Clean up after salt runs????
 

I've been boating in fresh water all my life. We recently bought a 308 Skater with twin 300XS on a Manning aluminum trailer with hydraulic/disc brakes. I fully understand flushing the motors, rinsing everything down with fresh water, then rinse with 2/3 water and 1/3 vinegar on the cowls. What is the best way to clean the gauges? I have been told by several outboard people to remove the cowls and spray everything down with WD40. My wife and I are very good about washing down the trailer. Should we do anything special beyond rinse down of trailer wheels, etc? We do a good job of cleaning the interior and applying vinyl conditioner also. Boat is stored indoors on the trailer and we are good about making sure it gets waxed twice a year at least. Thanks for any info.

Im curious also and will follow along, my bud's have been bugging me to run the emerald coast with them, is you trailer boxed steel or aluminum c channel or ?

Modern cowlings are very watertight. I would be hesitant to rinse under the cowlings.or gunk up everything with wd40.

My dad's 14 year old 5000 hour Florida saltwater never been flushed Yamaha 225 looked like new under the cowling when I sold it last year.

Back in the day when I was in the parasail and jet ski rental business we used to rinse and flush the motors than douse them with wd40.

It made the motors such a mess after a while , so than we switched to BoShield which is like a wax coating.

That made the motors look like crap

Best thing we started doing was nothing at all. All the moisture from rinsing the motors were causing more corrosion than just leaving them alone.

corrosion blocker.... wd 40 is water based.. find some fresh water when your done and dip the boat and trailer and let it run... an 80 dollar pressure washer from harbor freight is worth getting to spray down the boat

When I lived in the area my solution was B&W Resorts in Isleton. Private enclosed storage, Annual slip rental, splash/retrieve with their tractor in fresh water. When you venture to the bays by the time you get back to Isleton everything is fully flushed. Tell Candi (owner) Arthur (Gary) sez HI.

Salt-away is a proven product. Grab a bottle and spray, flush, etc........

Biggest thing with saltwater is to rinse the boat soon as you get back.

If the salt sits on the boat and drys it attracts dirt and dust and makes the boat a lot more work to clean.

If you just hose off the boat with plenty of fresh water soon as you can there is no need for soap, or salt away and scrubbing.

+1 for salt away
Are you boating regularly in salt or just an occasional trip to the acid water

I've been using Dawn Dishwashing liquid for 40 years and it works great !! There's something about the chemistry of Dawn the neutralizes salt but is not severe enough to cause any problems. It's a great grease cutter also.

For a protectant you might want to look at some of the new "Nano Technology" products...especially for your gages and electronics.

That is what I use and I thought I heard Geico. I hate the restrictive little salt away mixers.

Wow think I used enough "I's" ?
Lol

Dawn, more than other dish soaps also remove any wax that was protecting the boat...no idea if salt-away has the same effect

You are correct I don't use it on the sides, just to flush motor and outdrives. Most any dish soaps will, they are formulated to cut grease. I always use a auto soap to wash boat/cars/motorcycles.

In both my Sonic and our Pathfinder we flush each motor on the hose for 5min (bump throttle).

We hand wash every inch of the boat with soap and water, interior and exterior, and we spray motors down with WD40 (for the O/B we take the cowl off). Never once has a corrosion issue using this method.

I stored my last boat, 25 Daytona, there for a few years and they are great. Loved the service, just show up and they remove your boat from its individual storage, and launch/retrieve you in fresh water. We live on the water in Benicia, keep the boat on its trailer in the enclosed carport at our house and the launch ramp is 1/2 mile away. Our boat will be launched and retrieved in salt water most of the time. We will have occasional trips to local lakes but the majority of the time we launch on the Carquinez Straits and go east to the Delta or west to SF Bay.
I'm going to check with Merc Racing to see what procedure they recommend.
I keep hearing about flushing with Dawn dishsoap. How is this done? What does it do? I would not wash my boat with it because I'm sure it would strip the wax. I may wash the trailer and wheels with it.
Thanks for all the input.

