| The white box & black wire in the bottom center is the electric bilge pump. |
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Trailer Brakes/Outboard Flush Pump : Those of you who have boats & trailers that are large enough that require trailer brakes are well aware of the situation called rust, if you launch in saltwater. Many times there are no slings available where you want to fish. Other times (most often it seems) there is no wash-down facility at the take-out, or someone has ran over the male hose coupler smashing it.
This can mean that by the time you may travel for a minimum of a couple of hours to get home, that the saltwater has pretty well hardened inside your brake drum unit.
Here then is another gadget that can be made from scraps for under $40 that can be a lifesaver for the brakes, & your high blood pressure. It is simply a 5 gallon plastic jug, a live-well pump, a short section of garden hose & a electrical fitting that connects to your downrigger plug-in. An inline electrical switch also helps. In use, mix the required mixture ( 2 to 4 oz. per gallon) of Salt-Away chemical with fresh water for the size of the container before you leave home. When you pull out of the water while tying down & preping the boat for the trailering trip home, attach the garden hose fitting to your trailer axle fitting, plug the connector to your downrigger plug in & if you have a dual axle trailer, flush 1/2 the liquid into one axle. Change axles & do the other side.
Most trailers prepared from dealers seem to do one axle at a time, meaning the flush hose fitting is on a front axle & the same side on the rear axle. It seems to me that there is wasted pressure drop in doing this with this system as compared to a home/city water pressure system. Therefore, I simply re-plumbed the plastic tubing so that I now have both fittings on the rear axles, one on each side, which also is closer to the downrigger plug-ins. These push on fittings for plastic tubing & fittings can be a bear to redo if the tubing is getting old. Simply smear some liquid soap on the fitting & then push it onto this barbed fitting.
This can also very easily be used as a motor flushing unit by attaching flushing muffs to the garden hose outlet.
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Shown here set up for brake flushing |
The same unit as on the left, but used for motor flushing |
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Extra Fuel : How many times have you wanted another tank, but had no place to put it or a way to connect to your main motor in a hurry? Here I have made a manifold block of aluminum with the center outlet being a solid connection going to the main motor. On each side are inlets with one also being sold coming from the main fuel tank, but it has a shut-off valve at the manifold. The other inlet is a quick coupler the same as the brand of the motor being used, which also has a valve.
Here I can run fuel normally from the main tank with it's valve open. If that tank becomes empty, I can valve off the main tank, & open the auxiliary tank's valve giving me an extra 6 gallons. This extra tank can also be used for the trolling motor if needed. The one thing to consider is that IF you do not have the auxiliary tank connected all the time, then you will need to have a plastic cap covering the fuel line connector to keep corrosion down & make a tight seal when you really need it, as shown in the photo below, note the protective rubber cap over the fuel connection. The extra fuel line is just capped off, as I also use the fuel tank base as a base for an insulated ice chest at times depending on the type of fishing involved. Here the extra fuel tank was replaced with the ice chest.
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On the right is the main fuel line from the tank. Center is to the motor. And on the left is for the extra fuel tank connector. |
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Catch-All Box
:
Where do you put fishing gear,
etc. during the day when the action is on & yet be out of the way. I
made a raised combo captains seat base that under it I have my tackle box, spare
downrigger balls, & a place for a 5 quart plastic paint bucket all out
of the way. Above
this base where the captains seat is attached is a 1" lip all the way
around. This lip makes a catch all for removed spoons, Smelly Jelly &
about anything else that needs a quick home. At the end of the day, I
then clean (or try to) this stuff up & put it away.
| Under the seat catch all |
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Trailer Step : I was once told that necessity was the mother of invention. Actually in my case PAIN was the mother of invention. After a day of fishing, I forgot to lower the radio antennas after the boat was out of the water & on the trailer, so climbing onto the trailer fender & then hopefully up into the boat, my foot slipped on the wet fender & my leg went under the chine & above the trailer fender. It barked LOTS of skin very badly off my shin enough that there had to be a better way to board this boat while on the trailer. Hence the picture below.
