RobDar

BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand There are alot of questions that need answering when choosing a boat. 1. What kind of fishing you normally do and for what species 2. Where you normally fish...what kind of water you will fish...small inland lakes? big water lakes? coastal waters? Rivers? 3. What are your expectations from your boat? speed? # of fisherman? yadda yadda 4. Do you want strickly a fishing boat or a boat you may want to pull the kids on a tube or whatever as well? 5. How much time and effort do you want to put into maintaining your boat? 6. What are your boating skills? 7. your maintianance skills? After those questions are answered you need to know what dealers are local and what their reputations are. You had Tracker boats shown on your post. There is really nothing wrong with them. They have some little quality quirks you do not see in other boats...but unless you are buying at somewhere like Bass Pro...be watchful of dealers reputation. I personally feel that Tracker will let anyone with a pen and the licensing fee sell their boats. We have a few Tracker dealers around here that are some real doozies man! real winners! and Tracker will do nothing for the people they have screwed over. ( but there are a few real good Tracker dealers near me as well) I believe in buying local and also feel you get the best service from a Marina that you also bought the boat from. DO NOT GO WITH THE PACKAGED MOTORS on these little boats! For the most part they are under powered! The motor has to work HARD to do its thing. It is like my boss buying a 6 cyllinder work truck. She wanted to save gas. We got worse gas milage in the 6 cylinder than we did the 8 cylinders with more equipment in them because the motor has to work harder to do the same amount of work. My father in laws 185 special edition has a 50 on it and it struggles to get up on plane. It will NOT get up on plane with 3 people in it. I have driven the 175 and the 190....the 190 does well with its package 90 horse. The 175 feels a little sluggish and underpowered with its packaged 50 horse. With all that said... you sound like you are going to keep the boat a good long while. The alum's are good first boats...good learning boats. They are also good for small inland lakes and rivers, but not the best choice for big waters. People say that the fibers are better financial decisions because they have better resale...and that is partly true...it is true for boats like Rangers, Triton, Bass Cat etc...not so much for the Nitro's because the market is kind of flooded with these boats. Before I went with the Pro 175...I would wait and save a downpayment and upgrade to the 190...here is why... 1. it is a little bigger and you will be able to handle somewhat bigger water in a little bigger boat 2. it will take 135 HP motor...which means you can put a 115 HP motor on it. What is nice about the 115 mercury is that the motor is the same physical displacement and weight as the 90 Horse...but is a 115. So you can upgrade motor size without loosing HP advantage to the weight of the larger motor. ( MERC is the only manufactuer this works with) Yes it does not make hardly any difference in top end speed...but I have driven the boat both ways and the hole shot on the 115 is better...as well as this will increase interest and value should you decide to sell. The difference in mileage between the 75 horse, the 90 horse and the 115 is very small. So small that unless you have a tendency to make LOOOOONG run to your fishing spot...you will likely never notice it.

I just had this conversation with a guy who fishes with us.. he is an engineer and seems to overthink everything. he says...the two trolling motor thing is silly. The 55lbs thrust motor is already pushing the boat faster that the 30 lbs so you are negating most of the thrust of the 30 lbs motor. adding the 55lbs motor to the 30 lbs motor does not make it 85lbs of thrust...more like 60 or 65 lbs of thrust at the most because the 55 lbs motor is already pushing the boat faster than the 30 lbs motor can catch new water to push the boat. I do not know about that... I think though that your speed would be about the same.

