Winterizing the family boat and home this weekend. Ran some glycol through the engine, drained it out and blew out the heater core, and removed all the plugs and batteries. Should be good to go. Im not 100% sure running propylene glycol is good to run through a marine engine, but its better than a cracked block or heater core I’m sure. When I got done I realized that it had not been well cleaned this year. Took out the carpets and cleaned them and under them (gross) and then went to work on the heavy mineral buildup. The lake its used exclusively on is beautiful; called the Caribbean of the Rockies for its blue/green hue because of suspended minerals. It’s as hard as water gets. This mineral line at the waterline isn’t a result of it being left in the water for more than a weekend. The boat is also (in theory) rubbed down each time its pulled with boat spray that’s supposed to deal with this.
I brought out the big guns for this one. Chemical brothers HD water spot remover. It’s pretty much gel acid. It warns you to gear gloves (do it) and to neutralize it with water after using (very much so). But man alive does it work.
This is what it looked like after the treatment plus a wash with their ceramic wash (hoping that will delay the water line next year).
I brought the cruiser up to to do the job. It is NOT the right tool for the job. At 6500 feet and with only a 2.84:1 first gear (2nd gear in the GX) it would BARELY move it up the gravel hill. Even with re-gear, it’s still only a 13:1 ratio, given that the cruiser puts out about 100 hp to the wheels at this elevation...it is not enough. I tried for just a few moments and gave up on that idea in sympathy with my torque converter and immediately put it in low range, where it did amazing (33:1). Low range, short wheelbase, and permanent 4wd is the biz for moving boats around. FYI, the cruiser is rated to tow 5000 lbs (yeah right) and this boat is somewhere closer to 7000. Thankfully I had to drive it only across the street. Normally the GX has this job and it kills it (self-leveling rear air springs, about 100 more hp to the ground and a 3.5:1 first gear), but it’s in use with the family.
Also saw this grabbing dinner. It’s a Factory Five and you can tell, but it’s still nice.
Between finishing winterizing and cleaning and dinner I took a drive up the canyon. This is sunrise campground, I would not mind camping here. I also bombed around on some FS roads in the area for fun. I was stupid tired but happy to just cruise around in the high 60 degree fall air.
