A guide to maintaining your trailer⚓

Prevent Corrosion:

To prevent corrosion appearing on your boat trailer its important to rinse all the salt water off after launching or collecting your boat from the water. To prevent corrosion you can also apply spray-on coatings such as innox and corrosion guard that will create a protective layer to the surface of the metal.

Tyre’s:

Just as your car its important to check your trailer tyre’s psi occasionally and keep an eye on the tyre wear to ensure your not driving on worn damaged tyres. Trailer tyres are specially engineered to withstand the load and maximum weight of trailers, when buying trailer tyres it is important to check the load rating code found on the sidewall of the tyre.

Wheel bearings:
Monitoring trailer bearings is crucial to maintaining a safe functioning trailer. Noisy wheel bearings indicate that it is time to change them, if left alone they could seize and cause serious damage. Be sure to let the trailer cool off prior to launching your boat if you’ve been on a long drive.

Suspension:

A trailer suspension and axel system needs to be hard-wearing and reliable. Weather, age and weight can deteriorate your leaf springs over time, if you notice your trailing starting to sag or sway when driving it may be time to look into replacing your leaf springs.

Brakes:

A trailer with a GVM over 750kgs requires a breaking system. Salt water is a killer for trailer brakes, be sure to spray fresh water around the brake calipers to avoid corrosion in the long run. A simple visual inspection is a great starting point. Check the amount of friction material left, if the thickness is approaching 50% or less your pads are due for a replacement.

Lights:

Having broken or inoperative lights on your trailer can be extremely dangerous, its important vehicles driving behind your trailer can see your brake lights and blinkers to know where you are heading. Be sure to ensure your lights are working before you hit the road, if they aren’t it could be a globe, LED, wiring or trailer plug issue!

Winch:

There are two types of winches on trailers, electric and manual, whichever type it is essential to ensure it is suited to your boats length and weight. It is also important to have the winch inspected when you get your trailer in for its annual service/assessment. Always ensure the winch strap or rope does not have any frays in it.