Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

Wanted to ask for advice on maintenance of the trailer before or after or both when submerging into salt water. I currently boat in S. Florida and use my boat about once or twice a month for the last three years.

This morning I took my trailer to my longtime mechanic to have four tires installed on the trailer and they had a real tough time releasing the lug nuts and in fact also broke three of the bolts. I have made sure that my bearings are greased up and in good shape, I also always make sure to wash down that part of the trailer with fresh water after every trip to the ramp. I am being told that the lugs and bolts on the trailer need to be kept protected with something to keep this from happening in the future. They are not as knowledgeable in the marine aspect (salt use and maint. of trailer) but say something definately exists. Can anyone help?? Thank You in advance for the info.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I boat in salt and the only thing I found that keeps the lugs from rusting on is a little grease on the lugs. Some people will tell you that grease on threads will cause them to work loose and fall off. I have never experienced it. I also take care to not over tighten when there is grease the lugs because its easy to over torque and snap off a lug when greased. Just don't over due it with the grease. Clean threads with wire brush, apply a little and rub in the threads and install.

It also helps to just loosen and re-tighten the lugs once or twice a season to prevent rust from getting a good hold on things.

You can try an anti-seize product instead of grease and see how it works for you.

When I get the boat back home, I hose down the boat and the trailer. And its important to have a galvanized trailer to prevent rust.

Now I'll step back and watch the fall-out from the anti-grease crowd.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

Mark,

I appreciate your response, and your advice is what I thought would be a partial solution to the problem before I posted. The thing that gets me is that it is hard to believe that this is par for the course. Does this actually happen to people everytime they need to loosen the lugs for a tire change or whatever?

I will say that these had never been off since I purchased the trailer brand new 3 yrs ago, but it is still hard to believe. BTW, I like your advice on loosening the lugs periodically to keep rust from getting a real hold on things. Anxious to read what other opinions people have.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I use anti seeze on my lug nuts. I boat in Salt Water and do a basic rinse down when I get done, never had a problem with the lug nuts rusting.

So can I assume you have not had the wheels off in 3 years? How do you service the bearings? I know you can pull the entire hub and tire off as a unit but most remove the tire to make it easier. I would bet if you removed the lugs once a year to check and repack your bearings they would not rust up to the point of snapping studs when you need to remove them.

Rc

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I also use anti-seize compound on my lug bolts and have never had one loosen on it's own. I loosen and retighten them about once a month to prevent freeze-up. I do them one at a time in a star pattern and don't need to jack up the wheel for this. At the end of the season, remove each bolt or nut completely, wire brush each and reassemble with anti-seize.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I switched out the posts on the hub with stainless..and use nylon lock nuts,also S.S.that along with washing the boat and trailer as soon as i can after i trailer the boat, if you want to get nuts buy "SALT AWAY" its an additive that breaks down salt faster & better than plain H2O.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

marine4003 said:

I switched out the posts on the hub with stainless..and use nylon lock nuts,also S.S.that along with washing the boat and trailer as soon as i can after i trailer the boat, if you want to get nuts buy "SALT AWAY" its an additive that breaks down salt faster & better than plain H2O.

Click to expand...

Now that is a great solution! Stainless steel lugs and nuts. I wonder if I can swap out my lug bolts and install stainless lugs an nuts.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I use the standered studs and stainless steel lug nuts. I also strayed the entire hub with a zink rich primer then coat the threads with anti-seize. The trailer is a 22 foot 1980 model and used 50 percent of the time is Pacific Ocean. Every spring remove the wheel on the brake axel and check and blead the brakes. Never had any problem with studs or rust. I torque the lug nuts to 85 foot pounds. The second axel usually just jack up and check for bearing noise and check play to make sure the bearing does not need adjustment.

Re: Maintenance before or after submerging trailer in saltwater

I use Boeshield T-9 on my lugs.

Torque each lug nut as usual and give each lug a liberal shot of Boeshield.

Works great