Discovered this afternoon that I have a serious corrosion problem with
my aluminum rims on the trailer.

Thinking back on it, I think I understand what happened. Because of
the balancing weights, corrosion started to work along the bead of the
tire. Eventually, it managed to work it's way around the bead enough
so that the tire wouldn't hold air.

This is something I should have thought about as I launch in salt
water a lot. Even though I rinse the trailer very throughly after
every immersion, you can't get to all of it.

So if you have aluminum rims on your trailer tires and launch in salt
water, give your rims a very detailed inspection. If you see corrorion
around the rim at any point, chances are you are starting down the
same path I did and need to take care of it.

At the moment, I'm considering galvanized rims (which will really ruin
the looks of the trailer), but I don't see that I have a choice if I
continue to launch in salt water.

Grrrrr....

~~ cross posted to http://boatingforum.proboards91.com/index.cgi ~~