Repair & maintenance guides
Plain-English, step by step, written for owners. Pick your engine to see the guides that apply to it.
279 of 509 guides · page 6 of 12
How to Get Your Boat Ready to Sell (Records, Title and Prep)
Prepare your boat for sale the way buyers and surveyors expect: gather the title, registration and HIN paperwork, organize your maintenance records and receipts, fix the small stuff, detail the boat, get it ready for a sea trial and buyer's survey, and close the deal with the right documents.
How to Identify Your Boat Trailer Axle and Order the Right Parts
Find your trailer's VIN plate and axle lot number, take the key measurements (hub face, spring centers), read the numbers on your bearings and seals, and figure out the brake and hub type, so the parts store sells you parts that actually fit.
How to Inspect a Used Boat Before You Buy
A step-by-step checklist for looking over a used boat, from paperwork and the hull ID number to the transom, engine, compression test, sea trial and trailer. Know what to check yourself, what the red flags mean, and when to pay a marine surveyor.
How to Inspect a Used Boat Trailer Before You Buy
A worn-out trailer can turn a good boat deal into hundreds or thousands in repairs, or a breakdown on the way home. Walk through the capacity plate and VIN, frame, axle and springs, hubs, brakes, tires, lights, coupler, winch and bunks, and the title paperwork before you hand over the money.
How to Inspect and Clear Cockpit Scuppers and Deck Drains
Most boats that sink at the dock fill up from the top, through clogged scuppers, cracked drain hoses and leaky hatches during a heavy rain. Learn how to trace every drain, clear clogs, check flappers, hoses and clamps, flood-test the cockpit and keep drains working in freezing weather.
How to Inspect and Exercise Seacocks, Through-Hulls and Hose Clamps
Check every hole in your hull below the waterline, work each seacock open and closed, and inspect the hoses and clamps attached to them. A single failed fitting or hose is one of the most common reasons boats sink at the dock.
How to Inspect and Maintain a Boat Lift (Cables, Pulleys, Motor, Bunks and Storm Prep)
Inspect the cables, pulleys, motor, wiring and bunks on your boat lift, center the boat correctly, and prepare the lift and boat for storms and winter. Cable failures and overloading from rainwater or snow are the most common ways lifts drop boats.
How to Inspect and Repack Boat Trailer Wheel Bearings
Check, clean and repack your trailer's wheel bearings so a seized hub does not leave you stranded on the highway. Boat trailers get dunked in water every launch, which makes their bearings fail far more often than those on dry utility trailers.
How to Inspect and Replace Spark Plugs
Pull, read and replace the spark plugs on a gas outboard, sterndrive, inboard or PWC. Fresh, correctly gapped plugs help the engine start easily and run smoothly, and the old plugs tell you a lot about the engine's health.
How to Inspect and Replace Your Bow Eye and Transom Eyes
Check the bow eye and transom tie-down eyes for rust, loose nuts and missing backing plates, and replace and reseal them properly, because a failed bow eye can let the boat slide off the trailer.
How to Inspect and Use the Trailer Winch, Strap, Tie-Downs and Safety Chains
Check the winch, strap or cable, bow safety chain, transom tie-downs and the safety chains to your vehicle, and learn how each one is meant to be used. These parts keep the boat on the trailer and the trailer behind your truck.
How to Inspect Boat Trailer Axles, Leaf Springs and Hangers
Check the parts that actually hold your boat off the road: the axle tube, leaf springs, hangers, shackles, bushings and U-bolts (or the rubber torsion axle on newer trailers). Learn what rust-through, broken leaves and worn shackles look like, how uneven tire wear points to a bent axle, and when it's time to replace instead of patch.
How to Inspect Wakeboard Tower, T-Top and Bimini Hardware
Towers, T-tops and biminis carry tow ropes, speakers, boards, electronics and wind loads, all on a handful of bolts. Learn how to check the welds, bases, backing plates, bolts, folding hinges and accessory loads before a crack or a loose bolt becomes an accident.
How to Inspect, Inflate and Replace Boat Trailer Tires
Check your trailer tires the way the pros do: the right type (ST), the right load range, the right cold pressure, and an honest look at their age. Tires are the number one reason boat trailers end up on the side of the highway.
How to Install a Backup Bilge Pump and High-Water Alarm
Add a second, larger automatic bilge pump mounted above the primary, with its own overboard discharge and a loud high-water alarm wired so it works even with the battery switch off, then test it every month so it buys you real time if the boat starts taking on water.
How to Install a Bow-Mount Trolling Motor
Mount a bow-mount trolling motor so it stows and deploys cleanly and stays put: pick the right shaft length and spot, check clearance in every position, through-bolt it with backing, consider a quick-release bracket, and wire it with the breaker, wire size, plug and voltage the motor maker specifies.
How to Install an Inspection Port (Deck Plate) in a Deck or Bulkhead
Add a screw-out or pry-out deck plate so you can reach hidden nuts, wiring, hoses and through-hulls, or check a deck core for rot. Learn where it is safe to cut, how to pick and size the port, how to seal a cored deck with epoxy, and how to bed the ring so it never leaks.
How to Install and Set Up Forward-Facing (Live) Sonar
Mount a live sonar transducer such as Garmin LiveScope, Lowrance ActiveTarget or Humminbird MEGA Live on your trolling motor or a pole, give it clean power, route the cable so it survives stow and deploy, and dial in the basic settings. Most "bad picture" and "dead transducer" problems trace back to one of these steps.
How to Install EVA Foam Decking (SeaDek-Style Pads) on Your Boat
Closed-cell foam decking makes a hard fiberglass deck grippy and comfortable underfoot. Learn when a peel-and-stick DIY job makes sense, how to template, cut and prep, the temperature and gap rules, how to lay pads without trapped air, and how to clean, repair and eventually remove them.
How to Keep a Boat Maintenance Log and Organize Your Receipts
Set up a simple maintenance log that records the date, engine hours, work done, parts and who did it, and keep receipts and photos organized. Good records help with warranty and insurance claims, show buyers the boat was cared for and reveal wear patterns before something fails.
How to Keep Mice and Rodents Off Your Stored Boat
Mice love a stored boat: dry, quiet and full of soft nesting material and tasty wire insulation. Learn how to remove what attracts them, close their way in, choose deterrents and traps that actually work, avoid the risks of poison, and check the wiring safely in spring.
How to Keep Your Boat in the Water Over Winter (De-Icers, Covers and Checks)
Wintering afloat can be safe if you still winterize every water system, keep the bilge pump and batteries working, use a de-icer correctly on a GFCI-protected circuit, respect the shock and thin-ice risks, and visit the boat regularly.
How to Launch and Retrieve Your Boat Alone
A repeatable routine for putting a trailer boat in and taking it out by yourself: what to do in the staging area, how to rig one long line so you can control the boat from the dock, when power loading is off-limits, and the safety habits that keep you, your boat and the next boater out of trouble.
How to Load Your Boat Safely: Capacity Plate, Balance and Stability
Too much weight, or the right weight in the wrong place, is behind most small-boat capsizes and swampings. Learn to read the capacity plate (persons, weight and horsepower), add up your real load, balance it side to side and fore and aft, and adjust for rough water, water aboard and towing riders.
Safety: BoatMend is for information only and does not replace a certified marine technician. You are responsible for your safety and your boat. Read the full disclaimer.