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Dropped off my new 170 Montauk to get Mercury 4 stroke motor prepped for winter storage. I had called earlier to try and setup an appointment. Dealer says, no we don't do appointments..so I dropped off boat/trailer today..
Dealer says, "leave it up there on the hill, we might get to it in a week or two".
So I towed it up into a muddy field, and left my boat open to the weather and mice.
At home I can keep it in my garage.
Why can't a boat dealer take an appointment for service? I have to drive 1.5 hours each way to this Whaler dealership, with an appointment they might have done the work in an hour or so. .
If this was a Mercedes or BMW dealership, would they say "leave it here for 2 weeks, we'll try to get to it."
Anyways my first Whaler is a great boat ; for travel around our island/cottage in Canada on Georgian Bay. Boat stayed in the water for 3 months this summer. Before towing it up to Canada, I went to another boat yard (not Whaler dealer), for some work. They put in a 25 gallon Moeller tank, under the seat, and installed a Garmin echoMAP plotter. They did let me set up an appointment, both times and did this work in 2 days!
I highly recommend the Moeller topside tank over the OEM 6 gallon tanks, for serious boating!
That's a lousy arrangement. I would not have left it with them.
Could you bring it back to the shop that did your work this past summer? It sounds like you had a good experience with them, and anybody can prep the engine for winter -- it doesn't need to be the dealer.
In fact, you could probably handle the winter prep yourself. What does it need? Crank case and lower unit oil changes? A couple of filters? (There are great tutorials on-line if you are unsure of yourself.) It would probably take less time than driving back and forth to that dealer -- twice!
Nice to hear the Montauk is workign out well for you!
I would do one of two things. First, winterize the motor myself. There is nothing complex about it. Second, I would find a more service oriented shop to do my winterization if I was incapable of doing it myself.
In my experience there are plenty of Mercury authorized shops not associated with Boston Whaler but I wouldn't worry if a shop was not an authorized Mercury shop for something as simple as winterization.
JRP, Butchdavis,
Thanks for the advice. I just wondered if this was typical of Whaler dealerships. I did call another marina that sells/services Mercury O/B motors. They said essentially the same thing, leave the boat with us for 2 weeks.
