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Winterize in Texas?


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I was wondering how many Texans winterized their boats. Ive always had outboards and never winterized, but I used the boats all winter. This is my first inboard and I dont know that I will use it when it gets really cold. I live 50 miles S.E. of Austin if that helps any. If there is already a thread on this, please direct me to it, I searched for one but couldnt find what I was looking for.

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Good Morning TXdyna. I've lived in San Antonio for the last 3 years and haven't winterized my boat. I keep it in my garage, so it is normally a few degrees warmer than the outside temp. I drove through La Grange last Saturday coming back from Lake Somerville. I met a bunch of friends to surf. If you store it outside you may want to winterize just to protect your investment, but I haven't had any problems yet, of course my boat didn't cost me what yours did. At a minimum, make sure you put some stabil in the gas and fog the cylinders. If a cold night is forecasted and yuo havent winterized your boat, some people throw a shop light in the engine compartment to keep the temp up a few degrees.

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Good Morning TXdyna. I've lived in San Antonio for the last 3 years and haven't winterized my boat. I keep it in my garage, so it is normally a few degrees warmer than the outside temp. I drove through La Grange last Saturday coming back from Lake Somerville. I met a bunch of friends to surf. If you store it outside you may want to winterize just to protect your investment, but I haven't had any problems yet, of course my boat didn't cost me what yours did. At a minimum, make sure you put some stabil in the gas and fog the cylinders. If a cold night is forecasted and yuo havent winterized your boat, some people throw a shop light in the engine compartment to keep the temp up a few degrees.

Thanks for the response, I was just wanting to see what other guys in our area are doing. I just cant decide what to do because we have 2 warm water lakes close by and I know we get warm days and I'll want to go.

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I live in Del Rio and will winterize mine, but that is mostly because I will be TDY in Alabama January-February and Colorado February-April. If I was actually going to be here I think i would just get some indoor storage.

But I'm not texan....I'm just a Marylander who lives in Texas.

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Hi txdyna,

I live in Austin and I do what I guess is a "quick winterization" job on our boat.

(I have limited knowledge of engine and hardware terminology so forgive me if I use the wrong words to describe something) :)

Pretty simple

1. get out your socket wrench and take out the two bolts on each side (underside) of the engine block (if you reach down there you should be able to feel them near the center of each side -- at least that's how they are on mine...

2. decouple or unconnect the brass fittings and drain the black hose (about 1in diam) that comes around the front of the engine near the tranny

this was fine for us during the last 3 winters and we've had a few good freezes.

i know of people that haven't winterized here in austin that have been fine though -- usually we don't stay below freezing during the day -- but i'd rather be prepared and it is pretty easy

if you get a warm day that you want to go out -- just put the bolts back in the engine block, and reconnect the hose and you are good to go

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We are way north of you. The boat stays on the lift all year. I've done years with just a light in the engine compartment with a remote thermometer in the house to see what the temp is. The coldest those years was ~ 20 deg outside and the engine compartment was a toasty 36 deg. Getting pretty close to freezing. If it's not drained, you worry about it all the time that it's cold. The years I have drained everything have been worry free. If your boat is stored inside a garage, the light would work. If it's outside I would drain it. I drain mine every year now.

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One thing about the big v-drives is that the heater & engine are at opposite ends of the boat from each other. So putting a shop light or bilge heater in to keep the engine toasty does nothing for the boat heater up under the driver's dash. And the heater core will freeze much sooner than the engine... not a huge expense but a PITA nevertheless. Because of this, it might be a good idea for you to drain the heater at the very least, if not the rest of the systems too, ie; engine, shower, etc. Once you learn how to do this & get the boat setup, you should be able to drain everything in less than 5 or 10 minutes. Then it will take about the same to setup the boat to go out for the day.

Might be worth a little peace of mind if it ever did get cold there.

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Thanks for all the replies, sounds like some good advice, glad I asked :)

I'll probably do a combo of draining and using a light. We plan to keep going out during the winter, but who knows.

Bill, I dont have a heater in the boat, so that shouldnt be a problem for me, but good advice for someone else Im sure. :)

Edited by txdyna65
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I have a green and black WS LSV in Texas too.

So heres what I do.

I drain the block like smed and Ronnie and stay ready for those 70 deg Jan days so I can hit the lake.

You'll definitely have lots of winter days on Fayette's warm water.

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This a good thread. This will be my first winter in Texas with a boat and my plan was to leave the boat on a lift on Lake Conroe in order to use it on warm days. A quick drain after use sounds like the safest way to protect against an overnight freeze.

Winters in Houston are a little milder than in Minnesota.

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My boat lives on a lift up at Lake LBJ. I do winterize every year. Pretty simple to do. It'll take

maybe 15-20 minutes, most of which is getting the water vacuumed and mopped up out of the bilge.

This time of year, I am running gas which has Stabil added to it anyway. I like to fog the

engine anytime I don't plan on running the boat for over a month. For winterizing, I usually

pull the battery and put it on a maintainer, but if there's a good probability of using the boat

within a month, I'll just disconnect.

I drain the plugs on either side of the block and the quick-disconnect on the hose between the exhaust

manifolds, as mentioned above. I also loosen the hose coming into the raw water pump,

the hose from the raw water intake, the hose coming to the tranny cooler, the hose to the water-cooled shaft

seal, and the lower end of the hose coming from the engine's water pump. I like to blow air into the end of

the hose from the raw water intake to eliminate any water leading up to the raw water pump. I also blow into the hose

(clear) to the water-cooled shaft seal. That does it. It's time to use the shop-vac.

Rather than leaving all of those hoses disconnected, I'm leaning towards reconnecting them this year so, if I

have a chance to get out during the winter, all I'll have to do is hook up the battery and turn the key.

Maybe this way is a little overkill for south Texas, but I sleep better at night.

Edited by srab
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On board charger keeps the batteries fresh without all the hassle.

BTW I've been doing it this way in North Texas since the '70s and never had any block freezing issues.

I've never fogged either.

Sometimes winters will be unco-operative with no weekend breaks and the boat will sit idle for a month or maybe 2.

Also keep in mind that keeping it on a lift actually keeps it from freezing too.

Since it never gets cold long enough to actually freeze the lake water, the lake water keeps the ambient temp above freezing.

Pray for global warming then we'll be year round for sure!

Edited by Brad B
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