Do you lightly mist/rinse down the dash, throttles, etc and dry everything immediately? Then use spray detail wax on all of it??

Wish the sonic we washed the inside with soap and water and then dry it all, then go do the outside. I would spray detail the boat (hull and inside) every time and once every 2 months full hand wax it.


looking back I don't miss that cleaning job at all lol.

for the salt away when you buy it the first time you buy the kit (liquid and dispenser) from then on just buy the jug of salt away, the dispenser screws onto the hose and then attach flush fitting or spray nozzle.
I flush the engine with just water every time and run salt away through it about once a month, I just put stainless marine exhaust on and after three years in salt water the stack manifolds looked as good as a fresh water boat.
I use dry-rack storage and if you have that available check into it to me its worth every dollar

If you are running stock 300SX cowls, you are going to get water intrusion. Check out the DBR website video there. I have found that CRC 3-36 is a great product to spray the motor with the cowl off after washing. you can find it on Amazon in a bulk gallon for under $30. Also, on your manning trailer, if you have stainless steel wheel centers, they tend to hold water. Drill a few spaced small holes near the base for drainage. My Manning came with cast iron calipers which soon rusted the pistons. Switched to SS and no problems. That was in fresh water!

Really?

In this day and age someone is building a cowling that let's water into it?

Lake Pal as a fellow 308 owner and previous 28 skater owner that lives in S. FL and boats in Salt Water year around you are way over thinking it and worrying too much. Ask any of the guys on here that have seen my stuff and they will tell you it is nicer than new. I wash everything outside incl trailer a steel trailer with soap and water.
flush motors, mist interior with fresh water and wipe down all gauges, throttles etc. I do wax and polish all metal once every couple of months depending on use. Taboma is correct the 300xs cowlings injest a ton of salt water on a cat. I got rid of mine and went with the Nass version on the OPTI's i had with the plenum glassed in. Problem solved. Motors stayed really clean. The 300 x cowlings are pretty good also. I do routinely take them off and wipe them down with CRC 666 but not every time out. Enjoy the boat and salt water and being limited to the same surroundings all the time! JMO

Its about an hour ritual every time I come back. We run in salt and brackish water, but I always rinse motors, outside and cockpit right when I get home. I have I/Os but either flush with freshwater same day or next day then if its going to sit for a few weeks or month, i run salt away through muffs.

Gauges will be fine, just rinse it off. You can use mild soap, but just make sure you rinse the salt off and your good... also let dry or wipe down before covering.

Nawlins life!

Been a boater for 48 years now. The last 30 in saltwater running a commercial boat for business and pleasure boating.

I dont get the whole fascination with spending 2 hours cleaning the boat every time you come home from a day of boating.

Maybe if you have a 1/2 million dollar offshore boat, but if I could afford one myself I would surely hope it isn't such an expenditure for me that I would want to spend 2 hours not boating but instead cleaning and polishing it.

I'm not a fan of anything dirty except certain women, but man some of you go overboard with the cleaning..

Plenty of freshwater and opening hatches so some areas can dry out works wonders , if you want to wipe the interior and dash dry that would be a plus .

Believe me, I would never come in from a day of saltwater boating and not rinse the boat.

Because I know it will be 4 times as much work to clean it the next day if you don't rinse it in the morning before the dew drys.

I have caught hell from the girlfriend back in the day because I was out in the noseeums and Mosquitos rinsing the boat off a minute while she sat in the air conditioned no bug car whining how she was hungry and needed a Martini. STAT.

But I have also been at the dock and seen the anal guy taking a hour to clean and polish his boat while the wife and kids get eaten alive.

Crazy.

The girlfriends dad down here in SWFlorida had a nice 25 Stingray bow rider I orded new for him with the 300mpi and a bravo 3. Nice built boat unbelievably, Stingray came a long way . Nicely done interior with a lot seating for about 12.