You will also see a roller attached to the upper end of this step. Here I was afraid that when reloading, if the boat did not align properly that the side of the hull near the flared bow would gouge into the top of this step, so I utilized an old wringer washing machine roller to ward off the bow. I can now step onto the base of the trailer fender & then up to this pad & on into this deep boat.
| Step with roller on trailer |
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Side Window : Have you ever wanted to talk to some other skipper who is alongside without leaving the helm of a curtained convertible topped boat. This is especially useful in larger boats that have a convertible or even hard tops. Ventilation can even be a blessing at times. Have your upholstery person cut the thin Plexiglas side in an big arc starting at the top front & ending at the top rear. Now have him put in a zipper. He can then attach a few snaps so this flap can be snapped inside to your top to keep it out of the way when opened.
| Zippered opening for side curtain |
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Better Securing of Convertible Top: If you need a new top made, have your upholstery person add snaps between the existing ones. And also have them place Velcro on top inside of the windshield, then have a short flap of the top extending down inside & Velcroed to the other part already on the windshield. With the existing largely spaced snaps, & no inner Velcro flap, IF you ever get a wave over the bow & it comes up onto the windshield, it will also go UNDER the snapped down top. This can put lots of cold water right in your lap. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.
Maintaining a Convertible Top: One thing that you may want to consider is every fall, especially if you have used the boat in a salt environment, unsnap the convertible top, clean & lightly oil the female snaps. If You don't, very possibly next year when you try to take it off, you will tear the canvas at the snap's because the inner spring that holds the snap together has become corroded & does not want to let go.
Improvement to Trim Tabs : Most trim tabs seem to not be large enough if installed on a deep Vee hull. A problem can be that if your passengers move around or the engine lugs climbing out of a trough, the boat will change stability & want to tip onto one side or the other until the trim tabs are repositioned. Then when the speed returns or the passenger moves again, the whole process starts over again.
A simple addition is to have your sheet-metal man fabricate a larger set of tabs. It also works best for me anyway to add a 2" downward lip on both sides. This lip tends to prevent sideslip. Not being sure it would work, I had him fabricate a set out of galvanized sheet steel. I tried this for a season & it worked so good I then had him make another set out of stainless steel. These new larger tabs are just bolted onto the bottom of the existing tabs.
Mine needed to be shifted inward so were not evenly spaced on the existing tabs. Since the hinge could not be changed on the existing units, it required an extra pivot point be made & attached to the stern for the longer inside end of the new tabs.
| Trim tab additions for better stability, note the considerably larger tab with 2" fins |
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Anchor line : Never attach your anchor line directly with a spliced in end & a clevis to a bow eye, internal or external. If for some reason things go from bad to worse, you MAY NOT want to be attached to your anchor. This will of course depend on the size of boat & configuration of it. OK if you happen to have a below deck anchor line locker & you do not want the anchor line to be fed out of this locker whereby you loose the end before you are aware of it try this. If it has to be tied off, try tying a smaller diameter line (3/16") about 20' or 30' long into the end & then tie off this smaller line. This smaller line will break a lot quicker under stress than a 3/8 or 5/8" one & may save the boat from being pulled down.
Need a Heavier Anchor? : Have you ever dropped anchor, but the current was running faster than you expected & the anchor was dragging? You may not normally need a bigger anchor & in a small boat, and space is at a premium. A simple solution is to also carry a 25# lead drift boat anchor. When needed, simply snap it onto your regular anchor for better biting into possibly a rocky bottom.
| Here a 25# drift boat anchor is attached onto the standard medium Columbia River rocker style anchor. |
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Rod Holders : I am assuming that you are a fisherperson otherwise you probably will not be looking at these articles. So, under most conditions, we need rod holders. Some types of fishing require that you hang onto the rods, but read on. Just one rod holder per fisherman is not really enough. Salmon fishing with more than one person aboard may get hectic if the bite is on. Here you may have to move one rod out of the way so that the fish can be netted. At times you do not have time to reel in & secure the rod out of the way. DO NOT just lean it against the gunwale with the tip over the side. This can very well be the basis for donating a favorite rod & reel to the fish gods. While fishing off a friend's boat that had no rod holders it was a very heartbreaking moment seeing your favorite rod & reel disappear in the water & you can not do a thing while you are netting his fish.
