Last Minute Winterization Question

[supervol0509]

Hey, guys! I changed all of my fluids, and drained the engine at the points indicated in the PCM Owner's Manual. The first hard freeze is going to happen later this week, in Georgia. Just want to make sure I don't need to drain any other portions of the engine before the hard freeze gets here. This is my first Winter with the Tige and PCM engine. I used to have an Indmar, and had to disconnect quite a few hoses to get everything drained. The Tige seems to be set up to drain everything from plugs, but just wanted to make sure. TIA

[chpthril]

Heater?
Shower?
Did you drain the V-Drive and transmission cooler?
Ballast?

[supervol0509]

Heater?
Shower?
Did you drain the V-Drive and transmission cooler?
Ballast?

No heater.
No shower.
I removed the plug at the bottom of the V-Drive transmission.
I disconnected the hose on the engine side of the strainer, but never did see the cylindrical part (transmission cooler?), shown in the diagram.
The ballast is all empty. I didn't remove/drain any of the hoses. If there was any water in any of those hoses, I assume it would expand back into the bag, if it did happen to freeze.

[BurnMac42]

To tag along with the winterization questions:

1. Do you guys without internal chargers pull your battery(s) to hook them up to a trickle charger or do you just attach the charger to the battery still in the boat?
2. Any reason to relieve the jack by lowering the trailer onto stands or anything?
3. My boat will be stored in my garage for the winter...I have a seen a few pictures whre guys pull their covers off after winter storage and it jacked up their vinyl....Any reason why I shouldn't put my mooring cover on loosely to prevent dust from the garage door opening/closing building up in the boat?

Thanks!

[chpthril]

For normal winter layup, I prefer to leave the batteries in. As long as they are fully charged and the main switch is off, when the boat is stored, they will do fine. Long winter storage and where the batteries might see extended periods of very low temps, yes, they might do better to pull them store them in a more mild climate.

No need to take the load off the jack. I do see some people advocate for lifting the tires off the ground for the winter so they dont get flat spots. Again, I think for a normal layup period, this is not necessary. Once you head down the road and the tires get up to temp again, they will be fine. Ive towed a few trailers that have sat for a year with a boat on them. Yes, you can fell the tires for about 1-15 miles then they smooth out.

As long as the boat is dry inside, which includes the often overlooked bilge, there should not be any mold/mildew. Other than dust or your cat, no need to cover in a garage.

[supervol0509]

I've read that batteries can freeze and explode, if the charge gets too low. I usually try to charge mine back up, whenever I'm up maintaining the boat in the Winter (it's about an hour away). I think I read in the Owner's manual that it is not recommended to speed charge batteries out of service. Not sure why, but guess I will be trickle charging, this year.

[007]

I leave trickle chargers on my batteries in the boat (battery switch off of course). There is a lot of debate on if they should be on constantly/regular cycles/randomly. I can't get to my boat on a regular schedule so I just leave a couple battery tenders connected and so far have had good luck in Missouri winters.

My boat stays on the lift, so it takes maybe 20 minutes to block the empty trailer up and get the tires off the ground. Probably minimal impact on the tires, but it give me an excuse to go over the trailer and make sure everything else looks good.

[BurnMac42]

For normal winter layup, I prefer to leave the batteries in. As long as they are fully charged and the main switch is off, when the boat is stored, they will do fine. Long winter storage and where the batteries might see extended periods of very low temps, yes, they might do better to pull them store them in a more mild climate.

No need to take the load off the jack. I do see some people advocate for lifting the tires off the ground for the winter so they dont get flat spots. Again, I think for a normal layup period, this is not necessary. Once you head down the road and the tires get up to temp again, they will be fine. Ive towed a few trailers that have sat for a year with a boat on them. Yes, you can fell the tires for about 1-15 miles then they smooth out.

As long as the boat is dry inside, which includes the often overlooked bilge, there should not be any mold/mildew. Other than dust or your cat, no need to cover in a garage.

Have you heard of the cover damaging vinyl from resting on it all winter?

[chpthril]

Have you heard of the cover damaging vinyl from resting on it all winter?

Yes and no. Google "malibu pink vinyl cover". This issue seems to happen not just with long term storage but storage between trips through the season. Never seen it on any other boats but a block of years of malibus.

[talltigeguy]

Have you heard of the cover damaging vinyl from resting on it all winter?

The Malibu problem usually happened in the heat of the summer. Black cover would heat up some glue on the inside of the vinyl and pink would come out. I would keep the cover on all winter just to keep the dust out.

[skiguy]

Heater?
Shower?
Did you drain the V-Drive and transmission cooler?
Ballast?

Is it satisfactory to disconnect the hose from the tranny cooler to drain the water from both the v-drive and cooler?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[chpthril]

Is it satisfactory to disconnect the hose from the tranny cooler to drain the water from both the v-drive and cooler?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

if its the MP engine, Walter v-drive and Borg-Warner trans, yes. Theres a threaded plug on the bottom of the cooler but its a bi-atch to get to. Pulling the hose works best.

[skiguy]

if its the MP engine, Walter v-drive and Borg-Warner trans, yes. Theres a threaded plug on the bottom of the cooler but its a bi-atch to get to. Pulling the hose works best.

Yep - I'm pretty sure that's my setup (2005 22v with the MP 340). I did take a crack at that v-drive drain plug and couldn't get it to budge. Tells me no one else ever took it off either. Thanks Mike!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[chpthril]

Yep - I'm pretty sure that's my setup (2005 22v with the MP 340). I did take a crack at that v-drive drain plug and couldn't get it to budge. Tells me no one else ever took it off either. Thanks Mike!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

with the Walter v-drive, the cooler passage is on top. When the boat is pulled from the water, most of the water drains out the raw water intake side. Pull the hose off the trans cooler the rest drains from the v-drive, trans cooler and raw water pump.

[skiguy]

with the Walter v-drive, the cooler passage is on top. When the boat is pulled from the water, most of the water drains out the raw water intake side. Pull the hose off the trans cooler the rest drains from the v-drive, trans cooler and raw water pump.

Another related question - What about the water cooled low and high pressure fuel pumps? I didn't see an easy way to remove the hoses from either pump and didn't see any maintenance notes on draining them for the winter. I did my best to trace the lines and it looked like the outlet looped up the water pump distribution area on the back of the engine.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk