Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I have searched for this topic and there seems to be a lot of varying opinions on it. I'm obviously new to owning a pontoon. My previous boat was an I/O fish and ski so we're talking two different worlds here. I have my boat in a covered wet slip and plan to leave it there year round. I have nowhere to actually park it here on my property that would be out of the weather. It does get pretty darn cold here in winter (Southeast Kentucky) but I've never seen the lake completely frozen. I've had my boat now for about a month and am starting to notice a considerable amount of algae and a scum line on the motor after it's sat for a few days. So, my question is this - will it hurt anything to keep the motor raised out of the water as far as it will go while it is parked in the slip in the summer time? I know it is recommended to leave it down in winter to keep from freezing and I plan to do that for sure. The motor on my boat is a 50hp Yamaha 2 stroke if that matters. It's not a heavy motor, obviously. Anything I need to be aware of if I keep it raised up all the time? I will make sure to drop it and wait a few minutes before starting it to let the oil drain down properly. Thanks everyone for your help and I hope you are all having a wonderful night!

Neil

Prior to getting my lift, I kept mine in the water close to 8 months a year. After the first year of having scum grow in the intakes, I kept it tilted up out of the water. Never had an issue. I was anal about waiting a minute or so after tilting down before it started it - so the oil could settle in to its' normal spots. Not sure if that was necessary but it gave me peace of mind.

get a prop lock.... don't want to show up to use your boat, only to find the prop missing.

It wont make any difference one way or another to the motor, how ever it makes it very easy to steal the prop if its tilted up.

I keep mine down in the winter and up in the summer. That way I clean it once it starts to warm up and it stays clean all summer. 10 seasons of living in the water with no problem. My previous toon did not have power tilt and it stayed down all the time. The paint did get a little extra wear from the water.

I keep my boat hanging in a boathouse all year round out of the water. I just have to clean and polish my toons once per year and it's relatively easy to keep it clean. i do put my mooring cover on the boat for the winter, but otherwise it's open to the air.

My last pontoon lasted 27 years because it was kept try and out of the weather and water. Now, that's a great long term value in recreation.

I strongly suggest anyone get a boat trailer and at least keep their boat out of the water when the boating season's over. Those with trailers will find themselves taking better care of their boat and engine maintenance whenever they don't have it in the water half the time. And they won't have to depend on marinas and boat dealers to do very expensive maintenance that they can easily do themselves if their boat is out of the water.

Keep the motor up in the Summer -- especially if your lake is prone to zebra mussels. We have them in our lake and those suckers can cover up the intakes in no time if the motor is left down. We now have our lift working so the boat stays on the lift year round till I can get a storage cover built by our place. Our lift isn't really big enough for our boat and it needs to be moved back to support more of the weight at the stern - it was the lift my dad had back when we had a little open bow fish/ski boat and it was welded into place.

We were in western KY and slipped the boat for 11 mos. In hot months, tilted up and in cold months (remember Jan/Feb this year?), we kept the engine down. We had to drive the boat 25 mi to our new place in late March. Started right up and we ran beautifully down KY Lake to almost the TN border. Amazingly, the toons stayed really nice too. Go figure! We have the toon on a lift now, so we just keep the engine down. Nothing touches the water.