Ben

The three best deep cycle batteries you can buy are; US Battery; Trojan; and Deka. Not saying others aren't good, because you will hear all kinds of claims by people (like you) that are very happy with different brand batteries they've used and gotten very good service out of them. I'm just saying these three companies use the best products and construction techniques and their plate designs are superior to any others. Also, if they advertise it to be a 120 Ah battery, that's what it is, they don't inflate their numbers. Now I have to question your voltmeter. No battery should be reading 15.4 volts unless the charger is hooked to it and even then that's high. A fullly charged battery will normally read 12.65 - 12.8 volts, depending on the brand the the electrolite they used in it, 12.77 is kinda the norm for most deep cycles after setting for 24 hours after charging. If it's not a sealed battery, you realy should use a good hydrometer and check specific gravity, that will tell the real condition of the battery and if it's fully charging and equalized.

Just tell them like it is. Like I tell my wife when she starts giving me attitude. Try to put a man in the "dog house" and it's very possible he could end up in the "cat house".

Ya'll are not training your wives properly. Mine never says anything about any of the boats or motors I have, or how much I spend on them or tackle. I did it like this. I retired from the Air Force about 9 years ago. After about 9 months of being together 24 hours a day, we both decided somebody had to get out and go to work before we started wanting to kill each other, so I did. The agreement was what ever money I made working would go to the house (her actually) and my AF retirement would be mine since I had already put almost 23 years in for that and had planned on staying retired. It took another few months and a few more battles for it to soak in she was not getting any of my retirement (plus having to make the bank stop sending my bank statement to the house)(everytime she saw a statement and it had a few $K in it she automatically came up with a need for it) but now it's great. After taxes and a couple of allotments are taken out it leaves me about $1,600 a month spending money. Most spending money I've had my whole life. The lions share of that goes into fishing. Well, I guess now days I can say the lions share of that goes into the boats and trucks gas tank. Before I went back to work, I had a $200 per month "allowance", so didn't do much on that.

You will need the adapter I listed to mount the transducer that comes in the box. If you have the extra funds, the puck X-ducer is less aggrivating. Mounting the skimmer on the TM it constant gets knock of position. However $7 is a lot more appealing that $70.

Not sure how Yamaha will look at it, but that's who I would be contacting. Since you've broke the original one through no fault of their's, they are not going to warrenty somebody else's rebuilt LU under ther original new motor warrenty. Not sure they will even warrenty one of their new ones under the motors warrenty agreement since it's a replacement part and would probably only have the replacement part warrenty. I would make every effort to get as much warrenty as possible because if the replacement fails and the insurance decides it was a bad part, they are gonna leave you high and dry with $1,500 - $3,000 repair bill looking you in the face if theirs no warrenty left on the replacement.

For that, I would just get a something like a 1 amp maintainer.

Ya'll brought up a point here. I was assuming he had TM mount X-ducer (the puck style or the TM adapter for the transome mount. Having never installed one before he may just have the transome mount and not know it takes a TM mount adapter to use it. Not sure what make but will need something like this for the one your installing if you didn't get the puck style X-ducer. This one is for the Lowrance/Eagles http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=48407&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=1&hvarSubCode=2&hvarTarget=browse Here's HB's http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=74582&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=1&hvarSubCode=2&hvarTarget=browse And may have to use this one for some other brands http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=1212&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=1&hvarSubCode=6&hvarTarget=browse

