Surviving Winter on a HOUSEBOAT in Minnesota?

Getting our liveaboard boat ready for winter in Minnesota
We get a lot of questions about how we live on a boat in Minnesota. In this video, we are prepping our boat so that the marina can wrap it. Having your boat wrapped is a LIFESAVER. It keeps the wind out and helps hold the heat in.

[@charlesdeverre7304]

Love the mini fire hydrant on the false grass for the doggies 😀

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

😂 Thanks.

[@andi5262]

Never knew you could shrink wrap a boat.

[@Artoconnell]

Big money side gig in frozen parts of the world.

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

@@andi5262 it’s a lifesaver!

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

@@Artoconnell Definitely.

[@pjmillah2172]

You haven't spent much time in the northern climates lol. I'm from northern Michigan. On the flipside, I'm sure there is a ton of things I do not know about living in dry and arid conditions either lmao.

[@RicksPuzzlingAdventuresfro-h6b]

what do you do when the water freezes? Is the hull strong enough to hold up to the pressures from the ice around the boat? How do you keep warm in it? Do you need to run the engine from time to time? What kind of heat and electric is on your boat. Yeah I know I have lots of questions but I love this kind of stuff. I follow a Narrow boat couple in UK that has long boat in the canals there but that is a lot different. It freezes but their boats hull is metal/steel. Also they use both electric when docked in a marina but have solar too. I would like to see more of your boat. Looks really cool. Thank You for the great video. Peace.

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

Yeah, we had all of the same questions also. They winterize the engines so you don’t run them at all. We had to install a water holding tank because you have to disconnect the water from the shore. Like an RV, our old boat has 30 amp service so we wanted to go with gas heat. One of the other boats runs straight electric heat. We had a 250 gal tank put up on the levy and ran a line down to the boat. I installed two 25,000 BTU RV heaters and it keeps the boat toasty warm. Just set the thermostat and relax. We ran that tank for 6 weeks before we had to refill. As far as ice, they put “bubblers” in the water which pull warmer water up to the boat to keep the ice clear. You have to keep one side of the boat clear so that it doesn’t damage the boat. We are working on a video now of that process. Great questions, keep em coming and thanks for watching.

[@JamesScott-f2l]

Tough sons of a gun 😮

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

@@JamesScott-f2l 🤣 tough, crazy, cheap…it’s a toss up.

[@user-sf9pq5ox7w]

live on that during winter? crazy. poor dog.

[@ReidDogsOnDeck]

There’s actually more than a few dog families around here. Being from the south, our dogs don’t like the cold, but they’ve adjusted really well.