Her and I used it 90 percent of the time putting 500 hours on it over 6 years, a lot of guests a lot of hard beach days on it.

Dry stacked with it left in the water overnight until the marina would pull it the next morning.Never anything more than a good rinse and tip the cushions up and open compartments at the end of the day than Into the barn.

Maybe every 6 months pull it apart and clean compartments out real good and get rid of gunk and hair .

Dirtiest it ever got is when it sat in the barn for months at a time during the winter with no use and got covered with soot and dust.

Sold the boat after 6 years and it looked as good as new with that little bit of effort. If I had spent 4 times the effort you would have never been able to tell the difference.

Went through a a set manifolds and was due for another set by the time it was sold.



I don't know about Mercury outboards , but I think most people on this site will die of old age before they kill a Yamaha from use or corrosion if half way taken care of . One word. ZINCS.

You can saltaway your I /0 all day long. It's all good if you are running in saltwater and never turn your motor off until you get back and immediately flush it, but what about those lunch stops and beach stops for 3-4 hours.

Corrosion never rest. We used to flush the crap out of the 330 mercs we used to run in the commercial boats .

Didn't matter a bit , the risers looked like crap after a year. The 1st time you shut the key off without flushing immediately the corrosion began.

Best thing that happened to I/0s was the 496 with it's closed cooling.

Biggest thing that drives me crazy on saltwater boats is corrosion on the wiring under the dash and in the engine compartment if not done correctly with quality materials.

It's almost inevitable .

It's a Frikin boat, use it , enjoy it.

I personally accepted the fact when I bought my boat that I'd be spending 2-3 hrs washing it after each use in saltwater. I'd rather spend my time maintaining it than my $$$ repairing it, IMO.

I wash the entire boat + trailer with water after pulling the boat. Then run freshwater thru the muffs for a few minutes followed by salt-away (everytime). Also give the boat a quick spray down on each side with the salt-away, but I end up going over the entire boat with a sponge-pad anyway, including the cockpit area if I got water in it. As for the dash, I only get mine lightly wet and then dry it off with an absorber (shammy).

Boat is stored outdoors in south FL, under 2 covers. Waxed twice a year, and I apply a vinyl cleaner/protectant to all the cushions about every other month.

Salt-away has been great for me. Dawn dish soap might do the same job for the engines and drives, but you don't wanna spray that on the surface of your boat (it'll pull the wax right off) and salt-away doesn't have that effect.

I don't think a single person here cleans their boat at the ramp...just saying.

And yes taking care of a large Offshore boat is a bit different then the 25 Stringray that hops to the islands. We do the hour or so of clean up so that we can continue to keep using it often and keep it looking in it's best condition while we do.

Here is my routine, granted my boat hasn't seen salt long.

Get home flush motors with water, then salt away, then water again.

While motors are running wipe down interior with simple green. Its my go to interior cleaner (if you get on vinyl make sure you reprotect. I use 303 for that)

After motors are flushed and interior wiped down, I put on cockpit cover.

From there everything gets hit with fresh water, then salt away, then fresh again.

This is the method I use, and I have seen zero degradation of my boat. Now keep in mind this is a **** ton of work, but my boat hasn't seen salt until recently and I want it to stay looking like that.

I've been boating in only saltwater for nearly 50 years. All I've ever done is rinse with freshwater and thoroughly towel dry everything. CRC or WD 40 on drive, engine etc.

Same here. If you get onto it as soon as the boat comes out of the water it's simple. If you leave the boat overnight before cleaning, your workload doubles. Leave it two or three night and the work trebles!

Inboards like a light spray of WD40 but newer outboard cowls (certainly Verados) are extremely watertight. With triples on a Fountain they would get very wet when I back off the plane but never saw a drop of moisture under the cowls.

I never had to go crazy cleaning because it was always done as soon as she came out the water.

RR

That 25 Stingray had twice the amount of interior as most modern offshore boats and was every bit of the quality if not more with high grade Naugahyde and no wood.

