Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Stupid winterizing tricks


Recommended Posts

Drained the water out of the engine and heater last night and decided at lunch time to get the water out of the bilge.  It mostly wants to run forward and sit by the tracking fins.  using the mid drain plug doesn't get much of it.  So I decided to use my floor jack and a log to jack up under the tongue and tip the trailer back far enough to drain out the back.  Was working fine, drained out about 3.5 gallons into my homedepot bucket when it just fell off the jack.  Feel pretty lucky that the tongue jack held when it hit the floor.  oops

Link to comment

holy crap!  That would have made the arse pucker really quick.  I was trying to think of a way to get my bow higher because I know no matter how high the jack can go, there is still water underneath the center ballast tank that never drains.  I usually put a fan in the center access hole for 24 hours and probably gets most out over time.

Link to comment

Scary stuff!  You should know better!

In college a buddy of mine was working on his 82 Camaro, and he had it on a scissor jack while he was messing around with the front u-joint I think.  Point is he was well under the car.  I get home, and call him a moron, and tell him to get the jack stands.  He slides out, agrees and kind of laughs, and we both turn around to walk towards the jack stands to grab them.  As we are walking with our backs to the car, it fell off of the scissor lift.  Not much clearance under an 82 Camaro!

My first job out of high school here in Michigan was working at a hog farm.  We were unloading a double flatbed load of straw, throwing it on an elevator/conveyer and moving it up to the loft of the barn.  I'm on the flatbed, and one of the bales fell off the elevator between the elevator and the tractor, right by the PTO shaft.  I jump down to grab it and reached over the square PTO shaft spinning at whatever RPM, and felt my coveralls lapping at the shaft.  I took one step back and just stared at it for a second.

Link to comment

Like Dad used to say "No one ever got hurt going slow".  Thinking about potential (negative) outcomes for a second keeps you whole.  And alive.  I'm in the backcoutry and the numpties that  get caught in avalanches no longer surprise me.  Glad you guys are OK.  But next time....

  • Like 2
Link to comment

I use the grapple on my tractor to move my boats around.  I made a little bracket with a trailer ball that just slips over one of the teeth on the grapple.  On several occasions I have been pulling the boat out of the garage and had the bracket slip off the grapple.  

It's safe, but a huge inconvenience to have the tongue in the dirt with a ball and bracket hooked to it, but I can usually just catch the lip of the coupler with the grapple and lift it until I can put the dolly jack down.  Then I can pull the ball off and get set up again. 

The upside of this rig is the speed and ease of use, including the ability to lift the tongue until the prop cage is touching the ground.  I can drain the boat and exhaust pipes pretty quickly. 

Link to comment
56 minutes ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

I thought this was going to be one of those threads of man I didn’t think of that to make a task a bit easier...

But I think it should be titled things to not do while winterizing...

Yeah.  I've done a similar thing before but used a 6x6 block rather than a piece of firewood ;)   In any event it is all done.  Just need to finish cleaning it up and put the cover on tomorrow and it can sleep until april.

Link to comment
49 minutes ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

I’ll just stick to my 2.5 gallon shop vac to get any remaining water out of the bilge, but my center drain plug gets damn near all of it. 

The way mine sits on the trailer if the tongue jack is all the way up water stays under the bow tank.  Not willing to let it freeze.  Smarter thing would be to hook up the truck and drain it all in the driveway since there is plenty of slope there.  Or just put a 2" ball on my big floor jack.

Edited by oldjeep
Link to comment

I winterized on my lift for the first time this year and found the same - the nose sits lower than the rear.  I raised the front bunks on my lift and it helped but probably still not enough. I need to get back out there with a shop vac.  

I wonder what all the folks/dealers do normally - at Lake of the Ozarks, a lot of boats stay on lifts year round.   I wonder how they get all the water out.  

Link to comment

6 month season at best and all this worry @oldjeep is pretty common sense and look what winter drove him to do , Ive got a place fir y’all to stay and your welcome all winter, we only don’t go in January 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
10 hours ago, hethj7 said:

I winterized on my lift for the first time this year and found the same - the nose sits lower than the rear.  I raised the front bunks on my lift and it helped but probably still not enough. I need to get back out there with a shop vac.  

I wonder what all the folks/dealers do normally - at Lake of the Ozarks, a lot of boats stay on lifts year round.   I wonder how they get all the water out.  

My motors operate each side of the boat.  Since each plug is offset from the center, I raise one side higher to get as much as I can out.

Link to comment

 If on trailer and you lower the tongue jack to lowest point the water (even the small pool under gas and center tank)runs forward and can be easily be wet vac’d from forward bilge area and the residual soaked up by a small towel I push forward from there under bow

i also have to vacuum water from my starboard passenger seat locker for the water that gets into those “boxes”with holes by the rear ballast pumps to drain into that seat compartment , but that’s not critical cause for ice  cause room to expand 

one guy on forum used to “wick” that wster from forward bilge by putting rag through plug hole  

Edited by granddaddy55
Link to comment
1 minute ago, granddaddy55 said:

 If on trailer and you lower the tongue jack to lowest point the water (even the small pool under gas and center tank)runs forward and can be easily be wet vac’d from forward bilge area and the residual soaked up by a small towel I push forward from there under bow

i also have to vacuum water from my starboard passenger seat locker for the water that gets into those “boxes” with holes to drain into that seat compartment , but that’s not critical cause for ice  cause room to expand 

one guy on forum used to “wick” that wster from forward bilge by putting rag through plug hole  

It runs forward under the bow tank in my boat. You can't get it all from the pump access hatch. 

Link to comment

I don’t have that tank but you sure there’s no room to push a towel up there to get that water , I push mine under all the wires and hoses and pumps 

Link to comment

And if forward under that tank then at some point in jack range going back up should get it to run back to forward plug?

Edited by granddaddy55
Link to comment

I just pull the transom drain plug on the way home and bilge is pretty much bone dry when I arrive.   Not much help if you are on a lift though.

 

Oops reading comprehension not my thing lol...you were draining the block..gotcha.

This is gonna be my first year in a garage with insulated doors...not needing to drain is going to be nice!

Edited by DUKENO1
Link to comment
2 minutes ago, DUKENO1 said:

I just pull the transom drain plug on the way home and bilge is pretty much bone dry when I arrive.   Not much help if you are on a lift though.

 

Oops reading comprehension not my thing lol...you were draining the block..gotcha.

This is gonna be my first year in a garage with insulated doors...not needing to drain is going to be nice!

Yeah, id still drain it. My heavily insulated garage still forms ice in the floor in the dead of winter.  Take the 30 minutes and drain. 

Link to comment
On 11/2/2018 at 8:11 PM, ahopkinsVTX said:

I’ll just stick to my 2.5 gallon shop vac to get any remaining water out of the bilge, but my center drain plug gets damn near all of it. 

same here, a shop vac works perfectly.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...