First time boat owner here - 2008 Q5i. tough lessons to learn already.

0dark3rt

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My in laws neighbor sold us the boat for $10k. He owns a successful auto shop and is one of those guy who washes/details his cars every weekend, and takes care of his stuff meticulously, so we felt good about our purchase. The original owner was a customer of his (a Dr.) who took the boat to his auto shop every fall for winterization. The Dr bought it for his kids and after they all grew up and moved off to college this guy GAVE IT to our neighbor for free.

Long story short, the boat was always docked in the water (never on a lift) and neglected. When our neighbor brought it home he spent DAYS cleaning the boat and got all the seats, etc reupholstered with factory original colors. The gel coat is surprisingly in great shape. Being a mechanic and all, he rebuilt or replaced everything that needed it. His hard work paid off and the boat literally looks brand new. Amazing what some TLC will do.

Fast forward to September, we bought it just in time to...... store it for the next 6 long, cold, freezing, snowy, Michigan winter months. It was a total impulse buy but my wife and I felt like this was a good opportunity to buy our first boat at a cheap price. I admittedly didnt do much research into Tahoe boats and was seduced by it looking brand new. Anyway, We pulled it out of the water in October, got it shrink wrapped and stored in my father in laws lot across the streeet from the lake.

Heres where things have me worried. The day before the shrink wrappers were scheduled to do the boat, I went over to pull the battery for the winter. The boat had been covered, but the 2 days prior to pulling the battery we got some serious rain.. like 4 inches in 2 days. I thought the cover would do its job but man was I wrong..

I opened the engine compartment and was horrified to see water. Lots of water. So much so, it literally filled the entire bilge/ transom area all the way up to the engine block and was about 3 inches away from touching the battery itself. Just guessing but thats like 12-18 inches of water from bilge to the battery area. Heres what happened. When the neighbor winterized the boat he screwed the drain plug back in. I shouldve checked it but didnt, and the boat had sat for 2 weeks (covered.....) prior to me pulling the battery.

Sooooo...I pulled the drain plug and left the hatch open for 24 hours. But didnt have any time to inspect everything closely.. The shrink wrappers came the next day and did their thing. So the boat is officially hibernating for the winter.

Now, after researching possible issues the water may have caused, I think I have a huge problem..... Apparently, I shouldve pulled the drives upper unit and checked to see if rain water had filled up the bellows from the inside. Judging by how much water was in the transom, Im 95% sure the bellows is completely full of water. Which means come spring, my gimbal bearing will be seized, the u-joints shot, and possibly a lot more.

Mistake #2: I didnt lower the drive unit down before I pulled the battery. Its stored in the half way up position which I discovered is another no-no. Even if theres not enough water in the bellows to ruin it when it freezes, having it sit for 6 months Trimmed up will probably crack it.

Some hard lessons learned in my short time as a boat owner....
 
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tpenfield

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:welcome:

. . . and I bet you thought having a boat would be a lot of fun :)

#1 - you may still be able to remove the outdrive while the boat is shrink wrapped. You might have to cut a little bit of it away from the outdrive. If this is a Mercruiser Alpha . . . 8 nuts total - 6 holding the outdrive to the bell housing and 2 holding the trim cylinders to the 'pin' just above the ventilation plate. The outdrive weighs about 140-150 pounds it is easier to take the prop off, but not totally necessary.

#2 - outdrive tilt . . . If you take off the outdrive, this is solved. If you do not, just remove the 2 nuts holding the trim cylinders to the 'pin' and pop off the trim rams at the ventilation plate area. Put a few blocks of wood to rest the skeg upon in a reasonably lowered position.

#3 - pray that there will not be more woes (but there probably will) when you open things back up in the spring time.

BTW - your neighbor winterized the boat/engine and put the plug back in (who does that :noidea: ) Are you sure he knows how to properly winterize?
 

redneck joe

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Othere than pulling or dropping the outdrive there is not much you can do until spring and stressing won't help. Learning will, which you seem tobe on the right track for.

welcome to the forum.
 

Scott Danforth

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lesson #1 never ever ever store a boat with the plug in it
lesson #2 you will learn how to replace a starter come spring
lesson #3 learning to pull the drive for annual maintenance
 
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alldodge

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Get the battery and tools, cut the shrink wrap off areas need. Re-inspect everything and make sure everything is dry. Remove the drive, have boat shrink wrapped again or get a tarp to go over.
 

0dark3rt

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Nov 4, 2017
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:welcome:

. . . and I bet you thought having a boat would be a lot of fun :)

#1 - you may still be able to remove the outdrive while the boat is shrink wrapped. You might have to cut a little bit of it away from the outdrive. If this is a Mercruiser Alpha . . . 8 nuts total - 6 holding the outdrive to the bell housing and 2 holding the trim cylinders to the 'pin' just above the ventilation plate. The outdrive weighs about 140-150 pounds it is easier to take the prop off, but not totally necessary.

#2 - outdrive tilt . . . If you take off the outdrive, this is solved. If you do not, just remove the 2 nuts holding the trim cylinders to the 'pin' and pop off the trim rams at the ventilation plate area. Put a few blocks of wood to rest the skeg upon in a reasonably lowered position.

#3 - pray that there will not be more woes (but there probably will) when you open things back up in the spring time.

BTW - your neighbor winterized the boat/engine and put the plug back in (who does that :noidea: ) Are you sure he knows how to properly winterize?

Thanks for the advice... If Im honest, I dont really think my neighbor did a textbook winterization on the boat. He just kept telling me how easy it is to do and explained its as simple as pulling the 4 or 5 drain plugs and letting it drain.

At the time, I had no idea what was all involved in the process but thought there should be more to wonterizing a boat than that. Maybe thats all youd do if it was stored inside a climate controlled barn or something but not outside? Hindsight being 20/20, I shouldve observed him winterize it and ask questions about the process as he did them.

I dont know if he pulled the flame arrestor and fogged the carb as noted in the manual. There isnt a plastic bag over the it to prevent moisture from entering the carb (per video on YouTube).

I did ask him if I should replace the oil in the engine and gear lube in the drive unit before storing it. He said it would be a waste of money since he changed both at the beginning of the summer and only drove the boat 2 times for a total of 10minutes over the entire summer season. (Which I can verify as we spent every weekend at my in laws and noticed for all the work he did to restore the boat, we only saw it off the lift on the 4th of July). Seemed like a fair assessment but it goes without saying Im going to be taking a closer look at all the stuff he said he replaced or repaired. Obviously Im gonna have to change all the oil/fluids come spring.
 
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tpenfield

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Draining the engine is fine for winterization. . . as long as you get all of the places that need to be drained.
 

tpenfield

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Also, Google "zipper hatches for boat shrinkwrap" and you may find some solutions for gaining access to the boat while it is shrinkwrapped. Lots of folks have zipper hatches in the shrinkwrap if they need access to the boat for doing work over the off season.
 

0dark3rt

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Not sure why my posts got deleted, but just wanted to give an update. My Q5i survived the winter and despite my concerns about the starter, bellows, etc. all is well. Put her on the lake tonight and she ran like a dream!
 

alldodge

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It's not being deleted, some of the comments are disappearing by the program. This has happened to others. They are working on the issue and hope it isn't permanent
 

GA_Boater

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Not sure why my posts got deleted, but just wanted to give an update. My Q5i survived the winter and despite my concerns about the starter, bellows, etc. all is well. Put her on the lake tonight and she ran like a dream!

Sorry, 0dark. Restored the missing stuff in your posts. I thought we found all those messed up during a forum glitch last Fall. Guess not! :grumpy:
 
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