Does anyone unscrew/remove their seats when winterizing and leaving outside?

[Daren and Heather]

Boats going to be sitting shrink wrapped outside during the extremely cold Minnesota winter. I took my removable cushions out, as well as the captains chair because it was super easy. But now I’m wondering, should I take the other seats out as well? I’m talking about the seats that flip up that are screwed to the hinges. I don’t know if that’s overkill or a good idea. Or if I’ll wear out the screw threads in those seats by taking them off every winter. Thanks!

 

[WREKS]

Will the shrink wrap support the snow load? If it will. I think you will be ok.

 

[Joshua Miller]

I take all my bottom seat cushions out and store them in my garage over the winter. Too much work to unscrew seat backs every year IMO.

 

[mwalker4]

For the seat bottoms that flip up, I would clean out the compartments and use some damp rid or similar in the compartment then flip them down. I would also use damp rid in the rest of the boat. I have done this before with success. The big concern is trapped moisture condensing when the temperature drops causing mold and mildew. The further we get into winter the dryer the air gets so you don't have to worry much about external humidity.

 

[haknslash]

Make sure you put some damp rid in there before the shrinkwrap and a vent if you can in your area. When I shrinkwrapped mine last year I removed all of my cushions but I don't think it's mandatory you go to that level so long as you have damp rid containers all throughout. My dealer hung a few of the large damp rid bags and I added some to all of my compartments. Probably a little overkill but I've never had an issue with mold or any foul smells in either of my boats.

 

[Daren and Heather]

Thanks for the help guys. I ended up just removing all of the seat bottoms, it was pretty easy to unbolt them, and brought them all inside the house. Then I put 8 damprid containers in different parts of the boat, and got it shrinkwrapped.