Who Winterizes Their Boat?

[BassnChris]

This was my first winter as a boat owner. I live NE Oklahoma and the guy I bought my boat from said I should winterize it.  I have had some conversations with both customers and employees at my local Bass Pro shop and none of them winterize their boats. I told them it was my first winter as a boat owner and I was being very careful.  they laughed and said I would get over that and there too many nice days in OK to fish in the winter to winterize the boat. I waited until mid November to winterize but there were still some days I could have gone out all the way into December. I am afraid of the water freezing and cracking my lower unit or cooling system. Founded or unfounded worries?

 

Just wondering if any of you guy/gals winterize your boats and where you live?

 

And if you do still take your boat out in the colder weather, are there any issues when you take the boat out of the water with anything freezing on the cold ride home?

 

As I undertand it.....my only concerns should be is there water in my lower unit oil and is there any water in the cooling system (water pump) that could freeze. Not sure how long the water stays in the water pump/cooling system.......or if it all drains out when you pull the boat out of the water.

 

Looking for a reason to de-winterize my boat and get back out on the water this weekend....in the cold.

[Long Mike]

Chips, I never winterize my boat and it has seen a few harsh winters.  I make sure that my gasoline is treated with StarTron and I make sure that the motor is trimmed all the way down.  That boat has sat for months without being fired up, but it fires up every time.

 

BTW, if you've got water in your lower unit oil then one of your fill plugs is leaking or you have a bad seal.  The first is inexpensive to repair.  The second is not.  If you drain the lower unit oil and you see a milky substance, then you have a leak.  I'll explain more when we have lunch on Friday.

[ww2farmer]

Kind of mandatory up here. This is what I do:

 

Fuel system:

I run treated/stabilized fuel all year long now due to the ethenol. I use the Star-tron, and add seafoam about every third tank. After the last trip I drain the float bowl on the carb,and make sure the gas tank is full, that's it.

 

Lower unit:

Drain and fill with new oil after the last trip

 

Motor:

I fog it on my last trip. I have a 4-stroke, so I also change the motor oil after the last trip out. I change my spark plugs in the spring after I have it running for a while to make sure the fogging oil is burned off so I don't foul the new plugs. Grease any pivot points that have zerks. And I also keep my motor trimmed all the way down so any water in will drain out.

 

Boat:

 Wash the boat.Pull all plugs to drain the bilge and livewells, dump some RV anti-freeze in the live well plumbing. Then I jack the front of the trailer up so any water trapped in the bilge will run to the back , and out the drain. Vac the carpet, put moth balls in any closed comaprtments, unplugg the trolling motor. I take the graphs off and put them in the house. And I take both trolling motor batts. out, and the cranking battery out and but them on a rack we have in the farm shop, with an automatic trickle/maintainence charger on them. Mineis in a garage, but I put the cover on it just to keep it from getting all dusty. The one year I kept it outside I put tarps over the cover as well.

 

Trailer:

Wash it, grease the wheel bearings.

 

I can be ready to go in short order in spring, uncover, put everything back in/on it,  start the motor with a garden hose connected to the muffs on the water intake,check the air in the trailer tires and I am off to the lake.

[BassnChris]

Yeah I see the need farther up North.

You guys could probably have penguins for pets as cold as it gets up that way, eh?

[tnriverluver]

All I do is put the motor down so water doesn't accumulate in the lower unit and freeze.  Doing this just showed me I have a bad grease seal in my latest purchase also    I fish year round so I never really winterize and I run the carbs dry after every outing.

[Teal]

I don't winterize. But what I do is pretty much standard throughout the entire year. Charge your batteries after taking it out, and always put motor all the way down. If I miss a week of fishing, go outside and run your boat for a 10 mins. And always always always use an ethanol treatment. I use StaBil. I do this year round as a habit so even if I miss 3 weeks of fishing, my boat is top notch. If I go that long I touch the batteries up...

Basically keep in mind, keep motor down in winter and make sure there is A fuel treatment in your gas tank.

The best winter treatment you can give your boat is to RUN it

[Nitrofreak]

Same as WW2 here, this year has been a struggle, so I have not had the boat out but once this year, two other trips were on boats that my friends own, normally I do not winterise my boat, we have a nuke plant lake that allows me to fish year round, however, when we get those weeks of nasty sub zero cold snaps with snow frozen to the ground then i need to store it, I do not however go to the extremes as a full out winter storage, usually this time of year only lasts for 4 to 6 weeks and I am back at it again, this year though, I have gone to the winter storage as WW2 has done since I know it's not going anywhere.

 

If you know you are going to have it stored for months then I would suggest doing it like WW2 has suggested, if you know you will be making a trip out every so often during the winter there is no need in doing all of the above, just make sure the engine assy is in it's full down position to allow water to drain from the unit, make sure your plug is out to allow water to excape the hull, etc...make sure you keep on top of your service for the craft and trailer, you can use all or part of WW2's post depending on your conditions and how long you plan to store your craft.

 

Edit: Don't worry about what others are laughing at you for, it's your craft do what you feel is right, mine is a 1990 Nitro, even though it's old she still looks and works pretty good for her age.

