Interesting day Saturday

[Duck Butter]

Will get pics from my wife later to show, but in a nutshell:

First moved down here 2 years ago and have done very little freshwater fishing b/c too close to saltwater to worry with that. Used to go to Rockefeller every available weekend for shrimp, reds, and crabs and one day I was trailering boat and bent my trailer pretty good from that steep ramp, trailer too far in water and bent the tongue up. Well, apparently that bend weakened the metal enough in addition to the saltwater that I am now getting into even though I wash my boat and trailer when I get home.

So, Saturday wife and I decide to go to Butter La Rose, I back her into the water and when I pull up I hear something that sounded like the transom saver dragging - it was my trailer that had finally broken, just hanging by one little piece of metal. Drug it up the ramp and unhooked it and drug it over to side. Wife didn't see it happen and I got in the boat and told her the trailer was broken but didn't give any details because my parents were in town, we finally have a babysitter, and I was going fishing regardless and I didn't want her worrying! Caught a buncha bream, had a good day, and now i have to tell her what we are going to do.

Decided that the trailer was fine, and if someone wanted to steal it, more power to em. I took everything out the boat, motor is locked and tied it up well to the bank. There is a night watchman there at Butte La Rose so wasn't that worried.

Everybody wanted to go with me to help the next morning which when you have 2 women 'supervising' it can get outta hand. Lowe's didn't have all the stuff I wanted, so we improvised even more. Placed a 2x4 on top of the broken channel and one under the broken channel and used a U-bolt to tighten it all up pulled up the boat and it worked like a charm. Took the long way to the house to avoid going over the interstate. Gonna replace the channel and tongue and it will be like new. Will have to show pictures of all this.

What I learned:

Rinse off your trailer as SOON as you can

and/or

just get an aluminum or galvanized trailer and be done with it

[Goosepond Monster]

Sounds like you handled it like a champ and the most important part...you caught some fish.

[BassAssasin]

At least you caught, very smart move keeping the detail from her.

[Texas Tiger]

My brother had a similar expereince two years ago, but he didn't have his chains attached. So, his boat was floating in the lake as his trailer slipped down into it at the bottom of the ramp.

Needless to say, he's learned his lesson

[Duck Butter]

There was a guy drinking a beer just sitting at the top of the ramp watching everything, I think I won the award for the day.

Couldn't believe how smooth everything was going at that ramp with 20 people waiting to load or unload, everyone was respectful and there were always 3 spots for launching at the ramp

[I make oil]

Sounds like you handled it well. You going to do the work or you got someone to do it for you?

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by I make oil

Sounds like you handled it well. You going to do the work or you got someone to do it for you?

Uncle has a metal working shop, next time I head up to north La, I will work on it up there. Its just a piece of 3" channel that needs replacing. I will probably try and sandblast it and paint it, it is starting to look rough! Wish I would have gotten a galvanized trailer to begin with, but I was young and dumb

[Gerald]

In my experience...... any iron that has been exposed to salt and has rusted, will not hold up if you try to weld back together. You would be better off making some backets and bolting it back together...... as a tempory fix.

Once salt gets into the metal, you can not clean it enough to make a good weld.

I have 10 years experience working at a salt plant. Galvanize steel last a long time when exposed to salt. But don't damage the Galv. because it will start rusting fast.

[Spunt Drag]

Or go back wit stainless, if u can bolt it back on. Otherwise a weld wit cold galv sprayed on it, will start to rust in no time. Me and a buddy built my bracket for my transom saver outta 3" hot dip galvanized flat bar and sprayed cold galv over the welds we made, guess what's rusting after a year.