leaving the boat hooked up

[NIMROD]

Saves lots of time.

[big minnow]

Just crank the trailer jack up enough to take the extra load off your rear shocks & springs.

[BigRiverMarine]

i leave mine hooked up often for a week or more. i've never had a problem. Like BRM said, do not let it sit so long the ball rusts or you will lose your ground, and even then, like he said, after a couple turns the lights will ground and will resume working.

Do you wanna be like me when you grow up? BWAHAHAHAHA

Oh yeah, you ain't never gonna grow up. You ARE like me!!! Lol


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

We sell XPRESS, EXCEL, and ALWELD Boats. Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Mud Buddy, and Tohatsu/Nissan Engines.
Pro Staff, Southern Pro Tackle and Ozark Rods.
Member, Tri-State Crappie Anglers

[BigRiverMarine]

Please be aware that leaving your boat hitched to your truck can cause health problems. See a boat and truck ready to go fishing can be depressing if you are not going fishing. It can however be easily treated by going fishing much more often.

This ailment also causes lots of unemployment. If my boat is hooked up, and I see it, I AIN'T going to work, I AM going fishing. ;-)


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

We sell XPRESS, EXCEL, and ALWELD Boats. Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Mud Buddy, and Tohatsu/Nissan Engines.
Pro Staff, Southern Pro Tackle and Ozark Rods.
Member, Tri-State Crappie Anglers

[LBM]

It'll be fine. You can leave it a year, and shouldn't have an issue, and long as you pull it occasionally so that the ball doesn't rust to the coupler. Even if it did, driving it a few blocks will clean it out.

i leave mine hooked up often for a week or more. i've never had a problem. Like BRM said, do not let it sit so long the ball rusts or you will lose your ground, and even then, like he said, after a couple turns the lights will ground and will resume working.

IMHO here I see a major flaw described in how trailers are customarily wired by only using two wires and letting the ground or return current run thru the trailer frame and ball hitch. In both cases here it is described how the return current can be interrupted where the trailer lights wouldn't work if the ball gets corroded. It was never the current running to the lights as being described a problem here.

The majority of all my trailer light problems usually involved the connections of the individual lights and their pigtail connections from the light to the frame where connections were lost because of corrosion where the wires connected to the trailer frame. This was an all to often occurrence and it was never the wires feeding current to the lights. To lessen this too often recurrences of trailer light problems I had my trailer rewired with a third wire for the ground/return current plus changed all the light out to LED lights in 7/09, and knock on wood here, I have not touched my trailer lights in 36 1/2 months since that time.

Trailer manufacturers could really limit the amount of trailer light issues by originally adding this third wire during manufacturing and I know that if I ever get another new boat trailer I will eagerly pay for that extra run of wire just to save me the hassles of keeping my trailer lights working.

[crappieseeker]

cray, that is another reason i left it hooked up. I think for some reason it is easier to steal a boat than a truck, so I thought if I left them together they would actually have to break into the truck to take them. instead they could just pull up to the boat and drive off with it. Maybe I was thinking wrong. I hope neither one happens but you never know.

Only negative I see is that I'd would make it awful easy to take your entire rig. If you don't use it very often I would disconnect the battery on truck.

[crappieseeker]

good idea

Just crank the trailer jack up enough to take the extra load off your rear shocks & springs.

[Herewego]

Crappie fisherman's trucks should always have a boat behind it. I leave mine hooked up most of the time.

[Cmj]

mine is welded to the truck, never leave home without it

X2. There has been numerous times that i unhooked my boat, then hooked it back up 20 minutes later because of a spur-of-the-moment fishing trip. Now it stays on the truck, even goes to work with me most of the time!


(C.J.)