question on winterizing

[Jdm89supra]

we went to the lake last weeknd and rode around and now the air temp is dropping to 30 tonight and in the high thirty s to low fourty s the rest of the week do I need to drain all the water out or should it be fine

[Jetlink]

Should be alright for a night or two of low temps. If it gets much cooler then you will run into issues. There is something to be said though for peace of mind so if you are unsure, just pull the plugs and drain the block and manifolds.

[michael hunter]

Do you feel lucky? Is it outside? It takes 15 minutes to drain the water and 3k plus to fix if it freezes .

[chris young]

Perhaps a trouble light in the doghouse? Or a bucket of antifreeze sucked in the raw water. At those temps it should be enough to keep the block from freezing.

And on that note, I've been thinking about installing a block heater in mine for just such "emergencies" anybody else done this?

[michael hunter]

My pontoon came with a small heater mounted in the engine compartment. It automatically turns on when the temp gets near freezing.

[SquamInboards]

For questionable times like that I put in quick drain valves for the block, manifolds, and circ pump - skidim sells a whole hardware kit and it takes literally 30 seconds to flip all the valves open and get 90% of the water out. Full winterizing is another story but the quick drains are a great way to get piece of mind on a questionable night, especially if you use the boat a lot in the shoulder seasons as I do. The only thing that sucks is draining the heater - have to do that manually every time.

[Jdm89supra]

Yea I pulled the plugs at about 1 am and it was 29
Now I found these heater plugs that replace the plugs on the manifolds for like twenty bucks each that plug into a drop cord for emerginceys like this but don't know if they will work says it will heat up to 80 degess in a few hours and hold that temp