It is critical to have the proper spare parts on board and to have what you need to do regular maintenance. Key to that is knowing what you need and keeping track.

We try to have enough of the regular maintenance components on board so we can go about six months between needing to restock. I do this because I remember several times when things were backordered and difficult to get. It’s much nicer to be able to place an order and if it shows up in a month or three it’s not a big deal.

It’s also good to have the ordering done staggered so that you are ordering three fuel filters in January, three oil filters in February, Impellers another month to spread out the expense. But doing things this way adds a layer of complexity and requires you to pay attention.

This came to bite me in the rear end recently when I went to change our primary fuel filter, the critical one that filters out the real garbage from any contaminated fuel, and separates the water from the fuel as well.

I pulled out the box of spares and discovered that I had six of the smaller secondary fuel filters but none of the larger primary ones.

We were lucky, in a town with a West Marine meant all I needed to do was to walk 2.5 miles up to the store and buy what I needed. But with inflation crazy and having run a bit close to the wire money wise I was only able to afford two filters. So we have one installed and only a single backup. Not a lot of room for error there.

We’ve since gone through and checked our spare parts system wide and to do an inventory. I’ve also added “Inventory Spare Parts & supplies” as a 60 day reoccurring item in my todo list.

It raises the question. How often do you inventory your spare parts and supplies?