Nitro 882

Thank you. You are absolutely right about any knife being able to be sharpened enough for the kitchen. I need to "hone" my sharpening skills (get it) instead of buying more knives. The voice of reason wins again. Salute to you.

Hi folks. My wife has been going down hill at 78 and I've taken over her former household duties including cooking our meals. I've grown to really enjoy cooking and meal prep and, if I do say so myself, I've gotten pretty good at it. We have an old "block" of assorted kitchen knives that were not very expensive and they perform as such. I once worked for a meat packing plant and learned the immense value of a sharp knife. I also learned that the more carbon steel used in the blade, the sharper you could get it and the easier it was to maintain the edge. They would tend to not stay bright and shiny like stainless steel knives but I'm looking for sharpness, not pretty. There was an old saying amongst the meat cutters that "a sharp knife will never cut you." Meaning that the less force you needed to apply to make your cuts, the less likely you would slip and have an accidental self-inflicted stab wound. Considering the above, some of you must have a "go to" kitchen knife that is versatile and maintains a sharp edge with a normal amount of attention. I'm not looking for a set of knives but rather a good utility knife. As with any search, my head is spinning with the number of options that come up and, no matter how I try to specify what I'm looking for, all I get is offerings for anything resembling a knife. Any guidance would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

I found a place to get whatever Mercury service manual you need. Just send an email to: publications.brunswick.com Give the serial # of your engine and a young lady named Lauri will give you instructions on how to make your purchase. My Merc XR6 manual cost $114 + freight. It arrived yesterday and is over 2 inches thick with everything you need to know to service your engine. The ability to fix your own boat problems will keep you on the water instead of waiting weeks for a shop to be able to get you in for service/repair. Example, my motorcycle has 180,000 miles on it and has NEVER been back to the shop. Outdoor toys seem to always break down when the weather starts to get nice.

Hey guys, I need the manual listed above. I'm confused by on-line offerings that claim to cover engines from 2 hp to 300 hp inclusive. It doesn't seem possible to effectively cover that many engines in one manual. By example, the manual for my specific motorcycle is over 500 pages. How can I obtain a manual specific to my Merc XR6?

I have an old Merc XR 6 150hp (carbureted) When my engine did the same thing, it turned out to be a bad starter, New starter fixed the problem. The click you hear is the starter solenoid activating or delivering voltage to engage the starter. "It slowly cranked" would be another hint at starter issues. I hope your problem can be fixed as readily as mine was.

Okay guys. Thanks for the responses, however, I wasn't looking for suggestions on adhesives/sealants. I'll soon be 80 and have owned boats for 60 years and I'm aware of a bunch of suitable products that will do the job. Also, at 80, I've got a shop full of products acquired over time that I would like to find uses for. Hence, my post specifically asked if anyone had successfully used the EZ Seal product to repair a keel guard.

I've got about a foot long section of the guard coming loose at the bow end. I think that is strange as thar part never comes in contact with anything. In any event, I'm thinking of using some EZ Flex rubberized sealant that I have in the shop to fix it. Anyone have any experience/success using this product?

I keep jumper cables in the boat. Have rarely needed them. Seems like we always need the elegant solution. I remember a story from back during our space race with Russia. Nasa spent $28 million to develop an ink pen that would write in a "zero gravity" environment. The Russians used a PENCIL. To each his own. 😉

It is my understanding that, for the oiling system to work properly, it has to be air-tight. The oil pump must create a negative pressure to draw oil from the main 3 gallon tank, past the one-way valve on the engine and into the reserve tank mounted on the engine. Any "leak" in the system will cause a loss in negative pressure and the oil will drain back into the main tank. As I said before, I have primed the system many times by removing the cap and running the engine at idle until the oil level rises and overflows. Having the cap removed creates a much greater "leak" in the system than a "small crack" as described. The fact that the oil pump is able to draw oil up to and overflow the reserve tank proves that the system is able to provide lubrication to the engine. When the cap is replaced the oil level will drop no more than an inch or so which is just enough to cause the intermittent beep alarm that I'm trying to eliminate. Any crack or leak in the system will prevent it from maintaining any oil level at all and will result in serious damage to the engine as it becomes starved for lubrication. Has to be another explanation.

