WHETHER ON LAND OR ON WATER, YOU’RE GOING TO DEAL WITH RUST

So often in these articles we focus on going offroad, but there is so much more to a 4WD.

Some of us just need the space for the kids, and it becomes a great family vehicle. While for others, towing boats is their m.o, their life on the high seas being more vital than a life out on the tracks.

For me, I do both. I have my 4WD that I go camping with, and then I use my wife’s Prado for towing, either my little tinnie or our bigger boat that we share with a mate.

The Prado tows the Larson bow rider brilliantly up to Eildon for our family trips. The kids love to get out in the sun, swim, ski or knee-board. I love it all, as this is what I grew up doing. To me and my wife, we feel like we are giving our kids something great that we enjoyed when we were kids.

Boating doesn’t always go as planned though. On our last trip, we had just filled up the fuel tank in the boat, I dropped it off the trailer into the water and my wife took it for a quick spin.

She then came back to pick me up and had the boat idling… All of a sudden it stopped and it wouldn’t go again.

I tried everything. It felt like it was flooded. The spark plugs were black so I cleaned them as best as I could without any real tools. I scraped them with a screwdriver, but nothing I did could get it going again. I even started doubting what I was thinking and went through the whole boat, checking everything else; fuel, wiring, etc.

In the end, I headed into Mansfield and grabbed a new set of spark plugs. I fitted up the plugs in the car park and straight away the motor fired up without a problem.

We went back to the lake and put her back in the water and enjoyed the last two days of the Easter break on the water without even a hint of a further problem.

This got me thinking though. Everything in the boat is always wet. The tools that we keep on the boat always have a slight bit of rust on them and the old spark plugs get rusty. So how can I keep tools and spares on the boat without destroying them?

My personal solution for this little problem is to vacuum seal.

Now, having a problem with a set of spark plugs, I will set up another set to keep on the boat but I’m going to vacuum seal them to keep them from getting wet and rusty. I’m also going to seal up some tools and maybe a spare fuel filter all to keep in a toolbox on the boat for that just-in-case moment.

I am also thinking to do the same thing with a few spares for my tinny, and I wonder why I didn’t think of this earlier.

GO NUTS!

Adam