How-to Get Your PWC Ready for the Season

Disclaimer—These are general recommendations. Be sure to check your owner’s manuals for specific instructions for various PWC brands and models.

Background
While we here at Ride encourage year-round enjoyment of your personal watercraft—made possible by the excellent array of warm clothing and other gear
for cold weather riding—we know there are still a few of you who park your craft the minute the first glimmer of red hits the maple leaves.

Given the weather so far this year, many of you were more likely to have encountered really wicked cold in April than in March, say—so if you spent the Windy Month inside watching the NCAA tournaments, you missed some fine early riding weather.

In any case, if you haven’t been on the water yet this year, the following tips and reminders may spare you some frustration at the dock, or worse yet, on the road to the dock.

Steps
The first step to getting ready to ride after a layoff is to have properly winterized your craft when you put it away last fall or winter. If so, you should be set. Whoops—did you keep your battery charged? A weak or dead battery is Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to turning the much-anticipated first ride of the season into a dry run.

If you didn’t winterize or if you did only the bare minimum, here are the basics. If you aren’t sure about your mechanical skills, best visit a dealer or a shop and let them do the job:

1. Check the battery.If you didn’t hook it up to a trickle charger, remove the battery from the PWC and check the charge. If it’s low, attach it to a trickle charger. Inspect the terminals and, if needed, clean with a brush and a baking soda-water solution. Top off each cell with distilled water, if required. Once it is fully charged, reinstall, or, if it won’t charge, replace.

2. Check the spark plugs and clean, adjust and replace, if needed. Also check wiring and hoses for signs of wear and tear, and for loose clamps or connections.

3. A dirty fuel filter hurts performance and can bring your fun to a halt. Check and replace, if needed.

4. Check your oil, and either top off or change, as specified by your owner’s manual.

5. If you left gas in the fuel tank without adding stabilizer, the engine may not start. Siphon out the old gas and replace with fresh gas—mixed with the proper ratio of oil, if appropriate. Always remember to open the engine cover and let any gasoline fumes escape before starting the engine; ditto ventilating your garage or workshop.

6. Apply water-resistant grease to the drive train, as directed by your owner’s manual.

7. Check your instruments to make sure they are operating properly.

8. Inspect the engine compartment. Look for oil or gas leaks, worn wiring and loose connections—this should be part of your regular maintenance routine. Just like pilots and truckers inspect their vehicles before and after each trip, boaters should also give their vessels check-ups to catch problems while they are still small.

9. Next, make sure your paperwork—licenses, vessel registration, etc.—is up-to-date and in order.State laws are changing with regard to licensing PWC operators, and an increasing number are raising operator age limits and requiring boating courses.

10. Check your required on-board equipment:
State and federal laws consider a PWC to be a boat, which must carry certain safety items, including visual distress signals, fire extinguisher, audible signaling device (whistle or horn) and PFD. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary conducts free vessel safety checks to determine if your PWC or boat is in compliance. You don’t get a citation if something’s amiss, and if you pass, you get a decal certifying the inspection. Visit www.safetyseal.net for details. The Auxiliary’s Web site, www.cgaux.org, also provides a number of links to boating information sites.

11. AWA strongly recommends carrying an emergency kit, including first-aid kit, flashlight, marine radio, spare batteries, cell phone, bottled water, snacks, foul-weather gear, jacket, hat, gloves, basic tools such as screwdriver, pliers and pocketknife, extra sparkplugs, matches and rope.

12. Are you up-to-date on your maritime “rules of the road”?The Coast Guard Auxiliary site links to a number of boating course sites to help you refresh your knowledge and learn new skills.

13. Don’t Forget Your Trailer
If, like most people, you trailer your PWC, take the time to give your rig a once-over. Check the tires—look for wear, dry rot or decay, especially if the trailer has sat outside all winter. Check inflation and tread—and do this regularly throughout the season. How’s the spare—you do have one, right?
Examine the lights and wiring, making sure lights work properly. Put a dab of grease on the male end of the connector to help prevent corrosion. Replace burned-out bulbs or broken reflectors. Secure loose wiring and replace corroded or frayed wiring if needed. Take along replacement bulbs and fuses, as well as electrical tape.

14. Check your trailer’s hitch for signs of rust, wear or loose bolts. Also check your tow bar or ball, and lubricate as needed. Examine the winch, looking for rust, loose bolts or wear on the winch strap or cable. Replace if the stitching is worn on web-type straps or if there are kinks in the cable. Clean and lubricate as needed. Grease the tongue jack, if you have one, and make sure it is in good working order.

15. Use tie-downs.The winch was not designed to be the sole piece of equipment holding your ride to the trailer.

16. While you should also check the bearings, seals, spindles, axles, springs on your trailer, if you aren’t handy with tools you should probably take it to a dealer or shop. Some disassembly, and reassembly, is required.

17. More to the point, you have to take the PWC off the trailer to do more than eyeball the assemblies and use a grease gun to squeeze some marine-grade grease into the “zerk” fittings. That last item is a skill you should acquire: If you use the trailer a lot, you should grease the bearings at least once a month.
Check the padding on the bunk boards for wear that can damage your hull, and replace if necessary. Instead of carpeting, which can rot, or rollers, which can rust, consider a product like Bunkaps (www.bunkaps.com) as a permanent means to protect your craft.