tie down buckles and trailer

greg123168

Just picked up my new boat. My question is how do you take care of your aluminum trailer from looking ugly after some time, and also them tie down buckles in the rear...my last boat I went through about 6 over the 5 years I had the boat, and them suckers are not cheap. open to any recommendations you guys might have.

FusionZ06

https://www.immioutdoors.com/products/boatbuckle/retractable-tie-downs/

Rich M

Get a 3 inch wide ratchet strap and use that??? They are usually yellow.

Elk Chaser

Trailers are a consumable in the salt water. Leaf springs, u bolts, anything not aluminum will rust. I spend a lot of time rinsing my trailer when I get home, but I think the damage happens since we dunk them and they sit all day covered in salt water.

Some ramps have a hose hook up, you can take a hose and rinse after launching. You’ll still be rebuilding every several years.

dieselbeef

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_30?url=search-alias%3Dtools&field-keywords=stainless+steel+ratchet+straps&sprefix=stainless+steel++ratchet+strap%2Ctools%2C229&crid=2HXHP3ISNDM6N

Quahog

The first year I had my trailer I had to redo the brakes because they rusted out. I've now got over 2 years of use out of the new ones with a simple tip. Bring a pump sprayer like people use for gardens or pest control and fill it with water and saltaway. Give the brakes a quick rinse after you launch. Its worked well for me and definately increased the time between repairs.

Kokosing Lover

Whatever tie downs you use, try to find ones where most of the metal parts are galvanized. I think the aforementioned yellow 3" style ones tend to be mostly galvanized. The other BIG thing is to rinse the living hell out of the trailer once you get off the water. And when I say rinse, I mean hose down from every angle with a big sprayer head and use a TON of water. Not just spray off, but get the hose on it and let it flow. We did that with the trailers on out working boats and they lasted a long time with heavy use. I'm talking like 10 minutes of just hosing off the trailer.

greg123168

i do all the above mentioned, I just hate the way the aluminum gets ugly looking after awhile. And I guess that it is a law now that you have to use tie downs on he back?

Elk Chaser

I don’t know if time downs are law, but they are a really good idea.

saltwaterstiffy

I have a friend who put Shark hid on his aluminum and it definitely helped it look better longer. You can also use flitz to remove the oxidation, lot of work though.

John Haggerty

My galvi trailer frame is still good after 27 years. Every other part has been changed as needed. I quickly inspect it before I load it. I've changed out probably all the parts a couple of times and some more often. I try to rinse whenever used and give the leaf springs and hubs extra water.

~~Mutt~~

Never had to do tiedowns but on the trailer..I installed a freshwash system for my brakes using PEX pipe so after dunking my boat in salt..I hooked up the PEX to a small fresh water tank..which was actually a plastic 10 gal boat with a pump and flush the brakes after each dunking for the ride home....but 70% of the time coming home I would go to Lake Tarpon and dunk the boat an trailer in about 7 times and then run the engine, bait and raw water pumps. Finished the cleanup at home.. Trailer looked like new after 5 years..

I used to use a spray bottle and spray the wheels and brakes with WD 40 before I dunked in the salt but that became messy

greg123168

~~Mutt~~ wrote: »

Never had to do tiedowns but on the trailer..I installed a freshwash system for my brakes using PEX pipe so after dunking my boat in salt..I hooked up the PEX to a small fresh water tank..which was actually a plastic 10 gal boat with a pump and flush the brakes after each dunking for the ride home....but 70% of the time coming home I would go to Lake Tarpon and dunk the boat an trailer in about 7 times and then run the engine, bait and raw water pumps. Finished the cleanup at home.. Trailer looked like new after 5 years..

I used to use a spray bottle and spray the wheels and brakes with WD 40 before I dunked in the salt but that became messy

I thought about wd40 on tie downs and also the brakes....so you say it get messy?

greg123168

greg123168 wrote: »

I thought about wd40 on tie downs and also the brakes....so you say it get messy?

Here is the new boat

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

jbdba01

Just curious on how you went through so many tie downs. Were they the simple clamp type or racket. The racket ones will need some oil every now and then.

As mentioned spraying down trailer immediately after launch extends your trailer brakes/looks.

I'm looking at Sharkhide as my aluminum has some spotting that I want to eliminate.

Regarding lack of tie downs - enforcement is 9/10's of the law.

"Florida law requires boat trailers to have proper lighting including turn signals, tail lights, and brake lights. Trailers must be equipped with safety chains and tie-down straps. Trailers weighing more than 3,000 lbs. must be equipped with brakes that act on all wheels. Trailers weighing less than 2,000 lbs. must be registered with the county tax collector. Trailers weighing 2,000 lbs. or more must be registered and titled."

greg123168

jbdba01 wrote: »

Just curious on how you went through so many tie downs. Were they the simple clamp type or racket. The racket ones will need some oil every now and then.

As mentioned spraying down trailer immediately after launch extends your trailer brakes/looks.

I'm looking at Sharkhide as my aluminum has some spotting that I want to eliminate.

Regarding lack of tie downs - enforcement is 9/10's of the law.

