Protective measures for new boat

[anthman]

Hi all, I'm the proud owner of a new aluminium plate boat!

In the interest of protecting my investment, what are some things you would recommend ? 

Some things that are in the plan:

* Rinse and flush of trailer right after launch

* on the boat, protective coating of Penetrol on any exposed screws, rivets, bolts. Also will apply to any chips in paint before touchup.

* Read about cold gav for any rust that appears on trailer but unsure. Maybe regular thorough cleaning, at the right time, will suffice...

* Maybe saltaway or similar wash on trailer, boat and engine once a month.

* Light spray of inox of the outboard internals (I.e. take hood off and spray all around, hood back on)

* Pack trailer bearings with grease

Should I skip any of the above? Do it differently? Add anything else to the list?

Thanks guys!

 

[noelm]

Is the boat painted?

[JonD]

If you plan washing the trailer straight after launch, I assume you will do it again after a day on the water. This will soon end up causing you issues, firstly your boat will be in the water hopefully with someone looking after it and it's contents when you are off cleaning the trailer, also hopefully not holding others up wanting to use the facilities as they will soon let you know.

Not quite sure about the penetrol, could be wrong but doesn't this clean off surfaces exposing them more to the elements. 

My outboard mechanic warns not to over spray with lubricants under the cowling, simply a light spray with Yam lube around each service. Keep all lubes away from anodes as these are there to corrode.

A few things I personally do to my outfit. Firstly I wash everything down with saltaway, something I've done for around 10yrs, this includes fishing and dive gear. I also flush my engine on muffs using the same product which keeps my engine internals clean of salt build up, engine needs to be run to fully open the thermostat allowing for all cooling system to fully flush. External hose flush ports don't fully flush the powerhead.

I purchase a large tub of lanolin oil which I fill into spray bottles which I spray  over my trailer periodically ( when it looks like it needs it). This will cause the trailer to look dirty after a while after dirt and exhaust fumes cover it, small price to pay to prolong the life of a trailer. By the way this sooty dirt can be washed off with grease removers come time to sell the outfit if you feel the need.

I get an old rag which I places a marine grease on and rub into my trailer break cables as these rust very quickly if not high quality stainless. If they are stainless they can stretch quite quickly and tend to need adjusting regularly.

Be aware many boat ramps have periodic water restrictions of some kind, locally in my area council were handing out tickets for anything other than engine flush only.

 

 

[Welster]

Are you planning on fitting a sprinkler system for the trailer wash down at the ramp?

[kingfishbig]

It's will be a pain rinsing the trailer after launching. Most of us are to anxious to go out chasing the fish to do that! Possibly not fair to other ramp users either. 

If you want to preserve your trailer the best way is to coat any part of it that gets dunked in the water with a protective coating like Tectyl or lanolin. 

[kingfishbig]

Also I'd be wary about spaying innox  on your motor internals. It is petroleum based so can eat away rubber components. They warn you about getting it into contact with the cowl seal. Perhaps just use something gentler like lanolin or a spray made for the purpose (I think Yamaha make one). 

[campr]

The following advice dousnt apply if floor is sealed/welded.  With all alloy boats I recomend pulling up floor every year or two to remove anything that could cause electrolysis such as sinkers, swivels, coins etc and clean out out all dirt etc.  Clean any sign of electrolysis and paint with primer.  

As for trailer,  dont forģet to rinse out cross members.  I have made up a tool to make this easier.   Ron 

[anthman]

Thanks all, good tips there!

The boat is painted.

Will hold off on the penetrol on boat parts, will apply to trailer rust areas only. Will also hold off the spraying under the cowling with inox .

Grease trailer brake wires - good idea!

Rinse of trailer - I generally go pretty early where I'm one of two or three other boat launching (three launch lanes and very long pontoon walkway) so I can very much stay out of the way of launches/retrieves - would have a second person looking after the boat, moving it out of the way to the end of the pontoon. In terms of spraying - was going to basically do a quick spray using a trigger head over the half of the trailer that went into the water and a quick spray through one end of the two frames the flush the inside part, and spray over the hubs. No more than 3min I think. All up with stopping, flushing, parking the trailer - I'm imagining 5min once practiced, as it's not a full proper flush, almost a rinse.

