JustJason
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 5,320
Some of you folks may know. But for those who do not I run a small mobile business out of my home. I do services such as spring commissioning and winterizing, along with diagnotistics and minor work that can be done on site, or with bringing minimal parts back to the house.
On to the meat of the story.
I know a guy that does the same thing that I do. When he winterized boats, he would leave them dry unless a customer asked for antifreeze, but he did not go out of his way to "sell" the antifreeze option. Well 1 day a fews years back he was winterizing a boat that belonged to a new to him customer. When he first got out to it he ran it first to check for any any existing leaks (it had got down below freezing a for a few night, but no hard freezes) and to also warm up the oil to pump it out. When he ran it he noticed a slight knock in the motor, but being a mobile guy and always not bringing his entire tool box with him, he did not have a stethoscope to isolate the knock.
He went on with the rest of the winterizing. And properly serviced the engine. When he filled out his work order he noted the hours on it as the boat had an hour meter that went down to the tenth scale. It was a tick over 1500 hours. One other thing he always did was he left the drain plugs out, along with the the bilge plug, and put those items along with any other pertanant items, (keys, lanyards) in a manilla envelope that he would lick and seal shut and hand to the customer. (which at the time I thought was a good idea)
Well, he gets a call come spring by 1 fuming customer who is screaming his block is cracked, screaming "i'm going to sue you". The customer refuses to let him look at the boat. Its not until he gets a call from the customers lawyer, that he has permission to go and look at it with the lawyer (along with there own "mechanic" present). He finds the boat with the drain plugs back in and exactly 1 tenth more on the hourmeter.
Now stupid him only noted on his work order that the "block was drained". Nothing about where he put the drain plugs. It wasn't until he got to court and got to plead to the judge his case and what he did. Because he did not note where he put the drain plugs (because the customer insisted that he never touched them), the judge ended up doing a split judgment and ordered the mechanic to pay for half of the cost of repair. (on an engine that had 1500 hours, which was unfair in itself)
Long story short, the guy was a sleazebag. He knew he had rod knock and tried to weasel (and somewhat sucessfully) a new engine out of a single mechanic.
No this is not me (seriously). It was a guy I went to school with. Now when I winterize boats, i always use Mercs -100F. No if's, ands, or buts about it with me. I don't buy autozone or XYZ brand antifreeze. I use Mercs, (whats with the new green/blue instead of winshield wiper solution blue btw??? vendor change?) And thats it. If a customer insists he doesn't want antifreeze, I tell them although I appreciate their business, they need to find another mechanic willing to story it dry. And I follow it up with that backstory.
If you Iboaters out there are using private mechanics and on the fence about using antifreeze. Think about my story, and think about it from the mechanics point of view. I know for a fact that if I get 90+% of the water out, and fill it with -100F there will never be any freeze damage. And that gives me piece of mind that I will not get a phone call come spring that somebody has a cracked block.
I have winterized probably 6-800 I/o's and inboards. (I'm not as old as Bondo or Don s, hehehe, sorry guys
) I have never recieved the call that 1 of my blocks had cracked. But I have recieved many calls by customers that chose to self winterize that swore up and down they got all the water out, that they have cracked blocks.
Your call guys... but choose wisely. Either method is fine, just don't be surprised if a shop/mechanic insists on antifreeze, we have our reasons.
On to the meat of the story.
I know a guy that does the same thing that I do. When he winterized boats, he would leave them dry unless a customer asked for antifreeze, but he did not go out of his way to "sell" the antifreeze option. Well 1 day a fews years back he was winterizing a boat that belonged to a new to him customer. When he first got out to it he ran it first to check for any any existing leaks (it had got down below freezing a for a few night, but no hard freezes) and to also warm up the oil to pump it out. When he ran it he noticed a slight knock in the motor, but being a mobile guy and always not bringing his entire tool box with him, he did not have a stethoscope to isolate the knock.
He went on with the rest of the winterizing. And properly serviced the engine. When he filled out his work order he noted the hours on it as the boat had an hour meter that went down to the tenth scale. It was a tick over 1500 hours. One other thing he always did was he left the drain plugs out, along with the the bilge plug, and put those items along with any other pertanant items, (keys, lanyards) in a manilla envelope that he would lick and seal shut and hand to the customer. (which at the time I thought was a good idea)
Well, he gets a call come spring by 1 fuming customer who is screaming his block is cracked, screaming "i'm going to sue you". The customer refuses to let him look at the boat. Its not until he gets a call from the customers lawyer, that he has permission to go and look at it with the lawyer (along with there own "mechanic" present). He finds the boat with the drain plugs back in and exactly 1 tenth more on the hourmeter.
Now stupid him only noted on his work order that the "block was drained". Nothing about where he put the drain plugs. It wasn't until he got to court and got to plead to the judge his case and what he did. Because he did not note where he put the drain plugs (because the customer insisted that he never touched them), the judge ended up doing a split judgment and ordered the mechanic to pay for half of the cost of repair. (on an engine that had 1500 hours, which was unfair in itself)
Long story short, the guy was a sleazebag. He knew he had rod knock and tried to weasel (and somewhat sucessfully) a new engine out of a single mechanic.
No this is not me (seriously). It was a guy I went to school with. Now when I winterize boats, i always use Mercs -100F. No if's, ands, or buts about it with me. I don't buy autozone or XYZ brand antifreeze. I use Mercs, (whats with the new green/blue instead of winshield wiper solution blue btw??? vendor change?) And thats it. If a customer insists he doesn't want antifreeze, I tell them although I appreciate their business, they need to find another mechanic willing to story it dry. And I follow it up with that backstory.
If you Iboaters out there are using private mechanics and on the fence about using antifreeze. Think about my story, and think about it from the mechanics point of view. I know for a fact that if I get 90+% of the water out, and fill it with -100F there will never be any freeze damage. And that gives me piece of mind that I will not get a phone call come spring that somebody has a cracked block.
I have winterized probably 6-800 I/o's and inboards. (I'm not as old as Bondo or Don s, hehehe, sorry guys
) I have never recieved the call that 1 of my blocks had cracked. But I have recieved many calls by customers that chose to self winterize that swore up and down they got all the water out, that they have cracked blocks.Your call guys... but choose wisely. Either method is fine, just don't be surprised if a shop/mechanic insists on antifreeze, we have our reasons.
