Tips for Maintaining Your Boat and Camper Trailer Components Before Your Vacation Trip

Maintaining the trailer portion of your boat or camper can seem like a real headache, but it is actually the most important thing to take care of before your next trip. When you get done with the fun part of owning any recreational equipment that can be towed behind your vehicle the last thing you want to think about is doing the maintenance on your boat or camper trailer components.

One of the main issues a trailer owner may find is that the information on maintaining you trailer part of your recreational vehicle can be vague or non-existent. You may need to contact the manufacturer or talk with the local repair shop to get a booklet on your particular trailer. how many times have you gone down the highway and seen a trailer with a flat tire or worse the entire wheel is gone? this can put a real damper on any road trip especially if you are not prepared for this in advance.

The following is a basic list of things which may require some upkeep on any camper or boat trailer. This list can be used to help make sure you check and service the following items:

1. Tires, without good reliable tires your trip could begin with ride to the nearest service facility.

2. Bearings, these hidden workhorses are what carry the load and if they are not taken care of they will let you know about it!

3. Brakes, this is important on trailers which large enough to have them, some have electric brakes and others mechanical "surge brakes" If you are not familiar with trailer brakes then do not attempt this work on your own since there is so much at risk.

4. Wiring, this can be for your brakes and your lights. Check to see that nothing is broken or that the wires are not chaffed.

5. Tongue Jack and winch system, make sure these function smoothly and grease them as required.

6. Safety chains, ball mount, hitch and safety straps that hold the boat onto the trailer.

7. Keep good records of any maintenance you have done or have had performed by a service company.

When preparing for your boating or camping trip, there are usually so many last minute things to do that the minor items are typically pushed back with a "we can always get to that later" kind of attitude. The problem with this type of planning is that things invariably slide to the last minute and then we are left with the decision on what items are most important and which can wait. This list may help you prioritize which items must be done first on your trailer before you even hitch up to your towing vehicle.

Tires - Check
Most people are very detail oriented when it comes to the upkeep on their boats and campers but some of us tend to let the maintenance on the trailer components slide. There are a handful of little things that can go wrong on your trailer if you do not take care of the maintenance and the first one is the tires. Since these tend to sit for long periods of time in one location the tires can get dry rot and lose their elasticity which makes them more susceptible to a blow out. The simplest thing to do here is to cover the tires after you put some type of tire protecting spray on them. Doing this after each use can extend the life and maintains the safety of your tires!.

Next you need to make sure the trailer tires and your good spare are filled to the specifications listed on the sidewall of the tire. This calls for a reliable tire gauge and some sort of air source. I prefer to use the inexpensive DC electric pumps that plug directly into your cars auxiliary power jack (formerly known as the cigarette lighter socket). It is also very nice to have a tire repair kit included in the tool kit along with your portable tire pump in case you do lose air on your trip.

Bearings - Clean and Grease
Bearings are durable components that can last many years if they are properly taken care of. On your trip these can get hot wet and dirty, which are all good things if you are out on a date, but not so much fun if you are hauling a boat down the Interstate at the posted speed limit. If you are interested in learning how to do your own trailer maintenance then the best thing to consider here is to get a good book on trailer maintenance from the library or better yet locate a good article here on Associated Content. Next ask a handy mechanical friend to help you for the first time around. Jacking the trailer safely and taking the tire off would be the first step towards properly checking the bearings.

If you are certain that the bearings are like new and all they need is to be greased then following the directions given with your boat or camper trailer book apply the correct type of grease to the bearing cups on each wheel. There is a really neat device on the market which I have installed on a few trailers called the "Bearing Buddy" which lets you see the grease level, is easy to install and reliably keeps dirt and water out of your bearings!

For more info on the original "Bearing Buddy" please go to: http://www.bearingbuddy.com/

Brakes- Electric and Surge
Trailer brakes can be a very misunderstood component on a trailer or camper but if you study the documentation which came with your trailer and the brake controller that you have in your tow vehicle then these can be easily demystified. Electric brakes use an electrical current to draw an electromagnetic coil up against the brake drum which when spinning drags the coil along with it. The coil is on a lever arm that pushes against the inside of your brake shoe which forces it against the brake drum. The one brake shoe is linked to the second one such that only one electric coil is required per wheel.