I have a 1989 Pro Team. Livewell: First disconnect the live well pump and see if it will run directly from the battery to see if it is a pump problem or a wiring problem. I am personally betting on a wiring problem. If the pump runs direct from the battery...start tracing wirinng. The fuse panel and switches Tracker used in our little boats are the cheapest junk. The first thing I would do...after checking for a blown fuse of course...is check for corrosion and loose connections on the fuse panel. Just getting under there an glancing at it aint enough either. Take the fuses out of the panel one at a time and make sure the clips are tight and that there is no oxidation behind the fuse and the clips. If all that seems good and clean...time to move to the switch. I have had two sitches fail on me. One was the switch, the other was the fault of the previous owner using the wrong spade terminal. The switchs look really confusing because they all have tabs that are not being used on them, but they are really not. I think I remember you saying you have a fluke meter...some simple continuity testing will tell you what you need to know. Do yourself a favor though...if you find a bad switch do not run off to the marina to buy a new one. Go to an Electrical supply house...( not Home Depot and REAL supply house LOL!) and buy a Leviton replacement. Leviton makes a direct replacement for the switch which is the same quality switch and half the price you will pay at a marina. ( my Leviton replacement was $6.85...the Marina wanted $14) You have a switch under your deck lid for the pump out because those boats did not come with a pump out and it was added aftermarket. The Off/Man/Auto switch....this is a single pole double throw switch. Off is the static position...manual is throw on and powers the pump full on, constanct run...auto is throw two and it runs the pump on a timer ( my timer is solid state/ non adjustable and is seperate from the switch. It runs the pump for 10 seconds every 30 seconds. Some of the switches have the timing mechanism built into them and that you will need to get from a marina) After your catch is in the well the auto setting keeps supplying fresh water. your pump out maybe set to run with this but I doubt it. I think the auto will keep adding new water like mine does. This really works best with a recirculating system...a seperate pump and jet that pulls the water from the livewell and re oxigenates it by pumping it through the jet nozzle. If I leave my livewell on Auto all day...I do need to check the live well level now and again cause it will fill it up to the top. I fill my livewell about 1/2- 3/4 full so my auto function does not overfill it through out the day. It is possible someone came across this on your boat and hooked the pump out to run with the auto function...but there would have to be wires running to the switch on the dash...and if they did THAT....why not just putting the freaking switch on the dash? They put it under the lid cause it was quick and easy so I doubt they went through the work to run wires upp to the auto side of your dash switch. Does your livewell have a hose bib down in the corner??? alot of guys with these boats plug that hose bib ( the old fill and dump hose) and add the pump out because the hoses are a pain in rear. sorry so darn long.

ya got a beauty there... looks like clear water. Clear water can be tough fishing...especially when you do not have the flexibility to move around so you are not casting shadows etc etc. My father in laws pond in his subdivision is this way...hot in the morning...hot in the evening...and slow during the day. You say you feel like an opportunist and not a fisherman... all fisherman are opportunists! knowing conditions, time of day, lures to throw...that is just making opportunities! The best opporutnists just know exactly where to fish, at what time of day, with what lure, under what conditions! We fished James lake in Indiana a few years ago. It is a glacial lake and clear as a bell all the way down. We were catching them off this channel where it entered the lake and the water had current and thus was a little dirty...but out in the clear water we were just frustrated! It took awhile for us to get the right combo of gear going to catch anything. I wish I remembered exactly what we ended up with but I do remember we had to strip all braided line off the rods and put on some flourocarbon...and one rod of light mono. We could see the line in the water from the boat so surely the fish knew it was there as well. be patient and experiment. and I would fish as slowly as I could tolerate without getting bored.

If it is an 07 it is under warranty. I think you need to be a little scientific about this. I am not disagreeing with you it does sound like you have a problem...but without a comparison...there is no way to eliminate possibilities. If it were me... I think I would set up a cooler or a tank as closely to the conditions of my livewell as I could muster...with a circulator, independant power suppply, same size etc...and put caught fish in it and see if they survive. We had a run here last summer where all the anglers in our tourney just started loosing fish. Started with just one or two and ran up to more than a dozen per tourney. Turned out to be an illness. by using a seperate tank and power supply you can eliminate the fish as the cause ( but not poisoning) If they do not die... I would disconnect my batteries and run a seperate livewell pump off a seperate power supply... If the fish then live in the livewell...you know it is eletrical. If they die... then you know it is a toxicity problem.

I wanted to do the same thing...but when I removed my deck to replace it...my 89 is filled with foam along each side and there would not be room for a rod locked without removing the foam.

If everything is wired correctly it is not "risky" to go without...but it is a GOOD IDEA to have one. The point of the breaker is over current protection. It is designed to keep you from a few things... 1. when matched properly to the wire size as it should be the breaker keeps you from buring you boat up but overheating the wiring 2. protects the motor from damaging faults 3. protects the motor from over use conditions, like if it gets wrapped with weeds and is pushing against a heavy load and starts drawing more power than the motor is rated for.

no do not use THHN ( it only has 19 strands)...go to an electrical supply house and buy welding cable or something similar. The welding cable will have hundreds of strands, be alot more flexible and since electric current is carried on the outside of each individual strand....something like welding cable will lessen resistance and handle the amp spike from starting the TM at full bore MUCH better than THHN. THHN will heat under DC loads...heat causes resistance...resistance causes heat...yadda yadda yadda. I was told by a MinnKota rep to figure about 1 amp for each pound of thrust ( @12 volts) #6...is 60 amp wire and guarantees you will have the opportunity to upgrade later so it is a good idea. There difference between #8 and #6 is pennies per foot. In fact there are alot of days I buy #6 for LESS THAN #8 because of commonality. It is used more than #8 so that keeps the price down.

that does seem high for a 91... interesting...NADA is usually LOW on their prices.

two things to say... market control and buying power.

I agree buy the biggest you can afford. That golf cart battery may be six volts. Does he have 2? no it is12 volt...dont know if it were a golf cart battery or not for sure...that was just the only commercial battery that came to mind.

you would have to fish a LONG time to run down a battery with a fish finder. hey...maybe this is an excuse to give my wife..."I am doing a study dear! cant come home yet!" You have X amount of stored capacity and current capacity. ramp up the draw and DC current will load up against the biggest draw along the easiest pathway and start dropping out auxiliary loads. The TM is such a large draw so quickly..the battery is trying to supply it, but there is only so much capacity there to the work...so it "steals" from you graph to try and supply the TM. anyone who has lights that dim when the A/C starts or the fridge kicks over...same deal...

ummm...not so. People keep pointing at the EPA here and Yamaha is a big one for telling folks just this... ( they told me this and I called around and emailed the EPA and coast gaurd) The EPA tightened regualtions but did not outlaw 2 strokes. Making two strokes illegal is not even in their powers. All they can do is set emmission and release standards...Any two stroke that meets their requirements is perfectly fine. Two strokes are hard to find in small motors because the manufacturers choose not to rework their technology on the two's to make them meet requirements. ( which is not the same thing as being illegal...it IS the same thing as them screwing you out of a two stroke option and blaming someone else however) They went to four strokes because it is cheaper to build the fours than rework the technology of the two stokes on the small motors...that do not have alot of profit margin in them. If two's were illegal then they would not still be selling that big motors in two strokes. The devil is in the details...

My cuda came with abooklet that explained it...didn't yours? The screen keeps scrolling when you are sitting still because the sonar is constantly recieving new information. It is not like the graph is taking a photograph of the bottom. It is an active system constantly aquiring new information so the screen scrolls to present that information. well usually...you are over the hump etc when it shows on the graph. The sonar beam goes down...and there is not alot of lead time...but each boat and set up is a wee bit different. ( a slight angle on the transducer can make your graph show things slightly differently than another) I would suggest to move the boat over something easily definable on the bottom in some calm water somewhere...when it shows up on the graph ( tossing a marker bouy helps) ...cast out and drag a weight until you hit it and can feel what you are seeing. Then you will know if you graph is showing things directly under you, slightly infront, or slightly behind. scroll speed...the faster the boat is going the faster the scroll speed you want. for sitting still or trolling around this setting is not really necessary. The cuda 168 is really good for getting basic information on what the bottom looks like. Its sonar is not sensitive enough to be used reliably as an actual "fish finder"...it is a "where fish could be" finder.

i would buy as many AH as you can afford. You cannot really have too much battery capacity but it is a real pain to have too little! A friend of mine just bought a commercial battery....golf cart battery I think it is...but anyway it is 120 AH and half the size of my 80 AH. I am not sure how they do that...or how much it costs...but I think I am going to look into it.

Gamblers are nice boats. I think the ride issue is more of finessing the driving a little. ...and how often do you really fish in big water? I mean it is nice to know that your boat can swing it ( which a Gambler can)...but how often does it really happen? At least near me I may get stuck out on 3'+ swells maybe 3 or 4 times a year. This year not at all...hardly a day with water over 1' this year. Of course if you fish the great lakes or something you have other considerations.

well good luck.

50 watts of power and the battery???? Trolling motor equate to roughly one watt per pound of thrust...( actually number is .87 or something like that)... my worry would be that with only 50 watts of power it would run too much to cool the water. There is a way to do a BTU conversion from wattage...and it takes a certian amount of BTU to cool one gallon one degree... but good lord for the life of me I cannot remember the formula for it. If I had my "pocket pal" book home with me I could look it up... someone on here will read this and know it off the top of their head. then you can calculate how much the thing would run and the risk to your battery life. 50 watts does not seem like alot. The guys are right...ice is much cheaper... I freeze a half filled two liter bottle.

...cant really judge the whole operation by one experience. Hey at least they were honest with you about what happened...that is a plus! They could have fed you line! I do think though that alot of marine dealers, if you have not bought the boat from them,...you get put on the back burner. most marine places will opt to serve a customer who bought their boat there and set aside the guy who didn't...and I have been told exactly that by more than one dealer. getting service in my area is a bear! ....knowing they had a reputation for being SLOW SLOW SLOW...I gave one dealer 23 days to get my boat tuned and running right before we went on vacation. We ended up picking the boat up on our way to the expressway to go out of town because it was not finished...go to the lake put it in the water and it did not run... they never finished workig on it... I had to pull it out of the water and me and the guy from the neighboring resort finished the work and got it running. The mechanic told me straight up...well we had a few "customers" boats come in so we did not get around to yours. I have has this happen at two different local places...so now I drive 45 minutes to get my boat serviced at this little hillbilly ( his words not mine) marine service place and they are happy as pie to serve me every time I show up... but they do not SELL boats... just repair them... and I think that is the difference!

all the alum boats get blown around in the wind...it is the nature of the beast. ..a 30lbs trolling motor...I do not know what Tracker is thinking with that stuff...you would be more successful with a 2 yr old and a Barbie paddle! ;D ..a bigger motor will be helpful, my proteam 17 has a 55# TM, but you are still going to get pushed around. I have greatly increased my fishing success by being able to fish an area thoroughly and slowly...and I use my anchor to that. drop it....fish...move down 20 yards...drop it...fish...move down 20 yards... seems like alot of work but I will tell ya there is alot to be said for being able to concentrate on your fishing and not to be fighting the TM all day long.

I hate my Eagle Cuda. As far as I am concerned...it is not a fish finder..justs a depth finder...and that is only when it works and is not flashing...680ft, 680ft, 680ft...which it does quite often for no apparent reason. I took the first one back and exchanged it...the new one does the same thing. I have one finder on the console and one up front with the transducer on the TM. I use the one on the TM more than the other but I spend most of my time up front fishing so... The only issue I have is to be careful not to bang the tranducer into a bunch of stuff...like the bottom. The Eagle Cuda is pretty basic...as far as settings...it is a personal prefernece thing. Is a fish finder essential? essential...no...helpful...yes. I know a few of the old timers who do not really use them and out fish the heck out of guys with $2000 worth of electronics on their boats. I use mine for farily basic puprposes...water temp...water depth...bottom details...to find humps, edges, drops etc. I do not rely on them as "fishfinders" so much as I do just information devices. I have caught fish when it marked absolutley nothing as often as I have caught diddly squat when it marked fish by the hundreds...but as a source of general information...I think they are invaluable. I think they are wonderful as far as educating yourself about a particular body of water and what/where to fish under certian conditions. I really think they should be called "where fish might be finders". Not that you have the fishy finder...download the fishing log from here. The fishfinder in conjunction with the fishing log will go a long way to helping you find patterns and consistancies over time in your home waters. What depth you were fishing under these conditions...yadda yadda yadda...

I had a no name brand 50amp breaker on my Minn Kota TM worked for years until it literally fell apart from the constant bumps and knocks it would go through. I ended up just replacing it with a "stereo amp style" in line fuse setup. I got mine with 4 fuses for like $15 at Pep Boys. No problems yet. well we will see where I am in "years" I guess but I have had no problems thus far... though the stereo amp style is a good thought

you can check on Iboats.com...jamestowndistributors.com...and overtons.com...they all carry one version or another. The electrical supply house near me carries a version of the breaker...but that will depend on the supply house. My supply house just happens to be a really good one. Being a fuse guy... ( most breakers are built to meet the function of a fuse. They try to match the protection a fuse gives you. This is why most motor controls and sensitive equipment still use fuses and not mechanical breakers...you cannot beat the protection of a fuse) ...you can also go to autozone and buy an single fuse block and install it inline ( mine happens to be a 50 amp) on the trolling motor positive lead. I think mine...with the fuse...cost like $16. It is not resetable like the breaker but really easy to carry a spare or two...but there are auto zones and walmarts everywhere...so somewhat easier to replace/repair on the fly than the breakers. ( which do fail on occassion)

Ford VS Chevy....just what I was going to say. I do not know if it is still true...but when I bought my motorguide a few years ago....I choose it because it seemed easier to find parts/ service for....at least where I am.

I fish a few trolling motor only tourney's... when the water is rough or choppy or it is windy...you are going to wish you could sit down in the back and steer an sternie trolling motor.