Would have to play it on the day though - if it's high traffic, then would need to skip the rinse.

In terms of coating with tectyl, do you coat every exposed surface of the trailer? How many litres does that typically use? 

 

 

 

[TheCount]

On 3/3/2019 at 10:07 AM, Welster said:

Are you planning on fitting a sprinkler system for the trailer wash down at the ramp?

Just gave me an idea to use leftover irrigation from the garden Reno...

TC.

[kingfishbig]

2 hours ago, anthman said:

Thanks all, good tips there!

The boat is painted.

Will hold off on the penetrol on boat parts, will apply to trailer rust areas only. Will also hold off the spraying under the cowling with inox .

Grease trailer brake wires - good idea!

Rinse of trailer - I generally go pretty early where I'm one of two or three other boat launching (three launch lanes and very long pontoon walkway) so I can very much stay out of the way of launches/retrieves - would have a second person looking after the boat, moving it out of the way to the end of the pontoon. In terms of spraying - was going to basically do a quick spray using a trigger head over the half of the trailer that went into the water and a quick spray through one end of the two frames the flush the inside part, and spray over the hubs. No more than 3min I think. All up with stopping, flushing, parking the trailer - I'm imagining 5min once practiced, as it's not a full proper flush, almost a rinse.

Would have to play it on the day though - if it's high traffic, then would need to skip the rinse.

In terms of coating with tectyl, do you coat every exposed surface of the trailer? How many litres does that typically use? 

 

 

 

 

I'd be too impatient to wash the trailer after launching. I have too many memories of the best fish of the day being from the first drop down. Also it's not necessary if you are going to coat it.

Re coating with Tectyl you don't have to coat all the trailer, just the bits that are likely to get dunked. You will need to work out some way of getting it inside the frames too.

PS: It is helpful if you winch the boat on instead of driving it on as far less of the trailer gets a dunking.

Edited March 5, 2019 by kingfishbig

[PaddyT]

Your trailer will rust eventually, mine is still in excellent nick after 7 years with just some rust on the springs, all i do /did was hit it with Inox before I put the boat in the drink (but this was a moot point anyway because the dealer had done an on water test), spray the Inox into all the bits that get wet, and repeat every 6 months or so-just did mine yesterday after work, took 15 minutes. After that just wash it properly, use a mild soap (like dishwash liquid) , hose the trailer really well after your days fishing buggering around after launch is something i bet you will drop very quickly. hose the boat, use the suds on everything, rehose , make sure you leave the boat to dry properly before putting undercover, leave all your hatches open (stops mould) while in storage and it will be fine. The only think under the motor lid that should be done is a light spray with silicone once in a blue moon and wipe off any salt that accumulates around the air intake on the inside of the cover or around the hinge. I also agree with getting the floor up- I did that when my boat was brand new and found coins,screws, welding sticks and sundry bits of metal that could potentially cause electrolysis. Otherwise just use the boat.

[kingfishbig]

If you wash it with soap then there goes your Inox. It won't stay on as long as Tectyl or lanolin in any case. Also I think there is something about dishwashing liquid that promotes corrosion. I heard you should never use it to wash your car.

[PaddyT]

10 minutes ago, kingfishbig said:

If you wash it with soap then there goes your Inox. It won't stay on as long as Tectyl or lanolin in any case. Also I think there is something about dishwashing liquid that promotes corrosion. I heard you should never use it to wash your car.

All soap will remove oil or grease- thats its job- boats are made of aluminium not steel. Aluminium corrodes when caustic is put on them, dishwashing liquid is almost always neutral in pH and very mild (thats why it is used in a kitchen where it can end up on human skin), dishwashing liquid is perfect on a boat- you will find that its a lot cheaper that so called "boat wash" and will do just as good and safe a job.

[kingfishbig]

It read like you meant wash the trailer with soap/ detergent. The problem with dishwashing liquid is it may contain salt as well as being more likely to remove the wax paint protection. The later might be more related to cars but the salt in detergent is a bit of a concern.. 