Depending on how new your boat is, it may already have the wires in the bow to connect it up. I prefer hooking to the power switch so when I turn it off the depth finder is not still running a week later because I forgot to turn it off. Normally black wires are battery negative (commonly refered to as ground but it's really battery negative) If you have a switch panel in the bow (most do) loosen it and slide it out carefully, making sure you don't pull any wires off the installed switches etc and not be able to figure out where they go back. Check the main wiring harness going to that panel and see if there are more unused wires in it. Connect a voltmeter or test light (one end to a battery negative and one to the wire you want to check) to each of those wires and turn the power switch on and off to see if it controls one. If it does, all you need to do is connect a fuse/fuse holder to that wire and the other end to the red wire in you DF power cable. Connect the black wire in the DF power cable to the battery negative you was using. That gives you power. For the X-ducer, you will need to make make a hole just behind the TM mount big enough for the connector to go through. They make plastic covers the cover the hole and have a couple of notches in them for the cables. Then you will need to make another hole just behind the DF mounting bracket (unless it a Humming bird, I think they come through the middle of the bracket) for the connector to come back out and into the DF. Another one of those covers to cover that holes also. You will also run your power cable through that hole. Mount your X-ducer on the TM, in a way that you can feed the cable back under the clamp right next to the X-ducer without the camp pinching too hard on the cable and up the motor shaft. I use 3M 33+ tape and tape it with several wrap every six inches or so and they put a tie wrap over that. When you get to the upper shaft where the motor rotates you will need to leave a loop big enough so the motor will rotate all the way each direction without pulling on the cable. Tape it down on the top shaft in a couple places, remebering the closer you get to the mount, the less you will be able to slide the motor up in the mount when working real shallow water. Now comes the fun part. You need to anchor it to the mount so it's secure but so you can also raise and lower the mount without it binding or cutting the cable. I still use the 3M tape for this but not the tie wraps because you normally don't have the clearance to put a tie wrap. Once you get it back to the hole (actually, you may want to run the cable before you drill the hole to see which side of the motor you have to come down) feed it into the hole and back out the one behind the DF. One word of caution, check and see where your rod tips are or will come to when in the rod locker. You may have to do some fancy engineering under there to keep the cable and rod tips from hanging each other.

What kind of motor? OMC/BRP work just the reverse of a Mercury and don't know which way a Yamaha works. With a Johnson/Evinrude, the kill switch applies a ground and a Mercury cuts the voltage off, so the Johnny Rudes are wired normally open and the Merc is wired normally closed. They both are connected between the key switch and the motor and just does the same thing the key switch does when you turn the key off. The Key switch cuts the voltage off going to a mercury motor and applies a ground on a Johnny Rude when you turn the key off.

Two different rigs, each work well in their element but neither work well 100% of the time. Just like trying to use a standard T-rig, even that doesn't work in some situtions and you have to peg the weight. It's all just different methods of catching fish under different conditions. I throw a T-rig about 80% of the time but there are conditions where you can't beat a C-Rig. Steep banks it one area a C-Rig can really catch a lot more fish than a T-Rig.

You really need to have it checked out buy a very knowledgeable person. Have the motor checked and transom. If it checks out good, sounds like a pretty good deal to me. You didn't say what type 150 Merc or OMC. Both are good motors provided they are not used up, but those old oil injection system are a blown engine waiting to happen. It needs to be replaced or disconnected and premix the gas. Depending on when the water pump was replaced, might want to replace the impeller in it again. I have an 89 285 Pro I'm getting ready to sell with an 89, XP150 on it, I wouldn't take twice that for it.

12/24 volt TM's are just that, 12 volt and 24 volt. As long as you use the 12volt wire going to the TM you can use it for a 12volt source. With that said, it's not recommended you use the TM batteries to run your sonar. In your case, with a 12/24 volt motor is not really a problem as with mosfet controlled motors but some TM 's have a high frequency feedback that can damage the sonar. Even on a straight 24 volt system with the batteries connected in series, as long as you connect the negative and positive to one battery, it's still only going to be 12V.

Until he decides it's more than just learning to control the trim, I personnaly would not get all worked up about any of the other issues that can make one porpose, Being new to a bass boat, my guess is he just needs to learn where he needs to use different amounts of trim. Now, if he trims all the way in and she still bounces, then I would start looking at other cause.

Ask at the counter if this is the right price for that combo. If they agree, then you've done your part. Last fall I went into wally world to get some Penzoil Synthetic Outboard oil. They had the Synthetic marked at $13 a gallon, the price of the blend. I took two gallons up to the sporting goods counter and asked if they had it maked at right price, counter person said yes. I went back and got the rest of what they had on the shelf. Did they screw up, yes, did I care, no, I did what I felt was right and they said it was right so I took advantage of the deal and saved about $6 a gallon.

