A previous column covered items for your
trailer before hauling your boat to West Coast Van Isle: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2014/05/maintaining-your-trailer-may-4-2014.html.
Here is more info, as I count down the
hours to moving north to Quatsino Sound.
Trailer
Tires. Check all tires for pressure. I found
one with nothing, and it was not the tire, but a faulty valve stem. Also, I purchased a used,
galvanized, five nut, 14” rim with a new tire, for a spare. Nothing worse than
having a flat in the middle of nowhere.
Tire
Pump. Pick up a pump that plugs into your
cigarette lighter, one that will realistically pump 50 psi.
Axle
heat. Stop every hour and feel the axle
housing for heat. Warm is good, hot is not.
Changing
a Tire. Take along the block you normally put
under your tongue jack. If you leave it out, the tongue jack can get the rear
axle (assuming a tandem axle) off the ground to change a tire. Or, put it in
and you can get the front axle tires off the ground. Take WD 40 for lug nuts,
particularly ones used in saltwater. Take a lock for your trailer, where you
leave it.
Surge
brakes. These trailer brakes cause a lot of
noise as you tow and use your car brakes, when the surge brakes kick in. I have
heard of people cutting the surge brake line, but leave this one to you. Your
car hitch must match surge brakes, so check your trailer on-line, and phone
your car dealer to make sure the two match.
Boat
Battery. If your boat battery is more than a
year old, or not in best condition, consider picking up a back-up battery so
you are not left dead in the water. Take distilled water for the cells.
Extra
Propeller. Again, you could be dead in the water,
if you ding your propeller and have to attempt limping back in waves and
current. Do remember that the extra vibration, or knocking the leg/engine
outside of its tolerances (mine is 6 one thousandths of an inch) can cause
serious problems. Also, before leaving home, take the prop off, clean, grease and
replace cotter pins that have broken.
Propeller.
Powerwash the boat and scrape the barnacles off your leg/engine/propeller.
Barnacles cause cavitation and rapidly reduce the props ability to get you up
on the plane and stay there. Scrape them off, buff with a drywall ‘sponge’ and spray
paint. If you paint the leg/engine, first use Zinc Chromate so the paint does
not make the leg/engine an anode. Not good for boat electrical potential for
fishing, if you use stainless cable. Not good for the leg. The paint chips off
first.
VHF.
Buy yourself a handheld VHF in case your boat’s VHF goes offline. Take a
cellphone, too.
Bon
Ami. Clean all windows with Bon Ami/Windex.
And take a six pack of paper towels.
Foam
Sealant strips. If you have a hatch, forward
window, etc. check all for possible water leaks, strip off old strips, scrape
track with a putty knife, clean with Bon Ami, and replace all old strips with
new. Use clear, marine caulking in all ‘joints’ or where you see air.
Toggle
life jackets. These ones, Mustang for instance, you
will actually wear, so you have it on when falling out of the boat. And make
the first rule that if someone does go over, that another life jacket is thrown
overboard, before getting in fishing gear and going back to pick the person up.
Also, take a set of stairs that fit on your gunwhale. Some boats will have legs
that can be climbed up and swim grids, with steps. Other types of life jackets,
keyhole ones for instance, really only serve as something soft to sit on as
they are a pain to use.
Flares.
Check to make sure yours are less than four years old, an age where they are
not legal, and may not work. Buy a flare gun because you can buy flare packets
every four years, and turf your old ones.
Distilled
water. Check and fill battery cells before
setting off, and keep the distilled water on board, for batteries as well as
freshwater cooling.
Radiator
fluid. If you have freshwater cooling on your
boat, and perhaps a bus heater, take a gallon of radiator fluid with you and
check hoses for leaks.
Valve
cores. Take a spare tire valve core, and the
tool for removing a malfunctioning core. Leave them in your wallet.
Battery
leads. Clean all leads to the battery, along
with both posts. Emery board, or a drywall sponge will do a good job.
Boat
wiring. My boat is from the ‘80s, so the past
winter, I had the dash, all the gauges, and all its wiring replaced, along with
a new harness for the engine. If you have intermittent power on dash items or
tap the gauges to make them work, you have electrolysis in the wires. I once
followed a lead more than two feet, finding rusted wire inside its vinyl
covering, then decided to take the entire line out and restring a new one. Also
consider a buss for new items. Mine has the GPS, VHF, and downrigger wiring on
the buss I put in, and still has a couple of loops left for new items.
And if you have any must-have-electronics
on old wiring, fix them too, for instance, my blower needed a patch, with the remaining
panel slated to be pulled this winter.
Tools.
Take a full set of tools, a ratchet set, and a floating propeller wrench.
Compass.
Check your boat compass before starting the engine, and then after starting. If
it moves, you have a magnetism issue, and either move it or take back-ups. I
bought two handheld compasses for this trip. And, note that most metals have
magnetism, so you don’t need to be putting electricity through a circuit to
have your compass deflect. Putting a compass on a simple brass hinge will
deflect the needle.
GPS.
Check your chip for the area you want to boat in. If it does not have the area,
buy a new chip. And get the right one. At Trotac the other day, we went through
a half dozen chips for my GPS, none of which had Quatsino. My boat has a
Vancouver Island to Dixon Entrance chip, which I was assured would have the
entire west coast. I checked it and it does. A hand held back-up GPS is a good
idea, too.
Paper
Charts. Always buy the paper charts, so you
have a back-up for your GPS. Don’t leave harbour in fog without a functioning GPS.
You will hit things at full speed.
Radar
reflector. Pick up one and mount it. A useful item
at night, and in fog.
Spotlight.
Pick up a 2 million candle power spotlight, charge it and take it.
Etcetera…
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