Team_Dougherty

I ahve one of these. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=4DAG4I1FXWXRICWQNWRSCOIK0BW0IIWE?id=0029941017441a&type=product&cmCat=froogle&cm_ven=data_feed&cm_cat=froogle&cm_pla=0240301&cm_ite=0029941017441a&_requestid=15100 it works very well.

Boy, you are going to get a lot of different opinions on this. Here is mine. You will not hurt your motor by running 10 gauge wire to it. What you could hurt is your wiring it self. 10 gauge wire is typically rated for 30 amps. 6 gauge is rated for 50. If your motor draws significantly more current than what the wire is rated for you could have problems. The biggest thing that could happen is your wire will get hot and burn if you draw too much current from it. A lot of factors come into play before that happens. How much over the rated current and duty cycle (on time versus off time) are just a couple. The other issue is voltage drop. If your motor does not get enough voltage to run it will draw more current from the battery. This will also cause the wire to heat up and shorten battery life as well. I personally would go with the bigger wire if this motor where the primary means of moving the boat and it ran for more than 15 minutes at a time. If the motor were only used for 30 seconds every 10 minutes or so to move along a bank and fish I would not worry about it. The wiring would not heat up enough to cause concern. Paul

This happened when I was about 17 or 18. I was on my way home from a week in Canada with my family. My father, mother and brother were in one car and I was in my pickup towing my boat. We stopped at the halfway point, Cortland, NY, on the way home for lunch and fuel. After lunch we went to Mobil station to fuel up. I pulled in to and open lane, got out of my truck and realized that the fuel door was on the other side. It was new to me; my old car had the fuel door in the middle under the trunk. Anyway, I pulled out to turn around and turned a little tight. I hit the fuel island with the trailer and flipped the trailer and boat on their side ripping the axle right of the trailer. Holy Crap! what do I do now? Well I pushed the trailer back onto what was left of the wheels and pulled it out of the way. I then went in to the office of the gas station and asked if there was a place around where I could rent a trailer to put my boat and trailer on to tow home. The attendant sent me to a u-haul place down the road. They did not have anything big enough for that. But he knew someone who could help me out. He made a call and told to go back to the gas station and his friend will meet me there with his welding truck. About 15 minutes later a big pickup with all sorts of gear onboard shows up. The driver gets out we introduce ourselves, we talk, he assess the situation, take a few measurements. Another 15-20 minutes later he said I need to go for parts, wanna come with? Having nothing better to do I said sure. I would not to that today. Anyway, after a trip to his shop and an industrial supply store we where back at my broken trailer. After 45 minutes of cutting, welding and salvaging spindles bearings etc. My trailer was ready to go with a new axle in place. After all that, Getting ready for a good fleecing, I asked how much? He took pen to paper added material, his time, travel and what ever else. The bill came to $75.00 I was amazed at the low price. I gave him all the cash in my wallet giving him a nice $75.00 tip and said that you very much. My brother, father and mother who waited for me, they did no have to, were also amazed and the low price and gave him $25.00 more. He really pulled me out of a jam and deserved it. At $175.00 it was still a bargain. That trailer served me well for many years after that. It goes to show there are honest people out there not willing to give it to someone in need. Paul

16' Crestliner Angler 16 25 HP Mariner outboard by myself w/ 13" prop and tail wind GPS says 25MPH with light load. Normal fishing load 20MPH with 11" prop and a partner.

I agree with Skwerl, if you maintain your trailer you should not have any issues with bearings etc... The only items I carry are a spare wheel and tire assembly, Grease gun and light bulbs. Come to think of it, I do not even need the bulbs any more since I converted to LED lights. In all of my 22 years of towing a boat I only have one bearing issue (as I knock on wood) and it was bad enough that it ruined the spindle making road side repair impossible. That whole issue wasn't because of bad maintenance. I bumped a curb and, unknowingly, knocked a bearing buddy off losing all my grease. I now know to look when I do that.

No you really do not need anything special. The amount of grease they came with I felt was not enough. As you assemble them just add a good coating of greast to the bearings. Make sure you get in all the rollers and add a little extra in the hubs so as it heats up it will flow into the bearings. Paul

I have ordered and built this trailer and I am very happy with its performance. Very easy to assemble. Make sure you lube the bearings well. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=5002 here are a couple of pictures of the finished product. Paul

I send my propss to this guy to repair. http://midwestpropeller.com/ he even has a 10% off coupn on his web page. Paul

A friend of mine bought this one for $2K

I am not sure you should waste your time making an anchor. I have a 10 lb, or so, mushroom anchor that works great for my 16' "V" bottom. These are cheap, plastic coated and available at walmart. If you make one, say out of cement and a gallon milk jug, The concrete will eventually break down scratch your boat etc... Plus it has a round bottom and will not hold bottom like a mushroom. Take $20.00 go to walmart and buy one. You will be happier. Paul

I can not tell you what colors to paint your boat. But I can tell you the stearing in on the right side to counter act the torque of the prop. The prop turns clockwise this will cause the boat to lean left when running. The driver's weight will keep the right side of the boat down. Paul

try one of these. I have an older one and use it all the time. http://www.cannondownriggers.com/site/html/htmlsite/bl/4200.htm

As far as I know. You will need a whole new unit and it will share the transducer with another unit. I do not know of anything that will allow you just to see the the display of the other unit. If there was my guess would be it would cost just as much as a full unit. You would need a depth finder with a video out jack. if they made them. Lowrance does make lowrancenet some kind of network to share data between GPS, Depth Finer and radar. You would have to look to see if they make just a display. Paul

what you need in Lowrance part # SB-6BK here is one place that has them. http://www.shootnhunt.com/catalog/JM/marine_electronics/lowrance/accessories/5001250.html

I am jealous.