I have a 2004 Merc XR6. The motor performs perfectly with one small but annoying glitch. The remote oil reservoir up on the engine is constantly about an inch low. This causes the float to bounce with the waves and create a intermittent beeping(alarm). Not the "normal" beep-beep-beep that signals low oil level, just beep-wait till the next wave- beep etc. The float, at its lowest point, makes a contact the produces the beep alarm. I have run the engine (several times) with the oil cap off until the level rises (overflows), but that only solves the problem for a day or two. Mind you, the oil level never goes more than an inch or so low and the is just enough for the float to signal the loss of oil which, if the loss progressed, would allow for a half hour or so of running before depleting the entire remote supply and possibly damaging the engine. I have removed the cowl dozens of times to check the oil level and have never seen it run lower than the aforementioned inch or so after several days of operation. I'm tempted to simply disconnect the wires to the float alarm to stop the incessant and, seemingly unnecessary, beeping. It's like the old fable about the boy who cried wolf (for you older folks.) Any similar experiences and/or solutions to this minor, but aggravating, situation? Thanx in advance.

A few months away from 80. Pretty healthy but take BP meds. Just decided I ain't dying any time soon so I had my 2005 Nitro 882 recarpeted and detailed and will be heading to Florida mid-January for my 3 month escape from the frozen tundra of New England. This will be the 20th year (thank you baby Jesus). Clearly, I don't have the same fire in my belly for fishing but I still love to get out. I fish like an old man and usually don't get on the water till 9/10 am and head home for happy hour bout 3/4 pm. Then I wonder why I don't catch fish like I used to, lol. My biggest problem is that my weight makes me not so nimble. Be careful what you pray for. When I was a boy, I grew quickly to 6'6" and was so skinny I could race a snake down a drainpipe. I lifted weights and ate everything in sight to gain weight for years to no avail until I was 35 and God started listening and he has blessed me (?) up to 340 lbs. I still go to the gym and lift weights so I'm only 52 percent body fat, lol. Just makes it harder to maneuver but I'm gonna go on a diet when I get older. I've told my family over the years that I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of not living. When I can no longer throw my leg over my motorcycle or climb around inside my boat I want to go to that big weigh-in in the sky. Have a Happy and Healthy holiday season and New Year.

Heading for Florida and the Kissimmee Chain in January for the 20th year. The last few years the hydrilla has become more of a problem to navigating especially on Toho. I've commented before that, by the time I leave for home in April, the lake looks like a golf course the way hydrilla has grown. I was just wondering if anything has been done or if conditions have remained the same. Last year I had times when the water intakes would get clogged causing the over-heat alarm to go off and I'd have to come off plane to clear the weeds. Then, I'd have to idle as much as 1/2 mile or more to find clear water so I could get up on plane once again. PITA but, at least, I'm not back home shoveling snow. Lol. Any info would be appreciated. Thanx.

After reading some responses to my post above, I dug a little deeper and found this. "Check your tires inflation pressures, including the spare, at least once a month and before going on a long trip. Tire pressure should be measured when tires are cold-that is when they have not been driven on. Otherwise, your tires may have heated up increasing the inflation pressure inside them by several pounds. This is normal. Never "bleed" or reduce the inflation pressure in a hot tire." I've heard that ignorance is not what you don't know, it's what you think you know that turns out to be wrong. The older I get (going on 80) the more stuff I thought I knew turns out to be not true. Thanks for educating me and I hope I didn't get anyone to adopt my potentially harmful habit. My intent was to share something I had picked up somewhere that kinda made sense at the time. I stand corrected. 👍

I've been fortunate to be able to tow my bass boat to Florida from Massachusetts from January till April. When I leave the "frozen tundra" my tires are inflated to the recommended pressure listed on the side of the tire (Endurance). I found a tip, many years ago, that I'd like to share with other "snowbirds". The air in my tires when I head south is 20/30 degrees F. By the time I travel through the warmer States and reach Florida, that same air is 40/50 degrees higher thereby elevating the internal tire pressure to a level that could result in a blowout. Therefore, at every fuel/rest stop, I check and adjust tire pressure as needed. I've released enough built-up pressure to make me believe I'm doing the right thing. I hope this is helpful. Tom

Yeah, that's my point and what I want to confirm, just out of curiosity more than anything.