www.iFourWinns.com

Seeing that it's going to drop to 20F overnight this weekend I figured it was "time".

I winterized the genset, engines and AC. It was a royal PITA getting the hose connections off the strainers for the genset and AC. There's just not enough room or wiggle in the hoses to make it easy.

Then, to my dismay, I managed to freeze up the AC system. Don't know how the hell I managed to do it. The AC pump just would not force antifreeze into the system. I tried using a manual pump but all that succeeded in doing was building up enough pressure to blast pink back at my face when I uncoupled the pump (p-tui! yuck!) But I thawed it out by removing the vacuum cleaner and pointing a little fan-driven space heater into the cavity. Took about 15 minutes to thaw. Once clear it purged quite readily.

I cheated and picked up a West Marine "winterizing kit'. Mainly an overpriced water jug with a boiler valve and some tubing. But that was quicker than making something myself, that I already had to do for the engines. The one thing I'm going to pickup for next year will be a more garden hose-like way to attach to the strainers. There is just NOT enough room to deal with a hose clamped to a barb fitting. I'll probably just use a garden hose female connector and then a hose-to-1/2" NPT fitting.

For the engines I just put a 1-1/4" PVC fitting into the side of a 10 gallon trash can. Basically I just put a male threaded 1-1/4" fitting through a hole cut in the side near the bottom, and then put a female fitting on the inside. These are hose barb to threaded fittings. So I've got a hose barb connection on both the inside and outside. I sealed the connection with epoxy. I would've liked to have made it "fancier" but this did the job well enough. The parts were cheap; trashcan, fittings and epoxy were under $20. The hose was the expensive part, $27 for an 8' length. It might work with just 7' of the hose. You want enough to get up and out of the engine compartment and be close enough to the ignition switch to see when it's about drained. I didn't put a valve on it. The only hassle would be if I used less antifreeze than I had poured into the can. Since you want to winterize the bilge pump too it's not like some antifreeze dripping into the bilge would be a problem. If I can find a 1-1/4" shut-off valve with hose barb fittings I'd probably put on just before the connection to the engine (or just get the barb-threaded fittings to go in the valve).

I then ran the 1-1/4" hose to each engine, one at a time. Did the port, then the starboard. I'm told it can be done with as little as 3 gallons of antifreeze. I dumped six into the trashcan and let it idle (after having previously warmed it up for 20 minutes). Surprisingly it takes around 3 minutes, at idle, to suck up that much antifreeze. I had visions of it guzzling it like crazy, but I had plenty of time to do an orderly job of it.

By next year I hope to have fashioned a set of strainer lids with fittings. That way I could just pop the regular lid off a strainer and use one with a hose fitting drilled and tapped into it. Trouble is I can't tell what danged size these things are. Mail to FW customer service went unanswered to this question all this past week and a half... Thoroflush used to sell lids pre-made like this but they're out of business now. I wouldn't want to leave these lids on for any duration but for just winterizing it seems like they'd be ideal.

This weekend I'll be back there to pull the plugs and squirt a bit of fogging oil into the cylinders. I put fuel stabilizer in the tanks before topping them off. The engines ran about an hour and a half, long enough to have pulled the treatment into the engines. I may go a step further and pull the impellers, but then I guess I'd have to redo the pink again. Feh, they're cheap and on their second season anyway. I'll just replace 'em next spring.

All this took me about 3 hours, most of which was time spend futzing with hose connections and the AC system. If I had everything on hand and ready ahead of time I'm guessing it'd take just under an hour. I'm guessing we'll have some freakishly warm days come February so perhaps I'll be able to time myself now that I know the drill.

I've got a heater in the engine room and the main cabin so it's not like I'm overly concerned. But it certainly can't hurt to take the 'belt and suspenders' approach. Certainly not when faced with what it would cause in time and money should something freeze up!

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

This is the one time of year I'm glad I don't own that much boat!

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Heh, it's probably a bit simpler on a smaller, trailerable boat. Even more so on one with outboards.

I'm just glad I only had one AC system. Friends with sedan bridge style boats sometimes have upwards of FOUR separate AC systems. Yikes.

Are you still keeping it in the water?

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348 Vista ( Last Call )
Raystown PA

Yep, this year it's going to stay in the water. I pay for the whole year, might as well get my money's worth. That and when we have our inevitable 80F days in February I'll be able to take it out for a spin. Re-winterizing the engines isn't terribly complicated. The marina deploys de-icers should conditions get that cold. Simple bubblers for brief stretches or more aggressive pumps for extended periods.

That and the whole clusterf*ck caused by the dealer left me a bit less than enthused about running the risk of repeating the experience.

The marina has AC shorepower and I've got a heater in the engine room and another in the cabin. Both set to 45F. I'm not aiming to keep it warm, just to keep it above freezing. But power can go out so that's why I winterized it as completely as if it was on the hard.

I haven't gotten a cover for it, yet. I still have the camper canvas up pending the completion of all work (various cleaning remains to be done). Once that's complete I'll put on the cockpit cover. I may go so far as to add some sort of PVC frame under it in addition to the three support poles. The poles alone and cover would be useless against any sort of snowfall.

My only remaining question is the batteries. There needs to be something on board to power the bilge pumps should shorepower go out. But I don't know if all five batteries "need" to be there. I may just scale back to the two engine starting batteries. I believe one powers the engine bilge pump and the other feeds the mid-cabin pump. Batteries are a lot cheaper and less hassle than dealing with a boat sinking, so I'm less than concerned about 'saving' them. Were it up on the hard I'd pull 'em all and store them on wood shelving here at the house, and trickle charge them once a month.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Well done Bill. Very impressive. One of the great joys of doing my deal at the end of the season was leaving my last boat tied up at the dock and the FW dealer coming to grab her up. No winterizing hassles or expense this year (and I don't even do it myself - but it's still a pain). I hope you get plenty of opportunities to get out over the winter!

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

Took mine in to be winterized and had a cord of oak firewood put in my barn for the winter last Thursday, the 29th!

All is well! I also told dealer to fix the NON-DRAINING ski locker!!!

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Jeff

2006 Four Winns Yellow Horizon 30th Anniversary 200 SS
2005 Nissan Titan Crew Cab
2004 Ford F-150 Lariat

http://www.seabrook-services.com