Thread: Boat maintenance

This was a good topic for everyone to benefit from BRM so moved it to separate thread
for you.

Check your battery water levels often as the charging and draining of the batteries can cause water levels to fluctuate. If they need refilled use distillers water.

Another tip on maintenance would be seek a dealer that has mechanics that have been with the company for a while and properly trained to work on your outboards. Some repair centers have mechanics come and go frequently and they may not be the ones to deal with. There are also some dealers that mainly focus on selling boats instead of servicing them. Remember saving a few dollars traveling to buy a boat does not help keep the doors open on the dealer that is near you and will be the one you turn to when something goes awry with your boat or motor. These newer 4 stroke motors require more equipment to properly check them than the older 2 strokers which your back yard mechanics could work on and were good at it.

Originally Posted by Cmj

Now that ain't no maintenance Chris lol.

If you have a glass boat maintaining the gel coat is easier done if you wipe your boat down as soon as it comes out of the water with a dry rag. The water spots and scum will be easier to remove at that time. I was told a cheap an effective polish to use was pledge. It will help repel the water spotting.

Never was the underside of the fiberglass hull. This will take the control of the boat away lol. Learned that one the hard way ha ha.

Check tire pressures when the temperature changes from hot to cold. The Trailor tires pressure changes with the temperatures. To avoid this you could use nitrogen in the tires which will help with them running cooler and not as big of a pressure fluctuation when temperatures change.

Don't forget to check the spare tires pressure too.

On four strokes change the oil and filter yearly or as recommended per hours used by manufacturer.

On the water impeller it's a good idea to change every couple years unless you run in extremely sandy waters.

Carry a piece of weed water line in your tool box in case you don't see your motor peeing. Many times it is just a little trash right inside the water outlet that can be removed or dislodged with the weed water line.

Check your running boards after your boats is unloaded for weakness. When replacing them I prefab the boards at home and carry the tools to change them out at the lake when the boat is unloaded.

I usually repack and check my bearings every year depending on how much i Trailor my boat. Not a bad idea to carry a spare hub in the truck if you make long distance trips frequently.

Use a fuel additive of some kind in your fuel to minimize the fuel separating. I use sea foam or stabil. I change my in line fuel filter water separator annually.

Check the air filter too as if the engine can't breath it isn't gonna run well.