Any thoughts on winterizing your bass boat

I've just put the boat up till spring,can anyone see if I missed anything for the long winter in dry dock. (stored out side in the driveway)

1. Took the boat to a dealership for the winterizing process, they checked for fishing line in the prop, fogged the moter, put stable in the gasoline tank.

2. I filled the gas tank full to prevent condensation.

3. Removed all the electronics, brought them indoors.

4.Took anything mice could snack on out of the boat, all water and pops cans were taken out of the compartments.

5.Took out the plug, and jacked the boat up in the front to drain any excess water out.

6. Removed the transom saver, and lowered the moter down all the way.

7.Put a box of mothballs in the boat to keep out varments

8.Placed the road cover on the boat with a tarp covering the road cover. All straped down tight.

9. Made sure all batteries had a full charge.

If I missed something that needs to be done please let me know.
(only 112 days till spring)
Junior

Grease the trailer bearings and force out any water in the bearing buddies if you have them. Are all the lines in between the live well and the intake and exhaust holes free of water? Water can freeze inside the lines and expand and create havoc. If you can't get all the water out you can pour antifreeze down the live well drain and that may help.

Might also jack the trailer up so that the tires don't sit on the concrete all winter. That can put undo pressure on the tires. Air up the tires to full after it's cold. Air inside the tires will contract with the cold. This is more important if you don't jack up the trailer to take the pressure off the tires.

Might think about changing the oil in the lower unit. This is best done before it gets cold. Water inside the lower unit may expand and break something. Changing the oil will help check and remove any water and make sure that the boat is ready to go next spring.

Check the batter fluid levels to make sure they are up to the right level before you charge the battery. Check each cell in the battery with a hydrometer to make sure each cell is fully charged. Maintenance free batteries are good to go as you don't have to check their fluid levels. I like the Optima Blue Top batteries.

Might take the rods and real out of the boat and put new line on them for next spring. Also get the hook sharpener out and sharpen up the crank bait and jig hooks this winter.

Take stock in your tackle box and see if you need to order any more hooks, sinkers, baits.

Check all the fuses that are used in the boat. Make sure that you have a replace fuse for each one stored in the boat or truck somewhere. This can save a fishing trip if say the fuse in the engine goes out and it's the kind that can't be found anywhere near where your fishing next spring. Getting that OD fuse now and keeping spares in the boat is a smart thing to do.

Check the trailer's light bulbs and see if they can be replaces. Sometimes the trailer lights get corrosion on the terminal and these can be cleaned off with a dremel tool or some sandpaper.

Minnow buckets can be cleaned with bleach solution and put away. A ten percent bleach solution is made by putting one part bleach into 9 parts water. Fill the minnow buckets up with this soln and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Then rinse out thoroughly and allow the bucket to dry. This will kill any bacteria and fungus in the minnow bucket and help keep the minnow alive the next fishing trip.

Take out the life jackets and air them out. This will prevent them from getting mildew on them.

If you have tools stored in the boat it may be a good idea to spay them with some wd40 to prevent them from rusting over the winter.

Did you clean or change the spark plugs in the engine?

Running some Sea foam though the engine before storing the boat helps remove carbon deposits and works as good or better than Stabile. Sea foam is mostly NAPTHA. Light petroleum distillate. Sea foam will clean out the carburetor and keep the inside of the engine in good shape.

Fogging oil injected into the cylinders will prevent rust and protect the pistons and cylinder heads during the cold winter months. You said you already did that.

I use to run the gas out of the engine. I would pull the gas tank line off the engine while it was running and let the engine run until it stopped. This took most of the gas out of the engine and the fuel lines inside the engine. This helped to prevent the fuel from gumming up inside the motor. But stabil or sea form may make the fuel more stable and then you may not have to run the gas out of the engine. And I was told that even when the gas is run out there still is some gas in the carburetor bowl.



Regards,

Moose1am

I haven't done anything yet since I'm not done fishing. I will get some RV anti-freeze and start putting some down my livewell drain after I use it the next time. I always lower my motor down after getting back to the parking lot to make sure all the water has drained down while covering the boat up this time of year. I haven't had one problem yet and the boat/motor is a 2000 model. When I do get done I'll drop it by my dealer and have everything done to it that needs to be done. I've already stopped by and told him he'll probably see it before too long one sunday afternoon unless the weather continues to stay halfway decent. If it's 40 and above I'll be fishing. What else is there to do on the weekend?



Larry

Larry has a good point. If you keep fishing all winter long then it's not really necessary to fog the engine yet.

