When To Dewinterize

[EZDuzIt]

I'm sure I'm not the only one just itching to get back out on the water. Especially this season. We had a false spring come through bringing very abnormally high temps, even at night. I almost got cocky and fired ol EZ Duz It up but I reigned myself back in and held off. I did get a bunch of work done to it though much earlier than anticipated thanks to a couple weeks of beautiful weather. My burning question is when do y'all think it's safe to fire up the boat and get her ready to go and even catch a day of fishing on warmer days? Right now we're getting into the mid to upper 40's during the day but still dipping well into the 20's at night. In my opinion that's still too cold but I know people who have already been out on the river. I've always held off firing up the boat til the over night temps stay above freezing. Outboards can get away with it cause they more or less completely drain when you pull em out of the water. Inboards, and i/o's, hold a lot of water that can freeze and do an awful lot of damage. It's just too big of a risk dewinterizing too soon if you ask me. What say y'all?

 

[racerone]

Just drain the block and manifolds at the ramp before you tow it home.

 

[KD4UPL]

Depends where you are. I'm in western Virginia. I've been winterizing my I/Os for about 20 years now. Early on I'd get all excited for a warm spring day in March and fire the boat up on muffs in the yard. Evey time about 2 weeks later the lows would be down in the teens and I'd be draining the block and putting a light bulb in the bilge.
A more experienced boater finally told me to wait until after April 15th. He was right. Around here we very rarely have any freezing weather after that date so that's my target now. I don't fish so I don't care about going out on the water when it's cold.

 

[tpenfield]

De-winterize . . . "When daily low temperatures remain above freezing and the chances of freezing weather has passed".

 

[roffey]

I wait till May to bring the boat out and even then I don't put it in the water until the end of May after all the dead heads are gone... We are still in the dark days of winter... just blew out my drive way, over a foot of snow,

 

[dingbat]

Back in my I/O days, I fished until New Years then back in the water by the second week of March.

Just pulled the drain plugs at the ramp and let the block drain on the way home.

In the Spring the average lows in the mid to uppers 30’s. Worst case upper 20’s for a couple of hours in the morning. Barely puts skim ice on the horses water trough. Not worried about cracking the block.

 

[briangcc]

For my location it's usually mid-April/early May. A lot of the lakes I frequent do have logs early on in the season so I like to give it as much time as possible to clear. Let someone else find em first.

 

[EZDuzIt]

De-winterize . . . "When daily low temperatures remain above freezing and the chances of freezing weather has passed".

That's always been my train of thought. I'm just itching to get out on the water and the weather keeps teasing me

 

[tpenfield]

That's always been my train of thought. I'm just itching to get out on the water and the weather keeps teasing me

Yes, the weather has been teasing many of us this season. 65˚ F and sunny here on Wednesday . . . 20˚ F and 8" of snow on Friday.