Storing a Boat or Camper in Middle Tennessee: What to Do Before It Sits

Around here the season ends twice. The boats come off the water in October and November, and the campers get parked not long after — and then both sit for four or five months while nobody thinks about them. What you do in the hour before you park it decides whether you spend the first warm Saturday in April on the water or on the phone with a mechanic.

    Most winterizing advice online is written for Minnesota. Middle Tennessee is a different problem. We don't get a deep, steady freeze — we get a wet, mild winter with a handful of hard nights, and that combination is worse for a stored boat than steady cold. Water sits in places it should have been drained from, freezes on one January night, and cracks something expensive. The damp does the rest.

    Measure your rig before you book a space

    The single most common mistake is renting by the hull length printed in the brochure. What you actually need to fit is the trailer: tongue and coupler at the front, outboard or swim platform at the back. On most boats that's three to five feet longer than the number you'd say out loud.

    Run a tape from the tip of the coupler to the furthest point at the stern, add a foot, and rent to that. Our outdoor spaces come in four lengths:

     9x18 — a car, a motorcycle trailer, a small utility trailer

     9x30 — most bass boats, pontoons and travel trailers

     12x30 — larger fifth wheels and box trucks

     12x50 — full-size motorhomes

    The two longest sizes run a waitlist some seasons, so if you know you'll need one in October, it's worth claiming it in August.

    Boats: what to drain, fill and pull

    The order matters less than not skipping any of it.

     Get every drop of water out of the engine. Block, manifolds, raw-water system, livewell, bilge, and the plumbing on anything with a head or a sink. This is the one that cracks blocks. If you're not certain you got it all, this is the job worth paying a marine mechanic for — it's cheaper than the repair by an order of magnitude.

     Pull the drain plug and leave it out, with the bow raised slightly so rain runs out instead of pooling in the bilge all winter.

     Fill the fuel tank and add stabilizer, then run the engine a few minutes so treated fuel reaches the carburetor or injectors. A full tank leaves less room for the condensation that puts water in your fuel.

     Change the oil and filter before it sits, not after. Used oil holds acids you don't want soaking in the engine for five months.

     Take the battery home, or at minimum disconnect it, and keep it on a maintainer. A battery left connected and flat all winter is usually a battery you replace.

     Grease the trailer bearings and check the tire pressure. Tires flat-spot and sidewalls crack when a trailer sits on soft rubber for months.

    Campers and RVs

    Same principle, different plumbing. Drain the fresh tank, the grey and black tanks and the water heater, then run RV antifreeze through the lines until it comes out pink at every faucet. Close the propane valves. Defrost and prop the refrigerator door — a sealed fridge left shut for a winter comes back smelling like a science experiment.

    Then think about mice, because out here they're the real enemy. Screen the furnace and water-heater vents, pull every crumb of food including the pantry you forgot about, and check the seals around slide-outs and the roof while you've got the ladder out anyway. A seam that's fine in October is a soft floor by April.

    Cover it, but let it breathe

    A blue poly tarp pulled tight over a hull is worse than no cover at all. It traps moisture against the gelcoat and upholstery and holds it there through every wet week we get. Use a breathable fitted cover, or build enough of a frame that water runs off and air still moves underneath. Support the middle so it can't pool — a few gallons of collected rainwater weighs more than the cover was ever meant to carry.

    Check on it once a month

    Fifteen minutes, once a month, catches almost everything: cover still on and still tight, no standing water, tires holding pressure, no droppings or chewed wiring, no new cracks in the seals. You're already driving past.

    Where it sits matters too

    Our vehicle spaces sit inside the same fence as everything else at 6699 Hwy 100 — keypad gate, an individual access code for every tenant, cameras on the gate and drive aisles, and lighting good enough to hitch up before sunrise on the first trip of the season. There's turning room to back a trailer in without an audience, which anyone who has tried it in a crowded lot will appreciate. Parking starts at $45 a month, month to month.

    If you're not sure which length you need, call us at (615) 991-6244 with your trailer measurement and we'll tell you straight — including if the answer is that you need less space than you thought.