@Jigfishn10 yes I do. 
 

@gim I will probably get a little slower. I am thinking about possibly getting k5 on my boat. 

I usually winterize myself but seeing what some people pay for the winterization and the services that are received, I feel like I’m doing a lot of work for no reason. Although, I can do it on my own schedule and don’t have to drive an hour away, wait, and then drive back.
 

This is my third season with the boat now, so I guess I gotta get the impeller replaced by the dealer. 

actual footage of me winterizing my boat 

Finally got my rig back from the dealer today. 

By the time I dropped it off, they were already pretty backed up so this year it took just under 3 weeks.  Longest yet, I think.

Besides the routine annual 4-stroke maintenance, I had them replace the fuel filters, water pump impeller, and serpentine belt.  Also asked to have the starter battery checked. 

Results: time for a new one. 

Tomorrow's project.

Additional service directed by Mercury (at no charge to me) included adding a new shift actuator and an entire new start relay harness. 

Picked up the Pro-V and it was covered in snow. 

That took a while to fix but I finally got her all tucked in for the winter. 

Minus the new house battery, which I'm going to do myself. 

Let the short days and the long nights begin . . . . 

A-Jay

 

Put on insulated boots, fight them through coveralls, put on neck gaiter & pull on cap. Boat is winterized.😁

@A-Jay 3 weeks is a while.  They musta been pretty busy winterizing boats.

 

If you don't mind sharing, what do they charge you?  I'm interested in comparing costs to what I pay.  You can PM if you don't want to publicly disclose that.

53 minutes ago, gim said:

@A-Jay 3 weeks is a while.  They musta been pretty busy winterizing boats.

 

If you don't mind sharing, what do they charge you?  I'm interested in comparing costs to what I pay.  You can PM if you don't want to publicly disclose that.

This place does between 500-600 rigs each fall.  All with a tech staff of 5 humans. 75 hp vs 200 hp might be apples vs oranges when it comes to price. 

This time around because of some extra needs, I shelled out a couple more Benjamins. Total was just under 7. 

The hourly labor costs went up this year too. Now it's $150 per.  

Gotta pay to play

A-Jay

Oh crap, mine went in 3 1/2 weeks ago .... totally forgot about it

I have an older boat and motor (1993 LUND, 1993 Evinrude, two stroke) that I have had now for three years - so far I have winterized it myself (with support from a friend, easier to do the engine fog ect.... with two people, I help him with his boat at the same time, I would say it is less than an hour of work, some Fogging Spray, some grease/grease gun, some wrenches, new spark plugs, Ethanol Shield for the gas, remove the batteries, ect....) - it is pretty straight forward (I am not inherently mechanically inclined, but I have done quite a bit of work on the motor with the help of the motor manual/YouTube and some wonderful people here on Bass Resource) - if I had a newer 4 stroke I might opt to have a shop do the work (or have them check the motor out every other year) - I know some shops around here (a lake filled area, many hundreds if not thousands of boats) charge different rates for the "winterization service" - ie, if you have them winterize the motor only it is XXX dollars - if you have them winterize the motor and shrink wrap it then it is XXXX dollars - if you have them winterize the motor, shrink wrap it and store it then it is XXXXX dollars (and their hourly repair rate is less for those that do the full monty - $175 an hour --- that rate jacks up to $250 an hour for those that don't have their boats winterized/shrink wrapped/stored there) - I have enjoyed the challenge of learning how to do the winterization/work on the motor - yet I fully understand why people would opt to have a shop do it 

@gim I dropped mine off last Wednesday and picked it up two days later. I have a 60hp Mercury 4 stroke. They charge $120 for labor and $100 for parts plus tax for 35-60hp. Website still list $80 for part like I paid last year. Not surprised as most things have increased in price. Mom Pop shop (big Ranger and Tracker dealer) so also not surprised website isn’t updated. A 65-115hp is listed as $240 total (plus maybe a parts increase like mine) on website for reference. 
 

