Went Out On The Boat Today....
 

In the driveway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just built myself a new winterizing device.

The local dealer had a plastic drum he had cut in half and gave me one half. I took a pallet from work, added four small swivel casters to the bottom of it so I could roll it around easy. Then cut some 4 x 4 posts as supports for the drum and screwed everything together. Used 5200 over the screw heads inside the drum to keep it from leaking.

Then I purchased a small a/c pump from Lowes with standard garden hose connections. Took some clear vinyl tubing from the tank to the inlet of the pump. Clear is good so you can see the flow of liquid. Just used the hose that came with the pump for the discharge side to the muffs.

We sell clear urethene duct hose at my company and I grabbed a couple of scrap lengths and that stuff fit like a glove over the exhaust tips.

Then we added 8 gallons of antifreeze in the drum. I put duct tap over the low water pick up, then connect the hose to the muffs and plug it in.

It worked like a charm! The duct hose returns the antifreeze to the drum, and the drum catches 90% of what comes out of the drives.

I have about $80.00 in it with the pump being the most expensive part.

The clear duct hose off the exhaust is nice also, so you can easily see that the fluid is flowing!

Then my wife who stayed in the boat (she also monitors all the guages and tells me when the thermostat opens)
changed her first fuel filters on both engines and did not spill a drop!

Last one!

Disregard the clamp that I used to hold the clear tubing down in the tank with. I have now secured it without the clamp.

I wonder how needed the pump is,, NICE SETUP !!!!!!!!

That looks pretty cool. I think I will make me one of those also. Then it will be very easy too winterize.

I guess you would need too fill the whole container up if you did not want to use a pump.

The pump is a must for this set up.

The water pick up's on the drive are not down in the drum enough.

I would like to build one that would not need a pump, but you would have to fabricate your own drum that would have to be higher on the sides. I have seen them, but this is how my dealer does it, and it was simple enough. The dealer actually uses a bilge pump that is mounted inside the drum.

Thanks Chris,

I have always been very anal about these things. Cars, Boats, motorcycles, whatever.

The problem is no one really wants to give you more than book value for anything, regardless of condition.

I recently heard about a 42 Fountain that sounded like a steal. When we got there I could not believe it. The boat was a 2000 model, the interior looked OK, but the exterior was a mess. I really don't believe the owners ever used a fender. The rub rail was distroyed and the sides were totally scratched up. When I see something like this I can only wonder how the engines were treated and if they were ever serviced?

There seems to be a lot of boats out there in need of some TLC.

Ok, what is with you guys on OSO, and using the word "anal"??

Look it up in the dictionary! It says.........

1 : of, relating to, or situated near the anus

Now start using a better word! How about saying, "Ive always been very picky about these things"?

:D :D