I have always just washed my tinnies with fresh water. That's what the Quintrex manual suggests and you can rub it with a sponge while doing so. They also stipulate only fresh water is to be used on the windscreen.

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by kingfishbig

[jeffb5.8]

 Before my first use of my new boat I did the below.

Vacuumed the boat and picked up all the metal swarf, then scotched guarded the carpet and trims.

i polishes the outside of the boat

lanotec the axle and springs on the trailer as the rest is alloy.

now its just a good wash and touch up spray every use.

[Nolongeramember]

When launching, I back down as least as possible to get the boat into the water. Depending on boat size, but a small tinny will float in very skinny water. This way you minimise the area of wetting the trailer. 

[kingfishbig]

23 minutes ago, Hateanchors said:

When launching, I back down as least as possible to get the boat into the water. Depending on boat size, but a small tinny will float in very skinny water. This way you minimise the area of wetting the trailer. 

If you can launch and retrieve without dunking the wheel bearing then this will save at lot of time and effort repacking them.

[PaddyT]

16 hours ago, kingfishbig said:

It read like you meant wash the trailer with soap/ detergent. The problem with dishwashing liquid is it may contain salt as well as being more likely to remove the wax paint protection. The later might be more related to cars but the salt in detergent is a bit of a concern.. 

I have always just washed my tinnies with fresh water. That's what the Quintrex manual suggests and you can rub it with a sponge while doing so. They also stipulate only fresh water is to be used on the windscreen.

 

 

 

Ok, there is about 3.5% salt in sea water, in some detergents a bit of salt (usually less that .5%) are used to react with the surfactant to thicken the detergent into a bit of a gel. So by the time you put a squirt of detergent into water you have diluted the salt concentration down to about 0.002%- which is about the same as tap water- and then you rinse your boat anyway, ive never seen an aluminium boat with "wax" paint protection. 

[anthman]

Since we plan on using desalt/Salt off/Salt remover once a month to flush the engine and spray the boat, will this strip off any tectyl,inox,lanolin,grease on the trailer?

Anyone with experience in using the above products and notice protective coatings being removed?

Makes sense that washing detergent would do that - just like on a cast iron pan ><

[kingfishbig]

8 hours ago, PaddyT said:

Ok, there is about 3.5% salt in sea water, in some detergents a bit of salt (usually less that .5%) are used to react with the surfactant to thicken the detergent into a bit of a gel. So by the time you put a squirt of detergent into water you have diluted the salt concentration down to about 0.002%- which is about the same as tap water- and then you rinse your boat anyway, ive never seen an aluminium boat with "wax" paint protection. 

Yes I already said that the wax paint protection applies to cars rather than boats (aluminium). Anyway according to Quintrex you only need freshwater and don't use any detergent on the windscreen.

Edited March 6, 2019 by kingfishbig

[rozza_b]

2 hours ago, kingfishbig said:

If you can launch and retrieve without dunking the wheel bearing then this will save at lot of time and effort repacking them.

Dunno about that I would still be stripping, cleaning and repacking once a year regardless of them seeing water or not 

[kingfishbig]

34 minutes ago, rozza_b said:

Dunno about that I would still be stripping, cleaning and repacking once a year regardless of them seeing water or not 

It's a bit of a pain when you have two boats like me. On both of them I must confess I have never repacked them in 10 years with no problems. I just jack up the trailer and spin the wheels every now and again and check for any noises or movement. If they never see water why not? How often do you repack your cars bearings?

[JonD]

I never touch my car bearings myself as they are far better sealed and never get submerged in seawater. I regularly check, repack or replace ahead of any big trip. 

[rickmarlin62]

Best thing for bearings are bearing buddies   just pump grease in all the time the spring loaded buddies pump grease thru and no water gets in

[Mullatt]

12 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Best thing for bearings are bearing buddies   just pump grease in all the time the spring loaded buddies pump grease thru and no water gets in

Bearing buddies are great, but the only thing I would add to that is be careful constantly pumping grease into them as its possible to pop the rear seal if you pump too much.