I have a 97 Monarch aluminum bass boat that I've only used in freshwater.I have for years been fighting the urge to use it on the flats and shallow water bays around Florida.The trailer is painted,not galvanized.The boat hull is painted and overall is in very good shape.No problems with the motor in 10 years(mercury).

Should I use it in saltwater,as long as I wash and rinse after each use. Or just for fresh and keep it in the great shape it's in.Please help,I need advice.The red and snook fishing is heating up down here in Florida.

No problem, Make sure you flush the motor and spray the trailer down real good. The sand can eat the water pump up pretty fast but I usally change mine every year any ways. You won't have any problem.

I have run one for years in the salt water and have commercial fished on several aluminum boats. They all can run fine in the water. Couple things you need to do is to flush the engine (or take it out to the lake and run it) every once in a while, wash down the trailer (though most are galvanized and will take a long time to get eaten), and make sure you have zinks welded onto the boat (some motors have them as well).

The action of the prop in the water causes electrolysis (kind of like static electricity when you rub your sock feet on the floor) and combined with the salt water will eat up your boat quick. By adding the zinks, it eats them up instead of the aluminum on your boat. Just watch the zinks and change them out when they are done getting eaten up and you will be OK on the boat.

-TJ

spray your trailer down with used motor oil

Even with a galvanized trailer .I have never backed them into the water. Thats what the winch is for.We laugh at the Landlubber Pilgrams who do.
I dont know any commercial fisherman,who flush out their motors after they use them in salt water.Heck we use them just about every day.

Newt - The commercial guys don't. They run them hard and will wear out an outboard before the salt will kill it. A personal craft that sits in the front yard for a bunch of the season, you want to get it out. It is not friendly to things.

Plus, I don't like the winch. I would rather run my boat off and then back up, instead of breaking my back trying to crank that thing in and out. That is work.........

TH - Don't spray your trailer with used motor oil in Alaska. The Coasty's like to sit at the boat launch and do inspections for safety equipment and such. If they see the sheen from your trailer, they will hit you with a ticket, plus make you pay for the clean-up. After Exxon, they are touchy about that kind of stuff here. Maybe you will have to come with more money in that trade......

-TJ

Thats funny newt I am usually laughing at the people who take 25 minutes to load the boat with the winch.

lol fish

Boat will be fine. Flush the motor as advised. Trailer however will be toast in no time no matter how well you rinse it. Lots of guys going to aluminum I beam if they have the $.

Check the sacrifical node in the motor, zinc think that corrodes. Had my on the Outerbanks for 3 years or so not problem. Havent popped a rivot yet.

Aluminium has its problems, but it has been my favorite boat hull material. It is light, can take the knocks, and is relatively easy to repair. We've had a 21 foot aluminium jet boat for maybe 15 years and it has been permanently moored in the ocean. We've also had aluminium dinghys.

The bigger boat needs regular replacement of the bolt-on zinc anodes to avoid corrosion damage, and we have to use a special expensive antifouling paint to suit the alloy. There is some corrosion on the boat, and we did have to have a patch welded in for one peculiar bit of serious corrosion that occurred. But overall it is just fine, and it has plenty of life left in it.

Our aluminium dinghys haven't fared quite so well, but they virtually never get washed with fresh water, and they are real workhorses. One was a riveted boat and it sprung a few minor leaks. The other is welded, and it has cracked in one or two places (not at the welds). They are very light which makes them easy to carry and hoist on to the big boat, but they can blow away in the wind so you have to be careful.

Aluminium is good and will last well, especially if you take care of it.

I recommend that you flush your outboard and do regular maintenance including changing the angle drive gearbox oil. However I know of folks that don't do much maintenance on their outboard, and they generally don't flush them.... and they seem to get away with it. I was told once that damage from not flushing may take ten years to take effect.

Here's the aluminium utility. My brother and his family have a home on an island that you have to get to by boat. Here he is with one of his motorbikes... he has no trouble at all in getting them on and off the bike on a six-inch plank.

After 20 something years on one of our aluminum setnet skiffs we just put a new 1/4 inch bottom on it. The old 1/8 one was definitely the worse for wear. But this was due primarily to hard landings on a gravel beach, not electrolosis. For small boats, aluminimum is the best construction material out there.

And yes, it is hard on trailers but you can still get 15-20 years out of one. Loarding with a winch is time consuming and hard on winches in my opinion. I avoid dryloading as much as possible. I'll build a new trailer every 20 years thankyou very much. Spraying with motor oil is pretty much a horrendous idea. I think most outdoorsman show a little more environmental care than that though.


Flush the outboards at the end of the season if they are going to sit for 9 months. If you use them sporadically, I guess I would flush them if they were going to sit for more than a month or two. If you use them year round, don't bother. They are doing what they are made to do.


Just my thoughts on this issue, as someone who has commercial setnetted with aluminum skiffs and outboards all his life.

I flush my personal boat after every use,unless I'll use it again in a few days.
My old work boat,a 26' Souwester(Parker),never got motor flushed,as it we was always getting used.Always sank the trailer and drove on.Rarely used winch,and then,just as little as possible.
Trailer is a 1986 and still going strong!

Top Jimmy, Most guys I know use a tilt bed trailer. And also This old boy is now closer to 60 than 50 so instead of the hand crank winch of the past. There in now a Electric Caspen.
I like the caspen much better than a electric boat winch that you see on most trailers.

Newt -

Tilt bed trailer? Is this kind of like a tilt bed on a snow machine trailer? I don't think I have seen one of those for a boat. Best that tilts on one here is the roller bars.

I can see using the Caspen. No work then. Still, that has to be rough on the rollers on the trailer to drag that heavy boat up and down compared to most of the weight floating in the water and just gliding up the trailer.

-TJ

Zinks were mentioned before. May want to find you a magnezium electrode too

Top Jimmy. They are Boat trailers.Some tilt at the toung. Where the wide part of the trailer meets the toung.Others the stern bunk of rollers pivit.