’t work for the rest of the year, driving back and forth to Sabine Pass, which wasn’t a problem; it wasn’t far and we fished daylight hours.

These memories surfaced recently when our fishing club invited a guest speaker who owned a local boat trailer manufacturing and repair business. (His slide show wasn’t as exciting as the previous speaker, a snorkel diver, who’d accidentally speared a six-foot bull shark, thinking it was a ling). However, the trailer guy was more practical and left us thinking or worrying about the current state of our own trailers. When asked to identify the top most frequent problems encountered during his 40 years in business, it was a great reminder to prioritize trailer maintenance between fishing trips:

> His top advice was to always rinse that galvanized trailer in fresh water after each trip to the coast. Backing it into a river or freshwater lake certainly helps, as it submerges the entire trailer, although he pointed out that even rivers have some salt content and counting on brackish water is pretty much a joke. A car wash certainly helps, and don’t spare the quarters. If that’s not available, he said some guys will run a yard sprinkler under their trailer when back at the house. Some guys actually worry about their trailer rusting while they’re out fishing; it can be a long day for a trailer soaked with coastal water. So, they carry a serious spray gun and water tank in their truck to rinse the trailer immediately after launching the boat. Not sure how that works on crowded Saturdays at the ramp, when any small delay will attract sarcasm and maybe an altercation.

>Cheap tires (thin tread) and improper tire pressure are the number one causes for boat trailer breakdowns. The thicker the tire’s tread, the better. More importantly, having the correct tire pressure is crucial. Boat tires are designed for much higher pressure than cars. So, if your tire is designed to hold 60 or 70 pounds of pressure, be sure it’s filled to the correct PSI. You don’t want to drag that boat around with a measly 30-35 pounds of tire pressure. Like we did to Key West.

>Also strongly recommended: carry a spare tire with proper pressure AND wheel hub with bearings inside, sealed in a plastic bag where dust or sand won’t get inside. (Also advised: Get rid of those rubber grease caps and tap on new Buddy Bearings). Bring extra grease. If bearings give out on the highway, a hub can be switched out quickly. Do yourself a favor and let those bearings squeal a little longer, and pull onto a side road or gas station. Ideally, a grease gun should be applied to tire bearings once a month.

>In general, tandem axles are better than singles. If a tire blows, you can limp along on three tires. I did that once east of Lake Charles, a defective wheel took flight, and we limped that 25-foot Mako back to the tall Lake Charles bridge, launching underneath and leaving a friend with it while I drove the empty three-tire trailer all the way back to the Pasadena factory for a new wheel. Tandems definitely require more upkeep, including hydraulic brakes, but they are less likely to leave you on the side of the road.

>Just like tire tread, don’t skimp on waterproof lights. You want those puppies working year after year. They might prevent a wreck on the highway, or an expensive stop from the highway patrol. (I was pulled over last year when my new waterproof lights unaccountably weren’t working.) When I got out and jiggled the connection, they came on and the cop sighed and drove away. Turns out that those common, four-way trailer light plugs can dry out or capture dirt. They need to be cleaned every couple of months, and grease added that conducts electricity (sold in small packets at the nearest auto store; the same stuff is used for battery connections).

> Always carry a small toolbox with everything needed for maintenance or repair: tools, grease, extra bearing caps—everything a boat trailer could want.

As a result, I’ve made an early New Year’s resolution to use the next few months to raise the bar on my trailer maintenance regimen even more. And winter is the perfect time to do so. Pick a sunny weekend and where possible, launch the boat at a nearby location. Getting the boat off the trailer makes inspection much easier, allowing one to climb inside the entire structure, peering from every angle. After a careful inspection, one can buy and switch out parts that are in need of repair or adjustment. Or, you could just leave the whole rig at the local repair shop where they can hoist the boat out of the way for repairs.

I keep mine in the back yard, so it’s easier to monitor things. Quite different from storing the boat on the coast, where it can rust for months without being seen. As we all know, rust never sleeps.

I peer around under the trailer and spray Ospho on visible rust. My leaf springs on the three-year old trailer recently looked like something from a sunken Spanish galleon, and this after I’d faithfully submerged the trailer in a freshwater river on every trip home from the coast.

Following the guest lecture I mentioned to a club member that I needed to switch out my leaf springs, and he showed up next morning, barely after coffee.

“What, today? My boat’s still on the trailer.”

“I’ll lift it off with my tractor. Follow me to the house.”

His big red tractor easily lifted the boat right off the galvanized trailer. In a short time it had new leaf springs, this time coated with axle grease. The axle itself was gently ground for light rust on the bottom, and a can of galvanized spray applied to the entire back half of the trailer. We added new grease to the bearings and with a block of wood and hammer, tapped on new Buddy Bearings. Bingo, ready for another road trip. Well, it’s a simple job when you run a smaller boat. And own a big tractor. Maintaining bigger trailers for offshore boats is more complicated.

What a life we live, launching in salty, corrosive water year after year. Countless people up north won’t even think about dunking their boats in saltwater. Even people with boats on Toledo Bend. To say they’re missing out on coastal fishing action would be an understatement. Maybe it’s for the best; coastal boat ramps are crowded enough these days. With a galvanized trailer, I don’t mind sacrificing a pair of leaf springs every three years, which is their average lifespan in the salt. I can’t imagine a trailer lasting too many years.

However, I recently saw the exact model of bass boat we once pulled to Key West, a 1971 Glastron Beaujack. With the original motor. Moved down to the coast from Wisconsin. That trailer would still roll, though it was painted white and pock-marked with countless rust holes. A 50-year old boat trailer. I thought: Good luck, backing that trailer into saltwater for the first time. The frame could collapse within days.