Maintaining a Boat at a far-away Lake

[C_M_25]

Guys, I need some advice. The wife and I are debating what we want to do with the boat next year. Currently, we live in OKC and trailer it about 16 miles one-way to lake arcadia. This set up is fine, but the fishing over there is really bad, and the lake is kinda small. We are debating whether we want to slip it on one of a few lakes around us, Keystone, Eufala, or Lake of the Arbuckles. The shortest drive is to keystone at 1.5 hours one way. Do any of you store boats that far away from your houses? If so, how do you maintain them? The dealer where I bought my boat currently services it and does the warranty work, so is it possible to get warranty work done on a lake far away from where we currently do business?

On another note, does anybody around here fish lake arcadia in Oklahoma? I haven't had any kind of luck out there (skunked 6 times in a row now). The waters are generally pretty murky with the deep fork river feeding it. Any advice would be appreciated!

[OK Toon]

We live in Broken Arrow and keep our boat at our dock on Eufaula (about 1.5 hours away). I had been doing our own maintenance, but there are a couple of places around the town of Eufaula that service boats that I'm going to look into.

[TDJ2591]

This is my first season, but I keep mine 2 hrs away in dry storage. The marina will do limited maintenance and repairs, cleaning, polishing, fuel, etc. They have a boat motor mechanic that they can call in for more complicated repairs. I plan on bringing it home for a couple of weeks when it turns cooler and giving it a good cleaning and polishing, changing the fluids, etc. then returning it to dry storage and putting the cover on it until spring.

[Tlowry]

Our lake is 100 miles from the house. We have a small trailer on a couple lots and keep one boat there under a carport covered. It still gets pretty funky sitting over winter. Maintenance is maintenance be it done there or home. As soon as a 35' storage comes available, we'll put the new boat in one, they stay much cleaner but cost can be a factor.

[curtiscapk]

Our lake is 100 miles from the house. We have a small trailer on a couple lots and keep one boat there under a carport covered. It still gets pretty funky sitting over winter. Maintenance is maintenance be it done there or home. As soon as a 35' storage comes available, we'll put the new boat in one, they stay much cleaner but cost can be a factor.

This is exactly our situation as well. 100 miles in the middle of the woods.... Sometimes I run down and backs in one day for maintenance stuff during the off-season. We normally are down 2 times a month during boating season. It has worked out for 5 years for us. Our goal is a carport for THE FLOATER and our main camper but that will have to happen when we get rich.....

[NonHyphenAmerican]

I've been maintaining mine in a slip an hour away at El Dorado.

So far its worked pretty good as the Marina/Dealer there sold me the boat and has been good about taking care of things.

They store the trailer in their locked lot, so that helps as well.

A covered slip rental was part of the boat purchase and I believe it's $475 a year.


That being said, I'm fortunate in that I have a 4500 sq. ft warehouse building/toybox with 12x12 drive in door and 12x12 semi-dock door. So when I have the dealer pull the boat and winterize it, I plan on bringing the boat home and storing it in my "Toy Box".

I'm familiar with your area around OKC and wondered about Thunderbird and Stanley Draper for ideas close to OKC.

I've always heard good things about KAW as well.

Just some ideas.

[Cycleman07]

I vote for Keystone. Either Pier 51 Marina or Cross Timbers have very reputable boat service and great restaurants etc. We boat there almost exclusively. Great people out there.

[Soonertoon]

I have my boat on Ft Gibson at Paradise Cove in a slip on a lift. 40 minutes door to door makes it very easy for us to get down there of an evening or any other time we need or want to go. I am a picky person when it comes to keeping my stuff in tip top shape so I'm always rubbin on something with a rag etc. when I'm down there before we go out and when we come back in. Maintenance that needs to be done to the motor etc, is handled by the marina and they are really good folks to work with. Trust me there's a a ton of shitwad marinas out there that will try and screw you over every chance you get. I can't say enough about how good these folks are and have no intentions of ever leaving for another place. Plus the lake is great. Come on down!,,

[teecro]

Makes me very appreciative of my current arrangements; My boat is in a covered slip at the marina within our HOA thus it is at best a 5 minute cart ride to get there...

Considering that your toon is brand new it should not require very much by way of maintenance beyond keeping it clean, oil level in the motor and battery water checked. Once a year haul out for cleaning of the floats and having the dealer give the motor its once over should be all you really need. Keeping it covered while your any will go a long way toward keeping it clean.

As to getting warranty work done on location here I think you are only going to hear a short silence before the phone would go click. I would think that "IF" you need any real warranty work done you are going to need bring it to a manf certified rep. Now if you do find a local wrench to do your basic upkeep be sure that they use factory parts and filters etc as you can run into warranty trouble if your motor goes south and they find off brand or incorrect parts installed.

[Marble_Charlie]

Our lake place is 2 hours away and I dont keep a second set of tools there. I just keep a good set of sockets in the car and a very basic toolset at the lake. Works well for me. Rent a trailer to remove the boat. You can usually work on your boat in marina storage before it is shrinkwrapped too.

[Brashanic]

my boat is three hours away. i do light repairs and maintenance when we go out to the river to use it. i make a list all season long of stuff i need to do when i bring it home. then in the winter i drive out and bring it home to do everything on the list. then i tow it back to storage when i am done. those tow days suck, its an all day affair.

[C_M_25]

Do you guys find the 1.5-3 hour drives tiresome? Or do you have a cabin or something on the lake/river you boat on?

I wouldn't hesitate at all if I had a cabin, but day trips like that seem like it would be exhausting by the end of summer. Oh well, I guess the only way to find out is to try it.

[smoker62]

I drive 3 hrs to my boat. I do have a 40' park model trailer that we stay in for weekends. I wish I was retired so I could be up there more than that .

[Tlowry]

We have a place to stay. We wouldn't go if we had to come home after being on the lake all day, even if we left the boat in storage up there.

Nothing fancy, not on the water, just a place to eat, drink and sleep after a day on the lake.



We keep the boat in the water while we're there or launch at the State Park 2 miles down the road. When it's time to head home, put a cover on the boat, back in under the car port, lock up and head out.

Before we had the place, we would stay at fishing motels or camp for the weekend but we had a small bass boat then and drug it both ways.

[curtiscapk]

2 trailers big one for us and the little drunk tank for the kids!