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DIY winterization / Flush


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I know there have been a ton of these posted but why not share...

Hardware trip

724304f66ba9265a68e6901766310c2d.jpg

All assembled ($16)

d667458535d3cc420088db09d9372cf3.jpg

Installed

8aaab17e3e77ffe1449332517b684267.jpg

Another angle

a383bea3a267a1f0ebcacac3ff7ce260.jpg

Hooked to the hose

2db9150ed7d91a9544e230d75930423d.jpg

Not sure if anyone remembers my "hose over the side" issue from a year or so ago but I solved that problem...

e9719c8d4bd5e56065f1f77961d421f6.jpg

Shot of my home made bucket

aa6902ba03eaa2bf1e027a22725c0d8c.jpg

Service / winterization went fairly smooth for my first V drive. Every filter I had bought was wrong which just kept me running to the store. Luckily there is a parts store a mile from my house.

I found this in my trans cooler, no idea how my boat ran at a normal operating temp all summer

63c87ec1d664c16cf0b44bb1488acc37.jpg

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Nice. I wish I would've saw this before I bought my fake-a-lake. Less messy.

You can still make one. I have a fake a lake, and I still use it if I have someone around to keep an eye on it. Its nice to have kicking around if you just need to run the boat for a minute. For doing an oil change or winterization having the water mechanically attached to the boat is a nice insurance policy. The other thing I love about it is the ability to turn the water on and off in the boat. No more jumping out of the boat and running to the house to shut the water off.

Wow got lucky on those impeller pieces! I like the setup, quick and easy.

No kidding! I am kind of kicking myself for not checking that when I first got the boat. I can't believe it didn't heat up once this summer.

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Quick note for anyone building a winterization bucket... Get a larger bucket than mine. My boat sucks antifreeze faster than I can pour it into that little guy. I am going to make another one out of an old trash can I have. I usually run 6 gallons through and the trash can should hold all 6.

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Also if anyone cares my steps were as followed.

Add stabil to tank

Warm up to operating temp. (using my sweet new hose adapter :rockon: )

Suck / drain engine oil

replace engine oil filter (used a milk jug, didn't spill a drop)

While waiting for engine oil to drain / suck I used the other pump I had to suck out and replace trans fluid, and V drive oil. (Both looked brand new)

Replaced fuel filter. (I only have one of these :Doh: )

Checked alt belt (I had a new one, mine looks mint so I'm keeping the new on as a spare)

I got about 5 quarts of engine oil out before my drain hose and sucker stopped.

Replaced engine oil.

Ran engine back up to operating temp.

Drained:

Block drains (knock sensor)

Raw water pump hoses.

Every other water hose I could see

Exhaust manifold drains (remove cross over hose)

v drive plugs.

Trans cooler hoses (that's when I found an entire shredded impeller)

Closed everything back up and sucked six gallons of pink anti freeze through her.

Rechecked engine oil.

I still need to pull the battery and put it on the tender.

I'm going to swap the water pump impeller for a new one this spring, otherwise I would have removed that last.

Edited by Levi900RR
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  • 5 months later...

My version of the same thing...... I've never had a problem.

Levi, since I moved to an area with brutal winters, I've lost a few batteries in my toys. I saw an ATV battery actually freeze a couple years ago..... INSIDE the garage. Since then I added an on-board charger to the boat & haven't had a problem since. And conveniently enough, I haven't had to lug the batteries out of the boxes or store them ever since either. Definitely something you should add to your list. Mine is a Guest 10 amp dual bank charger, but there are several out there that rate pretty well. I just plug it in & it keeps the batteries charged & exercised.

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My version of the same thing...... I've never had a problem.

Levi, since I moved to an area with brutal winters, I've lost a few batteries in my toys. I saw an ATV battery actually freeze a couple years ago..... INSIDE the garage. Since then I added an on-board charger to the boat & haven't had a problem since. And conveniently enough, I haven't had to lug the batteries out of the boxes or store them ever since either. Definitely something you should add to your list. Mine is a Guest 10 amp dual bank charger, but there are several out there that rate pretty well. I just plug it in & it keeps the batteries charged & exercised.

Do you have any photos of your setup? I'm thinking of doing the same thing to my boat.

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Bill, that is a good call. I actually pull my battery and keep it in my basement hooked up to a battery tender for the winter. BUT, now that you mention it there is power where I store my boat so I could just hook it to the tender inside the boat. Might save me some time.

  • Like 1
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Do you have any photos of your setup? I'm thinking of doing the same thing to my boat.

I don't think my install is all that photo worthy. The Diehard batteries are in the basic black battery boxes secured to the floor in the passenger side storage. And the Guest on-board charger is underneath the seat bottom. I've had this setup like this for about 5 yrs now & the batteries are still doin great, even though they were living in an unheated storage unit every winter. I pulled the boat out Sunday & their doin great.... all charged up & ready to rock.

Only other things in my power system include the Perko manual switch & a Harbor Freight 1000 watt inverter (for the wife's blender, ya know).

guest-waterproof-battery-charger-2611a.j

A buddy of mine has a Promariner dual bank charger. He's on like year 3 & happy with how it's treating his batteries in the same storage conditions as mine.

51-4YdiEa1L._SX300_.jpg

I think if I were going to do it all again, I'd setup the dual bank charger & use a pair of gel cell batteries on their side, and install everything under the passenger side seat bottom. That space just seems to be the biggest PITA to get to when we're looking for a towels or whatever.

