Boating during winter from a trailer

V

Vance1965

Active member
Joined
May 12, 2020
Messages
41
Fluid Motion Model
C-28
Vessel Name
Jellyfish
I am looking at purchasing an R27 that I plan to keep on a trailer year-round. My question is how do you keep systems from freezing in-between outings? My wife and I would like to enjoy the clear winter days on the water. I'm assuming the Diesel engine wouldn't be the concern as much as the domestic water system? If anyone has done this or has input I would love to hear how to make this work.


Thank you,
Vance
 
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I assume the diesel is a closed cooling system with antifreeze?

I would consider draining/winterizing the domestic water system and bringing water aboard in jugs as needed for each outing. I am assuming these will only be day trips. Many of us using smaller boats do this anyway. As for the head you could consider installing an Airhead.

Regards,

Rob
 
We boated over New Years. The day we returned, temps were going to be below freezing (but not likely long enough to damage anything). I did a full winterization as shown in the Ranger tugs factory winterization webinar. Second time I’ve done it this winter. Took about an hour start to finish.


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Do you have electricity available where you park your trailer? If so you could use two space heaters, one in the cabin and one in the engine compartment.
If you're looking at an outboard model, one in the cabin and one in the storage space under the cockpit. The latter is to keep your water lines from freezing if there are any back there. I don't know the layout of the outboards.
 
Thanks everyone for your helpful information. I do have electricity at the location where I will be storing it. I also have heat tape and dehumidifiers that seem to keep things semi warm in our current boat. I'll make sure to check out the winterization info from ranger also. I really don't want to end up with a problem due to freezing.
 
Our boat is in the water, not on a trailer, so it's a little warmer, but we don't winterize as we want to be able to go on short notice. Other than the heaters I already mentioned, we put pink RV/marine potable water system antifreeze in the shower sump, toilet, and bilge to protect the pumps.
 
We trailer year round in the PNW also. I watch the weather and don’t often winterize. Our boat is stored at the house and uncovered but with good southern and SW sun exposure for good sun heating on the blue hull. The shore power cord LED can be seen from the house to verify power.

Normally use just an oil filled radiator on the floor of the v-berth to combat mildew and maintain temp inside the boat with all compartments and cabinets open. I try to keep the interior temp above 35-38 minimum. During past winters I placed multiple outdoor temperature probes in the boat (engine bilge against hull, floor of head, floor of v-berth) and monitored them in varying temperatures with simple min/max recording stations and found a heater setting that seems to work.

If below 28 at night I put a round disc low output heater in the engine compartment of our Classic that is powered by a cord run from the head outlet thru the strbd cockpit storage and pulled to above the muffler. That way the cord can stay in place when we do go out.

During our ‘cold’ week or two is the only time I throw in rv anti-freeze. RV anti-freeze goes into the head and holding tank, shower sump, wash down pump, and engine. I only use water in the transducer cup and pop the transducer out during cold weather. Thoroughly draining the water tank with the bow raised and lowered to the limits of the tongue jack as well as draining the water heater, blowing out the lines and leaving them disconnected has served us well these past years. The only pain is getting the fittings tight on the hot water tank each time. I now keep a couple spares on the boat just in case one won’t tighten back up as happened this spring.

For the one week a year when it doesn’t get above freezing, I add a 3rd heater with a fan that runs on a separate circuit and cord with a fan to help move air as a last resort.

Cold prep takes me an hour or so and 4 gallons of anti-freeze when required.

So far this winter nothing more than the oil filled heater has been required.

I am currently experimenting and monitoring with keeping the water tank full and the hot water tank turned on but have not made a decision on the benefits and drawbacks of that yet as opposed to the security of draining and prepping yet.
 
I think we got this one figured out.

We have a R31CB and a trailer. We live in Baltimore, so we do get freezing wether (I think it's going to snow today).

We boated all over the Chesapeake and towed it up to New England 2x over this past summer and into the fall. At the start of December (we generally begin to freeze later in December) we towed her down to the Keys and played around for a few weeks. Instead of towing back, we left her at a storage place in Islamorada. We are going back down in few weeks to have a week or so on board. Will leave her down there again and will repeat in May. Then we will bring her back north.

Problem solved. No winterizing!

Bobby
 
I purchased two heaters from boatbilgeheaters.com. A 1000W unit and a 700W unit. The smaller wattage for the bilge.

The Hornet has a single of every component and the Twin Hornet has redundancy of each component. They are not cheap but they are rated by the Coast Guard and very well built. I just don’t trust the heaters you buy at retail for my boat since I am not there to monitor them.

The standard units turn on around 36 degrees and off at 40-ish. They have other units that turn on in the mid 40s. I bought a thermostat free versions. Opting for the thermostat free option I have a lot more flexibility in using the heaters. For the bilge i added a WiFi thermostat which allows me to control the temperature remotely and see when it is running. For the interior, there are other options like a ThermoCube, Kasco I added a WiFi outlet for the interior heater that measures wattage so I could remotely monitor if the heater is running. Of course, you need WiFi where you are storing your boat. Otherwise the ThermoCube or Kasco type outlet work well.

I normally keep my boat in the water but had it on a trailer for a month while I worked on some maintenance items. The insulating property of the water helps maintain a higher boat temperature quite bit (where the water temp is not very cold). When it was on the trailer, the heaters ran much more.

I added Govee WiFi temperature/humidity sensors and am able to monitor the bilge and boat interior temperature remotely. It will even send a notice if above/below a certain temp.

I covered the prop in a moving blanket because it acts as a huge cold sink.

Not the cheapest option but reliable and gives me piece details of mind.

I can add links to any of the products if interested.


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Thank you all for the information. My wife and I purchased our 2015 R27 this afternoon and are beyond excited! We will be having many more questions in the future I'm sure. We will be purchasing heaters for the bilge and the cabin this week. We will be taking possession of the boat next weekend.

So happy to be a member of your group now .

Thank you ,
Vance Fisher
 
Vance1965":18yc9n2a said:
Thank you all for the information. My wife and I purchased our 2015 R27 this afternoon and are beyond excited! We will be having many more questions in the future I'm sure. We will be purchasing heaters for the bilge and the cabin this week. We will be taking possession of the boat next weekend.

So happy to be a member of your group now .

Thank you ,
Vance Fisher
Click to expand...
Congratulations! I’m new to Ranger Tugs myself and am loving it. Enjoy.


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Alpina,

Thank you especially for the advise on the bilge heaters. I feel better having something that has the correct rating for a hazardous space like the bilge.
It's great to have a community of people to get help from on all the systems on these boats. It's a bit overwhelming at times!
 
Congratulations Vance and welcome to the Ranger Tug family. Our forum is a wealth of information so don’t hesitate ask because someone will have the answers you’re looking for.

Tim
Gratitude
 
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