I have seen countless guys spending hours cleaning the boat at the marina after a few hours out. And not necessarily offshore boats, just fancy CC and mid size cruisers. You can tell their families don't want to go with them anymore because they take the fun out of boating with the anal cleanup process.

We Get It your Anal. Have a older brother like that and have boated with a few . Neither of them much fun.

Point I wa trying to get across is in 4 years the difference between countless hours fawning over the cleanup process as opposed to a quick efficient wash down and air out will be unnoticed.

I am all about the mechanicals on a boat. Nothing ruins a day of boating like a breakdown,ne specially an avoidable one from lack of care or maintenance .

Spend hours drying and wiping the spots off the boat and than within 5 minutes of being out it has more spots.

K-Razy.
Be Free. Get rid of the I/Os

Agree, when we were trailering the PP we spent as much time if not more fussing with it as running it. Friends/family weren't into the wait for sure. A good wash/flush and wipe down is good enough, all my equipment over the years looked top notch and never had a problem selling them.

I did lol.

But when I owned the Sonic to me that was part of doing business with a boat of that nature. My current O/B CC gets done in about 20min total and we are pretty damn thorough on it.


Also anyone that spends a long time at the ramp cleaning is an A**hole. We ALWAYS dropped off whom ever didn't want to help then pulled the boat back to storage, turned on the radio, cracked a few beers and got to cleaning. While I don't miss it, it was never anything too bad honestly.

I'll admit. Offshore boats are a Lifestyle which requires dedication, especially these days with exotic power and paint jobs.

I was watching a exotic car program the other day and a guy had a old classic Gull Wing Mercedes, million dollar plus car.

Guy drove it across country to every car show, didn't fawn over it.

Took every stone chip and cracked windshield in stride.

He Said what fun is it if you can't drive it. And it is always in running condition as opposed to the trailer queens that never get driven.

Yep...they're not art work! Drive them....a good friend has a 2015 Lambo Huracan. In less than 2 years he put over 50,000 miles on it! When someone tells him it's dirty, he says "when you buy a Lambo; you can clean it as much as you want...in the mean time, I'll be driving mine!"

They have a rv replenish dump station by the boat launch here in oceanside . But no place big enough for my truck and trailer . They have the same in mission bay . But it is illeagle to flush out your motors there . ( because of epa) like they have not been getting flushed in the ocean all day . Lol . Stupid rules !! One place you can and one place you can't !! My nighbors get to listen to 20 min of 1400 hp because of it .

That reminds me about when I 1st came to visit my parents down in Naples fl back in 83. I had towed my little 19 Baron with the 260 Merc down with me.

Wasn't in my parents condo parking lot 15 minutes when I 1st arrived and get a knock at the door. Condo Commando says find a home for the boat other than his parking lot or it wa going to be towed.

Moved it next door to a condo being constructed for the night.

Found a place to store it offsite for the month but no water to flush it.

There was a old Full service Mobil Station down the street so I just pulled in by the air and water like I owned the place and cranked up the motor and idled it up to 2000 and let it flush for 5 minutes and gave it a quick rinse.

Got away with this for 5-6 times and about the 7th this guy comes flyin up on me just losing his chit. Asking what the hell I am doing and why am I doing it at his gas station.

Kicks me out of there and tells me to buy my 15 gallons of gas somewhere else and never come back.

Year later I move down there . Start running around with some of the locals and end up in the Beach business.

Partying one night with one my new best friends one night and here this guy from the gas station walks up, my new buddies long lost best friend. Turns out he is the owner and owns the other 3 in town also.

Guy all night goes " I know you from somewhere"

You know I never told him until about 10 years ago . Great guy , but holy chit I pissed him off that day at the station

I know I am going to sound like a jealous Azzhole , but my motto has been if you can't afford to use it you can't afford it.

Got a buddy down on my dock with a new 55 Searay . Guy looks to have some bucks from the cars he drives and such . But god forbid he put more than 200 in fuel to get the tank around the corner to go to the beach.

About as far as it goes.