seeray28 wrote:
Much to my dismay its getting time to winterize my boat. (2005 Bayliner 175
3.0 alpha) I have a couple of questions that I need advise on.
1 Since it snows and gets cold around here (St louis) I know that I will
have to cover the boat. But should I take the seats out and store them in
the basement . 8 screws and the lounge seats come out. My fear is that a cat
will come along and decide to use them as a scratching post .
2 The battery. My plan is to take it out of the boat and put it on a trickle
charger and a 12volt light bulb. The light bulb will drain the battery and
the trickle charger will charge the battery. I would like to keep the
battery cycling too avoid having to purchase a new one in the spring. Does
this sound like a good plan, if not any suggestions.
3 Draining the water from the engine. I have the center drain hoses on the
manifold and the engine block. Do I need to do anything else besides
disconnecting the hoses to drain the engine all the way. Should I take off
the t-stat cover and pour some antifreeze in there ?
4 Out drive oil, I just recently (5 hours ago) changed the outdrive oil, it
did not show any signs of water in the drive. should I change it again
before the long storage
5 Zerk/grease fittings, I know of two (2) zerks The gimbal bearing and the
coupler zerks, is there a third zerk for the steering . I know that on the
old mid 70's there was a grease fitting on the top of the gimbal ring that
you greased. I cant see one. Is it hidden inside the boat somewhere?
6 Gasoline, since the gas tank is just about empty should I just start the
engine and let it run out of gas or should I put a few gallons in it with
stabile and run the engine for 15 minutes . Either way I was planning on
fogging the engine with oil
Thanks and sorry about the long post
Steve

Winterizing a boat on Puget Sound: Open the log book and the tide
tables to December. :-)