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People up here near Annapolis Md want a fortune to pull your boat out of the water. I need to change oil and gear lube so is there any way to do it in the water? Called two places and they wanted 400 to pull and then put back in the water. Told them a fork lift will lift this little boat. I am in Solomons Md tonight and headed to
Annapolis tomorrow. Spending a couple of days in Annapolis. Chinook is ahead of me and Lee the 26M guy from Texas is 30 miles south of me. He and I are going to meet up again in Annapolis.

I stopped using the drain plug on my BF50, as it makes a big mess. I use my oil sucker that I got for an inboard diesel I used to have in another sailboat. Skinny tube goes down the dipstick tube, and sucks the oil out via vacuum you create with a hand pump. Gets every drop, at least with the BF50. The first time I tried it, I got essentially nothing out the drain (which I opened afterward to see how much was left).

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-mari ... --11047123

Filter makes a mess, so you need to pack the area under it with an oil diaper. But I personally don't think you need to change the filter with only a hundred hours of easy trawler work on it anyway.

Gear oil? Well, that's not so easy. Not in the water, at least.

You'd be better off finding a fellow owner who can haul yours out at a ramp so you can service it in the parking lot. Assuming the lot or marina owner lets you.

Losing oil into the water is not good, and the marina may also be liable for whatever mess you make in 'their' water. Hazmat response. Oil booms. News at 11:00. I don't even want to think about it.

Ya I see the signs around about spills all the time. I want to say up to a $10,000.00 fine if caught? That's a little more than $400 to haul.

I just sent you a PM.

Tomfoolery wrote:I stopped using the drain plug on my BF50, as it makes a big mess. I use my oil sucker that I got for an inboard diesel I used to have in another sailboat. Skinny tube goes down the dipstick tube, and sucks the oil out via vacuum you create with a hand pump. Gets every drop, at least with the BF50. The first time I tried it, I got essentially nothing out the drain (which I opened afterward to see how much was left).

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-mari ... --11047123

Filter makes a mess, so you need to pack the area under it with an oil diaper. But I personally don't think you need to change the filter with only a hundred hours of easy trawler work on it anyway.

Gear oil? Well, that's not so easy. Not in the water, at least.

You'd be better off finding a fellow owner who can haul yours out at a ramp so you can service it in the parking lot. Assuming the lot or marina owner lets you.

Losing oil into the water is not good, and the marina may also be liable for whatever mess you make in 'their' water. Hazmat response. Oil booms. News at 11:00. I don't even want to think about it.

Gear oil is easy

Buy the gear oil pump with fitting for the bottom screw. Then buy another one
Tip motor up, leave top gear oil fill screw in
Undo bottom screw, screw in fill pipe on fresh gear oil container
Take the fitting pipe of the second one, put it on the top screw.
Route top pipe to empty oil container.

Pump fresh oil in slowly and match rate of old oil coming out. You will get a bit of new oil and old oil mix, but its a gearbox, not a neuron.

For engine oil changes

You should be able to tip the motor up and tape tin foil to make a funnel to channel the oil to a standard oil drain pan. Thats what I do on land to keep the mess down, and I could do this from the transom.

400 bucks to haul in/out for an oil change is ridiculous. Not for a haul out, actually - it is for a haul out too.

Low Tide ? or run her up on the beach onto dock fenders , dig a hole lower unit into plastic basin do ur lower gear oil change . the bottom plug is the drain , the top plug is the vent & the middle plug which is about 3/4" to 1" approx. maybe more below the top vent plug is ur oil level fill to that point after draining then install vent & level plugs then remove fill hose adapter & pump reinstall drain plug u might want to buy three new plug gskt,s also

J
ps was wondering why u would not have done this before the start of ur trip

Defer them both until you are up my way and we can do them on the Hudson, or I'll use my trailer to haul out.

We did change the motor oil and the gear lube in the lower unit 4 days before starting the trip.

How many hours do you have on that oil change?

and what type? Reg or synthetic?

ris wrote:We did change the motor oil and the gear lube in the lower unit 4 days before starting the trip.

Lower gear case I only change out once a season or longer depending how often I use the eng.
my water pump impeller is 8yrs old

J

I've only done a 10 day trip at most, do this thread has taught me...

6 mph at 10 hours a day means you need to change engine oil roughly every 10 days if you want to keep the manufacturers 100 hour oil change interval.

I think it would make sense to rig a valve on the oil drain plug to attach a pipe and drain easily to avoid the vultures at marinas.

Don't sweat the lower unit oil, Ris, that gearbox doesn't get dirty from combustion and can wait.

Catigale and others thanks for the info. We are staying with friends on the upper Chesapeake on the Sassafrass River for a few days. When we arrived Thursday I asked how much it would cost locally to pull the boat from the water so I could change the oil. Turns out they own 3 docks including the one we are tied to and one of the docks has a boat lift. So Sat. We drove over to the little boat lift and it lifted the Mac with no problems. Checked the foot oil, clean; then lowered the boat a little and changed the oil sitting in the dinghy. Worked out fine, what little oil that did drip, dripped into the dinghy onto rags on the wood floor. Saturday no wind today 20 to 30 mph glad we are not on the water in the boat. It is also in the low 50s.

Hey Ris, you guys need to get back to work on your blog, I've been enjoying seeing your trip! Keeps guys like me who are still trying to find their Mac inspired for sure.