End of year boat rehab....

[Steve Stinson]

The forum seems a little stagnant these days so I thought I would ask everyone to post your end of year boat maintenance list. I pulled my trailer wheels this week to knock the rust off the leaf springs and found one of my hubs missing a large chunk of metal that cracked off between two wheel studs. Headed over to see Will Thompson at Lee Trailer Sales and he hooked me up with two hubs, a new stand for the front of the trailer, pvc bunk covers and new tires. Interestingly enough when I pulled the other hub, it was full of water so I guess I was running on borrowed time. Here's my list of items so far:

1. New tires.
2. Check hubs and replace or repack - Replaced in this case.
3. Clean up leaf springs and replace if necessary - Good shape this time. I ground the rust off and painted them with undercoating.
4. Clean up all battery terminals, check water in batteries, and coat terminals with corrosion spray.
5. Grease winch on trailer and replace strap if necessary.
6. Get all trailer lights working.
7. Clean out and grease steering cable tube on outboard. (A shotgun cleaning brush on a drill works great for this).
8. Grease all outboard fittings and repaint lower half of outboard as necessary.
9. Replace zinc plates on outboard.
10. Check prop on trolling motor for fishing line / trash. (No prop on my outboard).
11. Clean out bilge and check bilge pump.

Please add anything you think I've missed.

Thanks - Steve Stinson

[guthooked]

Trailer brake maintenance (if it applies)
Every other year I replace brake fluid and pads
I also check my brake rotors at this time.

[SS-342]

Steve: I change my engine and lower unit oil regardless of the amount of hours.

[MudDucker]

Squirt WD40 in every possible hole!

[Steve Stinson]

SS142 - True, but I don't have a lower unit that holds oil. I am running a jet-foot Mercury that you have to squirt some sort of grease in every 10 hours of running. It's a wonder it runs at all. It has been sunk twice, and the lower half rebuilt once by Fred at Parkway Marine after an unfortunate incident at the Aucilla. (Turns out you CAN run shallow enough to tear up even a jet outboard). No telling how many hours are on it. I will keep running it until it won't go anymore, then probably change over to a four-stroke jet foot.

[Danibeth]

Steve,

Do you have issues with running the jet in freshwater lakes that might have a lot of vegetation in them? Or do you just use it in salt water?

Dani