Winterization - How much is too much?

[pokesgrad02]

I normally wouldn't respond like this, but your statement has chapped hide as well. You're making me out to sound like some weenie saying, "what's the difference, you can afford it!". That couldn't be further from the way I feel.

Not sure but I think you missed his point. Then again I am often wrong. I took it as the dealer or in the case of the lake house the handy man thinking he can charge you extra since you have the money to own such nice property. For some of us it is worth our time to do these type of maintenance on our own property. I once had an older gentleman tell me that he would love to do the types of things that my company provides. However, when he makes $300+ an hr he cannot afford to. I would cringe at that type of money to winterize my boat but then again I came from having very little. If perhaps I was raised in an environment that you paid for that type of thing because it is more worth your time to go make that money and more in the time it would take you to do the maintenance, I would understand that too. Like I tell a lot of my clients, piece of mind is worth a different amount to everyone.

[swankster]

Is the $400 for both sides of the equation, or is there another charge to put the plugs back in. I pay $200 for them to drain, fog and sta-bil it and I put the plug back in when spring arrives. It's worth it to me to make sure I have not missed one. I don't want to pay for a cracked anything.

[swankster]

I guess if you spend $80-120k on a boat, $400 isn't much. I, however, will always do my own maintenance. I'm not convinced that the local dealership service guy is any better than the Walmart guy, plus I want to use the products of my own choice. Your dealer will likely not use a Motorcraft or K&N filter, or premium oil like RP or M1. Granted many will say these products are not necessary, but that's ones own choice. (BTW, the 200 jumped 2 to 3mph WOT immediately after dropping RP in the motor, so I'm sold.) I remember after my 196's 20 hour service, the oil filter used was so cheap I practically could've poked my finger through it, and that was from an awesome dealership. I guess if I absolutely didn't have the know how to do it myself, I'd purchase the materials myself and pay the dealership to do the work.

Do you use synthetic oil? I thought it draws moisture and PCM dones't recommend it; at least that's what I was told.

[gride]

Do yourself a favor and change the oil and filter yourself with a pela 6000 or similar west marine vacuum. I'd change the trans and v drive also, but your call. The oil change is taking up $100. Can't u just pump your tanks empty and they are winterized? Anyway, I wouldn't let them do it. There's very simple diagrams of what to unscrew to drain and water flow direction as well.

[gride]

For my 2005 ex330 the manual says no synthetic oil. I've seen newer manuals that say synthetic is fine. Either way the oil must be changed every 50 hours. Get the new aristocratic yellow. It's the best. I mean it's gold colored.(that's a joke btw)

[Indy]

Thanks guys, my boat is an 2005 SV211 Team. I bought it a year and a half ago, nowhere near as expensive as a new one. I'll let the dealer do it this time as too the point above I do not have enough free time right now to learn how to do it myself. Anybody aware of any good (correct procedure) you tube videos I could watch that include the tanks, heater, and other general maintenance? Thanks for all the good advice.

[gride]

I've heard a horror story or two. Definitely get a list of what's going to be done and honestly an indemnification form you incase they screw up and your block freezes or something else does.

[swc5150]

Do you use synthetic oil? I thought it draws moisture and PCM dones't recommend it; at least that's what I was told.

From Jody Seal's recommendation, we've been using Royal Purple synthetic. It's ok to run synth in these motors, however it's not necessary. Using RP does get some extra umph out of the 343 in the 200. I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it first hand. It's expensive oil, but worth it to me - back to that again.

[ES]

$300 to $400 is pretty in line with my experience as well

[vision]

PCM recommends Mobile 1 for the XS550. For my Z450 I will likely stick with Rotella T6.

[jmo]

I agree that no one is going to do a better job than you will (assuming your comfortable doing it) since it's your boat. Part of the reason I do all of my own work is I know it was done correctly.

One other important benefit of doing your own mantenance is you will have a much better understanding of how the boat works and will allow you to handle small things on the lake and tune in you in on small things that can become larger problems if left unchecked.

It also will you give you insight as to how hard tasks are that you might elect to have the dealer do which allows you to assess whether the price they are charging is reasonable.

For example, last time I had my truck in at the dealer to change the tranny fluid (its more involved than I want to tackle as on my truck I would have to drop the pan). I had separately ordered a replacement rear light encasement as I cracked mine, so I asked the dealer to throw it on for me while they were in there, and the service guy said sure, that will be an extra $50!! I looked at him and said, you want to charge me $50 to unscrew 4 bolts and put them back? are out of your mind?

Hope this helps,

JMO

[s_kelley2000]

Hey JMO did you used to have the blue and white super sport with no tower? I used to always see it on the trailer around Hudson and then saw it for sale last fall but it was just a little out of my price range and i wanted to wait for spring. I'm typically on fort meadow, are you on Boon?

Sorry for the hijack. $400 seems reasonable for a dealer winterization. Like others have said I prefer to do it myself. It's pretty easy to do and I enjoy working on my boat.

[jmo]

Hey JMO did you used to have the blue and white super sport with no tower? I used to always see it on the trailer around Hudson and then saw it for sale last fall but it was just a little out of my price range and i wanted to wait for spring. I'm typically on fort meadow....

Hi Shawn, yes thats me - I usually run on quinsigamond in worcester, but trailer iver eaxh time hence why you see me in hudson on the road.