Prepping Your Trailer For The Winter

Winter is approaching fast! Whether you are storing your trailer or putting it to work this winter, it is essential to take care of it throughout the season! The Diamond C headquarters are in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and we sometimes forget how harsh the winter season can be for our northern customers. We want every customer to have the information to ensure their trailers make it through the season without any unnecessary winter damage. And for our customers living in warmer climates, you never know when this information could come in handy!

The prepping process is slightly different depending on if your trailer is being stored or used for the winter, but luckily we will be breaking it down for both types of trailer owners below!

5 Tips to Ensure Your Trailer is Stored Correctly For The Winter

1. Clean Your Trailer

The first step is to give your trailer a nice thorough wash. Clean any remaining grease stains, dirt, grime, debris, etc., left on your trailer. Anything left sitting on your trailer for months could become a problem while sitting in the harsh season. Your trailer has served you well, and it deserves a good cleaning!

2. Inspect Your Trailer

After your trailer is nice and clean, it is time to inspect it. Look for imperfections and take care of them before storing your trailer for the winter. You do not want to find any harmful surprises when getting your trailer back out to use in the spring.

3. Grease All Moving Parts

Once your trailer is cleaned and made it through inspections, it is time to grease any moving parts. Even though the parts will not move for the season, greasing them projects the joints and bearings that need lubrication.

4. Store Your Battery

Cold climates are harsh on batteries, and no one wants to be left with a damaged battery after the winter season. One of the worst things you can do to your battery is let it go completely dead, and if it stays in that state for months, it will most likely be shot by the time you want to use it again. If you’re unable to keep your battery in a battery tender, pull it out for the winter and keep it in a safe and warm place until you want to use it again.

Need a convenient option for charging your battery? Check out our 7-WATT SOLAR PANEL CHARGING SYSTEM, which pairs nicely with our BATTERY system for Dumps, Tilts, and HYDRAULIC JACK and DOVE upgrades.

5. Store Your Trailer

Where you decide to store your trailer is an important decision. We recommend storing it out of the elements, like in a shed or under a garage. It would also be beneficial to keep it on top of a hard surface like concrete or gravel to protect the tires.

If you can’t store your trailer away from the elements, you can cover it with a tarp or something similar. Any protection you can provide to your trailer in the cold season will help to keep it safe until you are ready to use it in the spring.

4 Tips to Ensure Your Trailer is Ready To Use This Winter

1. Keep Your Trailer Clean

Magnesium chloride and deicing salts will be your trailer’s worst enemy in the winter. Even though our DM COATING SYSTEM is the best and we take extra care with our coating process, if the magnesium chloride and deicing salts are left on your trailer for long periods, it could potentially cause some damage to the paint. Keeping your trailer cleaned throughout the winter will help to preserve the underside and suspension of your trailer and keep it looking nice and performing as intended.

2. Keep Your Trailer Greased & Drained

Cold temperatures and moisture are not a good combination. When the two combine, they create ice that will expand and cause problems, especially for those tight low-tolerance areas. It is necessary to keep your jacks, suspension, hydraulic dove, hinge assembly, etc., greased this winter. Also, keep the moisture drained from the air ride tanks if you have them on your trailer.

3. Check Your Tires Regularly

The cold winter climate can affect tire pressure more than usual. Checking your trailer’s tire pressure before each use in the winter is a great way to prevent any unnecessary damage to the tires.

4. Check Your Fluid

This tip is only for people who work in extremely cold environments like sub-zero degrees. Diamond C uses a premium automatic transmission fluid that resists down to about zero degrees without getting thick, which covers most of our users. But, if you work in temperatures colder than zero degrees in a dump or hydraulic dove and use it a lot, we recommend changing out the fluid to a sub-zero fluid that will remain thin even in the coldest conditions.

Check out the video below to watch Jacob Crabb explain the winter prepping process for your trailer!