There is an adjustable brake controller required in the tow vehicle and through the trailer wiring it is activated when you press the tow vehicle brake pedal. These are adjustable so that the driver can tune the amount of braking that is applied to the trailer brakes on the fly.

Surge brakes are just like hydraulic car brakes which use a special plunger assembly built into the tongue of the trailer and when the tow vehicle decelerates then the weight of the trailer pushes into the hitch on your towing vehicle and this force builds pressure in the brake lines activating the trailer brakes. This style is becoming less common since the electric brakes are so inexpensive and are also very easy to install and work on.

Wiring For Lights and Brakes
Trailer wiring does not call for an electrician but it can be very complicated if you are not familiar with this type of wiring. A great deal can be learned from studying the wiring details on the plug socket that connects the trailer to your towing vehicle. Using a test light and voltmeter you can quickly determine root causes for your trailer lighting problems. The simplest systems have a four wire plug which is for lights only.

Next if you have electric brakes then the plug becomes a bit more complicated. You can have a five six or seven wire system with flat, square, or round connectors on them. In order for a wiring system to operate any electric trailer brakes then they have to have at least five wires, and the brake wire is typically the blue one.

An important wiring tip on some of these is the ground is sometimes the connection which is made through the hitch which means that the draw bar and ball need to make metal to metal contact in order for the ground to occur. I have seen people smear grease all over these components and it essentially isolates the parts from passing an electrical signal so if your trailer lights flicker on and off or you get a dimming on one side when the turn signal is on for the other side then odds are you have a weak ground. Cleaning the rust and or grease off these parts can help make your ground connection. Also you may need to pull the trailer for a few feet before things grind together enough to stay working.

Tongue Jacks and Winches
The jack is one component that is most often overlooked when it comes to maintenance. There is really not much to these and the one thing you must do is keep them clean and corrosion free by applying grease to the gears and in between the two metal tubes where they rub together. Also make sure the safety clip is in place and that it works smoothly. I have seen these jacks drop down from the locked position on a trailer and it bounces along and destroys the wheel before the tow vehicle driver notices it. In the event that your tow vehicle is too low or too high you may need to have a small scissor jack handy that you can use in the event your wheel jack breaks. Winches should be checked for corrosion and frayed cables which can cause you to lose the load that the winch is attached to. Also if your boat has loops for strapping the boat down then it is wise to use the strongest webbed ratchet straps that you can fit into that loop. This is inexpensive insurance that can help keep your boat right side up in the event you have an accident.

Safety - Hitching
The tongue of your trailer needs to be securely and safely attached to the tow vehicle hitch, and you must use safety chains that are available for your trailer. The first thing to be sure is that the tow vehicle and the installed hitch are rated for the load you are planning on towing. Next you need to make sure that the ball is the same size on your truck as the trailer tongue. This is usually stamped onto the tongue and the ball. Most often you will be dealing with a two inch ball, but occasionally a trailer will call for one and seven eighths size. The problem comes when an inexperienced operator assumes that that eighth of an inch is not critical, and shortly thereafter they are stranded on the roadside because the trailer jumped off the hitch when they went over the railroad tracks. This actually happened to a customer when my friend Bob owned a U-Haul dealership, fortunately nothing was damaged and no-one was hurt. The safety chains kept the trailer from escaping and kept the trailer behind the truck where it belongs.

Documentation
Keeping good records can be very useful when you go to service your trailer in the spring since you will know exactly when you repaired or replaced something. The best thing I have seen regarding maintenance on your trailer is a simple check list with dates of the various service works that you have completed on the trailer.

This list can be in the glove box of the towing vehicle and a copy left in the boat or camper. This tool is very helpful for recording parts that were replaced and for notations on any wiring problems or changes that were made over time. Part numbers can be recorded and useful website information can be logged as well. Keeping records on any service you have paid for can help you get things fixed in the event something goes wrong with that repair.

Now that you have a simple understanding of the trailer maintenance basics you can hit the road with a little bit more knowledge than you possessed before. I have noticed that It is not hard to get someone to show up for the trip but getting them to come over in advance to help you prepare can be a really neat trick. Good luck and have fun!