Freezing Temps Bad For Boats on Land!

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Flutterby

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I remember back in 1986 there was a big freeze in the Delta. Lots of boats stored on land were not winterized and ended up with cracked blocks. Insurance did NOT reimburse the damages.

Bethel Island had about 1500 boats damaged by that freeze. If you keep a boat stored on a trailer, better get down there and protect it. Covered storage won't protect it.

Boats stored in the water should be okay since the water does not freeze. However, water lines and such should be drained as a precaution.

Best of luck everyone!
 
Down here in Fresno when that freeze happened cost me an engine, GM small block 305. The dealer wanted almost 5,000.00 to fix it, a friend, mechanic, suggested a rebuilt short block. Cost 950.00 and the boat ran beautifully for years afterward. Good advice Flutterby. I know some don't agree or suggest this, but I run a 100 watt lightbulb into my engine compartment and leave it on all night, turn it off the next day. Has worked for years.

DBH
 
Thanks, DBH. I used a "Golden Rod" for the purpose and kept the engine hatch open about an inch to encourage air circulation.

In 1986, I had an OB stored outside on land. Thankfully, I had the habit of draining the water out of the unit before raising it back up to storage position. No damage!
 
it takes more than 1 hard freeze overnight

i needs to stay cold for the day also

always drain the blocks and pull the water impeller lowest hose, all the water will drain out
 
A Goldenrod isn't going to keep anything from freezing. They just don't put out enough heat.

I use a couple of Goldenrods for dehumidifying boat compartments over the winter. They are great for that, and are explosion-proof for use in an engine compartment.
 
I think the water temp was keeping your systems from freezing, not your Goldenrod. As Yzer said, they're for dehumidifying. They work great in pianos for that purpose too :-)

Isn't CA one of the states with the biggest boat claims due to freezing? It's either CA or GA if I remember correctly. I guess boaters there need to either leave the boats in the water or go through a winterization process like cold regions do. I leave mine in the water in MD all winter. A couple of bilge heaters keep things easily above freezing that way, even through our 90-some inches of snow last year:

before-1.bmp
 
Burrrrr. A boat covered with snow looks so COLD!!!! Maybe high number of claims is why insurance refuses to cover the damage......
 
A friend of mine also lost a block that year sitting on a hydro hoist in Antioch. Very expensive fix. Last week I went to my storage yard and drained my block and both exhaust manifolds. I couldn't figure out a way to drain water from the outdrive though. Hope it will be okay. I've read that winterizing with anti freeze is better than draining. Apparently cast iron (manifolds, risers, blocks) rust much faster when not submerged and exposed to moist air.
 
WEll here in NY winterization is part of life, we start with it around Oct and the way I've tried to do it is time it with a nice 65* day in late October, not a 40* day in November. It does help to add antifreeze to a cast iron engine but do not use the suck the AF up the drive kits with raw water cooling, if the thermostat does not open all the way with the engine idling under no load, cool day on the water hose, the block will still have mostly water in it. The best way to use AF is to drain everything and then backfill the engine, manifolds and raw water intake hose with -100 marine no tox antifreeze (has corrosion inhibitors). As far as the outdrive, if you keep it trimmed down, it will self drain and the exhaust passage in the prop housing will not fill with water which can then freeze. The only exception to this is OMC Cobras have 3 plugs on the pivot housing that have to be removed to drain water, older Volvo SXs have one, and later Volvos have a slot where there drive mounts to the pivot housing that must be kept open because water has to drain from there.
 
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