This weekend it got pretty darn cold. I went over to the lake Saturday just to look around and see if anyone else was man enough to fish in this cold weather. I didn't see one boat on the lakes I fish. I guess everyone else was staying home and watching football on TV. I did see a few deer hunters and saw about ten does eating green grass out in the middle of this hillside. There were four of them and then off in the distance hiding in the taller grass I saw two or three more does. Just saw their heads sticking up at first. I must have watched them though my binoculars for 15 to 30 minutes. The ones in the field moved South and enter the taller dried grass. They stayed in a gully and moved all the way to the edge of the pit. I lost track of them when they bedded down in a small clump of trees. Then I saw three more off in the distance. They were also feeding in a small field of green grass near the edge of the water. This was all on the North end of Blue Grass Pit and they were all on the Eastern Shoreline. They were downhill and to the West of St John's road. In the area where the old crane was dismantled. I miss that old crane. It was such a landmark. Ugly but still a visible landmark. People still describe the area as where the old crane use to be! LOL I saw some more deer on my way home. Saw several crossing the roads. Also saw one deer carcaus on Heim road just to the East of Steven Station Road. It was lying in the ditch on the North side of Hiem road.

It was too cold to fish today. Only got up to about 30 deg F and there was a brisk 10 mph wind. I didn't even get out at all today. It's going to get back up into the 40's by next week. There will still be some nice 50 deg days this winter and I hope to fish if the winds not blowing too hard. I use to see more die hard cold weather fisherman at the pits but not as many this year.
Regards,

Moose1am

PL,
You don't need to take it to a dealer to winterize it. You can buy a can of fogging oil at any dealer. My one can has lasted 4 seasons so far. Just take out each sparkplug and spray some in. Just be sure to put Stabil in the gas tanks and change your lower unit oil and you are ready to go.. Wrap it up tight for the winter. I have done it myself for years, saved a whole lot of money that way...

Larry: You might want to go ahead and change out that lower unit oil even if you are not done using your boat....if it has gotten some water in it over the season and you are letting it set all week in this cold you are taking a chance on the water freezing up and cracking your casing.

>9. Made sure all batteries had a full charge.

I presume you know they'll have to be charged every thirty days to keep them from being trash by spring. (unless they are Optimas)

Do you guys ever put a trickle charger on your boat's batteries if it sits outside? I use the Optima Batteries which are said to hold a charge for a year. I check my batteries every once in a while during the winter months. I park my boat in the garage but it's not a heated garage. I normally back the boat up into the garage by hand and then put a charger on the boat and charge up the trolling motor's deep cycle battery as soon as I get home from fishing. I have an outlet on the garage wall that's right next to the boat.

I know some guys have battery chargers that are mounted inside their boats and they just run an extention cord to the charger and that charges up their batteries or keeps them trickle charged

I use one of the New Min-Kota Automatic battery chargers and I have an old Sears Battery Charger that has a meter on it that tells me how many amps are being used. As the battery gets full the amount of amps being used drops until the Sears Unit goes into tricle charge mode. The minkota battery charger just has led lights that show if the battery is being charged (yellow light) and when it's charged (green light). Both seem to work well. The Sears is about 15 years old and still works great.

>
>>9. Made sure all batteries had a full charge.
>
>I presume you know they'll have to be charged every thirty
>days to keep them from being trash by spring. (unless they
>are Optimas)
>
Good point , my bass boat TM batteries are in a bad spot , I have to disconnect my livewell hose to get them out so I just charge them about every 30-40 days . I just purchased a 50lb Minn Kota TM & a Optima battery for my Jon boat and have used it once , it held up well considering the wind that howled that day . They are pricey but worth the money . Besides Putting Stabil in all stored gas powered motors and running them to get it in the carbs , fogging the boat motor , greasing the wheel bearings , changing lower unit oil , I also heavily spray WD40 on my trailer jack , tow chains , and the trailer tongue itself , it cant hurt . Armor-all the tires really good too . Dont forget to loosen the tension on the main winch strap . My boat has to set outside but I have a canvas cover with PVC pipes over the seat poles to hold it up so snow and ice wont collect on the cover . Now come on spring !

>Do you guys ever put a trickle charger on your boat's
>batteries if it sits outside? I use the Optima Batteries
>which are said to hold a charge for a year.

Moose, a trickle charger is a bad thing. It continuously puts out about 2 amps, regardless of the battery condition, and can damage a battery. Float charging is what you want, which maintains a current of less than 1 amp into the battery. Your Optimas should be fine if they are fully charged when parked.

"I also heavily spray WD40 on my trailer jack , tow chains , and the trailer tongue itself"

Bassmanic, you do know that WD40 will desolve and remove any grease or lubricating oil, right? I always make sure to keep white grease on my ball to keep it from cutting into the tongue hitch.

Just a thought.

Tight lines and God Bless

Danny

> "I also heavily spray WD40 on my trailer jack , tow
>chains , and the trailer tongue itself"
>
>Bassmanic, you do know that WD40 will desolve and remove any
>grease or lubricating oil, right? I always make sure to keep
>white grease on my ball to keep it from cutting into the
>tongue hitch.
>
>Just a thought.
>
>Tight lines and God Bless
>
>Danny

Danny ,
Well that grease on the ball sounds a little funny { har har } but I see your point . I use the WD to keep rust away over the winter - I wipe it all down in the spring and use lithum grease were needed . Grease on the tow chains would be very messy anyway . Another thing is in the spring check all screws on the boat , they can get loose and fall out . A coat of marine wax is another good idea but its to late for that now .
Merry Christmas :}