Improving Pre & Post Trip Times

[adrianp89]

Not sure if there is a thread for this but I thought I would start one for tips and tricks to make getting the boat ready and putting it away quicker.

I trailer a boat almost daily so have found some efficiencies but open to hear yours. Not all of these are really practical but food for thought.

1. Always keep the hitch on. I used to not do this, but I re-adjusted my stopper in the garage and now keep it on 100% of the time.
2. Have a vehicle with air suspension. Upon hook up, I back the hitch right under and just raise the truck. While it is raising up, I hook everything up, then flip the wheel up and go. Upon un-hooking I do everything in reverse. I can have the trailer hooked up or unhooked in 30 seconds or so.
3. Hose Quick Connects - absolute life saver. I have my hose on this, my salt sprayer, regular hose sprayer, pressure washer, and clean out nozzle. This saves tons of time.
4. Quarter turn faucet turn on - very simple but 10 seconds of turning the faucet on turned into half a second.
5. Quarter turn hose control - This came on my hose already but is great with quickly changing the quick connects or turning off to flush the water out of engine.
6. Pre-Mixed sprayer. I use a Salt-gone sprayer, it is the best of all the ones I have tried so far. Can quickly switch between Solution/Water/Off.

What else have you guys come up with?

 

[Ericd]

Interesting topic - looking forward to seeing what others are doing.
Seems like I spend a lot time hooking up the salt-away to flush the engines after hosing off the boat and trailer.
I recently bought a 50’ flexible hose and it’s much easier (faster) to use than the heavy stiff hose I used before and it fits in the cleaning bucket with the other supplies.
I am going to add a second flex hose so the Admiral or fishing buddy can wash down the outside of the boat and trailer while I flush the engines. I need to make up a third short (10’-15’) flexible hose with the salt-away bottle for the engines. It will have a shut off valve so I can turn on/off from the helm. As long as I have help this will definitely speed things up.

 

[TimW451]

I slip my boat, so some differentiators, but my system is to “prepack“ my gear for portability.

1. Go Bag, has keys and documents, phone charger, and small sunscreen and lip balm. All I need to take the boat out.
2. Roller bin, 4’ long bin that holds inflatables, inflator, bungees, dock lines, and such. I can use this to store the mooring cover while out and can keep in truck or bungee to boat lift. This is my portable dock box.
3. Homer bucket, all my cleaning supplies fit in this, except expandable hose that I keep on the boat and pole for brushes. I don’t bring this on the boat.
4. Roller cart, holds towels and kids water toys, fits perfectly in the head compartment.

All this fits in the bed of the truck under the tonneau cover. So I can leave it in there, but usually don’t. I’ll go to the boat with this while my wife and kids pack the coolers. This lets me lower the boat and get the cover off before they arrive. When we get back for the day they can leave before me and I can wash down the boat and cover it (in peace, and with a beer).

 

[Joshua Miller]

Having teenagers cuts down on a ton of time. When I first got into boating I was doing everything myself. I can now put one of them at the helm while I manage the salt away mixture and hose connections at the back. By summer’s end I hope to have the oldest trained how to launch, recover, and back the boat in the driveway.

Nothing else really to add—I keep a dedicated beach towel bag alway at the ready with a side pouch full of sunblock.