rinse the trailer after a dunk if possible, but defenatelly flush the motor after you use it, on the way home hit one of the commercial truck wash areas and let them get down with the washing. for flushing the motors just let the motors idle and make sure you get it warm enough for the tstat to open and do the taste test if no salt away with you.

I have never once boated on Fresh Water. Salt water is nothing to be scared of from a boating standpoint unless you don't use precaution, or don't flush like you should.

I echo everyone else's recommendations. I normally flush with just water for about 2 minutes BEFORE firing up the engines (to get the drives good). Then I fire the engines up and flush for a couple minutes (no thermostats here). Then I use salt away - buy the adapter kit at Boaters world - until it ocmes out of the pipes. If you have a switchable exhaust I also make sure I run salt away through taht at some point.

Salt Away is a great product - I bath in it, and even garnish my drinks with the stuff. Feel free to coat the outdrives, tabs, steering rams, and TRAILER with it top to bottom leaving a nice film until you dunk it back in the fresh water. It may not look shiny on the way home, but it will be well protected.

If that were a reasonable expectation everyone would be very busy re-packing their bearings every time they put their boat int he water.... Admittadely I haven't re-packed my bearings in 4 years because I'm lazy with it... I had one failure last year and it was due to my neglect over the previous 3 years...

If you're going to do it once just rinse the trailer off and you'll be fine! Bearings should be re-packed every year regardless (I need to follow my own perscription).

Flush the engine out with fresh water and you'll be fine. Use salt away if you have access... spray down with some kind of protectant (WD-40, CRC etc) When you get back to the lake, launch the boat and take it for a short spin, that'll get the rest of the salt water out and any left over salt on your trailer.

Don't sweat it, good luck and have fun!

thanks for all the advice.. sounds like the extra effort wont ruin my good time down there!

I always thought if I was going to run in the salt that I would try and find a fresh water river to launch in and then by the time I done in the salt and ran back up the river my motors would be flushed and I could just wash the boat. The trailer would never see salt.
Is this possible?

Is all the trailer washing just for steel trailers or does it apply to aluminum & galvenized trailers also??

It's the steel trailers that REALLY take the beating. Not to say components of aluminum trailers aren't affected by the salt, but the steel trailers really get hit.

whether the frame is aluminum or steel the axles, spindles, bearings, brakes etc. are steel and you should rinse it off as best you can.

Check your insurance, some companies won't cover boating on the ocean or even the great lakes without being notified. If you have a steel trailer find a marina to pick the boat don't dunk the trailer. I have a jet boat that I have dunked the trailer in salt water and rinsed off right away and it's still rusting really fast.

I can't say enough about salt away.

I'm in the middle of a cosmetic resto on my boat so I've only been able to run it on the hose for the last couple of months.

If I run with only fresh water, I get a few seconds of discolored water when I first start up. If I run on the hose then at the end use salt away, zero discoloration. It seems to always help regardless if you run in salt water or not...