Hi, I'm Greg from Bennington Marine. Today, we're going to walk you through winterizing your pontoon boat. I like to use a checklist when winterizing my boat and my engine. One of the first things on my checklist is to put fuel conditioner or gas stabilizer into the tank. I actually did that before we pulled the boat out of the water. I flipped on my gauge, seeing I had 3/4 of a tank of fuel, and that's perfect because the more fuel in the tank, the less room for condensation and moisture. So, I would recommend that you have at least 3/4 of a tank or more. Then, there's different makes, so most engine companies have their own brand of fuel conditioner. I like to use the Stabil brand, as you see here. This is the blue in color, which is for the marine side of things. They also make a red, which is more for automotive, so use the blue when it comes to your boat.
We've just pulled the boat out of the water. This is the perfect time to clean your tubes. Just as at home, you don't want to leave food sitting around on a plate because it gets dry and hard to get off. Same thing with your tubes. You might as well get it while it's fresh, get them cleaned up, and that way you're ready for the next spring.
The next step I like to do is clean the boat thoroughly inside and out. I usually start on the inside of the boat, get the seats, underneath the seats, get it swept, fiberglass cleaned. You want to make sure you get any signs of food out of the boat because we don't want those little furry creatures coming in our boat this winter. Also, it's a great time to do conditioning on your seats. It just keeps the coating on it and keeps all your stitching very soft, so you'll have a durable time. It's going to last for many years. If you want more details on the seating part of it, as far as cleaning them, we have another video you can check out for that.
At this point, we want to make sure we get all the fluids out of the boat that could possibly freeze and cause damage over the winter months. Those would be things such as porta-potties, bilge pump areas, so make sure you run those pumps, get the water out of that area, be it your washdown system and also your live wells. Many people run what's called a marine RV antifreeze mix through those systems to ensure that there's no water trapped in there, so you don't have any problems in the future.
While we're here at the back of the boat, some boats have what's called a drain plug on the back of their tube. We're going to want to make sure we pull this out, and if it's on a trailer like it is here, we want to crank the trailer jack stand up high enough so the water will flow out. Once you get the water flowed out of that chamber or that tube, we're going to go ahead and take our drain plug, put it in a baggie, and zip tie it to our steering wheel. Remember, make a note on your checklist to put this back in in the spring because we do not want to put the boat in the water without having our drain plugs. That would be a bad situation.
Part of winterizing your boat is servicing your engine. Many people have the dealers do this because it can be pretty labor-intensive, but today we're just going to run through the basics. One of the first steps to servicing your engine is to change the engine oil and filter. To do so, we're going to need to start the engine to warm up those fluids so they flow out real smoothly. But remember, you always have to have water flowing through the engine to keep it cool, so you never want to start your engine out of the water. The way we can start out of the water would be using what's called a motor flusher, like I have in my hand. Most engines have one intake right here. You simply slide your motor flusher over the intake holes here, making sure you get that seated nicely. We're going to also notice we have another set of intakes right down here, so now we need to get the proper OEM motor flushers for that. That's going to fit snug around there. We'll have to have another garden hose hooked to that, and so we'll be running two garden hoses at the same time to make sure the water is flowing through the engine to keep it cool. So remember, never start your engine out of the water without having your motor flushers engaged and water flowing through them to make sure the engine stays cool.
Also, keep in mind when that engine's in neutral, your prop shouldn't be spinning, but you still want to keep everybody away from the propeller. That way, it's just safe. It's a good practice to get into. So now that the engine's warmed up, your oil will flow freely. I like to use OEM filters and oils when I'm doing this type of project. Remember, there's different ways that oil is going to come out of the engine. In some cases, it may come out through your dipstick. In some other cases, it may come out the back of the engine through a drain plug. So remember, all the engines are different. I refer you to your OEM manual to get the details.