JoshKeller, Wow. You burn 50 Gals of fuel every two weeks in your boat a week. That is what I call fishing. Paul

Jolicious, I have seen this topic beaten to death in many forums around the internet. I think some of them have almost evolved into knock down, drag out brawls. I can tell you what I do. I use the Wal*Mart brand super tech TCW III in my outboard. It costs around $8.00 a gallon. It is even listed on the NMMA website as being TCW III certified. http://www.nmma.org/certification/programs/oils/registeredoil.asp?y=TCW32006&s=OilName This is required by outboard manufactures for their outboards. If you scroll down the list you will see that the Wal*Mart brand is made by Shell. You will also see that Shell also makes the Pennzoil brand. I have used the Wal*Mart Brand, and other less expensive TCW III certified brands, in my 1985 outboard since I have owned it and never had a problem. I also use it my weed wacker, chainsaw and other 2 cycle engines with out a problem. If your outboard manufacture says to use TCW III rated oil. I feel you are safe using the Pennzoil brand or any other brand of oil as long as it is TCW III rated. I, like you, can not justify spending $30.00 a gallon for two cycle oil just because it says Mercury Marine on the bottle when you know the do not have an oil refinery and Shell or Exxon or someone else made it for them. I much rather spend $10.00 a gallon for something I know works and has never let me down. Paul

I voted yes. I use mine only when I fish on the few lakes I go to, to find structure. I fish mostly on a local river and the water is usually 4' or less. A fish finder is usless to me then.

If your battery caps are,tight, like the ones one my batteries. I think you will be in good shape. Paul

I can not offer any tips. But you might be able to find one here. www.smalloutboards.com Paul

As far as I know there is no easy way to measure the pitch of a prop. The pitch is usually stamped on the hub. You might me trying to measure the Diameter. Paul

Usually the boat manufacture will chose the prop for the boat that will give the best all around performance. You can try calling them. Do you know what RPM your motor is turning at WOT (Wide Open Throttle)? You will need to find this out before you change props. You do not want to under prop and over rev the motor. A 1" pitch change will change motor RPM around 200 RPM. This depends on gear box ratio. If you want a faster hole shot drop to a 21" prop and see what that does for you. Some mercury dealers have a prop testing program where you can try props before you buy them. You should check your local one out. Paul

Here is a copy of what I posted on another website. It is about the pitch of a prop. Paul In short, the lower the pitch the faster the boat will accelerate and the slower the top end speed. Think low gear in a car. The higher the pitch, the slower the boat will accelerate and the higher the top end speed. Think high gear in a car. The pitch of a prop is just like the pitch of a screw. A 15 prop would theoretically move a boat 15 in one revolution. Now there is a lot of variables, slippage is one of them, motor HP and Torque in another. Hold on. This will get long winded. Sorry :-) as if it is not already. I have a 16' aluminum boat with a 25 HP motor. With a 13 pitch prop it will go 25 MPH if I am by myself. If I put someone else in the boat it will only do 18~20 MPH and it takes longer to get on plane. The motor also does not reach 5500 rpms. This is where it has the most HP. Check your manual for your motors operating range. Now, if I put on the 11 prop with 2 people the motor will reach it 5500 rpm range, it will go 25 MPH again and it will plane much faster. Now the reverse. Told you this would be long. If I have the 11 prop on the motor with just me on the boat will accelerate like a bat out of hell. Top speed is still 25 MPH but the motor is going 6000 RPMs this is beyond the recommend range. I think I need a 12 to have the best of both worlds and not have to change props depending on load. So after all the above what do you do? I think you should find the pitch of your current prop. Does the current prop perform well with you normal load? If it does, replace it with the same pitch. If your hole shot could be better go down 1 or 2 want a little more top end go up 1 or 2. Now do not think someone can put a 16 prop on their outboard and go 50 MPH. This is where HP and Torque come in. A 100 HP may be able to turn a 16 prop and go 50 MPH but a 60HP may not be able to turn a 16 prop. Slippage is another factor. A prop turns in a liquid, less friction. A screw turns in a nut or threaded hole or wood. There is a lot of friction there. Sorry again for the long winded explanation.

jspike1, Unfortunatley with a pontoon boat you have a lot of surface area for the wind to catch. You can use just about any bow mount motor on a pontoon. Just get the highest thrust you can afford. The pontoon boat I was on, last Saturday, had a wireless MinnKota on the front. You can also use drift sock but they will only slow your drift. I feel you should go with a trolling motor. Paul

I have a reconditioned bow mount MinnKota I bought form BassPro several years ago and have not had a lick of problems. Paul