Storage: Drive up? or Down?

cdefreit

cdefreit

New Member
Jun 6, 2007
61
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Boat Info
2007 - Sea Ray 185 Sport
Engines
3.0L Mercruiser Alpha1
Should I keep my stern drive trimmed up or all the way down if my boat is on the trailer for extended amounts of time? Lets say a month or two? (I have a 2007 - 185 Sport).
 
Yep. As far down as you can go. Although "a month or two" in mild temps probably wouldn't do much harm.
 
Yeah, I crank my tongue jack up all the way, so the bow's up high, and then lower my motor, till the skeg lightly touches my 1" pine wood block I have under it. I do this every time I get back from using the boat too, so it drains out all the water inside(it's surprising how much water we bring in, when we're diving off the boat, and such, the bilge gets most of it, but there's still a little that takes a while to drain/dry out), and relaxes any stress on the bellows.
 
Down as well and if I am going to be away for even a week :smt089, I apply a liberal coat of food grade lube to the bellows. I also do this for the winter lay-up. It keeps bellows from drying out and keeps them nice and supple
 
Down my friend,
I have heard of folks spraying 303 on their bellows as well.
 
The Mercury manual says store it down for the bellows' sake. How do you access the bellows? Are they accessible inside or out of the boat? What do they look like, please?
 
Always down when you are storing the boat. Never thought about the "303" option. I sounds like a good idea especially in a dry climate.
 
Last edited:
A friend of mine did the wood block trick this winter and this year went to check on his boat and has a flat tire and of course a alot of weight is now on the skeg. I wonder if he will find any damage come spring?
 
Tanner03 said:
A friend of mine did the wood block trick this winter and this year went to check on his boat and has a flat tire and of course a alot of weight is now on the skeg. I wonder if he will find any damage come spring?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I never thought about a tire going flat, but I don’t ever keep a block under the drive. This may not be relevant to those of you who keep your boat stored indoors or live in a warmer climate, but consider this if there’s actually winter where you live: Even if your boat is on solid, level ground, it’s likely that the height of your drive will fluctuate over the course of winter as the ground freezes and thaws. If you have your boat on a trailer, the tires will expand and contract with temp changes, and eventually deflate over time. (You always have to put air in the tires in the spring, right?) If you’re not careful, you may actually be putting more stress on the drive by using a block. Just my two cents.
 
re: flat tires. That's a good point, mine's in the garage next to my car, but I have to admit, I'm not always looking at it's tires, and it gets below 0 in the garage during the worst of winter. (btw, 1-3" today, another 1-3 tomorrow (6+ in the mtns! for the first day of spring!)) (I'll have to think more about insulating the garage I guess.)

I suppose you could block up the trailer, so it's fixed, or in my case, keep a regular eye on it, and hit it with the air if I see things going soft.

The 303's a good idea... I use it on all my other vinyl/rubber, and it keeps it in brand new condition on my other vehicles!

-Garth
 
Flat tires... I solve this problem with jack stands. One should never allow a vehicle or trailer with weight on it to sit unmoved for extended periods of time on it's tires. This creates flat spots on the tires which will translate into a horrible ride or poor towing performance.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses to my question, its been very informative. I'd like to throw this out there, I called my local Marine Max and they advise pretty much the opposite. They say trim all the way up and steer to the right a little bit. They say thats how they store all of their boats. Any opinions?
 
cdefreit said:
Thanks everyone for your responses to my question, its been very informative. I'd like to throw this out there, I called my local Marine Max and they advise pretty much the opposite. They say trim all the way up and steer to the right a little bit. They say thats how they store all of their boats. Any opinions?
Click to expand...

UPDATE: ok, I called another Marine Max and their advise is more inline with everything that I've read. Trim down. I told what the other Marine Max told me and he said they don't know what they are talking about.
 
Are you serious about the flat spots?

Never had a problem with any of my boats...but i just started putting jack stands under the axels incase I do have a flat. I had a hard time deciding were I would place them...for full support through the winter with out doing any damage.
 
StressAweigh said:
Did MM say why they store all there boats that way.
Click to expand...

The MM that told me to TRIM-UP, did not give an explanation and summed it by saying its just better. Oh, he did say that Bellows are pretty resilient and won't be harmed.

The MM that told me to TRIM-DOWN gave detailed reasons, such as stress on the bellows, dry/rot, water drainage, and gear oil reached the right spots instead of pooling when its trimmed up. He recommended lowering it till it hits the ground then back off an inch or two.

I'm convinced, down is the way to go.

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,196
Messages
1,428,296
Members
61,103
Latest member
Navymustng
Back
Top