Pulled the boat out of the garage at the wrong time!!!
 

Damn it, I'm taking it in on Friday to have a couple of things installed so being that I wasn't gonna have any help today or tomorrow to pull it out of the garage I decided to do it on Wednesday. Well low and behold the weatherman was completely wrong . . . again. I checked on Tuesday and the ratard said 50's partly sunny all week through Sunday.

Well today, Thursday, its been raining all day, its 41 degrees and its supposed to get down to 26 tonight, WTF! I put all the plugs back in. I leave for work in 45 minutes and Ill be working all night, Im thrown for a loop. What precautions should I take? Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 40 and the weekend 50's.

put a trouble light in your engine bay and forget it

Did you winterize your motor or just "pull the plugs". By putting the plugs back in you didn't change anything (unless you ran the motor on a fake-a-lake.) One cold night were the temp is below 32 for only a few hours is not likely going to cause an damage at all (again.. i say LIKELY... because anything can happen).. but in general you need a good hard freeze to cause damage to the motor. Sounds like you at least drained the water from the motor... so think your risk is very low that anything is going to happen.

I believe it RUH TARD...Do nothing it'll be fine.

No i didnt run the motor. My winterizing was pull all the plugs and just gettin all the water out (no antifreeze). The phrase " not likely to cause any engine damage" doesnt inspire to much confidence, haha. This is my first boat and my first winterization, just hoping it was a successful one.

Then you're fine if there is no water in there to freeze.

Cold does nothing to an engine, cold does a lot to water... without water there is no danger.

Chad-

Jeff is right on the money. A trouble/work light is cheap insurance and greatly improves your odds. All you gotta do is keep the engine compartment above freezing, 34 or 35 F will keep any water in there as liquid water. The time invested is nothing... Drag an extension cord out, plug in teh light, turn it on, put it in there a, dnclose the hatch.

Whle the block might be drained, there are other places where you might still have some water that could cause an issue. Keep them above freezing and you will be fine.


This is one time to not go with a CFL fluorescent bulb though..... :D You need the heat from an incandescent bulb...

Phil
Kicker

Also if you have a heater in your boat put a light over there as well. You will be fine with a light.

Time to take a little time to learn how to winterize your boat. Sounds like you've done that at least once. It is also good to try to simplify the process as much as you can. We've had the Vride out every weekend since the end of Feb., and started riding after work during the week since DST started. I have the knock sensor & exhaust hoses only hand tight. I have radiator flush Ts in the heater lines so all I have to do is remove the caps & the heater drains into the bilge. And I have a Globe run dry impeller installed, so after opening everything, I bump start the engine for a second to blow the last of the water out.

Air temps were in the mid 60s last night, water temps in the high 40s. We wiped the boat down inside & out & winterized it while sitting in the parking lot at the ramp in less than 10 minutes.

I also have a Boatsafe bilge heater & Guest on-board battery charger installed on the boat now. So after I have drained everything, parked & covered the boat, we plug those two things in & it's good to go. This time of year we winterize every trip out..... just in case.

FYI its snowing chad!

haha!

Just get a work light, or an oil filled heater.