Have any of you added your own washdown system for your trailer brakes. I have a dual axel trailer under my boat, I worry that with using it in the salt and the fact you cant get water in their other wise that they are going to go fast. I have looked at buying a system, But I am never against saving some money and would like to just piece it together myself. I was even thinking of maybe mounting a small say 10 or 20 gallon tank of the trailer. Then using a small electric pump to wash the brakes as soon as the boat is out of the water.

Don't know what area you are in, but I had Kitsap Brake and Muffler in Bremerton/Gorst do mine. They did a great job and good price. It's great piece of mind having that system and easy to use. Along with the wash down system, throw a sprinkler under your boat while you're cleaning the rest, it's better than crawling down making sure you got every bit of the trailer...Good Luck

Good call bonkit

If you're mechancially inclined why not switch to disc brakes? You'll have a better brake that will last a lot longer than the drums with the washdown system installed? Price wouldn't be too much more..

On the other hand, an extra 5-minutes or so with the garden hose will render about the same results as the flush system IMO. If you hit the salt a lot in 5-years you will probably need major brake work anyways.

Just my .02 cents.

I built my own wash down kit. The backplate on your brakes have some rubber stoppers in them. If you pull one of those out, you can push a nylon hose fitting in there.

Go to Home Depot and buy 4 plastic hose fittings, a couple Ts, a few hose clamps, a female fitting for your garden hose, and enough hose to connect all the pieces. For about $20 you can build your own.

I fish both the salt and fresh. I did some quick research on the web and found cheap discs are about $250 each times the number of drums. So I would be looking at $1000 plus. I also read the cheap ones are that cheap and you are better off spending more money. I would have to look into it more.

If I just go with a system that I could hook up to the hose to flush the insides of the drums out. 3/8 inch flares to 3/8 barb Q=4 , 3/8 t's Q=4 , 3/8 90 degree elbows Q=4 , female garden hose connector adapted to 3/8 , 40 feet of 3/8 ID hose, 5 gallon garden sprayer it should be well under $100.00 bucks.

I would love to put disc brakes on but dont use it enough to warranty the expense. I get it out about 20 times a year. That and the fact I am getting married in sept. My days of sinking large amounts of money on my fishing habit are at best limited for awhile.

If I swap some of the hardware on my plans I could definatley save some cash. I guess my step is to pull the tires and hubs to see exactly what I am dealing with. Then a trip to hardware store.

Troller, regardless of what system you use, after rinsing everything down take you're boat and trailer for a short drive to help the drying process. So many people wash everything down and the trailer sits in the same spot and the rusting begins.

You're definitely on the mark with that

Congrats Duane and Susan, thats great news!

What I see as the real problem with brake wash downs is that your not washing it after you launch. You launch the boat and park the truck and trailer where the salt goes to work on it while your out for the day. Then you put it back in the salt to load the boat and the salt goes to work some more till you get home to use the washdown.
So depending on how your boat's set up I say adding a freshwater tank to your boat or truck and use the boats washdown pump to wash the brakes. All you would need is a tank, either portable to carry in the truck or one mounted in the boat, and a valve for the pump to draw raw or fresh water.