The best thing you can do for your trailer is give it a fresh water
rinse ASAP after every time you immerse it in salt water. Those of
us up here in the frozen north face the same problem with road salt
when we drive our cars in the winter. By the way, if you trailer
your boat somewhere in the winter & there is salt on the road, you
need to do a fresh water rinse on the boat, any exposed hardware, &
the trailer ASAP.
Another common trailer maintenance problem concerns the trailer
bunks. The carpeting on the trailer bunks should not be stapled to
the bunks with ordinary carbon steel staples. Every single one of
these staples will rapidly corrode, leaving rust stains on the boat,
trailer, your driveway where you parked the trailer, etc. Arrow
Staplers makes a HD Monel staple which is specifically intended for
this sort of application. Monel is an alloy of copper & nickel that
was primarily developed for its resistance to corrosion in sea water.
[... there is a lot more to this email, mostly concerning metal
corrosion, which has been included in
Corrosion...]
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
17 Jan 2001
I've been using the same grease on the trailer jack that I use on the
wheel bearings. It's from Lubrimatic, and it's supposed to be
formulated to be salt water resistant specifically for trailers. I
bought it in a kit at Boater's World along with a mini greasegun
that's perfect to carry in my box with other trailer stuff such as
wheel chocks, lug wrench, tie downs, etc. It takes grease cartridges
that are about 1" in diameter and 5" long. The grease gun and a
single tube of grease cost about $20. They sell packs of about 5
refills for less than $10.
20 Jan 2001
I need to replace the axle on my trailer. Can anybody give me an idea
on what it will cost. Thaks for your help.
Steve
04 Feb 2001
The short answer is around $150.00 for a good one with new u-bolt
sets, but if you need the axle, you may also need new springs,
bearings, seals, and hubs/brakes. Inspect everything carefully. If
there is a lot of rust on them, may as well do it all at one time. My
trailer needs a complete refurb, which looks to run around $500.00
total for parts. Lots cheaper than $3k for a new one. Check out
www.championtrailers.com
Razz
04 Feb 2001