Deluxe Winterizing for 4 strokes includes:

STABILIZE FUEL SYSTEM, RUN AND CHECK ENGINE. FOG ENGINE, GREASE CABLES, LINKAGES, FITTINGS AND PROP SHAFT. CHANGE ENGINE OIL AND FILTER. CHANGE LOWER UNIT OIL.

Like others notes, I could do it myself and save the labor but I prefer to have a pro check things over. Last year they found the seal for the water pump was leaking slightly while replacing the impeller. They replaced the seal and only charged me for the part as they already had the motor apart. 

 

On 11/18/2025 at 4:57 PM, WaskaCrank12 said:

if you have them winterize the motor, shrink wrap it and store it then it is XXXXX dollars

I did this for one year the first winter I had my boat in 2015-2016.

 

The cost of a heavy duty shrink wrap and then the cost of 6 months storage onsite (outside) was significant. And then they charged to remove the shrink wrap and dispose of it in the spring too.

 

I then opted to store my boat at a dedicated indoor winter storage facility an hour away, which was far less costly than shrink wrap and outdoor storage at the dealer, but still inconvenient.

 

Eventually, in May 2022, I bought a house with a feature I was looking for long term: a 3 car garage. Now my boat is in my insulated garage year round.

 

With the possibility of targeting bass earlier next spring due to a change in regulations…

"With the possibility of targeting bass earlier next spring due to a change in regulations…"

 

Yes, I hope this comes to fruition @gim

 

I wish my boat would fit in the garage but it does not....so I store it outside under a VersaTube boat/carport (it has a roof and partial sides, longer term I hope to enclose the sides and use wind screen on the ends to allow air flow but keep snow/sleet out, it is tall enough so I can stand up in the boat and stay out of the elements when working on it and wide enough that I can put the truck under it as well.....I still put a cover over the boat to keep leaves/ect...out of it)......someone had ordered the VersaTube and then cancelled it so I got it for a decent price.....and when I looked at the cost of indoor storage/shrink wrap-outdoor storage I felt within a few years I will be saving money having the VersaTube and the VersaTube is used all year to keep sun/rain/sleet/hail off of the boat 

 

 

On 11/17/2025 at 10:33 PM, GreenPig said:

Put on insulated boots, fight them through coveralls, put on neck gaiter & pull on cap. Boat is winterized.😁

Winterized ?

I wear that gear in MAY !

You GA guys are a hoot. 

😎

A-Jay

Food for thought, I change my own oil, do all my own maintenance, BUT in doing so, I and anyone else that does so, voids your outboards warranty. 

 

You have to take it to a certified tech to "sign off" on every scheduled maintenance or warranty is voided. 

 

I do it myself not to save money, but because any dealer is just going to use bulk oil and bulk gear lube, I use my boat in extreme cold so depending on time of year, I run different oil and gear lube, you don't get that option with basically any dealers... Despite the fact the manufacturers suggest such things....

 

Most techs at dealers nowadays are not what I consider "skilled mechanics" so it's not much of a gamble to me... I am sure there is some Mom & Pop places with a good mechanic that has been doing it forever, but I have yet to find such a thing.

 

Not to mention, the last time I did take a boat to a certified tech, was D&R Sports in Kzoo, they misdiagnosed the issue and they wrecked my boat "and several others", literally. Somehow the guy that moved boats around for them in their lot, ran one boat into another and a domino effect occurred and damaged a bunch of boats in their lot, including mine. Accidents happen, but I ended up having to make an insurance claim on my own policy to have the hull repaired from impact, sucked. Was a brand new boat that had a missing component to the fuel system that never ran right from day one, brand new from the factory, the sad part was, Yamaha techs couldn't even figure it out after taking it to multiple places, in the end it was me that finally got frustrated enough to just inspect it myself and found the issue in less than an hour... All one had to do was look at the schematic and you could see there was this big missing part of the fuel system, LOL I was a full-time guide at that point of my life and the whole debacle almost bankrupt me, everything I had was invested in that new boat... had to cancel lots of trips while it was fixed, etc.... 