For the motorcycle battery (Deka gel cell) and golf cart battery (O'Reilly's 12v), I use a BatteryTender Jr. Both the bike & cart have a lead on the battery already installed so charging either one is a cinch. Although I haven't had to touch that Deka since I installed it 2 yrs ago. :rockon: It's a good thing because it's as big a PITA to get to as the boat!

Battery-Tender-Junior.jpgBatteryTenderConnectors.jpg

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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I know there have been a ton of these posted but why not share...

Hardware trip

724304f66ba9265a68e6901766310c2d.jpg

All assembled ($16)

d667458535d3cc420088db09d9372cf3.jpg

Installed

8aaab17e3e77ffe1449332517b684267.jpg

Another angle

a383bea3a267a1f0ebcacac3ff7ce260.jpg

Hooked to the hose

2db9150ed7d91a9544e230d75930423d.jpg

Not sure if anyone remembers my "hose over the side" issue from a year or so ago but I solved that problem...

e9719c8d4bd5e56065f1f77961d421f6.jpg

Shot of my home made bucket

aa6902ba03eaa2bf1e027a22725c0d8c.jpg

Service / winterization went fairly smooth for my first V drive. Every filter I had bought was wrong which just kept me running to the store. Luckily there is a parts store a mile from my house.

I found this in my trans cooler, no idea how my boat ran at a normal operating temp all summer

63c87ec1d664c16cf0b44bb1488acc37.jpg

So this setup is similar to a thru hull fresh water flush correct? This seems a lot cheaper!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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So this setup is similar to a thru hull fresh water flush correct? This seems a lot cheaper!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Somewhat. This setup & the one I built (and who knows how many other guys around here), are only installed on the boat temporarily, while your working on the boat. This replaces the old fake-a-lake plunger...... ever been running your boat on the trailer & had the hose water pressure blow the fake-a-lake off the bottom of the boat? This device solves that problem by allowing you to control & see everything from the driver's seat of the boat.

Then when your done, you remove this adapter & return the intake hose to it's original location.

The thru hull water flush can be used for the same task, but it's also good for flushing the engine after it's been in salt water.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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  • 7 months later...

As I am constantly inspecting and adapting my processes I've come to a new conclusion...

I've used home made buckets for years to feed antifreeze into boats. A buddy came over with one of these this year and I am totally sold. Didn't spill a drop. It was awesome. Totally worth the $35 bucks.

If you winterize your own boat, go buy one of these now.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/29764665?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227021776117&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40839462992&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78653072552&veh=sem

  • Like 3
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As I am constantly inspecting and adapting my processes I've come to a new conclusion...

I've used home made buckets for years to feed antifreeze into boats. A buddy came over with one of these this year and I am totally sold. Didn't spill a drop. It was awesome. Totally worth the $35 bucks.

If you winterize your own boat, go buy one of these now.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/29764665?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227021776117&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40839462992&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78653072552&veh=sem

Do you think this Can this be used with a fake a lake if it's set up on the swim platform

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Do you think this Can this be used with a fake a lake if it's set up on the swim platform

I do, but I would also highly recommend some sort of mechanical connection. Nothing would piss me off more than dumping 6 gallons of anti freeze on the ground and burning out an impeller the last day I had to winterize my boat.

  • Like 2
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Do you think this Can this be used with a fake a lake if it's set up on the swim platform

That is exactly what the original mechanic used to do at our local dealer. Watched him do it once and it worked very well.

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I did something similar to this a few years ago, and it has been working flawlessly. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the final setup.

What I did was cut a piece out of the 1-1/4" hose coming from the thru hull to the v-drive and inserted a PVC tee with a shut-off valve and hose quick connect (see below for all components). Whenever I need to run the engine out of the water, I can just connect a hose to this and close the valve on the thru hull so that the water goes to the impeller instead of out the bottom of the boat. When I need to get anti-freeze into the boat, I have a large funnel that I modified with a hose quick connect so that I can attach it to the PVC shut-off. A bucket/hose contraption like what Levi has would work as well.

1-1/4" threaded tee

pvc-fitting-405-threaded-tee-fipsxfipsxf

(2) 1-1/4" PVC Barb x MPT adapter

d229673a-030f-4250-83f9-a6a105297bf5_65.

1-1/4" x 3/4" reducer bushing

104e3f07-208f-4509-8490-cc7df24c5c30_145

3/4" PVC nipple

fc308738-affc-45f7-bfc8-ef4dfc638bb2_65.

3/4" threaded tee

05bf7628-7b5d-4dad-84af-f63921a22477_145

3/4" MPT x male hose (MHT)

hose-adapter-mhtxmips.jpg

Hose quick connect

6987316c-e789-4e6b-bc4b-74c5316e42dc_145

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I probably spent $30 on everything to do this. You could reduce the cost quite a bit by using a hose shut-off instead of the PVC tee and nipple (attach the MPT x MHT to the reducer and then the hose shut-off). I just felt that the PVC valve would be more reliable than the cheap garden hose shut-off.

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Yeah, I built something like that for my Skier. Now that I keep the LSV on the lift all summer I pretty much only run it out of the water once in the spring, and then again to winterize. For my use case I'd rather have less failure points for my daily driver set up.

If you use it a lot, the "T" set up is really handy.

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I really like seeing what others have done to make some of the maintenance tasks simpler & easier. I am all for spending a little $$ and time to save time and aggravation in the future!

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I added a ball valve to shut off the raw water just in case something bad happened to the hoses, Flush Pro. I can shut off the valve to keep the Bu from sinking!

Edited by WoodyBC
  • Like 2
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