Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Looking for some input from all of you fellow toon owners. I live on a fresh water lake on the Central coast of Oregon. Winters can be quite wet at times with an occasional dusting of lite snow. My question: I'd like to leave my boat in the lake during the winter as we do get some really nice days in which we could go out, also if I were to put it on the trailer and land store it at my house it would be subject to the falling debris left by the conifer trees all over my property. Should I simply rely on the mooring cover, while/if the boat is in the water, to protect the interior surfaces or do I need to use some other type of more substantial covering? Let me know your thoughts.

Winter protection often depends on your area, all of them need the motor and fuel system and battery charged thats normal winterizing, after that it depends on your climate, in Oregon I would have it shrink wrapped, rain seeping in and the freeze thaw cycle is what causes damage.

Open or protected mooring would be my first question to you? This is our first year in TN coming from MI thus I'm used to having really winterize stuff;f but here I'm told that many residents leave their boats in the water year round with no special preparations. Bear in mind that our marina is in a protected cove and our slips are covered so even a weather cover is optional here. If your location is going to allow direct rain or snow fall you will have to at the least tent your cover to prevent water build up. I found this out the hard way when my boat sat overnight in the driveway with the new covered fitted as it rained hard and I ended up taking a very large ice bucket water challenge the next morning. Outboard motors that are tilted out of the water drain very well and pose little chance if any to freeze. Can you tend to your battery with a small float charger at your mooring? Otherwise you might want to remove it to the garage so that you can take care of it during the winter.

We're in KY and left our toon at a nearby marina (our dock was sitting on mud in the back of the cove) awaiting the hoped-for, 80-degree days that appeared the year before. Instead, we had 3 months of bitter cold, single-digit and below 0 temps, and the toon didn't come out until the end of March. We had the Suntracker cover on it, Stabilized the fuel, and totally forgot to charge the battery. The toon was totally dry, clean and ran like a top when we started out of there to take it to our new lake house that boasted water under the dock year-round. Just lucky I guess. This year it stays on our lift.

It was bad last year here to, i am not to far away,in WV, I pull mine out in November but a trip out to the lake showed it frozen solid, first time in 30 plus years. his spring I didnt hear of much damage though.