Am I missing anything?
 

I recently "acquired" my dad's 1998 Baja Hammer, and him and I aren't necessarily on speaking terms, so it's been left up to me to get the whole boat winterized. I got the engine marina winterized, took out everything from the inside (including bench seat), took the battery out, and waxed it. I'm hoping to take the prop off some time this week along with the winch on the trailer. Then I'm just gonna put a tarp over the cover, which will cover most of the boat. If anything can think of anything I'm skipping over, I'd really appreciate it.

fixx
 

yes,,this is the hard part,,the boat wont matter if your dad were to die...me and my father were not on speaking terms and he passed away....you dont know how hard that will be on you until it happens so chuck it up and make amends with him...you can always replace the parts on the boat or even the boat but you will never replace your father...

now to the boat drain fuel tank,,the gas now adays it garbage,,use it now so you dont have to waste it in the spring..

Easier said than done when I'm really just stuck in the middle of it. Especially when I can't be on speaking terms with him because he just disappears...talk about a sh*tty situation...

Anyway, I used up the gas to just under a quarter of a tank, went to the marina and poured some additive in the tank and ran it a little with the additive in it like my mechanic told me. My dad used to fill it up at the end of the season (another thing he did wrong...) and after getting a brand new engine, you can be sure I'm not making that mistake

Is the boat going to be stored indoors over the winter or outside?

lower the drive all the way down for storage. hard on the bellows the keep it up

The boats going to be stored outside

@dsmawd350 - forgot about that one, thanks a bunch!

back in the day when gas was gas, before ethanol and epa gas, filling up was the thing to do. make amends with you dad like fixx said, as of today i no longer have that ability. so don't waste family over stupid grap.

Since it's going to be in the weather - bow up, prop removed with the drive tucked under and build a ridge pole affair to keep the tarp off the deck/ cockpit cover. This keep any snow or water load shed off the boat - it's that or take it and have it shrink wrapped for the winter

Thanks! I never thought about that :whistle:

lower the drive all the way down for storage.http://www.rrce.info/song9-9.jpghttp://www.pqnw.info/a114.jpghttp://www.rrce.info/song9-5.jpghttp://www.rrce.info/song9-4.jpghttp://www.sbqg.info/10.jpghttp://www.rrce.info/song9-10.jpghttp://www.ryzu.info/5.jpg

I don't know what kind of temp your weather gets down to in your neck of the woods. I live in California and eventhough its not a huge problem out here I still drain the water from my block and exhaust manifolds before I put my boat away for the season. Blocks and manifolds that are left filled with water in freezing temps during the winter months have been known to either push the freeze plugs out or even worse yet crack when the water freezes then expands and has nowhere to go. I open the petcocks on either side of my block (they're located next to the motor mounts) and then I pull the water hoses on the bottom of my exhaust manifolds. IMO, its better to be safe than sorry!

really? Pull the drive for winter storage. Check gimbal bearing, grease driveshaft yokes.

The drives should always be left down when not in use

Even though Winter's about halfway through, I just remembered today about the battery. Should I have that on a trickle charger, or checking it's charge to keep it fresh for Spring?
Thanks again.

Ideally, a battery tender or other automatic trickle charger is the way to go for storage and between uses, it will keep the battery at 100% without overcharging.