salt water use

Hi,

we have a moomba boomeranng here at the centre. 1998 i think.

can anyone give me advice on its uses in saltwater. maintenance, things i should be aware of e.t.c.

anyhelp or advice would be most welcome,

Slan,

Bryan for Co.Kerry Ireland.

I own a 2006 Outback DD and use it exclusively on the north shore of Long Island, New York. After a day out, the engine is flushed using a fake-a-lake with the Salt-Away attachment. In addition, we flush the trailer (galvanized) inside and out with whatever is left in the Salt-Away cup/attachment.

After flushing, we wash the whole machine and trailer with fresh water and car wash soap - liberally. The interior only gets wiped down with the sponges just to get the salt spray off, then wiped off with clean towels. Once a month, I shoot the entire engine/transmission with WD40.

The process takes 45min, plus a few minutes to wrap up. You'd never know we use this boat in salt water - the boat still looks (and runs) brand new :)

With a little common sense, these boats can be used in the salt water environment and kept in excellent condition, assuming they're trailered and tended to regularly after use.

Plus one to all of that.

You may need to replace your exhaust risers every couple of years. Make sure that you have a galvanized/aluminum trailer, it's hard to flush those completely and steel won't last.
Make sure that you have a good coat of high temp paint on your engine, or it will start to rust fast. There are rust inhibitor sprays that I would use instead of WD-40. Washing and flushing is the key. Expect to take almost an hour after each use.
Every couple of months, you will need to inspect your wiring. The salt spray will get everywhere and may lead to corrosion on wiring.

get freshwater cooling

I have a 2004 DD with 650 hrs used exclusively in salt. Closed cooling, a flush kit, zincs, spray down your motor, tranny and all electrical with boe Sheild. Don't just rinse with water after each use, you need to use soap to get rid of the salt. You may want to get a dripless packing system as well.

There is really no point in rinsing a galvanized trailer, unless of course you are talking about a flush kit on your braking system. Also you will get a lot more than a couple years on your manifolds and risers......i ride with some one who replaced his after 11 years of salt use with no closed cooling in a DD.

Unfortunately, galvanized trailers rot from the inside out when subject to salt water. Pretty obvious if you think about it. Try flushing your trailer after you use it and you will see that the cross members are fed water from the main rails. Just stick the hose in the rails, from underneath near the nose of the trailer, while the trailer is level. I use whatever is left in the SaltAway container for this part of my post-ride wash up.

My local body shop will be painting my LS trailer this summer. When I spoke to the guy at the BoatMate factory (for paint supplies), I told him I was using in salt. His first response was "I hope you're flushing after use". My answer was a rather emphatic "certainly". The process takes all but 2 minutes and can't do harm.

Regarding the flush kits on brake systems: the only flush kits I've seen on boat trailers are for drum brakes - they rot from the inside out as well. For disc systems, just wash the (disk) brakes with hose pressure and you should be ok. My discs perform flawlessly in salt water use because they're washed liberally after use.

As an x-commercial fisherman here on the north shore of Long Island, I speak from experience. My galvanized work trailers got hammered (no flushing), but my pleasure boat trailers get better maintenance, and consequently, they'll last longer. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Galvanized trailers do not rot from the inside out, unless there are companies out there who make these with only the outside galvanized?????? I live on the west coast and have yet to see one of these, and I don't think any reputable company would manufacture such a thing.

If you have a stock boatmate trailer you most definently will have to flush the inside after every use, you may want to also drill a hole in the bottom of your cross members so the water can escape.

You are correct flush kits are only available on drum brakes, which do not have the fine tolerences you find on disc brakes.......which will need anual repair regardless of hosing them down etc after every use. I can tell you this from my experience with a boamate trailer. These suckers are just simply not designed for salt not matter how much maintanance you do. You will have much better results with a channel trailer vs a box frame when it comes to salt and non galvanized.