I recommend having many rod holders strategically placed around the fishing area. Or at least have the bases attached, & the holders can be moved as need be.
Open Bow Cover
: My
current small boat is a 16' jet sled. I have made a vinyl bow cover with
the snaps close together & put 2 inflated kids swimming pool rings under it to
support the vinyl from underneath to keep any water from coming over the open
bow if the weather gets nasty & filling the front compartment. One of
these is pretty well inflated & the other only as much as needed to bring the
height up.
| Bow cover for a sled |
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Windshield Defroster : There are permanently mounted heater/defrosters available, but if your boat is smaller & you do not have the room on your dash, consider going to a RV shop & purchasing a 12 volt hair dryer. These sell for less than $20.00, & come with a fold up handle for space saving & they work just great.
Landing Net Storage When Fishing in a Small Boat: You need the landing net's handle extended & ready when needed. But with a small boat just where do you put it? Many a net has been lost because it was stashed along side & outside of the windows, or laid on the top. If you have a convertible top boat that is large enough that the top is high enough to walk under without stooping, you can poke it under the top's rear bow, & then the front of the net bag OVER the center bow just enough to hold it in position. In use you can pull it rearward & be in use rather quickly.
Another twist to this method is to lay it on top of the convertible top, but attach a 2" strip of Velcro to the top where the net bag will lay. Then place a 1" nylon strap that has the other side Velcro hooks that also is snapped to the lower Velcro & the top in the front. Here the net bow is laid so the 1' Velcro strap can be pushed thru a loop in the net bag & then over it with the 2 Velcros securing the bag & possibly a part of the bow. For the handle take another 1" nylon strap & put snaps so that it can be wrapped around the net's handle a couple of times & snapped back to a snap on the rear of the top. Many of these tops have a rear curtain. You can many times utilize these snaps.
| Net held on top by snaps & Velcro, note the PFDs attached to the back of the seats. |
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Warm Water Sink In Your Boat : Here you can install another line from the overboard water indicator off the motor & run it into a small receptacle nearby that can be used as a hand warmer if fishing in cold weather, or as a sink using Lemon Joy soap to wash off any Smelly Jelly or scent that you have applied to your lures. There is a overflow outlet tube that puts the excess water over the stern. This overflow is about 1" below the top & another used as a drain tube near the bottom which has a plug in it. You may have to experiment with the diameter of the outlet hole before finding the right size so the sink does not overflow when the motor is at a higher speed.
When not using the water feature into it, it makes a good catch all for sinkers, lures etc. & a base for the leader spool. It also serves as a cover to restrict easy access to the motor mount retainer bolts.
| Warm water sink using the overboard water indicator as a supply |
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2nd Line When Launching/Recovering : How many times have you launched, or tried to retrieve a boat onto the trailer & the wind or tide wanted to move the boat in a direction other than where you wanted it to go if you only had a bow line attached? The answer is to use 2 lines, the bow line & one on the stern. When you tie a boat to the dock, you always secure it with both a bow & a stern line. Use the same stern lines, (they now may have to be a tad bit longer than just for moorage however) in conjunction with the bow line to manipulate the boat forward or rearward along the dock. Here one person can now walk the boat back down the dock by pulling on one (the stern line) while guiding the bow with the other line. It also really helps when reloading if you get the wind blowing or a side current.
Matter of fact I keep 2 stern lines permanently attached, one to each stern mooring cleats along with the bow line also attached to it's cleat at all times. This way I can use either side line at the rear, depending which side I come into the dock to.
