The Park: Camping Tips & Product News — parkit360

While many people think owning a boat is a life of luxury that affords you the time to live a high life on the open seas, there are actually a lot more things that go into boat owning than what first meets the eye.

To help you along the way, here are nine tips that will help you get a better feel for life on the water and maximize your boating experience 🛥️

Safety first

The first thing to do is to make sure you have all the required safety equipment on hand. The US government mandates that you have certain safety items on board at all times and failure to keep them on board at all times can result in a fine.

These items include life jackets, distress signals, a fire extinguisher, and some sort of horn, bell, or whistle. Before you head out on your local lake, double-check to make sure you have all of these readily available.

Another important thing to note is that bigger boats may need other items in addition to these ones. To be sure you’re under regulation you should check with the authorities or your local marina.

Practice makes perfect

Speaking of safety, it’s essential you actually know how to drive the boat in order to mitigate the risk of danger when on the water. Unsafe boat drivers are dangerous not only to themselves but to everyone around them.

For practice, check with your local boat club and see if there’s anyone willing to give you proper training – there usually are people willing to do so. Another option is to take a boating course to get certification. As with anything, the more you practice, the more skilled you’ll get.

Become acquainted with your boating tech

There are many devices and gadgets that come along with boats and it’s important that you know the functionalities of each of them to get the best out of your boating experience.

Some devices include things that aid you with fishing, navigation, safety, and more. These include GPS receivers, depth sounders, voyage data recorders, and pilot cards. Some of these are more advanced, but all of them will help you enjoy a much safer and more enjoyable boating experience.

Safety equipment includes waterproof torches, marine radios, and sound signals. You’ll hopefully rarely have to use them, but it’s important you know how to so if the time comes, you can react quickly.

Boat maintenance is crucial

There’s no getting around the fact that owning a boat can sometimes feel like a chore with constant cleaning needed after every trip. But this is an essential part of owning a boat: Make sure you do them often so you don’t experience rapid deterioration.

As with any chore, it helps to think of a large task as many small, easy activities. It will help make the job go quicker and give you a sense of accomplishment. 

You can drive a car, but can you drive a car with a boat attached?

It’s not just a plug and play experience to attach a trailer to the end of your vehicle and hit the open road. Hauling massive weight for long periods of time is a skill that takes time to truly learn.

You need to get used to the feeling of having a boat behind you – learn how it moves when you turn, and most importantly, learn how to back it up and park. This will take practice.

If you don’t have much room on your own property, try to find an empty lot where you can practice turning and parking.

Don’t rush, take it slow

While it may be tempting to rush headfirst into boating, taking it easy is a much better option. Slow and steady wins the race, after all.

Backing a boat to launch for the first time can be stressful, and if restless other boaters are giving you a hard time, don’t listen to them. They were all in your shoes at one point in time and should understand that it’s a process. 

The same goes for everything – driving your trailer on the road, driving your boat in the water, and everything in between. Go slow at first and ignore any naysayers out there who try to persuade you to be more reckless.

Learn from your mistakes

We’re all humans, so we all make mistakes. If you’ve followed the above steps, you’ve learned to mitigate the effects of your mistakes. 

Equally important: learn from other people’s mistakes. If someone performs a dangerous maneuver and almost hits your vessel, remember it and make sure you don’t make the same mistake.

Be like an open book and take advice when given

Just as you need to learn from your mistakes, you also should learn from others around you. There are plenty of seasoned sailors out there just waiting to help you out at first. 

Don’t ignore their advice and use it to become a better boater. You’ll thank them in the long run.

Relax and enjoy your new boat

This may seem like a cop-out, but after an entire article of rules and regulations, it’s prudent that we tell you to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of your boat life. 

Take your friends or family to that remote beach you could never get to, go hunt for barracuda, or enjoy water sports that you could never do before. Boating should be enjoyable, and if you don’t treat it that way, then you’re missing out on all the fun!

