Protecting your motor and boat from freezing after fishing Nov 25th show

What did you do after fishing for the Nov 25th show to protect your motor and boat from freezing? Getting water out of motor etc.?

You don’t need to do anything special. When you get the boat on the trailer trim the motor down and let the water drain. Once the water has drained you’re good. Prep your boat for trailering. Nothing else needs to be done.

As far as the boat is concerned we didn’t, and don’t, run water in livewells when temps are below zero so there’s nothing to drain. Pull the bilge plug as required by state law and head for home.

Also be sure your winch strap is tight. Those bunks will turn to ice and the boat can slide off when you pull out.

As James stated but also apply common knowledge and have all water plugs open to drain including live wells and if you have a recirculating livewell system, set the dial to drain too. I assume your motor is an outboard, (mine is an I/O).

Here’s a video we put together with some additional cold weather boating tips.

Thanks James, I hadn’t watched that before. Good info, well done.

I also crank mine over a few times to blow any additional water out. Just pulled mine out of the river this morning and have been doing this for quite awhile without any issues.

And pull it into your heated garage

James Holst wrote:

You don’t need to do anything special. When you get the boat on the trailer trim the motor down and let the water drain. Once the water has drained you’re good. Prep your boat for trailering. Nothing else needs to be done.

As far as the boat is concerned we didn’t, and don’t, run water in livewells when temps are below zero so there’s nothing to drain. Pull the bilge plug as required by state law and head for home.

This^^^

And if you go fishing , say day or evening, and the go the next morning, wait awhile before pushing the boat off. You won’t have to go home without carpet on your bunks and have carpet stuck to your boat. Been there, did it.

catmando wrote:

And if you go fishing , say day or evening, and the go the next morning, wait awhile before pushing the boat off. You won’t have to go home without carpet on your bunks and have carpet stuck to your boat. Been there, did it.

Or your bunk not attached to the trailer. Yesterdays lesson. Anyone have any experience with the synthetic boards for replacements?

My 50 Yamaha 4 stroke often doesn’t start peeing right away. I stick by the boat landing till it does. I also detach the flush hose when I am done and blow through it. It gets a little more water out.

disco bobber wrote:

Or your bunk not attached to the trailer. Yesterdays lesson. Anyone have any experience with the synthetic boards for replacements?

Had a set of these https://www.ultimatebunkboards.com/ on a trailer for several years. I would use them again if I had a bunk trailer.

So I was just thinking about this the other day since the whitefish doesn’t freeze up until Dec.

Any issues with the ratcheting tie downs icing up?

The biggest issues with using modern boats in sub-freezing weather seem to come from water getting into livewell and bilge inlets and drains, then bursting the pumps or the houses.

Be careful! A split livewell inlet could let in a lot of water very quickly and in a deep boat with a floor, you could be in real trouble if your bilge pump is undersized and/or fails. And most bilge pumps in new boats today are WOEFULLY under-sized and improperly wired to boot.

Personally, I plug all the inlets and outlets on the transom with plumber’s putty on the outside of the transom. Unlike just putting the plug in the livewell, this prevents water from entering both the drain side and the inlet side. Plumber’s putty is easy to remove in the spring.

Grouse

Have to remove plumber’s putty every trip in Minnesota. Extra exterior drain plugs work.

Also if your live well has a pump out option make sure to cycle that with RV antifreeze as well. I forgot my new boat had it and now it is frozen.

thank you, very helpful

If you have an Etec I wouldn’t recommend starting the boat on shore even for a few seconds. Evinrudes take forever to drain compared to Merc’s and Yamaha’s. A few years ago I had just replaced the impeller in September, and in January I was out and it got really cold by the time I pulled out. Maybe 5F, so I thought I would speed the draining by starting it and let is run maybe 3-5 seconds. That didn’t really speed things up, but did flatten out the edges of the impeller. The next trip out if I let it idle too long it started to overheat. I have a temp gauge, so I noticed it before the warning horn went off. If I revved the motor up to 1100 RPM’s it was able to pump enough water to cool it down. I had to replace another impeller. It sounds like Mercs and Yamaha’s you can do that, but I would think twice about a Evinrude.

Matt Moen wrote:

I also crank mine over a few times to blow any additional water out. Just pulled mine out of the river this morning and have been doing this for quite awhile without any issues.