Yes, run stabilized fuel through before you drain it dry

Yes — if you’re draining the tank for storage, run stabilized fuel through the system first so the hoses and carburetor get coated before everything dries out.

Draining the tank but leaving the lines full of untreated fuel is half a job. That leftover fuel evaporates over the winter and leaves varnish behind, which is exactly what clogs jets and makes engines hard to start in the spring. If you run stabilized fuel through first, the coating left on everything is protected instead of a future problem.

Order matters. If the fuel in the tank is old, drain that first, then add a small amount of fresh fuel with stabilizer — just enough to fill the line and the carb bowl. Run the engine five to ten minutes so it pulls the treated fuel through the whole system, then drain the tank. The hoses are the least of your worries; the carb passages are the real prize, and this covers those too.

For a normal winter, leaving stabilized fuel in the carb bowl is fine. For years-long storage, drain that too.

Five minutes of work to avoid a carb teardown next spring.