Buying a boat is a major purchase for anyone. And with any big purchase, it also comes with responsibilities that you’ll have to abide by in order to maximize your experience. But if you listen to these nine tips, you’ll be sure to make the most out of your boat ownership.

Have you ever tried to back your trailer into your garage?

If so, you surely know the near-endless cycle of backing in, getting it wrong or bumping into a wall, and finally driving forward – rinsed and repeated for longer than we would sometimes like to admit.

But what if I told you that you could back your trailer in on the very first try? Enter the electric trailer dolly.

Electric trailer dollies are the perfect tool for anyone with a trailer, making difficulties parking trailers a thing of the past. But beyond helping back up a trailer, electric trailer dollies can help boat or RV owners in many other ways. 

Here are four reasons thousands are choosing these products as parking aids. 

Fitting your trailer into a tight spot

Anyone who’s come back from a long trip and tried to fit their boat into a garage or backyard will understand the serious need for some parking help. All you want to do is relax after your camping adventure, but first, you have to fit your heavy-duty trailer into its tiny little resting place in your garage. This process can be taxing, to say the least.

The traditional way of having a spotter sending signals or yelling at the driver is simply inefficient – no matter how good the driver/spotter team may be. Even the most experienced will take at least a few tries before they get their trailer parked. With an electric trailer dolly, you can fit your trailer into its parking spot on the first try!

And that’s not all: Many people think electric trailer dollies are just for parking and backing up when they can’t seem to do it with a truck, but they can also help people put trailers in places that are actually impossible to do with a standard truck and trailer. Find the perfect little corner to set your trailer down and marvel at the amount of free space you have!

Additionally, using a trailer dolly is also is a good way to keep your boat, RV, or trailer looking fresh. Your chances of accidentally hitting walls, curbs, or other obstacles are much lower because of increased control using the dolly. 

Saving money on storage

Beyond helping with the taxing parking process, electric trailer dollies can also greatly decrease expensive costs related to storage. Storage fees can sometimes reach thousands of dollars per year – certainly not something you budgeted for when thinking about purchasing your brand new boat. 

But many people who pay for storage only think they don’t have room to park a trailer. Because electric trailer dollies allow you to fit your trailer nearly anywhere, expensive storage fees are a thing of the past.

Instead, you can keep your trailer or boat in or near your own home, not only saving money but also being highly convenient for you as you can take it out and about anytime you want.

For example, what if spring comes early and you decide to take your boat out to the lake. If it’s stuck at storage, you’re not able to access it immediately, costing you an extra trip to go retrieve it. 

Use as an anti-theft mechanism

Boats and RVs are highly valuable commodities and their protection is paramount. 

So where do electric trailer dollies fit in here?

Because they allow you to pull your trailer in tongue-first, they act as an anti-theft device, making it hard for potential thieves to make a quick getaway. Because it’s facing the house, someone can't just come and hook up their truck to it and drive away.

Of course, don’t rely solely on this as a safety measure – it should be viewed as an additional rather than an end-all solution. Depending on your own specific scenario, other safety measures are recommended.

Durability 

The last benefit is perhaps the most important: durability. No one likes making a sizable investment only for it to deteriorate shortly after.

Luckily, electric trailer dollies are very durable and tend to last a long time before needing replacement. High-quality dollies, which of course cost a bit more, are worth it because they will go longer before needing replacement. 

In terms of cost, lower-end manual dollies can cost anywhere from $3 to $500, while premium solutions will put you back $600 to $5,000.

However, as with anything, you need to take care of it, lest it start to wear down. Make sure to lubricate it regularly to make sure it stays fresh. If you fail to do so, you may need to repair it. Time and effort are key to longevity.

Electric trailer dollies offer a simple solution to boat, RV, and other trailer owners everywhere. If you’re still parking your trailer by traditional means, maybe it’s time to invest in an electric trailer dolly – it’s the best way to get smart about trailer usage and storage in 2020.

 
Parking your trailer in a tight spot? Move up to 15,000 lbs with a Parkit360 Electric Trailer Dolly. Get simple, precise parking for boats, RV's and more!