 

I have a buddy that runs charters, a dealer up here in Traverse City "Walstrom Marine" told him he needed two new Yamaha F200 motors a couple weeks back, the head gasket went in one which is why it was taken there, the other just had low compression when they tested it upon his request but ran perfectly fine, we ran some "ring-free" in the one with low compression, fixed the issue and brought the entire motor back up over 180 psi in minutes, saved him 20k, they told him the other motor was not logically repairable as he would have to get a new powerhead, etc... due to water in oil from head gasket issue, we replaced the head gasket, motor runs fine, caught it in time. He had checked the oil 3 weeks prior to discovering water in the oil and there was none so it happened in a 3 week window, ironically no warning buzzers or anything ever warned him of an issue with the engine despite the fact it had roughly double the amount of liquid it should of had in it when you combined the amount of water and oil that drained out of it. The so called certified techs just wanted him to drop 40k on two new motors, his motors only had 1400 hours on them.... They were not even interested in attempting to fix the engines... This is what you get in 2025 from so called "certified techs"....

 

P.S. Yamaha recommends regular treatments with "ring free" in their 4 stroke outboards if you troll a lot at ultra low RPM's. What my buddy was experiencing with a drop in compression on a low hour motor is seemingly a fairly common issue. Something a simple Google search prompted that the Yamaha techs must not be aware of, he went from 150 psi to 180psi in just a couple minutes once the ring free treatment was added...

On 11/18/2025 at 5:57 PM, WaskaCrank12 said:

I have an older boat and motor (1993 LUND, 1993 Evinrude, two stroke) that I have had now for three years - so far I have winterized it myself (with support from a friend, easier to do the engine fog ect.... with two people, I help him with his boat at the same time, I would say it is less than an hour of work, some Fogging Spray, some grease/grease gun, some wrenches, new spark plugs, Ethanol Shield for the gas, remove the batteries, ect....) - it is pretty straight forward (I am not inherently mechanically inclined, but I have done quite a bit of work on the motor with the help of the motor manual/YouTube and some wonderful people here on Bass Resource) - if I had a newer 4 stroke I might opt to have a shop do the work (or have them check the motor out every other year) - I know some shops around here (a lake filled area, many hundreds if not thousands of boats) charge different rates for the "winterization service" - ie, if you have them winterize the motor only it is XXX dollars - if you have them winterize the motor and shrink wrap it then it is XXXX dollars - if you have them winterize the motor, shrink wrap it and store it then it is XXXXX dollars (and their hourly repair rate is less for those that do the full monty - $175 an hour --- that rate jacks up to $250 an hour for those that don't have their boats winterized/shrink wrapped/stored there) - I have enjoyed the challenge of learning how to do the winterization/work on the motor - yet I fully understand why people would opt to have a shop do it 

 

You should NOT be running ethanol in that engine... The internal components are not designed to handle the alcohol... 

 

Get recreational fuel. 

^ Ya - older two-strokes can't handle ethanol-infused gas. It'll be more expensive, but the ethanol-free will extend the lifetime of your motor.

 

My 1973 Evinrude still runs like a champ - never used anything but ethanol-free gas in it.

2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

^ Ya - older two-strokes can't handle ethanol-infused gas. It'll be more expensive, but the ethanol-free will extend the lifetime of your motor.

 

My 1973 Evinrude still runs like a champ - never used anything but ethanol-free gas in it.

 

Indeed, everything from the fuel lines to the carburetor will pay the price... even with ethanol fuel treatment...

2 hours ago, Goby said:

Food for thought, I change my own oil, do all my own maintenance, BUT in doing so, I and anyone else that does so, voids your outboards warranty. 

This is simply not true in the United States.  The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act gives you the right to do your own maintenance without voiding your warranty.  

