Like most, I work and can not use the boat during the week. Therefore it sits on the lift from Sunday night to Saturday morning.

My point is, during this time I always trim my drives in when sitting so that the new bellows on the gimbal is pulled open, being new I would rather have it take a set in this condition than in the compressed condition when the drive is stored in the raised position. OK, so why do I this?

My reason is that it is less stress on the rubber to compress it (when the boat is used) than it is to expand it as would occur if it were stored in the up position. Stress and age cause the cracks and failures that can lead to a bad day at anchor when you go for a long walk on the beach.

Reason for post, some years ago, my new trailer was stolen from a supposedly secure storage yard in town, and when the adjuster came to the house with the check, we had a conversation about what he sees as far as claims go. One of the things he warned me about was lack of maintenance of the gimbal bellows and not having proof that it(they) were replaced on a regular basis, and that some folks get boats, never replace the bellows for years and years and years, and then when it's on the bottom get denied because they can not show records of ever having serviced this critical item. I do not know if he was pulling my leg or not, but it caused me to replace both of mine last year, and the old ones were still pretty good, but were just barely, barely starting to crack.

I prefer straight forward and down, as this is what I've always heard for winter storage. Keeps the belows in a straight, in-line position. But truth be known, stored either way should be fine as long as you replace them at te recommended intervals. Cracks, regardless small or large are signs it's time to replace them. I just installed 2 new transom assemblies last week on my cruiser. The TA's were several yrs old, but never installed and still had the shipping paper on them. I still replaced the bellows and gimble bearing before installing the. The rubber was still yrs old. Dusty and looked like new still though, but bellows are not something you want to gamble with.