Owner winterize/de-? 2020 ZZ6 G23

[Sauce]

Hey folks,

I got a 2020 G23 this year with a ZZ6 and am wondering about the maintenance schedule. My local Nautique dealer is 90-120 minutes away, so between the price charged for preparing the boat for winter & spring AND the drive back and forth I wonder if I should do one or the other myself.

Honestly, I'm tempted to winterize the boat. Looks like you add a hose to the water intake, run garden hose water through it, as you bring it up to temp, open up some drain plugs (engine + transmission), fill it with antifreeze, and top off the gas + put stabilizer in it. Yes, a few steps in there, but basically basically replacing the water with antifreeze, opening up plugs and treating the fuel.

I imagine de-winterizing is probably the same but more, I'm sure there's checking fluids, impellers, etc.

My gut tells me to try winterizing it myself and bring it into the dealer in the spring to get it ready -- that way they can give it a once over to make sure everything looks good and is water ready. It has the added benefit of dealing with the "false alarm" case where I decide to put it back in the water in late fall / early winter, I can just repeat the winterizing a second time instead of having to drag it all the way back to the dealer.

Truth be told, aside from the fuel stabilizer, it doesn't often get below freezing where I am so it feels like the rest of the stuff is more out of an abundance of caution.

Does this seem like a decent gut reaction?

I've already replaced the bilge pumps and the throttle body on this thing, so I'm not exactly afraid to look under the hood.

Sauce

[bturner]

Weather is unpredictable at best. Don't believe me, ask all the boaters in Texas that ended up with cracked blocks a few years ago. Treat winterization like it will cost you $10K if you screw it up. That said, I've been doing mine along with friends and relatives boats for 20+ years without a single failure. The key for me..... don't take short cuts, follow a check list and take your time. You're going to save a ton of money so take some of that savings and buy quality parts and preform every action item to the letter.

Your ZZ6 should be closed cooled and color keyed with the winterization drain locations. Follow the instructions in your owner's manual to the letter and go to YouTube to see if they have any videos on your particular boat. I did a real quick look and came up with this one on a 2021 which should be close.....

As far as de-winterization goes..... I started hearing this term used several years ago and still don't know what it means other than another service a dealer may charge for. I've always completed every action item in the winterization process when I..... winterized the boat. My boats (and the ones I did for others) were ready to splash the first good day in the spring so basically putting the battery and gear back in the boat was my de-winterization process. Past the basic engine and ballast this is what I did.....

Impeller - 20 years ago I used to replace the impeller every season. Recently I was only putting about 10 - 20 hours a year on the boat and ended up with a whole collection of "like new" impellers sitting in the glove box and on a shelf. I started changing them every other year and then later every 50 hours. We also used to pull the impeller every year and wire it to the steering wheel. I quit doing that about 20 years ago as well as FOR ME this was wasted effort. This practice started wayyyyy back in the 70s - 80s when the impeller durability was not anything like it is today. Feel free to do so but I personally have never had an impeller fail in the past 20 years on anything I've worked on. That said, if you decide to run your boat out of the water or have an overheating event all bets are off. If I'm working on a boat that's overheated, it's getting one of those many spares installed regardless.

Detailing - I always recommend a complete detail before putting the boat in storage. FOR ME, it never made sense to leave dirt, grime or stains sit for several months before addressing them. That and if you do it now all you need to do is a quick wipe down before putting the boat in the water.

Fluid changes - Any fluid changes or maintenance items should be done during the winterization process IMO. I've known guys that do them in the spring but like the detailing I honestly don't see the logic of letting the boat sit for months with oil fluids that need to be changed. Same goes for the fuel system. Any filter changes or maintenance items are done in the fall so you just drop the boat in, in the spring.

Batteries - I'm in the north so we pull our batteries out of the boat and put them on maintainers or charge them once a month. This has worked well for me with my last Optima battery completing it's 11th season with the new owner this year. Most dealers will state they charge the batteries as part of the de-winterization process. You don't need to do this if you have an ongoing process in place.

As stated above this is what I did but this is a pretty hot topic with many different opinions and processes that seem to work well for others. There is no reason you can't do this yourself and save a ton of money and in the process educate yourself further on your boat. Best of luck!

[SilentSeven]

I'm surprised to see there is no procedure for the ballast system.

[Sauce]

I'm surprised to see there is no procedure for the ballast system.

Sorry I didn't mention that. Yes, flushing out the balasts and putting in some antifreeze. Interestingly, the video i saw they pulled the hoses and fed the antifreeze through their while the nautique manual said to feed it in through the vents.

[Sauce]

Weather is unpredictable at best. Don't believe me, ask all the boaters in Texas that ended up with cracked blocks a few years ago. Treat winterization like it will cost you $10K if you screw it up. That said, I've been doing mine along with friends and relatives boats for 20+ years without a single failure. The key for me..... don't take short cuts, follow a check list and take your time. You're going to save a ton of money so take some of that savings and buy quality parts and preform every action item to the letter.

(Snip)

Best of luck!

Thanks for this. Honestly, most of that work sounds manageable. I can ask the dealers what they do as part of their service and see if there's any of it I'm not comfortable with but still seems necessary.

Winterizing looks straight forward enough, I think I should brave that. As for oil change, I do wonder... is it better to get rid of old oil before it sits too long? (Do it in winter) or is it better to start with oil that hasn't already been sitting for months? (Do it in spring)

I don't change my car's oil mostly because it is a messy job at home and they aren't that expensive. Not sure if I feel the same for the boat, if costs considerably more and for me 3-4 hours just to drive back and forth (maybe 2x if they can't do it while I wait) doesn't sound like fun

[SilentSeven]

I have a very small single tank on my 206 and I put about a pint of RV antifreeze down the tank vent. (Do use RV antifreeze as it's more environmentally friendly when you do your first tank pump out in the spring.) I then cycle the ballast pump quickly to do a little mixing and call it good. I'm in the Seattle area so we almost never get the weeks long hard freezes like our friends in interior part of the country do - gives you a little more margin for error.

If possible, avoid removing hoses. They can be a real PITA to get off especially if they are ambient temp. To get most any hose off they need to be warmed up. If it's an engine hose, run the engine for a bit. If it's non-engine hose or you can't warm up the engine, use a heat gun.

For your oil change, the purists will argue (correctly I think) that it's better to do it before storage. I don't think it matters too much if you're doing regular changes. For changing on your engine, find out if you can do a gravity drain or if you require topside extraction pump. Make your life simpler by always doing a change with oil warm. Nothing worse than pumping / draining cold oil.

I look at doing winterization and oil changes as pay myself activities. I've probably saved $15K+ in service fees over the 30+ years of boat ownership...and none of its particularly difficult.

[Sauce]

If possible, avoid removing hoses. They can be a real PITA to get off especially if they are ambient temp. To get most any hose off they need to be warmed up. If it's an engine hose, run the engine for a bit. If it's non-engine hose or you can't warm up the engine, use a heat gun.

thank you. I need to see if I can find documentation on a ZZ6 oil change.

As for the hoses, I'd really love to find a permanent solution where I insert a tee with a valve in the hoses that I can tap into without ever having to pull them out again. Of course it can't affect flow.