34 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

This is simply not true in the United States.  The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act gives you the right to do your own maintenance without voiding your warranty.  

 

You are partially correct, as I specifically stated, after you conduct the maintenance, you must take it to a certified tech to have them sign off on it and mark it as done with their computer connected to the motor. They obviously do this, for a fee. It's the only true way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the service was actually performed and they "outboard manufacturers" have and will use this to deny warranty claims. 

 

It should also be noted, what the customer "non-licensed tech" is allowed to do is limited to absolutely zero disassembly of the motor, there are major grey areas as to what disassembly means, technically by moving say the ignition module out of the way to say remove spark plugs is, disassembly... A common necessity for a 60HP 4 stroke Mercury which the OP posted about initially on this thread when winterizing as even though you really don't "need" to fog the cylinders on a 4 stroke in most scenarios, it's still part of the normal winterizing process and recommended by the manufacturer. 

 

Don't take my word for it, call them yourself...

 

Outboards in today's World, especially the smaller ones that are more prone to being maintained by the average Joe, hardly ever have issues when still under warranty so it's extremely rare for this to be an issue, but there is most certainly a very real risk to losing it if you don't follow the necessary steps to a tee. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Goby said:

You are partially correct, as I specifically stated, after you conduct the maintenance, you must take it to a certified tech to have them sign off on it and mark it as done with their computer connected to the motor.

If a dealer told you this they are lying.  They cannot require that.  The law gives you the right to have someone else do the maintenance (including yourself) and they can use OEM parts.  You are required to keep proper records of when the maintenance is performed.  The law says they must show that the lack of maintenance caused the issue you are seeking warranty service on.  They can't simply void the entire warranty because they don't like the way you maintain your motor.  

 

This is what my Mercury Warranty says:

 

Purchaser’s Responsibility

 

Perform all regular maintenance in compliance with the schedule in the applicable operation and maintenance manual. Maintain records of service and maintenance performed on Mercury Marine products. Mercury Marine reserves the right to make warranty coverage contingent upon proof of proper maintenance.

 

21 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

If a dealer told you this they are lying.  They cannot require that.  The law gives you the right to have someone else do the maintenance (including yourself) and they can use OEM parts.  You are required to keep proper records of when the maintenance is performed.  The law says they must show that the lack of maintenance caused the issue you are seeking warranty service on.  They can't simply void the entire warranty because they don't like the way you maintain your motor.  

 

This is what my Mercury Warranty says:

 

Purchaser’s Responsibility

 

Perform all regular maintenance in compliance with the schedule in the applicable operation and maintenance manual. Maintain records of service and maintenance performed on Mercury Marine products. Mercury Marine reserves the right to make warranty coverage contingent upon proof of proper maintenance.

 

 

 

 

I used to design and sell boats for a living after I quit guiding, sold millions and millions of dollars of outboards "mostly jet drives", etc.... I have seen this used by manufacturers first hand, this isn't a guess...

 

Key words, "Mercury Marine reserves the right to make warranty coverage contingent upon proof of proper maintenance."

 

Does merely having a receipt that you purchased the oil prove you put it in and did so properly oh and by the way, are you trained "licensed" to know what to look for if there was an issue when maintenance was done that could have lead to preventing the larger issue later on, etc...? Don't forget the disassembly part I mentioned...

 

I could care less what you do or what you believe and by all means, would love to see everyone get what they are owed, but these outboard companies are all owned by private equity firms these days, the fine print is bountiful... 

 

If a motor fails while still under warranty, it's likely from heat, from a blocked or damaged impeller, this obviously doesn't fall under warranty so "warranty" repairing much of anything related to the actual motor itself is very rare... They will say this is from impact "hitting bottom, sucking up debris/sediment" or physical damage every single time, which because of that, they do enable you to get them replaced under your insurance policy if you have the proper coverage, passing the buck to the insurance company and thus their customers...