Docking Lights For a Small Boat : Have you ever came in later than you had expected? Sometimes it can be REAL BLACK out there. And a hand held spotlight might be OK for coon hunting, but it sure is worthless if it is black, midnight, raining & cold (been there-done that). I have mounted 2 rod holders on the bow. I have 2 boats & the larger one had hand rails. This one the clamp on rod holders were attached to the rails. The other a jetsled has a squared off bow, perfect for attaching the rod holder bases. Automotive driving lights were affixed to a rod holder spline unit & a electrical wire was run forward under the deck to a cheap trailer connector. This way these lights can ride in my storage location but can be utilized only when needed.
I get some funny looks at times because of these bases being in these locations, but they are there for a reason & that is to get me home easier.
| Rod holder bases used to mount removable docking lights |
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Cleaning Station: For my ocean boat, on the stern I have a hinged lid that has nylon on it for a bait cutting block. Under this lid, I have cut out part of the fiberglas & made a hole that will accommodate a Rubber Maid plastic refrigerator juice container, but without the lid. During the installation, around this container I wrapped it in Saran Wrap & then poured in spray foam insulation to make this my own insulated bait container. The lid then covers this container & the lid also has a 3/4" wood protrusion hanging down that just fits inside the container making a better seal.
Now on top of all this I made up a 16" x 24" aluminum frame & mounted a 1/2" plywood with a sheet of 3/16" nylon cover. It has a rear lip, holes for knives & blood to escape. All this lays on top the bait container lid & the front corners have 1/2" aluminum rods welded in place that just fit into my rod holders that happen to be strategically placed. Here is my cleaning station for bottomfish or salmon.
| Insulated built-in bait box, note rod holder bases also used for cleaning station attachment | Removable cleaning station installed |
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Of course the wash-down pump is close by.
Oily Film at Fueling or Mooring : This one is not my idea but very well worth passing on. Those experienced yachters probably have known this since they first set foot on the boat, but sometimes us fisherpersons are a little slower.
If you are in a boat basin where there is minimal tidal movement and there is an oily scum on the surface, or you happen to spill some fuel when refueling here is the answer. Get a Windex bottle or something similar with the pump sprayer & mix up a solution of water & Lemon Joy dishwashing soap. Spray this on the water & it will help dissipate this oily film.
Spare Trailer Parts Not Normally Thought of Carrying : Here is something that the average boater may never see, but we were waiting at a launch to take out, where the boat ahead of us on the ramp was being recovered by only the skipper. We offered to help. Good thing as he apparently had not gotten this larger boat, (26') straight on the trailer as it should have been & when the boat was 3/4 on, then the winch cable pulled the boat more straight, but in the process the ridge on the underside of the hull now being properly aligned, popped one of the front bunk rollers off the self aligning roller unit. We got him stopped just in time otherwise this bare roller arm, now just a piece of steel, would have gouged a hole in the hull.
What had happened was the trailer was an EZ-Loader that used large washers on each side of the rollers & a large hog ring to secure the whole unit to the shaft. In the recovery, the ridge going down the side of the underwater hull had gotten slightly out of position & when finally pulled straight, had put enough pressure into the wrong side of the roller & broke the hog ring. We recovered the washers from 18" of water but without new hog rings, could not retain the roller. These shafts do not have the hog ring retainer holes go all the way thru the shaft, so no bolt or nail could be utilized in retaining the roller.
This skipper was inventive in that he found a large pair of Vise Grips in his tool box & used them clamped onto the end of the shaft to retain the roller to the shaft instead of the hog rings. I immediately mentally added to my spare parts list extra large washers & hog rings.
Another item to consider is a spare Bearing Buddy. If for some reason someone steps on one & gets it offset, you may well loose it. It is a rather helpless feeling to be gone fishing for a week, only to find that one Bearing Buddy is miss the first night. I looked in all my toolboxes & around everywhere but could not find a thing, until I tried cutting off part of a Pepsi can, using the bottom & duct-taping it onto the spindle. Not perfect & I would remove it every night when I pulled the boat out to let any saltwater drain out. Then re-tape it the next morning. When I got home a thorough cleaning & re-greasing of the spindle bearings & a replacement Buddy was one of the first things I purchased.
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