Winterizing Ballast on G

[pmellis]

This is my first year winterizing my g23 so I have been reading the manual. The manual says to pour antifreeze into the tank vents and run the pumps on empty. Sounds easy enough. My dealer informed me today that this will not work because the G has check valves in the vent lines and the antifreeze won't go in. Does anyone winterize the ballast pumps? How?

[swankster]

I make sure the tanks are empty and I just run them for about about a minute in both fill and empty setting. I've not done the antifreeze and have not had any issues over the last last 3 years with the G.

[pmellis]

Thanks. Sounds simple enough

[swatguy]

One thing that will help also ..... When you store your boat for long periods .....

Flip the pumps like mentioned above, but always end on fill. Fill is what you are going to be using first so keeping the veins on the impeller in the correct way will help the impellers last longer. When the boat sits the impellers can get stuck to the housing. If they're the correct orientation it's less of a jerk and potential to sheer a vein

[Beg4wake]

Not sure how feasible it may be on the G, but on my XStar, I had trouble getting the antifreeze into the drain ports, so I just went to ea pump, disconnected the inlet hose on the pump, then connected one end of a clear hose of the same size (which I purchased at lowes for just a couple dollars) to the pump and then dumped some antifreeze down into the tube, then just hit fill...usually does require two people but worked fairly well and also left the impellers in the correct position for the next season. The G's pumps actually look easier to access than those that were on my XStar (plus my Star had 7 pumps total!). Just make sure you don't have an idiot operating the switch control who will actually hit empty instead of fill...or you'll get a face full of antifreeze!!