MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Hey everyone. I live in MN, I'm wondering if anyone out there with an I/O boat has de-winterized yet? I need to get mine to the shop, but I'm trying to find that sweet spot between way too early to de-winterize and get out of storage and way too late where all of the sudden my mechanic is going to take a month to get me fixed up. The funny thing is, on my way to Church last week I saw I think 3 boats (2 I/Os) in a 10 minute drive. That's more than I see on a summer day going to the boat launch! So my main question. How early is too early? I guess lately temps have been right around 50, dipping into the high 20s at night. I just don't want stuff to freeze and break if I de-winterize. I'm just curious if anyone else has their I/O de-winterized in this state? I think I'll probably wait a little more, but I'm getting the itch. LOL!

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Sorry, I'm an outboard guy for this exact reason. There is WAY too much good fishing and boating to do once temps are in the freezing range.

However, couldn't you put your boat in a heated garage for the night if there is a freeze warning? Even if you don't have a heated garage, maybe you could pay a neighbor $20 or a case of beer to let you store the boat in their heated garage for the night. You could also maybe use a space heater if you can't find a heated garage.

I'd say get the spring maintenance done now. I don't think that we'll have more than one or two more frosts

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

I don't get what the problem is. You could have the mechanic "de-winterize" it now and just drain the block between uses until you're confident it won't freeze.
Maybe I'm missing something here.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

It depends on what you mean by de-winterize and what your routine is. To dewinterize my cruiser's engine, I simply put the muffs on and run the engine for a few minutes to clear the anti-freeze, burn off the fogging oil, and get everything moving. I don't like blowing out chemicals into the lake. What else do you do to dewinterize?

For engines, it's marginal right now I'd say. It's still getting below freezing at night. Also, do you intend to use the boat? I've been fishing using my outboard-powered boat, but we won't be using the cruiser until at least late May.

IMO,it's too early if you're talking about a cruiser with a head and a water system. In St. Paul, we were down to 26 tha last couple of nights.

Question: Can't you make an appointment for say, May 1 with your mechanic? The shop I use accepts appointments, so I always make my winterization appointment on about September 1 so they have a slot saved for me.

Grouse

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Of course we have been ice out here in MN almost as early as has ever happened. That said, I am not a fisher person and only cruise with our I/O and so my deciding factor is the air temperature. If it's under the mid 70's, we won't go out so our boat still sits in the garage untouched for the year. Also not being able to swim with the cold water temps is offputting as well. If you are new to boating, I can understand how a person would think that summerizing an I/O is something you would pay for. Afterall the Marinas around here such as MarineMax send out solicitations for summarizing services.
There is simply no need to pay to put muffs on your out drive, check your fluids and start the boat presuming it was serviced in the fall.
Even if it gets to be the 20's in the overnight hours, it won't be cold enough for a long enough period of time to freeze if you are stored in a garage and likely even if you aren't. As for the comment above of storing your boat in someones garage, if the garage burns and you have no boat property policy, it won't be covered by his homeowners policy. I live 2 blocks from a lake access and since ice out there have been trailers in the lot but I just presume they are the hardcore fishermen with outboards.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Pardon my noob-ness. I'm a newer boat owner. I've never had an I/O, just outboards before this guy. Unfortunately, my boat doesn't fit in a garage, it sits outside. It's a 22' cabin cruiser, so it's a little too long and tall to fit in there. I figure there wasn't a whole lot to do for de-winterizing (summarizing). The reason it has to go to the shop is not to get summarized, I need to get the bellows replaced, and my mechanic wants the boat for like 2 weeks. I have a bacehlor party that it is imperative I have it for in June, so I want to get it back in plenty of time. Haha! So you think as long as I drain the water out of the block, if it dips below freezing it shouldn't cause any damage? I'm assuming the mechanic wouldn't do anything bad to it by performing the work now. Surely they wouldn't leave water in the block if there was still a chance it might freeze again, especially since I had them winterize it? Of course, that's assuming, and you know what happens when we assume. I also asked about appointments, they're smaller so they're kind of a first come first serve. I don't really plan on putting the boat in the water until it gets warmer. I don't quite have launching down where I don't get wet yet. I don't have the kahunas to wade into the water at this temp either. Haha!
I live in a suburb of St. Paul in Eagan, the boat is stored in Farmington. I use Lighthouse Marine in Rosemount, great guys! Where do you guys bring yours? I just got a new job and my building overlooks the river in St. Paul. When it was in the 70s, I watched a few boats on the private docks next to my place, and a few people in their outboards a few weeks ago. It made me a little antsy.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