 

Electrical issues, etc... are typically not tied to any sort of maintenance so in the rare event they fail under warranty, you doing your own maintenance rarely comes into play, if ever...

 

 

7 minutes ago, Goby said:

Does merely having a receipt that you purchased the oil prove you put it in and did so properly oh and by the way, are you trained "licensed" to know what to look for if there was an issue when maintenance was done?

That's a complicated question. I'm not a lawyer but I think this question would have to be answered by a court if it came down to it.  You would present your proof that you changed the oil.  They would submit their case that you did not.  I've never had a warranty claim on an outboard but in general I've found that companies want to treat their customers right and follow the law.  It's not in their best interest to try to rip off every customer that seeks a warranty repair.  They can also be hit with a class action lawsuit.  Many years ago I had a Dell Laptop that the motherboard failed 10 months into a 1 year warranty.  They provided great service and fixed the laptop quickly without cost.  Four months later the motherboard failed again,  two months out of warranty.  They refused to service it under warranty so I bought a motherboard online and fixed it myself.  6 months later the motherboard failed again.  It was getting expensive to fix the thing so I put it in a closet and bought another laptop.  Dell met their requirements under the warranty but clearly had a problem with their product.  A couple of years later I got a notice that they had settled a class action lawsuit and they gave me a new one year warranty and fixed the laptop for free.  They also had to pay the lawyers who filed the lawsuit $700 when they fixed my laptop.  

18 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

That's a complicated question. I'm not a lawyer but I think this question would have to be answered by a court if it came down to it.  You would present your proof that you changed the oil.  They would submit their case that you did not.  I've never had a warranty claim on an outboard but in general I've found that companies want to treat their customers right and follow the law.  It's not in their best interest to try to rip off every customer that seeks a warranty repair.  They can also be hit with a class action lawsuit.  Many years ago I had a Dell Laptop that the motherboard failed 10 months into a 1 year warranty.  They provided great service and fixed the laptop quickly without cost.  Four months later the motherboard failed again,  two months out of warranty.  They refused to service it under warranty so I bought a motherboard online and fixed it myself.  6 months later the motherboard failed again.  It was getting expensive to fix the thing so I put it in a closet and bought another laptop.  Dell met their requirements under the warranty but clearly had a problem with their product.  A couple of years later I got a notice that they had settled a class action lawsuit and they gave me a new one year warranty and fixed the laptop for free.  They also had to pay the lawyers who filed the lawsuit $700 when they fixed my laptop.  

 

If many of the laws that other industries are forced to adhere to were actually enforced in the fishing industry, there would be major changes, many of the current goings on of the fishing industry are essentially monopolies, etc... rod building being a prime example with what Mud Hole has done, etc... Buying up many of the blank suppliers only to shut them down and promote their own brand. 

 

It's really not that complicated if you understood the disassembly clauses... 

 

Like I said, these things are very rare as for the most part, modern outboards easily outlive their warranty period with zero issues... I simply just wanted to raise awareness is why I said what I did, most folks do not have a clue, don't even keep receipts, etc... People have been 100% burned by this, seen it first hand, maybe they could have spent thousands on an attorney and won, but they didn't, who knows...

Hello @Goby --- yes --- I use 91 octane/NON-ethanol fuel 100% of the time (highest octane I have access to) --- I put the Ethanol Shield in the tank for my last trip or two in the fall so that the Ethanol Shield is in the tank/hoses/engine --- then when I winterize the boat I fill the tank full of 91 octane/NON-ethanol fuel and add in an appropriate amount of Ethanol Shield to the tank to help keep moisture out of the fuel/tank because here in MN the boat is "winterized" from November to April --- again, 100% of the time I use 91 octane/NON-ethanol fuel 

@WaskaCrank12 minor detail but the state of Minnesota only offers ethanol free gas in 91 octane. It’s not available in any other octane.

 

I’ve seen 87 octane ethanol free offered in Wisconsin.