Reality check for winterizing

[you da man]

Just picked up my boat from the dealer for 100hr service. While they were getting my boat pulled from the back I noticed an invoice for a powerhead for an outboard ($4,230) for just the part. I then asked how many broken motors gave they serviced for lack of winterizing. He said so far they have 11 Supras, Moombas, and one Tige with cracked motors. He said cost to repair is right at $9,000 and for the Tige it's $11,500. The said part is the Tige owner did not realize he had a bilge compartment heater that all he had to was plug in an extension cord.

[skylar18]

YDM,

You take yours to South Austin Marine?

[you da man]

YDM,

You take yours to South Austin Marine?

Yep, dropped it off Monday and they said 2 weeks before they could even get to it...I was a little disappointed but it's expected this time of year. However, Wednesday morning they called and said my boat was ready...ONLY 2 days.

[skylar18]

yea,

They do a good job there especially compared to some of the other delears in town. This winter is a good example of why I always winterize!

Glad you got your boat back so quick!

[E4NASH]

What is the cost usually to winterize and summerize our boats. I'm just now picking up my first boat this weekend and am curious as to what I'm in for come the end of October.

[you da man]

I do my own winterizing because it's easy and I don't fog the motor (the longest I go without using my boat is maybe 2 months). My boat is also stored in an enclosed insulated unit and never got below freezing inside. Cost at my dealer is right at $200 for winterizing. I've heard prices of up to $400 for some dealers and I have no clue what they are doing to cost $400

[E4NASH]

That's not too bad. Thanks!

[zabooda]

Winterizing yourself is not difficult and for the first time it helps to have someone who has done it before as it is a matter of finding all of the hoses and drains. There is at least one thread that has an excellent explanation. The objective in winterizing is to get at least 10% of the water out of all areas so it doesn't need to be an exact science. There are other things that you can do to prepare for the next year like oil change etc. that won't affect the integrity of the engine. I do the minimum for winterization because 1) It's depressing, doing work on something that you won't be using for awhile and 2) I'm a late starter in the spring so I'm doing the oil change and all the other stuff in sunny 80 degree weather with the motivation that the sooner the work gets done the sooner I get on the water.

[saskyrider]

All you gotta do is search for Al's thread on winterizing.... do a member search for Cab. I have an o5 LSV and followed al's procedure and saved myself a couple hundred bucks....

cheers

geoff

[KG's Supra24]

E4NASH, you can ask DLWS Saturday but im pretty sure they wanted $180ish to winterize and then around $200 to summerize. They charge this rate because they do it per Indmar manual. They pull and drain everything.

I ended up doing mine on my own. My main reason was because i had someone who had done it before help me (thanks dusty). I did anti-freeze.