I know most of us are very  much in tune with our boat maintenance.  Do not forget to go over your trailers! This weekend I recently had a U bolt connecting my winch to the trailer tongue come loose and slide while I put the final cranks on the boat. With the season starting to come into full swing the nuts and bolts of the trailer are often overlooked. 

5 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

This weekend I recently had a U bolt connecting my winch to the trailer tongue come loose and slide while I put the final cranks on the boat.

 

I had this issue occur too, kind of.  Only mine had a weld that was coming rusted and loosening up on the support beam attached to the crank/bow roller.

 

I posted about it late last fall.  Its held to the frame via 2 U-bolts, which had slid backwards about 5 inches on the frame.  I had only noticed this whole issue because when I would load my boat, the transom was sticking further back on the bunks at the back of the trailer and I was having a harder time fitting it into my garage for storage.

 

 A local weld shop re-welded the support beam for me and then spray painted it with all season paint.  I ordered 2 new U-bolts and had the whole problem fixed by December.

Excellent advice! 

@gimruis I do remember you posting something similar. Our trailers take a lot of abuse and do not get the TLC our boats do.  

2 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

Our trailers take a lot of abuse and do not get the TLC our boats do.  

 

That support beam that slid back on the frame took 7 years to move about 5 inches!  It must have just slowly moved backwards over time.

@gimruis wasn’t your thread titled my trailer is growing? I am going to get some red lock tight and some lock washers for the u bolts since none of that was down. I just put blue lock  tight on for now. 

Yep, "trailer length increasing" if I remember correctly.