[Fishing Rhino]

I have mine winterized.  I have them check the water pump, change the fuel filter, whether it needs it or not, lube every thing and check the level of the hydraulic fluid in the steering. 

 

They treat the gas, which I do anyway, every time I buy fuel.  A full tank may last two months or more, so it's treated when I fuel up.  They also fog the engine.  Years ago it was remove the spark plugs and put a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder then pull the cord to distribute the oil in each cylinder.  Fogging does the same thing.  It's cheap insurance, particularly for those who don't keep their boats in a heated garage. 

 

When fuel is burned in an engine, one of the by-products is water vapor.  When the engine is shut down, not all the burnt fuel is expelled from the cylinders.  Any that remains can and will cause rust.  Not a good thing to have in a cylinder.  Fogging coats each cylinder with oil or some type of rust barrier.  It's worse when an engine is subjected to temperature variations which can cause condensation.

 

They also flush the cooling system with an anti-freeze solution.  My boat is kept in a heated garage.  When I'm not working in it, the thermostat is set to just below 50 degrees.  But when I do need the space, the boat gets pulled out in the morning, and put back in at the end of the day.  So it can be exposed to below freezing temps.

[BassnChris]

I fogged the engine, trim the motor down, changed the lower unit oil, pulled batteries, grease trailer wheels, cover and then cover with tarp.

My main issue is that there have been a number of good weather days that I would have used the boat if not winterized.

I am working on a solution that will allow me to get my boat inside my garage for next year...not heated per se, I have a little 4' heat lamp suspended over the washer and dryer just as insurance. The garage does not get below freezing with the lamp on....I may add another one.

I think I would rather have my truck sit out in the snow (if we get much) and cold .....and have my boat inside where I can get to it to tinker around if I want to. After all, I will just be going to work if I need my truck......and if I am tinkering with the boat I will be off work.

I appreciate all the info folks.

[BKeith]

Call it winterizing, call it storing it, whatever, if the boat is going to be sitting several months, it needs to be prepared for storage.  A boat and trailer needs to be service at least once a year, call it winterizing, call it sericing, it still needs to be done and winter is when most people use there boats much less to not at all and is a good time to service it.  If a motor sits outside where the morning sun shines on the motor after a cold night, it really should be fogged if left for extended periods.  After an hour or so of warm sun shinning on it, pull the engine cover off and you will see why.  It will be so wet with condensation, you will think someone turned a garden hose loose under there.  Even if it's cold and just the afternoon sun hits it, it will still get soaking wet inside the cowling.

 

One other thing, a lot of people think unplugging the fuel line and letting the engine run all the gas out is a good thing to do, WRONG!, never do that to any motor that sits outside.  I dries all the protective oil film that's in the fuel left inside the motor, so they can rust parts you don't want rust on in a heartbeat.  It's also very harmful to multi-cylinder motors because the top cylinders usually run out first and they are running dry with no oil while the bottom's are still keeping it running a little longer.

[Gene Eby]

Live in northern MI, 20+ feet of snow plus 4 months of freezing temps, we winterize every year. Star-Tron and Stabil fuel, flush and lower the motor, if equiped with carbs run them dry and fog the engine. Clean battery terminals, top off water levels in batteries and put on trickle charge. Flush all live wells with RV antifreeze to insure pumps and valves don't freeze. Cover or inside storage if available. Do a once over of the trailer and check bearings. Next season, add water and fish.

[PotomacBassin]

I live in Northern Virginia and always winterized my boats.  This year I did it the weekend after Halloween because freezing temperatures were in the forecast the week after.  There were plenty of days in November that I could have been out fishing, but I was worried of any water freezing in the lines.  I got a new boat and motor this year and eople may already know this, but the new 2 stroke Optimax motors aren't supposed to be fogged since they can damage the injectors.  Mercury says to add an ounce of oil to each cylinder instead and then rotate the flywheel three times.  It was tricky getting the oil in there.  I'm not sure if other new 2 stroke direct injected motors have this same requirement or not.  

[jhoffman]

I have no choice but to shut mine down. Yesterday when I left home it was 3 degrees without wind.

 

Grease Everything

Open All Drains

Jack the front up

Trim down the motor

Moth Balls in the boat

Fuel treatment in every tank always

Fog it

Batteries have onboard charger so they stay in the boat, it cycles to whatever mode is needed

[Al Wolbach]

I keep my bass boat in the garage but I fish in the winter, all winter, as long as the lake isn't frozen. Usually not a problem as you can navigate around the ice patches. The only problem I have had with the motor freezing was with the water pressure guage. The water froze in the tubing and moved the needle of the guage to 5 psi with the engine shutdown. The water pressure ran 5 psi higher until I replaced the guage, but no real problems. All I do to winterize is change the lower unit oil. Use stabil and seafoam all the time.................Al

[Sam]

I do.

Taking her in this month or February to have the motor winterized.

So far no problems with the motor other than burning out the electrical grid but that has nothing to do with the winterazation process.

I want the motor to start without any problems plus having the boat checked out by professionals.