'Nother winterization Q

[countiemountie]

I put the quick drains on my manifolds 2 seasons ago with a flush pro and I haven't had any issues. After all the water drains out, I run a pipe cleaner in the drain just to make sure all the water is out. Then, just to be on the safe side, I suck in 4 gallons of ~100 A/F.
No issues.

[chief351]

17 years later, 3 boats later I still come back to review this thread in the fall before I winterize! My latest boat, 2015 6.0 SN200 has the hybrid cooling system, pretty easy to winterize. Thanks for the contributions over the years folks!

[FMSKI]

I did a test in our freezer of 30% RV AF and water. So mostly water. It never froze, turned to slushie consistency.

[chief351]

FMSKI thanks for sharing. I never thought of doing such a test, but for anyone in the northern climates it makes sense to perform such a test!

[FMSKI]

FMSKI thanks for sharing. I never thought of doing such a test, but for anyone in the northern climates it makes sense to perform such a test!

I dropped my GT40 one August to a shop to pickup in October & used 4 Liters of RV AF just in case, thru inlet of the RWP. They kept it until the next year, thru a wicked cold snap. It wasn't drained properly by the shop. So I wondered why there was no damage. whew!

[chief351]

19 years later and I still come back to read this thread!! Which means it is unfortunately time to winterize the 409.

[srock]

After reading much of this it seems like a time consuming pain in the arse. Why has no one perfected a quick and easy big flushing tank system or something that fully heats the engine and draws in coolant as a fall business? I am in South Florida and have never winterised a boat, so what do I know...

[bturner]

Years ago (and I fear a life time ago for many) when I lived in Westerville OH, there was a guy that did just that. He had a large tank (think 4'x6'x6') filled with antifreeze that he would use to do winterizations for half of what all the other marina's were charging. He had them lined up all fall for the process. When he started, the process would be to run the engine on a muff or fake a lake until warmed up then move them over to the tank area where he would cycle the engine from/to the tank. It all worked out incredibly well..... until it didn't. IDK if he got greedy or what but after doing too many from the same recycle tank the antifreeze became too diluted. We then had Texas winter storm that dropped the temps way below norms for an extended time. The result was a dozen or so boats with cracked manifolds and/or blocks. The local TV stations descended on him, the lawsuits flew and he and his boat business disappeared from the area. Rumor had it that he opened another shop about a hundred miles away but who knows. I vaguely referred to this in another post.

As a side note this guy had been doing this for a good 5+ years before anything negative happened. Everyone swore buy this guy and he actually was a MasterCraft dealer at one time back in late 80s early 90s. I actually bought my first MC from him which was a 89 TriStar. I honestly don't think he was trying to rip people off or anything, I just think he underestimated how quickly the solution would dilute.

[srock]

There you have it. Perhaps he just needed to keep track of dilution. How much did he charge?

[bturner]

Man, that was a long time ago but I believe it was something like $40 or$50 but it could have been even less. Every one was raving about it and their was a huge following of late season skiers that swore by him and the process. I was too old school and skeptical about the whole thing to bite on it. For me it was one of those.... "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" kind of guys, still am.

The whole thing was set up like a drive through oil change. You could either leave your boat and he would handle the process for an additional fee or the real price performer was that he'd do it for you while you waited while the boat was still attached to your rig. You'd pull up into his lot to stag 1 for the warm up and a couple guys would set the boat up for external water, you'd start it and when it came up to temp they'd move you over to the shop area where either you or one of their guys would back you up to the tank. They'd run a line from the tank to your water intake port for an inboard or lower the outdrive into the tank. Water was recycled by the I/O's through the outdrive and through the exhaust ports on inboards. Late in the season you'd see rigs lined up down the street waiting their turn. He really had the process down where he could have several boats warming up, waiting their turn at the tank.

[Interjon]

My method is bring up to temp. Then suck 10 gallons of AF. May not be perfect, but it's been good enough in Alabama, so far.

[chief351]

Interesting story BT, thanks for sharing!

[CHassmann]

Was it Ron Overberger in Mantua, OH? He had Ron's Nautique for many years then switched to MasterCraft in maybe late 90's or early 2000's.

[bturner]

I honestly can't recall who owned the place or where he ended up. Could be though. That was a really long time ago. I believe I bought that boat in 95 so that would be like.... oh geez, 31 years ago? Dang..... My wife hated that boat but my oldest daughter loved it because the young boys in the neighborhood that I took wakeboarding with us loved it. I probably taught a good 10 or 12 of the kids in the neighborhood how to wakeboard behind that boat.

From my wife's perspective, I sold our excellent condition 18' Cobalt bowrider to buy this boat which was that was very deep, tons of storage, dry and comfortable. The TriStar was what she called my selfish boat. It was comparatively small with very little storage and would frequently take waves over the bow. Build quality was a joke compared to the Cobalt and I would say the Nautique's of the time as well.



This was back when MasterCraft and Nautique dealers were selling out a very small shops and the companies had maybe 3 or 4 models they were selling. It was nothing at all like you see today. They would have maybe 2 or 3 boats in stock and a lot of times they were customer boats being held in a "showroom" before delivery. Almost every boat was ordered or were Promo boats.

I remember the first Nautique dealer I met in the 80's was buying boats from the factory and selling them out of a pole barn by Saline Michigan. The local south eastern Michigan MasterCraft dealer back then had a beat up building in Waterford MI on M59 that operated about the same and was a family operation with maybe 3 employees that were not family members. A lot of what they sold back then was going to true enthusiasts and if you owned one everyone on the lake knew you were the serious skiers on the lake. If you were buying a Nautique or a MasterCraft at that time it wasn't the the buying experience you were there for, it was a very specialized boat. To say it's a very different business model today would be a gross understatement.

Sorry for the complete threadjack.