storing your boat inbetween trips

[sweetwater]

Not me. You always sound like you know what you are talking about and helpful.

Thank you. Everyone on this forum has always been very nice and respectful to me. Boat ramps and tackle stores are another story.

[mhall]

Thank you. Everyone on this forum has always been very nice and respectful to me. Boat ramps and tackle stores are another story.

You will not be direspected on this site about your gender I have never seen that here not ever. We are glad to have you and I wish we had more females on the site.

[waterdog101]

Waterdog,
Curious about #9. "Never use a portable heater or auto battery charger in bilge."
Why not leave charger comected during winter months? I leave my 3 bank charger connected (Dec-Feb). 2 banks to the trolling batteries and 1 bank to the starting. I was told this will help prevent build up on the plates and keep them fully-charged without affecting life of battery?
Am I wrong? Am I better off to pull and store in garage, basement, etc...?

my friend, I have no idea what #9 is about, I copied and posted the list of 10 tips to winterize a boat. trying to help the guy that asked what to do to winterize a boat. I use my boat every chance I get, sometimes it will sit for a month or more, what I do after i get back home from a fishing trip is, back it in the garage and plug up the battery chargers and leave them plugged in, they kick on and off as needed. I run fuel stabilizer in my boat year round, change oil in the lower unit once a year. and the boat is always ready when I am.

[Moveon]

Thank you. Everyone on this forum has always been very nice and respectful to me. Boat ramps and tackle stores are another story.

Rodney Dangerfield said the same thing!

You have as much right to say your 2 cents as anyone else in here. It should not matter if your male or female as long as the information is good and useful. All good input is welcome IMHO.

[Moveon]

I use to always take the spark plugs out of the engine and spray fogging oil into the holes and inside the cylinders for winter storage.

I also unhooked the gas line form the engine and ran it at the ramp until the engine stopped. I think that still leaves some gas inside the carburetor bowl.

I keep my boat ready to go fishing and inside an unheated attached garage. I could take all the fishing stuff out of the boat and put a cover on it and leave it in the driveway next to the garage but I'd the last 7 to 10 years I've been keeping it in the garage and parking my truck outside in the driveway.

I have a load of fishing gear that I keep in the boat. Many of my rods/reels are left in the boat along with tackle boxes and other fishing gear that I don't want sitting outside in the cold. I even leave the Humminbird on the boat now. I probably should disconnect that and bring it in the house but I don't.

I don't always fog the engine anymore either. And I don't run the motor until it runs out of gas anymore either. I did that for the first 20 years of the boat's life.

I do however use sea foam in the gas and put some stablil in the gas tank which I think helps keep the boat running better.

I probably should fog the motor and run the gas out until the engine stops.

Oh, And I charge up the Optima Batteries before I put the boat away. I would charge them every month to top them off but the Optimas retain their charge unlike the other batteries that I used in the past. Optimas are made differently and will hold their charge for almost a whole year. So it's not much of a problem leaving them in the garage for a few months. I 'll charge them back up to full capacity next spring before I use the boat again.

[GeoFisher]

Waterdog,
Curious about #9. "Never use a portable heater or auto battery charger in bilge."
Why not leave charger comected during winter months? I leave my 3 bank charger connected (Dec-Feb). 2 banks to the trolling batteries and 1 bank to the starting. I was told this will help prevent build up on the plates and keep them fully-charged without affecting life of battery?
Am I wrong? Am I better off to pull and store in garage, basement, etc...?

I usually leave it connected too. I think they are worried about an enclosed spaces and the buildup of Hydrogen gas, which is a byproduct of charging lead acid batteries.

A heat source in the bilge area, if it is enclosed, while charging is a good way to blow things up..

And leaving an old, poor charger hooked up all the time is a good way to destroy a battery.

That said, I always plug my boat in when I get home, and usually unplug it after it is fully charged. Then, when I'm ready to go, I usually plug it in the night before to top off or whatever, and head down the road. When charging, I always crack the lid to vent any gasses that are created by charging.

Later,

Geo

[HURRICANEBOB]

Sell it in Oct and buy it back
In March

[SLP]

I have a related question for those of you that fish in the winter.

At the end of the day you take your boat out of the water wouldn't the water freeze before it can all completely run out of the boat, live well lines, and motor? I know when I use mine in warm weather I usually will still see some water dripping out the next morning. That would have to freeze during a cold winter night.

[Moveon]

I have a related question for those of you that fish in the winter.

At the end of the day you take your boat out of the water wouldn't the water freeze before it can all completely run out of the boat, live well lines, and motor? I know when I use mine in warm weather I usually will still see some water dripping out the next morning. That would have to freeze during a cold winter night.

I guess it depends on how your boat is designed and how you park it or travel with it and how cold it is outside when you go fishing.

Most guys are not going to be able to launch their boats at the ramp if it's below freezing. The water on the ramp will freeze and make ice which will make it very near impossible to launch the boat without the truck slipping back down the ramp and into the lake. Four wheel drive won't help much if the ramp is all iced over. No traction unless you have steel studded tired on the four wheel drive truck. I guess maybe the front tires will be high enough up on the ramp where there is no ice at the start of the day. But after the first few boats pull out of the water and get the ramp all wet there will be ice further up on the ramp and make it slippery if it's below freezing that day.

I'm sure that my boat still has a little water left in the live well at the bottom. The drain exit hole is a few centimeters above the very bottom of the live well and water always remains in there. It's just a few centimers of water but it's water none the less.