"Florida law requires boat trailers to have proper lighting including turn signals, tail lights, and brake lights. Trailers must be equipped with safety chains and tie-down straps. Trailers weighing more than 3,000 lbs. must be equipped with brakes that act on all wheels. Trailers weighing less than 2,000 lbs. must be registered with the county tax collector. Trailers weighing 2,000 lbs. or more must be registered and titled."

yes it was the ratchet tie downs...but come to think of it...I never oiled them down...and them stupid things are $$$$. I bet sharkhide is big money!!!

Reel-Lucky

Beautiful rig.

SouthshoreSlayer

Greg since you live in Lakeland do what I do. On the way home from fishing swing by a lake on your way home. Back down the ramp a few times to really rinse off your trailer well. While you are there hop in and fire up your motor, pumps, washdown, ect to give it all a good fresh water flush.

greg123168

SouthshoreSlayer wrote: »

Greg since you live in Lakeland do what I do. On the way home from fishing swing by a lake on your way home. Back down the ramp a few times to really rinse off your trailer well. While you are there hop in and fire up your motor, pumps, washdown, ect to give it all a good fresh water flush.[/QU

I do that now but still had problems with brakes and tie downs and the trailer looked bad after sometime

greg123168

Reel-Lucky wrote: »

Beautiful rig.

thanks

shemp

A couple comments.
1) I've only had trouble with tie downs when boat was stored outside and I left them on. When you lay the boat up (park it), take them off and of course take them off prior to launching. The tie downs should never touch water (save for a bit of spray I suppose). Not sure what's going on with your situation

2) Do as these guys have suggested and dunk your trailer in freshwater lake if that is an option

3) You can wirewheel off some of the surface crust if it is just superficial

4) I bought a used aluminum trailer and had to refurbish. In my limited experience the frame might be aluminum but pretty much all other hardware is steel (galvanized). This hardware will go AND it reacts poorly with aluminum. The guys at American (pinellas park) suggested putting tarpaper between steel hardware and the aluminum frame. I would say that it worked but it is impossible to know the extent of pitting or digging until you remove the steel hardware (I found that out the hard way). I also sold the boat / trailer so am not sure how it's held up.

5) I would think you could use some type of corrosion spray on the whole thing once a quarter or something. Again in my experience it's the springs, spindle/axles and bunk hardware that go

greg123168

shemp wrote: »

A couple comments.
1) I've only had trouble with tie downs when boat was stored outside and I left them on. When you lay the boat up (park it), take them off and of course take them off prior to launching. The tie downs should never touch water (save for a bit of spray I suppose). Not sure what's going on with your situation

2) Do as these guys have suggested and dunk your trailer in freshwater lake if that is an option

3) You can wirewheel off some of the surface crust if it is just superficial

4) I bought a used aluminum trailer and had to refurbish. In my limited experience the frame might be aluminum but pretty much all other hardware is steel (galvanized). This hardware will go AND it reacts poorly with aluminum. The guys at American (pinellas park) suggested putting tarpaper between steel hardware and the aluminum frame. I would say that it worked but it is impossible to know the extent of pitting or digging until you remove the steel hardware (I found that out the hard way). I also sold the boat / trailer so am not sure how it's held up.

5) I would think you could use some type of corrosion spray on the whole thing once a quarter or something. Again in my experience it's the springs, spindle/axles and bunk hardware that go

it is the type of tie downs in the back that spring reloads....so they are not that easy to take off and on the trailer, I am going to do the oil part on them heavily like someone else has mentioned.

~~Mutt~~

greg123168 wrote: »

I thought about wd40 on tie downs and also the brakes....so you say it get messy?

Had a bug sprayer filled with WD 40 and before dunking a tripp ax trailer in salt I would spray the wheels and brakes..Would do the same loading up..but after about 3 times...Messy..not safe..didn't really help much..environmental thoughts..costly.. For some reason the brakes just didn't perform well...go figure..lol... Pex pipe and a pump is the way to go..

Straps I used on my Bay Boat were Stainless Over-Center buckles with clips.. They last a long time

surfman

I just have a single boat strap that goes over the gunnels, it actually has SS hooks on it and I have been using it for decades?

on my old aluminum trailer I replaced galvanized parts with SS when I could and I would also use a piece of plastic or vinyl between the two, tar paper does not sound like a good idea, it will soak up salt water.

Rich M

Yah - you don't want an ugly yellow strap on that thing... Pretty boat.

The tie downs will basically keep the boat on the trailer if you blow a tire at highway speeds. I'm not sure about what happens with quick stops and swerving, but do know that when a boat trailer tire blows, the force of the drop will throw a boat and the straps keep it from happening.

For the record, it was a friend who lost his boat - it flew into the median of a highway without any damage and some guys stopped and 4 of them were able to put it back on the trailer - I learned from that and have had 2 blow-outs over the years...the strap kept the boat in place - could see how it happened too, the boat was "pushed" over on the side with the blowout.

My dad likes to coat the leaf springs with STP. Mix it with some gas, brush on, let gas evaporate, repeat. Seems to help.

Americana

Quahog wrote: »

The first year I had my trailer I had to redo the brakes because they rusted out. I've now got over 2 years of use out of the new ones with a simple tip. Bring a pump sprayer like people use for gardens or pest control and fill it with water and saltaway. Give the brakes a quick rinse after you launch. Its worked well for me and definately increased the time between repairs.

I put a little soap in my sprayer and it seems to help with the salt. Spray the necessaries down every time I launch and have had no problems in the last 8 years. I also brush my leaf springs with STP oil treatment about once every 5 years.