Do you coat your beam bolts with anything in order to prevent seizing or corroding?

white lithium grease here.

Copper based anti seize grease

I follow Jake's suggestion.

I use Vaseline
100% Pure Petroleum Jelly
I renew every month

I'll admit to not knowing much about anti-seize greases, but I do know that when we use them on motor shafts in wash down environments, the anti-seize (that we use) tends to wash away and everything seizes up. Any problems with that grease washing away?

There in, I think, lies the key...don't treat it as a "set it and forget it" thing.

I have used the

Copper based anti seize grease (NAPA)

Carbon based anti seize grease (NAPA)

Polymer anti seize (marykate?)

DuPont Krytox durable grease (a grease version of McLube with teflon)

Based on personal experience:

Krytox, no problems (longest the bolts were left untouched was 3 years)
Copper based, no stripped threads but bolts are sometimes hard to get out.
Carbon, 1 stripped thread
Polymer 2 stripped threads

FYI (draw your own conclusions)
Kryox is getting very hard to find and expensive (2 oz is $40)
A lifetime supply of NAPA copper based anti seize grease is about $5
The stripped threads were fixed with SS helicoils bedded in krytox.

The white lithium grease is provided by Nacra when buying a new boat. Like Jake, this is what I have used and never had any problems with it.

Probably a dumb question, but just out of curiosity, is there any kind of soap that works for that? I mean if you are someplace where can't get all that high-tech stuff? Vaseline fits that category, too, of course, as already suggested.

Heck, My old TheMightyHobie18 was almost 20 years old and I never had reason to remove the beam bolts. Why do we need to do that again?

Clayton

I need to do it to my Hobie 17 becasue of leakage. Need to reseat the crossbars. That is probably his reason. Just a winter project I am putting off till I get out of school in March.

Doug

Thanks guys.

Any soap would definitely wash away. White lithium grease is available at practically any hardware store (Walmart has it too) but if there may be some sort of "homemade remedy", paraffin wax or something similar might do the trick.

I was told that the reason that the Lithium Grease works so well has to do with its conductivity. If you have a really good conductor between dissimilar metals they tend not act on each other. Batteries work because of agressive reactions between dissimilar metals, but if the metals get along there will be no reaction. The best way to describe it is that the Lithuim Grease makes the aluminum seem like Stainless steel and the SS seem like alum to each other. There is no (or very little) reaction between similar metals.

Later,
Dan

Try "phil wood" bottom bracket grease. you can get it a a good bicycle shop. it seems to repel water and dirt. seems to stay put for a while. works better than white or lewmar grease for me. www.philwood.com

Nice story. However, it would be hard to support any of that with actual science. What is a "similar" metal anyway? Pick up any chem text and read the chapter on electrochemistry. It's an easy read. Fun, actually, if you're a chem nerd like me.

Lithium salts are used for schizophrenia. Perhaps lithium grease makes metals hear fewer voices in their head... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />