BKeith

I guess you just haven't trained your wife right. Mine would think something was wrong if I didn't have several. When we got married in 1969 I had three and bought a fourth shortly after getting married. I had my 4WD Bronco and my car also. She has always assumed that's normal and there has never been any discussion on why I always need several boats and vehicles.

Any time you fog one for winter storage, it's recommend you take it to the lake, run it easy for a few minutes the get it warmed up, then run it WOT for about 10 - 15 minutes and change the plugs in it. Since you've already been running it, I would remove and clean the plugs, do not replace them right now, then wait until you can take it to the lake and run it, then put a new set in. Regardless if I fog one or not, if I store one for several months, I always run it once at the lake with fresh gas in it and then change the plugs. As for the filter, screw one of the bowl screws (main jet covers) out of the carb, should be a brass screw with a big head. Gas should drain out, then pump the primer bulb a few times and see if gas runs out as you pump the bulb. The filter could just have a big air pocket or there may be no fuel getting to it. Once you take the screw out of the carb and pump it, that will let you know. It should fill up with fuel with that brass screw out. If you can get to them with ease, take one out of each carb and pump it. That will make sure you don't have a needle stuck close from gummy gas left in them. If that all fails, pull a fuel line loose somewhere after the filter and pump it, see if you get gas then. If not, most likely you have a valve stuck in the fuel pump or gummy gas stopping things up.

Hours will depend greatly on how the engine was run, what kind of oil was used, and how it was maintained. I've seen motor that were run on cheap oil, never decarbed and run at lower rpm only last 500 - 600 hours. Motors running quality oil, (regardless of what you read on here by many that believe all outboard oils a created equal, they are not) and a regular does of one of the decarb agents like SeaFoam and the motors can operate at max rpm, 1,200 - 1,500 is normally no problem. I've seen commercial operated V-6 Johnsons/Evinrudes run for over 2,000 with no major malfunctions. One of the main causes of early engine wear is carbon. Carbon builds up rapidly with cheap oil. Add cheap oil to and over proped engine that can not turn close to max rated RPM and carbon builds up very quickly and very heavy. It then flakes off and gets between the piston and sleeve, working just like sand paper when it does. There are a number of products, each manufactor has their own, designed to keep the carbon burned off and should be run through the engine at least every fifty hours, or you can keep you engine on a steady diet of SeaFoam and it does a great job at keep it clean. Over proping one is another major killer. Two stroke engines do not like to be loaded, they need to be able to spin near max rated rpm at WOT. Over loading one makes it run rich and can't burn hot enough to keep the carbon from building, cheap oil compounds that problem. Then no matter how one is maintained, you always have those motors that have engineering problems/defects that are going to break regardless of how well it's maintained. At least 25% of the mid 90's OMC 200's and 225 will loose the ring locator pins in #2 or #4 piston, mostly #2. When it does, it grenades that piston, sleeve and sometimes the whole block. That's due to a cooling system design problem that make egt temps for those cylinders run 50 degrees hotter than the others. Most that know this run one jet size larger in those two carbs (for instance #64 in place of a #62). The extra fuel helps keep the piston cooled to more closely match the others. They all have these motors with built in problems, Merc has theirs, Yamaha has theirs and their is nothing you can do about it, except hope your motor is not one of those that's going to let go. There are fixes for all these known problems by a good mechanic, but that's after the fact. To do the cooling mod on the V6 OMC's the engine has to have the powerhead taken off, and the heads removed. Then some different holes are drilled and some others plugged. It was not until they went to the 3.3 block they actually made the changes that cure that problem. Oh, by the way, many on here will say I'm FOS about the oil, which does not bother me, it's not my engine they are using that crap in. I've seen inside enough of them to know what cheap oil and good oil can make one look like.

I never thought I would ever say this but for what it cost to buy and operate a boat today, I would start off with a 17' Aluminum with at least a 60 hp motor, four storke or DFI two stroke (like an E-tech) if possible, something that has very good fuel economy. I would not buy a new one, preferably something three to five years old. Just be sure to stay away from one of those they put the little bitty motors like the 40 hp on so they could sell a package deal cheap. You should be able to find some pretty nice boats where people financed them for half a life time to get cheap payments and now are just wanting to get out from under it. The new will be worn off and fishing trips will be expensive so they are not using it but they still owe more than they are worth. If you find one of these, do your homework. Most of the time they will be trying to get there full payoff for it, but it won't be worth anywhere near that. Yes, glass boats are much nicer, tend to offer more storage and fishing room, run faster and ride smoother, but they cost a lot more to buy and a more to operate, plus more gas to tow them. You also might want to start a new post for the boat. Most people may no longer be reading this one.

My son has a 2010, 4WD 2500HD Diesel and Allison transmission. Yes it will pull, but fuel milage and the additional cost suck. As for 4WD, it does absolutely nothing for you 98% of the time as long as you are launching off concrete ramps that are not very steep. It does give you a few more options on where you can launch from and areas you can get into. Also, just one other thing, you know those other 2% of the time, you will be thanking god you had enough since to go ahead and get the 4WD. It will save your butt on more than one occassion over the years you have it. I have not been without a 4WD truck of some sort since 1968. I have no need for a truck that's not 4WD and see no since in even buying one that's not. Just remember on very important rule, 2WD to get in trouble and use the 4WD to get you out of trouble. If you use the 4WD to get yourself in trouble, you are screwed, it will probably take two more just like to get you out. You ain't never been stuck until you bury a 4WD because you are already going to be in a place most other vehicles can't get to help even if they wanted to. As mentioned, get some sort of limited slip/positive traction differential, and if there's an option to get it in the front axle, get it there also. Especially if they offer an option where you can select locked or unlocked front differential. There are companies that make an after market air lock for the front. It's worth it.

I didn't say it but I knew you were going to have problems with the TM mounted on the side, but that's one of those things most people have to learn for themselves when you tell them it won't work, they don't see why not. Been there, done that too many times of too many different types of boats. If you can make you a bracket and mount it in the front, rotate the head 180 degrees and put you a long extension handle on it, it will work, but you will have to get up and down everytime to raise it and tilt it back into the boat. That's what I do on a 14' jon I rarely use and don't have a bow mount TM on it. My extension handle is just a thin piece of aluminum tube I can fasten over it and take it of when I tilt it back into the boat. Not the most convienent method but when you don't use a boat but once every few years, it works.

I doubt you will find anything at an auction you can get in other than those public auctions that anybody can take stuff to to sell. Not exactly the place I would want to buy a boat. Most big auctions that the banks and finance companies deal with a dealer only, not something the person off the street you can buy from. I've gotten my last three at auction in Arizona, but my brother is a used car dealer and gets them for me. My last was a three year old boat booked for $18,000 (was over 30K new) but a lot of parts off the motor was in one of the storage boxes. I got it for $5,000 but I happen to be able to fix any and everything about one myself. $1,200 in parts I get wholesale and it's been running great for a couple of years. Which it cost me $800 to get it shipped from Az to GA, so for $7,000 I get a nice 20' bass boat with a 225 on it.

Look at the bottom of the head where it mounts to the shaft. Some of the early models had one screw going through it. Those you just take the screw out, and rotate it 180 degrees but 45 will require new holes. If you want to drill a new hole, I would highly recommend taking the head off because there are several wires going through the tube and it would be almost impossible to drill through it without drilling into one. Some others had three screws, others had three poprivets. If they are pop rivets you will have to disassembe the head, carefully drill the head off the poprivet and tap it through, holding the TM upside down so it falls out and not down the tube into the motor. Then you would have to drill new holes where you want it.

Yea, I luv when you try to nail them down at all the lies and excusses they can come up with. Just to screw with one, I said I would like to check it out and he said the boat was in a storage facility in Tucson Az. I told him that was perfect, I had a brother the lived near Tucscon (which I really do) and I could make arrangements for him to go by and check it out. He came back with a coupel more lies and excuses, which I countered with another option. He finally quit responding.

The deck below the one the seat is on probably just a thin piece of metal mounted directly to the ribs, and only has about an inch or so clearance between it and the hull. No room for the pipe in the bottom of the mount or strong enough to hold the mount. You need a box style base that has a flange on the base and open on one end for storage. Most I've seen were fiberglass, but I have seem them made from aluminum. This will let you take the deck out and mount one of these in the floor, giving you the leg room but not raising you way up in the air. All you have to do is find one or talk Fishing Rhino into making you one. I'm affraid if you raise if it up from there, it will be extremely unstable. You could go with one of these and mount it to a larger piece or A/C or B/C 1/2" plywood to spread the load out on the floor and that will mount over the ribs, the cover it with carpet. http://www.basspro.com/Ecomony-Boat-Seat-Pedestals/product/1205150503201/ You will need to use a good grade of plywood, and not cheap decking stuff, or it won't hold.

A little hint replacing it/them. Tie about 5/16 or 3/8" nylon rope through the eye on the end at the motor before you pull it out and pull the rope through with it. Also be aware they are sometimes tie wraped to some anchor points inside th gunwall and they may have electrical control cables tiewraped to them so pull carefully. I find it much easier to pull if you wrap paper around the front and back of that big nut and cover it with tape so it makes a nice tapper (cone shape) in front of and behind the nut so it helps keep it from hanging on everything. Do the same thing when you pull the new one. Pulling the rope with the old one gives you something to pull the new one back with. If there's a gas tank back there, it may have to come out to give you access to that side of the gunwall. If it's a rack and pinion and the cables just unbolts of the bottom of the rack, make sure you get then new one back on the right teeth or you may have more turning radius in one direction than the other. Also the steering wheel is all cockeyed if you don't get it back right.

Most likely, you will have to unbolt the motor and pull it away from the transom. If the cable comes out the a hole in the splash well, the section going through the motor is usually too long get enough clearance to get it out of the motor. When you do this, you need to go ahead and have your new cable ready to install. There's not much cleaning or lubing you are going to do that will free it up and last. I have pulled the end out of the motor and kept working a mixture of auto-trans fluid and brake fluid into it and get them to free up some, but it doesn't last long enough to make it worth the effort. Also, the steel strands usually have rusted to the point they will start breaking and I don't really think you want to be making a turn while cruising down the and have the cable break if it's a single cable streering. When you bolt the motor back up, make sure you put plenty of silicon on the bolts and in the holes to seal it.

Take someone with you and two paddles, that way you have some help getting back to the dock. Most likely with those old car batteries, you won't get very far anyway so you won't have far to paddle back. If you don't want your trip ruined, spend the bucks for one of WalMarts big yellow things. Fully charge it as soon as you get it home from the store. Then be sure to fully charge it as soon as you get back from the lake each time and either keep it on a good maintainer or charge it every six weeks or so that you don't use it.

I will first say, I'm not an engineer, the most education I have is an associate's degree in electronics, so by no means to I claim to have any type of scientific studies or knowledge on the subject. I have been towing boats and bunches of other things since 1965. I built my first car engine in 1962 and first transmission not long after that. Since then I've done more than I could begin to recollect, so I will base how I prepare my vehicles for towing on past experience, whether it be right or wrong, but so far, it has always been right for me. First off, if it's an older vehicle, I usually go ahead, pull, overhaul and modify automatics. I have built and modified the 4L60E in my 98 4WD Chevy pickup so it will easily tow 6,000 pounds in overdrive. I have towed my 20ft Javelin over 1,200 miles to south Texas in the summer heat at 70 - 75 mph and the trans temp never reached more than 195 degrees. About all that truck is used for is towing and that transmission has over 80,000 miles on it now. It has made numbers of trips to south Texas and several to Arizona, and hualed a** doing it, always with at least 3,200 pounds behind it. On all my vehicles I tow with, I add at least a 7,000 btu with bypass, external cooler and for larger pickups and loads I will go as much as 24,000 btu, I install a external temp guage, I change the fluid every 50,000 miles and I add a bottle of Lube Guard. So far, I've never had a transmission failure on any vehicle, so I will keep doing things my way. If you get a vehicle with a factory towing package, some will already have external coolers and if you get a pickup that's rated as 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton, they usually have a larger transmission and much more suited for towing, but I still add an external guage. I will say, no matter the make or model, most transmissions are not designed to tow in overdrive, unless you have an Allison or something similar. I modified mine to do so. Also, what you might find suprising, it's a good chance you will bet better gas milage if you don't use OD towing.

Some things to consider anytime you want to improve a boats performance and hole shot. Getting the motor proped so it will turn max rated RPM with normal load improves speed and if RPM is several hundred below max, the right prop will improve hole shot. A small motor will be helped by going one size smaller so the rpm will exeed max and just watch the tach so you don't over rev it with a lite load NEVER go to a larger prop than you can turn a max RPM. People think going to a bigger prop will give them more speed, usually it's just the opposite, all it does is places a heavier load on the motor which is harmful to the motor. It also kills holeshot A good stainless prop always outperforms an aluminum prop with more speed and better hole shot. Proper engine height and setback improves speed, and handling If hole shot is the main issue, a four blade stainless prop helps but does cost you a few mph and cost several hundred dollars A hydrofoil on a properly adjusted engine cost less that $100 and give a better whole shot than the four blade prop. Put a proper size four blade stainless and a hydrofoil on and it will greatly improve hole shot.

If it help with porposing and cut speed, the motor was set too low. About the only time they will have any affect of porposing is then coming off plane. They can help stop that bad bounce some boats get just as the boat start droping down in the water, coming off full plane. When up on plane at cruising speed it should be above the water line. I run an SE 300 on my high performance motors to prevent prop blowout coming out the hole on a boat that runs 80 mph and it does not slow top end down any. I've got friends that run them on 90 mph boats, and they wouldn't have it if it slowed them down. The are nothing more than a jack/lifting device. When the motor is trimed all the way in, as the boat starts gaining speed moving forward, water pressure starts lifting on the hydrofoil, the more speed, the more lift. However once the boat lays over, with the motor trimed out, if the engine height is set right, the hydrofoil is lifted above the water line and the water is just hitting the bottom of it. It does not have full contact with the water to provide anykind of lift or drag. You will see a lot of drag racers running them because it helps the boat come out flatter and get it layed over quicker, they dang sure wouldn't use one if it slowed them down. Now, theres are not going to be those big, wide things you see on most boats. Their's are almost flat and ony 6"-8" wide normally.

First off, a 40 four stroke is not much motor for that size boat. Another one of those Tracker deals where then underpower the hull, just so they can keep the price down. I would suggest working with your setup. Yes, a stainless prop the same pitch as your aluminum will give you better peformance all the way around. Also, something to look at is your motor height. Almost everyone I've ever seen mounted to the transome is mounted too low. Place a level on the bottom of the hull and level the boat with the tounge jack. Then place the level on the anticavitation plate and adjust the trim until the motor is level. Now, if you look down the bottom side of the anticav plate and it should be an inch or so above the bottom of the hull. Now, you just don't have enough motor to see big gains but it may be possible to see a couple mph gain in speed and the hole shot will be better. A good SS prop will almost always give a noticable increase in performance over an aluminum prop.

When the motor height is right, Hydrofoils with help a lot getting a boat out of the hole. The ones I like are the SE Sport. Those whale tail things will sometimes bite the water in a turns. If the motor is too low, they can create extra drag when up and on plane. Properly installed, and set, they work great.

Usually they take a smaller plug, other than the overflow, it will probably be your 1"

Call it winterizing, call it storing it, whatever, if the boat is going to be sitting several months, it needs to be prepared for storage. A boat and trailer needs to be service at least once a year, call it winterizing, call it sericing, it still needs to be done and winter is when most people use there boats much less to not at all and is a good time to service it. If a motor sits outside where the morning sun shines on the motor after a cold night, it really should be fogged if left for extended periods. After an hour or so of warm sun shinning on it, pull the engine cover off and you will see why. It will be so wet with condensation, you will think someone turned a garden hose loose under there. Even if it's cold and just the afternoon sun hits it, it will still get soaking wet inside the cowling. One other thing, a lot of people think unplugging the fuel line and letting the engine run all the gas out is a good thing to do, WRONG!, never do that to any motor that sits outside. I dries all the protective oil film that's in the fuel left inside the motor, so they can rust parts you don't want rust on in a heartbeat. It's also very harmful to multi-cylinder motors because the top cylinders usually run out first and they are running dry with no oil while the bottom's are still keeping it running a little longer.

