www.iFourWinns.com

as part of my winterizing process, i have the boat done. i am looking at the trailer & after spending boo coo dollars on bringing it to road ready status. i ponder if taking the tires off would be worth the hassle. what are your thoughts? it seems to me, taking the boat weight off the trailer & tires off the trailer would have to give the tires longer life.

also, any one out there have a starcraft trailer or i guess any trailer that has some purple paint on it. i need to do some rust treatment & repainting.

zif001

zif,
I jack up the trailer and put blocks under the axel and leave the tires on. This accomplishes two things, first gets the weight off the tires for storage and also if one happened to loose air over the winter it stops the trailer from dropping and setting the outdrive on the ground, as I store with the drive in the lowered position.

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1999 180 Horizon LS 4.3 L GL Volvo SX
1994 Powerstroke
2002 Jeep Wrangler
not@work.gon
Happiness is an Empty Boat Trailer!!!

I raised mine one year but haven't since and I've never seen any ill effects.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I've never jacked mine up, to me that's unnecessary. One thing I do like to do though is cycle the surge brake actuator every so often over the winter (screwdriver can be used to cycle some actuators). This moves the pistons in either the calipers or wheel cylinders and makes them less likely to be seized in place come Spring. I also grease the wheel bearings and take a look at what comes out of the super lube hubs, if the old grease is not milky then its all good but if it is then it's time for new seals. If you did just these 2 things it would save a lot of trouble. And better to do it now, then to find corroded bearings come spring. Same reason why the drive gets pulled each season.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

We take the tires off of both our trailers and block them for the winter and store the tires in the basement for the winter. They have lasted quite a while without dry rot. It takes 10 minutes to do it, so to us, its worth it.

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1988 215 Sundowner 5.7L OMC