As for as the water pump and the lower unit on my 35 HP long Shaft Johnson Outboard motor I never have had a problem that I knew about. Maybe that's why my water pump impeller needed to be replaced a few times over the past 35 years that I've had my boat and stored it outside under a tarp for the first 15 years or so. The last 20 years I've been storing the boat in an unheated but attached garage with the motor up against the wall next to my dining room and kitchen area. I walk out of the dining room/kitchen right into the attached garage at the East end of my house. My dinning room/kitchen is right behind the garage. There are two walls that are next to my garage the kitchen and the living room and neither one is insulated from what I can tell. I accidently poked a hole in the dryway at the rear of the garage and found no fiberglass or cellulose insulation inside the hole in the drywall. I just assumed that they insulated those walls. Maybe since they are not really considered an exterior wall they didn't put any insulation inside the wall cavity. That ***** in my opinion. My builder was said to be one of the biggest crooks in our county by my Attorney. My attorney new my builders father and he had nothing good to say about him. In fact my attorney advised me not to buy my house but the wife had here heart set on buying this house and If I had not bought the house I would have been divorced right after we got married. I should have not bought the house. But I caved and bought the house and got married anyway. Now I'm stuck with the problems that I knew I was getting into when we bought the house. I've since figured out how to fix the problems. So things worked out ok for me in the long run.

Back to the boat water freezing. I won't go out when it's that **** cold. I'm a fair weather fisherman these days. I like to fish when it's warm enough outside that I can fish comfortable in a T shirt. But then again I've been known to bundle up in Thinsulate Coveralls and long jons and fish in 40 deg weather a few times. Never really would claim to have enjoyed fishing in the cold water months. Now if it got really cold and I had a ice covered lake with an ice shanty on it with a heater I'd be up for that type of fishing. I could warm my wet cold hands up on a heater inside the Ice shanty. I could even get aportalbe TV in there and watch the football games while fishing though the ice. Ah those guys up North really have it made. They drive out to the ice shanty on the lake in the heated snowmobile and step into a heated little house on the lake with cable TV and internet connections. I bet that some of them even have a wet bar inside those fishing shanties. Life of the rich and famous up North.

[SLP]

Thanks for the reply, you are always very helpful, and I appreciate it.

I do the same thing that you used to do, keep it under a tarp. I wish I had a heated garage for it, but that is not in the cards. There are some days coming up where it gets into the mid to high 40's that I wouldn't mind taking it out, but it drops to below freezing in the evenings and I have worried it would freeze something up before it properly drained. I'm with you though in that I enjoy fishing in warmer weather. I actually don't mind cold weather in general, but my little boat doesn't have a lot of wind or weather protection and it would get very cold very quickly on the water.

I'll probably just wait until it at least stays above freezing at night, but I have really had the itch to get out on the water lately.

[Moveon]

Yea I have cabin fever too right now. I'm thinking about taking a shower and getting all dress up in my long jons and going out to do some hunting. It snowed this morning and everything outside is covered in a light powder snow but it's suppose to get up to 40 deg F today and all the snow should melt by this afternoon. More snow coming here tonight according to the weatherman.

Some days I wish I lived down in Florida and other days I wish I lived out west where I could hunt coyotes and seem them coming from a mile away.

Meanwhile I still here in the warm house typing away on the computer. And still trying to figure out why I can't see the two threads that I started this morning in the off topic section. Hummn. Strange that I can't see my own text in those threads.

Just think hot right now and try to stay warm. Remember that down at the Australia Tennis Meet that it's up around 110 deg F during the day time. They have a cold front coming though soon and it's expected to drop down into the COLD 70's. LOL. Talk about average global temperatures. If you average the temps up here and temps down in the Southern Hemisphere you will find that the average is a few deg warmer than normal. Just think a change of one or two deg C makes the difference in water freezing or melting.

Thanks for the reply, you are always very helpful, and I appreciate it.

I do the same thing that you used to do, keep it under a tarp. I wish I had a heated garage for it, but that is not in the cards. There are some days coming up where it gets into the mid to high 40's that I wouldn't mind taking it out, but it drops to below freezing in the evenings and I have worried it would freeze something up before it properly drained. I'm with you though in that I enjoy fishing in warmer weather. I actually don't mind cold weather in general, but my little boat doesn't have a lot of wind or weather protection and it would get very cold very quickly on the water.

I'll probably just wait until it at least stays above freezing at night, but I have really had the itch to get out on the water lately.

[SLP]

Yea I have cabin fever too right now. I'm thinking about taking a shower and getting all dress up in my long jons and going out to do some hunting. It snowed this morning and everything outside is covered in a light powder snow but it's suppose to get up to 40 deg F today and all the snow should melt by this afternoon. More snow coming here tonight according to the weatherman.

I went hunting yesterday morning for a few hours. I didn't see anything but I just enjoy getting out seeing the birds, squirrels, etc. coming out as the light comes up. I probably will hunt a little more here and there just for an excuse to get out but I am really anxious to start fishing this season.

Meanwhile I still here in the warm house typing away on the computer. And still trying to figure out why I can't see the two threads that I started this morning in the off topic section. Hummn. Strange that I can't see my own text in those threads.

I have noticed on occasions that when I view the forum that is shows there was a post added to a thread, but when I click on the thread the post doesn't show up. I have seen that a number of times at this site, but never any other site. So it might be a glitch in the software.