Winterizing Information
- General Information
- You do not need to be present, however your boat should be accessible at the time that we arrive, i.e. not in a garage.
- We will contact you the Wednesday prior to the weekend that you selected for your order to confirm the day and time frame that we expect to be in your area. If your boat is not available during this day or time, we will need to push your appointment to a later date.
- We do our best to arrive during the time frame that we give you, in the event we cannot, we do our very best to call and notify you of any schedule changes even when things get a little hectic.
- We are a small business and do not have clerical staff, it may be hard to get a hold of us on the weekends while all crew members and even owners are out servicing customers.
- In the event of rain or excessive wind (shrink wrap), we may need to reschedule and will contact you to make other arrangements.
- Winterizing (if applicable)
- The boat keys should be in the watercraft; ignition, cup holder, or glove box.
- Ideally the watercraft will be on level ground or a slight incline (bow higher than the stern) with 4-5 feet of clearance around the watercraft
- As long as the temperatures are above freezing, we will attempt to run water through your engine, so we will need access to water within 50′ of the boat.
- We are capable of winterizing your watercraft if it is not able to start, or if we do not have the keys, but it can be a lengthier process.
- We recommend a full tank of gas prior to winterizing (we add Stabil), but this is not critical.
- Shrink Wrap (if applicable)
- We will need ~5 feet of access space all the way around the watercraft to apply the shrink wrap.
- The watercraft should be in a position that we can drive our vehicle up to it, preferably directly in front of or behind the watercraft as our shrink wrap rolls are mounted to the front of our vehicle.
- We will build our own structure in the watercraft to hold the shrink wrap, the watercraft cover(s) are not needed and should be removed by the time that we arrive and stored in a safe place. If it is still on the boat we will roll it up and place it in the boat.
- Once the wrap is complete it is ready for winter and capable of holding snow loads up to 2 feet deep and can also be transported, we recommend keeping the speed under 65 mph.
- If there is an excessive amount of wet, heavy, snow, then the snow should be brushed off of the shrink wrap to reduce the risk of tearing the shrink wrap.
- Shrink wrap is primarily intended to keep snow and water out of the watercraft, however we do our best to completely seal the watercraft but do not guarantee against rodents / bugs getting into the boat and causing damage.
- While our shrink wrap process includes installing a mildew pouch and vents to promote airflow and reduce the potential for mildew / mold we cannot guarantee against this if the watercraft or cover is soaking wet prior to wrapping, we recommend airing it out prior to your appointment.
- Rain: In the unfortunate event that it is raining at the time of your appointment our service person can determine if we can continue in the rain or if we need to re-schedule. It is possible for us to shrink wrap in light rain, but heavy rain is not possible. We may be able to build our shrink wrap structure and put on the shrink wrap but come back at a later date to finish the shrinking process.
- Wind: Occasionally heavy wind can interfere with our shrink wrapping process and we can only do ~75% of the process and will need to return to finish.
- Payment
- We accept payment by cash (preferred) or check, made out to Jesse Pettit, at the time of service. If you are not going to be present feel free to leave payment in the glove box.
- If we do not receive payment at the time of service we will send a PayPal invoice to the email on record which can be paid with a credit card (a PayPal account is not needed).
- If a receipt is desired please let our crew members know and we will send you an email receipt the week following the service.
Thank you very much for choosing Midwest Winterizing!