Winterization dilemma - suggestions?

[chrisrclement]

Last week I bought a 2016 R21 down in Houston. Currently the boat is kept indoors and I can keep it there until end of February if I pay the fee's, $500. I live in Dallas so it's a bit colder here, I certainly would have to winterize or get indoor storage.

My plan WAS to keep it in Houston through winter, my son and I went down last weekend, got in some surfing on the new boat! Lots to learn on the Taps but we loved it.

Unfortunately this got us in HOT water with the women in the family. They want the boat here in Dallas, we live on a lake, for some winter boating on those Texas weekends when it's cool but not cold. I have explained that if I bring the boat here I would need to winterize it and thus we couldn't use the boat until spring, that if we keep the boat in Houston at least we can run down there for a few rides on the rare weekend we aren't busy with Christmas plans or sports. But I'm losing the female vote on that argument.

I am looking for indoor or climate controlled storage here in Dallas, but most of that is "enclosed" not climate controlled. I am open to storage suggestions or solutions if you know of any.

So the questions..

How difficult is it to winterize the Indmar engine? How long does it take?
Is this something I can "undo"? the winterization, and then "redo" when I park the boat?
Is an engine block heater even an option on a boat?

Any other suggestions?

To be clear I'd love to have our new boat available to use like last week when it was 70, but need to protect it as tonight it will be 30..

thanks

[chpthril]

A small marine bilge heater is an option. Or, once you get into the groove, draining the water from the critical points, is not too time consuming.

[Bamer]

Learn how to drain the water from the engine and keep it near by. It’s a 5hr Drive between dallas and Houston, you can drain the engine in 15-30min once you learn how to do it.


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[KoolAid]

Like jtryton said, draining the water from the engine is easy, especially on the R21. All of the 4 plugs are blue plugs. Literally would take you 5 minutes to pull them.

Lift up the floor and pull the Vdrive plug and the y from the exhaust plug. Then there is two at the front of the engine. You can access them by pulling the lift up partition on the starboard side and going though the bulkhead door opening. Helps if you are smaller build.

[ktm450exc]

What lake do you live on? I live on Lake Lewisville. I can show you how to pull the drain plugs. That is all you need to do for now, more later before summer boating. Don't pay for climate controlled storage.

[Brianrzr]

You’ll need to winterize the ballast system also, it’s not hard to do. Basically getting Rv antifreeze into 5he drain pumps. The fill pumps usually drain themselves.

[JohnnieMo]

I did a bunch of testing on my Z1 a few years ago to see at what point the block actually reaches the freezing point. What I found was that you would need sustained wind and cold of 15F before damage *could* even be done.

Simply put, it takes a long time for the guts of your boat to get that cold. One night in the 30s won’t do it. It would take a week below 30 for all the heat to vacate your boat.

[chrisrclement]

Decision made, I’ll bring the boat up here during Christmas. It seems draining is relatively easy and quick. I’ve got a 14 yr old “assistant “ so he should learn this anyways . Temps might dip below 30 for a few hours a few nights but that’s it. I’ll look into bilge heater as well.


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[Jetdriver]

At temps that close to freezing you could even get by with placing a simple shop light in your bilge under the engine block and sealing it back up. The residual heat from a 70 watt or so incandescent bulb will keep it warm enough. Bottom line though, learn the procedure to drain it so you don’t need to worry about it. It’s a simple thing to do and like stated above is accomplished pretty easily once you know where the various plugs are.

[chrisrclement]

I’m going to post some pics and photos , doesn’t look like what is in the manual , or what I’ve seen on you tube. Give me some direction guys.


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[chrisrclement]

And I can’t find the Vdrive drain either, trying to figure out how to post videos here, stay tuned


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[chrisrclement]

Here is a video of the V drive,

[chrisrclement]

I couldn't find anything remotely like blue plugs, only these brass ones, but only two...not four.

[chrisrclement]

Is this heat exchanger? Drain?


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[Bamer]

Is this heat exchanger? Drain?


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That’s one of two in that area!!!! At least it is on my 2019 raptor 400. FYI. That is the implellar housing and a in this picture too.


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