First Winter being boat owner....
 

Can you guys tell me how much i should expect to spend on getting my boat winterized? Or how difficult it is to winterize it myself?

Don't pay anyone and do it yourself, its very simple and straight forward. Do a search and you'll get the breakdown on it.

what boat do you have

I made the mistake of taking mine to a dealer last year thinking it would be around $250. Went to pick it up, and the bill was over $500. My A#$ hurt when I left. I will never go back to that place.

Everywhere around her charges ~$300. That tends to include winterizing it and de-winterizing it.

Do some digging on here about how it's done. Google it. And ask your buddies how they get it done.

I usually help 2 or 3 guys in my neighborhood get it done. No point in shelling out $500 for no reason.

I'd do mine myself if it wasn't for the fact that i can't find anything on doing the heater

What boat Chris? Where is your heater?

Heater installs can vary a bit. The bottom line is you need to drain it. Find the core. Pull the hoses. Blow it out with some low PSI air.

I installed a pair of Prestone Flush Kit Ts in the heater lines on my boat. Their down in the bilge, I pull the caps, gravity drains the water into the bilge. Done. You can also use garden hose quick release fittings, similar to how your exhaust manifold hoses are on most newer boats.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...de/flushts.jpg

07 VTX, nice that's a great idea. I'm doing some ballast installs this winter, so I may include adding those when I do

Yea, makes the heater a snap to winterize.

Usually the core is installed up under the drivers side dash in the newer Malibus. If you have a subwoofer there, you'll have to move it to see the core. Really the only reason you would have to see it is to change it out, or maybe to verify that the core is installed with the hose inlet/outlet on the bottom (so it drains easily). Some of the heaters are installed by the dealers so installs vary a bit. My own core was installed with the hoses on the top so the first winter I had the boat the core popped over the winter. Suprise.... wet feet in the spring time! I flipped the box when I installed a new core & have not had any problem since.

i ended up paying 199 to get it done. The first place i went to quoted me 350 and wouldnt be able to do it till november. And in oklahoma its already starting to get cold. Next year ill probably try to do it on my own to save the money.

One thing you can do with the heater is hook up a wet shop vac to the hose and suck out any water left in it after it has drained.

Blaine, it will cost you a bit more to get all the equipment and tools to winterize your boat the first time but after that you're only buying oil at WalMart so you'll save a bunch.