At this step, we want to fog our engine, and the reason we fog our engine is because as the engine sits over the winter months, especially if it's vertical like this, the oil is going to seep down to the bottom of the crankcase, leaving your cylinder walls and your pistons exposed. If they're not lubed, we don't want those to corrode, so we want to use what's called fogging oil to get that on those parts so they're lubricated for the winter months. So as always, refer to your owner's manual for your specific engine. It's going to give you details on how to do that. In most cases, what you can do is you can pull your spark plugs out, spray the fogging oil into each one of those cylinders, and it's really a great time to change your spark plugs too, so you're ready for next spring. Put your new spark plugs in, torque them to spec, make sure your hookups are all tight, and this is very important: pull your safety lanyard cord off your control box to make sure that the engine isn't going to start. Then, at that point, you can just crank the engine over. It will not start but will move your pistons to oil those pieces. So again, refer to your owner's manual and get this done correctly.
Just as important as changing your engine oil filter on the top portion of your engine, it's also very important to change the lower unit oil on the bottom portion of your engine. In here, we have gears, forward and reverse gears, and there's oil in there that needs to be changed once a year as well, just like your top portion of the engine. Years ago, it was very easy to do this. They'd have a straight blade screw down here and one higher up on the gear case. You'd simply drain it, fill it from the bottom so it came out the top to make sure there was no air in there, put your screws in, and you were done. Well, over the years, it's got a little bit more complicated. Sometimes, on some engines, you have to pull the prop and drain it there and fill it there. On some engines like this, you can do it by vacuum. You would just work it through the system. So it's very important that you pay attention to your owner's manual for your specific engine. To be quite honest with you, it's complex and expensive. These engines are today, it might be worth it just to take it to your dealer and have them do this portion.
So now we're getting ready to change our fuel filter. Keep in mind, not every boat has one. On those that do, it could be located in a number of different places. It might be underneath the hood on the engine, it could be towards the back of the boat like you see here, or it might be towards the rear of the boat underneath one of the seat bases. A couple of little tips before you install your new filter: I like to fill the new filter with fuel with stabilizer in it. That way, we know that fuel's conditioned for spring. It'll save time pumping the bulb and getting that fuel up to the engine. Also, on your o-ring, just like an oil filter, I like to lube that up a little bit so it seats nice and tight. Last but not least, I like to date my fuel filter to make sure I've done it every year.
At this point, we want to assess the prop. Take a look at it, inspect it, see if a fin's bent, if something's broken, or if it's cracked. You can take it to your local dealer. They'll help you decide if it's something that can be repaired or if you should replace it.
So to recap servicing our engine: we put fuel conditioner in the fuel, we've changed our engine oil, engine oil filter, lower unit oil, we fogged the engine, changed our spark plugs, and then we went ahead and changed our fuel filter and inspected our prop so that way we're ready for the spring. So now that we have the boat setting where it's going to be for the winter, a couple of things to keep in mind: we've got the bow of the trailer up so the water's going to flow off the back of the boat. If for some reason the boat's going to be outside and the engine can't go all the way down and you're going to have it tilt up, keep in mind the rain would be coming and getting in your prop, and over winter months that could freeze and crack. So you just want to use a good waterproof tape to seal this off completely so that won't happen. Then at that point, go ahead and get in the boat, take your batteries out, and as you do so, mark your terminals so you know where they go back in in the spring. Take your battery in the house.
So at this point, we're ready to start covering the boat for the winter months. Our final step is covering your boat for the winter. If it's inside, it's pretty obvious: go ahead and use your playpen cover or your boat cover that came with your boat. Now, if it's outside, that's a different story. If it's outside and you try using your playpen cover, what's going to happen during the winter? Snow, rain, leaves are going to accumulate, and the posts are not going to be able to support the weight of that, so it's going to collapse in and it's going to damage you, maybe your rails or your furniture. So you don't want that to happen. I've even seen some people put their playpen cover on for the winter and they thought putting a tarp over it would be a good idea. Again, it could collapse under the weight, but not only that, if it doesn't, you're going to have the tarp rubbing against your playpen cover, damaging it. So what I suggest, if you're going to store the boat outside, take your boat to a professional, have them shrink wrap it. They'll build a reinforcement down the center of your boat to withstand the weight of the snow, the rain, and the leaves. Then come spring, when you take your shrink wrap off, your boat's going to be just like it was before you put it away.
So hopefully you found these winterizing tips helpful. For more boating tips, visit us at BenningtonMarine.com.