Winterizing: why the hell not question???
 

Has anyone ever just palced a small heater in the engine compartment for winter times? Ceramic heaters should be safe enough to avoid flammability of any potential fumes. Thoughts?? I intend to trailer the boat to Florida several times during the winter so I don't want to full winterize.

What if the power went out???? What if???

Is it really worth losing two motors because you didnt want the hassle to winterize your motors?? I would just winterize. If its gonna be run often just drain the water and replace with antifreeze.... just my opinion!:D

Yup and if you did have a issue with the heater causing a fire then I doubt that your insurance would cover it. Plus there is the other things that you do while winterizing like checking the drive fluid, trimming them down.......

MY cheap friend use to do that.:cool-smiley-027: he never had a problem. Where do you live? How cold of an area?

I wouldn't trust tens of thousands of dollars to a fifty dollar heater or a blown fuse or power outage

what about when you unplug the heater and start towing??
it will freeze then!

Let us know how that works out for you.

Ok....i know of people putting a 60watt(or some certain watt) utility light in their bilge during the winter...the whole time, but why risk a dock power out? We(in the SW Missouri area) experienced a couple weeks of bad freeze last spring and I put a flameless propane camp heater in my bilge just for insurance.....b/c I already used my boat twice in march/april. If your not going to realistically use the boat than just winterize it. Too easy and cheap not too.

Why not just go through your normal winterization procedure- oil change, drive lube change, full fog of internals etc. Then pull the plugs and drain the block, exhaust manifolds, and hoses completely of water (blow them out with air if it makes you feel better). You can pull it down to Florida at your hearts' content without the risk of engine damage and just repeat the process down there before bringing it back home.
Better yet, just do what I've done in the past; take it down in the fall and leave it down there and get a cheap round trip plane ticket down when you feel the itch to go boating. Repeat as necessary. It would be easier/cheaper to find an in-out service to store and launch your boat for the winter than hassling with tow vehicle fuel cost, driving/trailering in snow, salt, and slush and inclimate weather. Bring it back home in the spring.

Antifreeze has rust and corrosion inhibitor blended in it. It makes me cringe just thinking of nothing but water sitting in my motor for more than a couple of weeks at a time, much less all winter. I would even prefer antifreeze over draining everything completely.

Pink Antifreeze $5.00 bucks a gallon

Being able to sleep at night "Priceless"

Don't take a chance of the power going out. What if you are out of town. If you want to use the boat, have a good system to easily winterize, it only takes a few minutes.

I'm not sure how far you're going but it must be from some place that freezes. If you're going to Florida more than once, why not leave the boat there? You have to store it somewhere. Towing- especially in the winter, isn't much fun. I can get round-trip tickets to most Florida airports for about $275 round-trip from Cleveland. With fuel the way it is, I can't drive there. Plus I'm there in 2 hours, not 2 days.

Bring it to me, you wont have to winterize it and I will make sure everything keeps working..:boat:

And have it down there before NEW YEARS! I'll take it from Nashville the rest of the way.

I like the light bulb trick. Most cruisers are set up that way with a heat lamp.

How do you get the antifreeze in the engine? Sorry for the ignorance.

Pour it into the inlet hose while the motor runs. It's easier if it has hull-mounted pickups. It's really easy if you have a freshwater flush system. I like to pull the plugs & drain the water first. You have to be real careful to make sure that trans and oil coolers get flushed. If you can easily get to those hoses, you can blow them out with air. Not too much pressure but high volume.

Light bulbs burn out. If you really had to, the only sensible solution would be an electric engine block heater. That's most likely the only one that would prevent you from becoming the focus of an arson investigation. It still doesn't solve the power outage issue. If you were home every day and had a generator you might make it. But why chance it?

i use to put a light bulb in my scarab panther....never had a problem...but it didn't get cold that often in Tupelo Ms....

I'm with most others here.....just run antifreeze thru the motors. Cheap insurance, and alot less of a hassle and expense than putting in new motors.:D

the easiest way to do it is if you have a strainer, pop the top off and run 5 gall through each motor and your done... while your on your last 2 gall, put some fogger through your carbs and you will be able to sleep fine..

its relatively easy with any bravo butt boat. Loosen one hose clamp at the transom plate. Pull off the hose and hold it facing up. Pour antifreeze into the hose and crank the motor pulling the antifreeze thru the pump, oil cooler and exhaust.When pure pink runs out your exhaust, its done. Then, open the block drains,empty the block. Close em up again. Then just pull the t stat housing and pour in the AF until it fills the block. Total time should be about 10 minutes per motor.

Hint, if you plan on doing this often, replace the block drain plugs with brass radiator drain cocks. Shortens the time necessary and no tools needed after that to drain the block.

I had friend do the heater thing when he was going out of town and it was supposed to get cold. It got cold, heater quit/broke and he had a cracked block.

It's not a matter of being cheap here, it's a matter of using the boat every 3 weeks or so during the winter. I live in NC so weather is somewhat unpredicatable during the winter.

thanks for the responses guys, I think the leaving it in Florida idea is best, the drive for me is 5 hours so it would be worth it.

OH NC Yea just drop in a heater n u will be fine just watch the local temps