I've had my I/O all fired up for 2 weeks now, granted, it's an 18 footer and she lives in a garage. That said, last weekend (easter weekend) we were in the Brainerd Lakes area (northern Minnesota) from Friday until this last Tuesday night. Yep, out fishing already, , and it was windy, cold and snowing. During the day it wasn't an issue but a couple nights it dipped into the twenties. I brought my trouble shooting light along and hung it down in the lowest point in the engine bay just for a little heat.
I mean there is a LOT of mass in the engine, manifolds etc that would have to get well below freezing to do any harm. That and the engine lives in an enclose environment so that's like extra insulation too.
I don't think a night in the mid 20's will do you any harm. Heck, I saw about a dozen boats, I/O's being put in the water, on the lift for the season this last weekend. Just sayin.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Are you going to put yours on the river? Just curious and I'm not trying to hijack the thread. Mine is at Watergate Marina......

I have a 22' cuddy as well. The only way it would fit in the garage is if it was off it's trailer and put in sideways

I'm kind of treating the boat scheduling like my lawn. It's still a little too early to seed and fertilize. Give it a couple more weeks and you'll be good to go.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

If you have it "dewinterized" by your marina/mechanic now, they will not drain the water out of the engine block. You will have to pay for it to be winterized again. If you know where your drains are on your engine and know how to drain the water out, your home free as far as starting the boat up for the new year. However, if you dont know how to drain your engine I would not by any means start it up now. I dont know about the other guys, but if I saw that the overnight temp got down to 25 and I had an engine full of water, I know I'd be gnawing on my finger nails until I started the engine again. Wait until May 1 or after in the Northern climate.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

I wish I could keep it on the river, but I can't afford it. OllieC, it sounds like you're about 5 or so miles from where I work. It sounds like I should wait a little while longer before I take it out for sure. I just don't want to worry about it. As far as replacing the bellows, you all think I can take it out of storage and bring it to the mechanic? Or is it still a little early for that? I don't know if they end up running water through it while they have it? I do know where the drains are in the engine block. I was actually going to winterize it myself last year, but being new to me and quite the investment, I figured having it done professionally the first few years was wise.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

I am getting stoked to pickup my new boat this weekend! No problem with weather if you have a garaged boat here - did a test with those two cold days this week.

I am in the energy audit field - and have temperature loggers that can then be loaded onto my computer. I did a test for those two days and my uninsulated garage never got below 34degrees even with both mornings getting into the low 20's. This was at ~3' above the floor. This was even with the garage open for a 5-10minutes each morning. (garage on south/southeast side of house however, no windows). So I have no fear going out this weekend with my I/O. If it was to drop to below 20..I think i would be using one of my magnetic block heaters, and/or lightbulb by engine.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

That was going to be another one of my suggestions, like BoatDrinksQ5 said, use one or two of those magnetic block heaters, that would work great! But I'm tellin ya, 25 degrees is no problem. Have you ever left a partial bottle of water or pop in your vehicle over night and it got down to the low 20's. I've done that plenty of times and it's still very much liquid in the morning, and all that's really insulating it is well, the glass in the vehicle and the bottle the liquid is in. Now take the huge steel mass that is your engine, manifolds, etc. It would take more time than just overnight in the 20's to freeze that up hard enough to crack anything.

As far as your bellows goes, I don't think there would be a reason for the marina to start your boat if all you're having done is bellows. Water pump maybe, but not bellows.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

MCNPathfinder said:

Pardon my noob-ness. The reason it has to go to the shop is not to get summarized, I need to get the bellows replaced, and my mechanic wants the boat for like 2 weeks. I have a bacehlor party that it is imperative I have it for in June, so I want to get it back in plenty of time. Haha! So you think as long as I drain the water out of the block, if it dips below freezing it shouldn't cause any damage? I'm assuming the mechanic wouldn't do anything bad to it by performing the work now. .

