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Winterizing in SC

DanielG

DanielG

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I just purchased my Benny in May of 2018 and had a blast with it this summer. I just got my new dock with lift installed and now she's sitting pretty on the dock lift in between outings. I've looked for this answer on the forum but wanted to direct it more to my geographic location.

My question as we approach winter is, since I'm in South Carolina and our winters are pretty mild (only a few days a year will we see the 'teens' and rarely ever single digits) and we don't even see that until January or February, what things do I need to do to my Yamaha outboard or my boat, if anything, to protect it so it's ready to go in spring?
 
I’m at Lake Greenwood, SC. In the typical year I’ll have mine serviced within the next couple of weeks. Just consists of oil change in both the foot and the engine. Cover boat and engine with factory covers and I’m done. If hrs dictate impeller or fuel filter change then I have that done also. If I haven’t waxed the panels lately I’ll include that.
 
I suggest having the dealer check & winterize your engine, especially under warranty. At best, gas stabil in gas tank, flush engine with muffs and change the oil and the gearcase lube. Use new seals everytime on gearcase. If any water got in-during summer you don’t want it to freeze in the lower unit.
 
I'm in sc also and only add stabil. I'm a transplanted northern so my boating season never ends. I try to get out and run my boat and motor at least two hrs a month through the winter. There's plenty of days that are very enjoyable temp wise. Only precaution I take is I trim up and down fully several times as my dealer said the larger Yamahas have quite the maze of passages for cooling and you want all that water out
 
Angela & Michael said:
I suggest having the dealer check & winterize your engine, especially under warranty. At best, gas stabil in gas tank, flush engine with muffs and change the oil and the gearcase lube. Use new seals everytime on gearcase. If any water got in-during summer you don’t want it to freeze in the lower unit.
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IMO this is overkill for the OP who boats in SC... just needs to do the annual fluid/filter changes and add some fuel stabilizer... he will be fine for where you live.
 
Forgot about the fuel stabilizer, I add that too.
 
I boat on Lake Murray, smack dab in the middle of SC. Just last weekend I did the annual service on my boat and described the process in detail here http://club.benningtonmarine.com/threads/winterized-tips.9402/

Like you, I am not worried about true effects from winter. But we put at least 100 hours a year on our boat and I do service it every fall because that is when I pull it out at the end of bikini season. Most everything I did could be done at any time of the year, with the exception of adding Stabil to the gas and fogging the motor. We don't boat on the winter months, so the motor doesn't run for about 4 months in a typical year.
 
I didn't want to start a new thread about winterizing, so I'll title my post:
Winterizing in SOUTH TEXAS.

Warning: the concepts contained herein may be traumatizing to readers who just looked at the 150-day countdown to the re-opening of their marina!

We rarely drop below the mid-20's in Houston, and usually that's only for overnight.
Let me just say up front that last winter (my first winter) I flushed through some antifreeze in anticipation of a brief 20-degree cold snap, and kept it in there for about two months until we took the boat out again (I think in March). I will do so again this year. Some of you are already getting ready to respond "better safe than sorry" - and I agree.

For inboard/outboard boats in moderate climates, though, I wonder - are there two areas of concern? The outdrive and the engine itself? For brief, light cold snaps, can they be treated differently?

I image any water in the outdrive would freeze more quickly, and needs to be protected. But I don't think that fluids in the inboard engine would freeze when the temp drops a couple of degrees below freezing for 3-6 hours.

So, last night it dropped below 32 degrees at about 4 a.m., and was back above 32 by 9 a.m.. It hit a low of 29 degrees for an hour at 6 am (yes, that's winter in Houston for those of you up North!!! I'll be playing golf next Tuesday!)

I hadn't put in any antifreeze as this is pretty early for a freeze, so I just wrapped the outdrive with large-bulb Christmas lights and wrapped it in a blanket. We have some delicate wax-leaf flowering bushes that are killed off at 32 degrees and this works for them, so I'm guessing it'll work for the outdrive until I flush some antifreeze through it (but its supposed to be 75 degrees again soon so we might take it out!)

I don't think I ever need to do the fogging and other things to protect against deep long-lasting freezes. Last winter, I regularly used a muff and garden hose to run the engine periodically (just 'cause I LOVE listening to that blub-blub-blub roar of a macho-manly engine, and I'm sure my neighbors do too!) so I don't have to protect against long downtime (and I only use ethanol-free fuel - but still put Bio-Bor in the winter load)

But - I'm always open to learning from the experts here!
 
Once we winterize our I/O and outdrive we dont touch it until March/April.
 
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Tin Diesel, Did y'all get any snow flurries in Houston? My daughter called from CSTAT saying that twitter was blowing up from all those headed to their 8 o'clock classes.
 
warrior999 said:
Tin Diesel, Did y'all get any snow flurries in Houston? My daughter called from CSTAT saying that twitter was blowing up from all those headed to their 8 o'clock classes.
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We are visiting our Daughter in Katy, Texas. Just to the West of Houston. We had light, very light, flurries which might have lasted 15 minutes. No accumulation.
 
Hey Kevin, I think you're on target regarding your I/O. As you noted, it does take time for things to actually freeze once the temperature drops. In your situation I think you could lower the outdrive to drain out as much water as possible and then wrap it up when several hours of freezing weather is predicted. Maybe you could invent an "outdrive glove" for people that live in temperate climates and retire a rich man.
 
Lake Murray, SC as well. I top off the gas and add stabil, cover the boat and motor and plug in my battery conditioner. I'll get it serviced if needed. We try to take it out some in the winter, but it's fine if we don't.
 
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