I could be a leak most anywhere. First thing I would do is plug the livewell drain from the outside and pump intake, in the rear of the boat. If it's still getting water in in, plug the overflow, if may be splashing into it. That will eliminate all possible leaks from the live well so if you're still getting water in the sump, it's not coming from the livewell. If it has two livewells, you will have to do this to both, but only one at the time if you are planning to keep any fish you catch that day. From there, I would plug the bildge outlet, just to make sure it's not splashing in through it. Now, if you've eliminated both of those and still getting water in the bildge sump, you probably have a hull leak somewhere. My next suggestion you may not like. Level the hull with the tounge jack, put the drain plug in and fill it with several inches of water and start checking all seams and rivets on the hull for water coming out. Just remember, water weighs eight pounds per gallon and it don't take many inches to put several hundred pounds in the boat. While it's not going to hurt the boat, it's going to be giving your trailer springs and axle h***, so watch your springs and make sure you are not getting too much sag.

When you change your fluid, do two things, add a bottle of Lube Guard http://www.lubegard.com/~/C-113/LUBEGARD+Platinum+Universal+ATF+Protectan (most parts store sell it) and see about adding a temp guage so you can monitor the temperature. The guage is worth it's weight in gold because you can see when the temp starts getting over 200 (thats very hot for an automatic) and and lets you know you need to back off some. Really good to have when pulling a lot of hills/mountains. If it didn't come with the factory towing package, with external cooler, I would also recommend having one added, this would be needed even for you normal three hour trips. What you may not realize, even on you normal trips, the transmission could be over heating just a little and everytime it does, you are baking the seals inside the clutch packs and all. Eventually, they get so hard, they loose their flexibility and then you start loosing pressure. The trans starts slipping, even though you may not feel it at first and then it start over heating even more until it finally puts you down on the side of the road. This can easily happen in less than 100,000 miles if it's not properly cooled and monitored.

I've used my Honda EN 2500 watt generator many times on my Pro Tourny 300, that's what we use for camp power and also to run the a Small AC unit but it's your old fashion generator that has to run at it's set speed all the time. I had never paid any attention to it until now so I checked my little Yamaha is it is an Inverter model. All I ever did with it was keep it in my service van for and though I've never had a problem with it, about all I've ever run off it is power tools and lights. I would think if you stuck with one of the name brand inverter models, you would be in good shape. According to Honda, theirs is better than AC out of the wall.

Like I said, I think you find most gas powered generators will have a sine wave output because the voltage is created from a rotating assembly, which gives you the rolling rise and fall of the voltage that makes the sinewave. The only concern you normally run into with generators is the frequency. Any change in the set RPM will change the frequency. Inverters that are running off a battery or some other sourse is where you will have problems. They are taking a DC source, oscillating it, stepping it up to the desired voltage and then using filters to try and role the edges to get a simulated sine wave. Some are better than others at doing this but you will usually pay dearly for a good one. The other draw back is they pull enough current that you may need to run the vehicle while it's on. Now, with some of this off brand chinese stuff everybody seems to want to sell/use, all bets are off on what you might get. Also whether or not it will even run when you want to use it. Where you might run into a problem with some of these cheaper units is they use a system like your vehicle's altinator, where they are using a number of fields to generate the voltage. Doing that, the frequency will be way too high for most any piece of equipment but it lets them put out a large amount of current and voltage from a small package. They will recitify this voltage to make it DC and then run it through an inverter to get it to a usable frequency and go the the same shaping process as any other inverter to try and make it look like a sine wave. Gee wiz info, you vehicles altinator is putting out over 100 volts, some as much as 130 volts, then it's recitified and run through the regulator to get it to the 14.6VDC for the car battery. They do this some they can put out huge amounts of current from a small altinator.

Not so fast there. Depending on his onboard charger, it may not like a square wave/simulated sine wave from in an inverter. I would go with a good AC generator, as mentioned you have power for numbers of other things with a generator. My small Yamaha is fairly quite, the 2Kw Honda ain't, so when I take it, I have riged an external muffler and a way to hook it to the engines exhaust so I can quiten it down some.