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They shouldn't have to do anything that would impact the winterization to replace the bellows unless they somehow need or want to water test it or run it for some other reason. In that case, I would fully expect them to rewinterize it at this time of year.

With a repair like this, I would get that thing into the shop ASAP. Things will go crazy very soon with all the fishermen trying to resurrect dead boats the week before the fishing season. I'd get it in line now.

The best thing to do is just ask them about the situation and what's required and ask if they will re-winterize it if the repair requires starting and blowing the AF out of the block.

And since you're new and boating in the Twin Cities area, I'll just say to be careful out there. There is a learning curve to handling a bigger boat, ESPECIALLY on rivers. Go slow, go sober, go in daylight, and go prepared. The Croix and Miss are great fun, but rivers, like the Great Lakes, are VERY unforgiving of inexperinece or incapacity. Take your time and grow your experience carefully and thoughtfully.

Grouse

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Hey thanks for all the advice. I went ahead and talked to them last night. They're fantastic with customer service. They knew EXACTLY who I was. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. LOL! If it was my car dealership, I think it's probably bad (I always seem to yell a lot when I'm there... not sure what that's about), however I think we're good here. Everyone knows me and my boat there (it's been there prior with the previous owner who is a good friend of mine). They said don't worry about it, if I get it in last weekend in April or 1st weekend in May they'll make sure it gets done in 2 weeks. I don't even care, I just need it by 2nd week in June. That's customer service!
Thanks for the tips! I took it out quite a bit last summer on a local lake, where it was probably just a bit too big for the lake, but it's my favorite lake. I took my runabout there like 3 or 4 times a week. I haven't taken it on the river, but I've heard that it's a whole different kind of animal. I was on my boat (about 2 years prior to me owning it, and someone else driving) on the river, it was fine, but everyone is in so close proximity. I think it'll take some practice before I take it out with that many people around me. I think it'll be a while before I bring it up to the great lakes. Thanks for the advice!

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

MCNPathfinder said:

Where do you guys bring yours?

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I live in Maple Grove and so get my winterizing done at the Marine Max in Rogers. Two years they have minorly scratched the colored gelcoat on the back of the boat somehow when the lot is filled with hundreds of boats. Other than that, they are slightly cheaper than Minnetonka Marine (where my Chaparral was bought new), for obvious reasons (Lake Minnetonka is a 14,000 acre, deep lake in Minneapolis and is like our Beverely Hills for non-Minnesotans). Sounds like you have things under control. Right now to me is the perfect time to get service work done. See in the fall, they want to just winterize and do light maintainance/service schedule stuff and have a gigantic backlog of boats and in the spring people are mostly picking up their shrinkwrapped boats stored onsite and so the service people aren't nearly as busy. Truth be told, generally we don't start boating until June and even then many years the water is too cold to swim in.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

I sure am glad to be an outboard guy, all this IO winterizing and de-winterizing makes my head spin. I run my boat almost year round, to much good fishing on the rivers to bother with winterizing. All I do is pull it out of the river or lake when its cold fire it up dry for a second to blow out the water, splash some non toxic RV anti freeze in the wells and call it a day.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

Its still snowing here. I am very jealous of you guys!
Might be warm enough next week to bring it out of storage though.

Re: MN Boaters! Is it time yet?

outkast7222 said:

I sure am glad to be an outboard guy, all this IO winterizing and de-winterizing makes my head spin. I run my boat almost year round, to much good fishing on the rivers to bother with winterizing. All I do is pull it out of the river or lake when its cold fire it up dry for a second to blow out the water, splash some non toxic RV anti freeze in the wells and call it a day.

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Well it becomes part of our hygene like dealing with the sun in hot climates. It's no big deal most every other winter, it's cold then warm not back forth over and over. I've got I/O's and OB's and regardless like them for different reasons but like I/O's a heck of a lot more even with their need for winterization.