Three main things that cause one to porpose, too much lift (trimed out too far or too much offset), too much weight in the rear, or bad rocker in the hull. I would guess you are still running too much trim and need to bring it in some more. Until you get a feel of how much trim you need start off with the motor trimed all the way in, get on plane and start trimming out. The boat is going to gain speed as you and the spray out the side the start moving furrther back. When it starts to bounce, trim back little bits until it stops. At moderate to slow speeds or when coming off full plane is when they are going to want to porpose the most so you have the trime in more

I'm with LBH. Get a 12' - 14' jon. If your hauling in the back of a truck a 12', if you can get a trailer a 1436 makes a very nice boat and gives you plenty of room. I've never liked a jon smaller than 12' and don't lke those little skinny jons. A 12/14' jon will go anywhere you could want to, and putting one on a trailer makes life a whole lot esier. They are so light and on a small trailer, you can have the TM, battery and gear in it, back it in almost any hole in a pond and pull it back out again without having to haul all that junk from the truck to the boat and back again. A 30 lb TM will push either one around a pound or small lake very nicely, and do it most of the day if you don't get over about half thrust. Bigger lakes where the winds can get to you, go a lot bigger on motor and use two batteries.

Depends on the size battery but in brief, no Optima will run as long as a quality, similar size flooded lead acid. Look at the reseve capacity minutes on the OPTIMA and compare them to the reserve capacity minutes on another battery. Usually, the one with the highest number is going to run the longest. I say usually because some of the cheaper batteries will push the allowable margine of error to the limit so they can claim a bigger number than it will really produce. Even if I was going to buy an AGM battery, it would not be an OPTIMA. The Deka Intimidator is a far superior battery over the OPTIMA. A stacked cell battery will perform much better than a spiral wound battery. A Deka group 31 has 190 minutes reserve capacity, don't think you will find that in an Optima. As for your charger, see if it has an AGM setting on it. Check out the post I made to the link on batteries. It gives you the charging parameters for all three types of batteries. There are a couple of batteries that you don't hear a lot about because they haven't gone after the boating market like some of the other big names have but are about the best on the market. US Battery makes one of the best deep cycle batteries on the planet. They only make deep cycles and are well know in the golf cart world and industrial world but not in the boating world. Deka is well known up north but not that well elsewhere, they make all types, not just deep cylce. Trojan also makes a great battery and they only make deep cycle's but can be hard to find in some areas. These are probably the three best batteries on the market but you're not going to hear much out of them because they don't seem to spend the mega bucks advertising others spend.

Plug it in and leave it until you get ready to go again, even it that's next year. That's what it's designed for and doing that is only going to help the batteries, not hurt them. Just be sure the keep the water level maintained with distiled water.

Not sure how young, about the time he was big enough to hold a 12' glass pole, then to cast. Got him his first bait caster when he was about 7. Caught his first big bass (8+) a few months after after that. Caught his first 10+ when 10 (private ponds). Same with my granddaughter, but she was 8 when I got her first Curado. She's a seasoned vetran now at age 10 hand has three Curado's. Her biggiest so far has been 5.8 but she's hasn't done much private pond fishing because she gets scared in a jon boat, but loves the big boats. Not sure I would start one off on plastics, that's a tough bait for a beginner. My granddaughter prefers spinners, buzzbait jigging spoons and popping corks with a stinger on it. I have just now let her start throwing trebble hooks when it's just she and I and she has never used a platic bait bait. As mentioned plan on short trips for starters, private ponds or some place where there are plenty of pan fish. Don't matter about the size of the fish. When real young, they are just as happy catching a two finger fish as a two pounder, but as soon as there's a few minutes delay in a bite, they're done and ready to go. As they get older, they get more patient, provided you don't turn them off by making them stay for hours when they were bored in 20 minutes.

Brake cleaner, acetone, and a lot of other strong solvents are not good for the gel coat. MEK will not phase the fiberglass gel coat, you can even use it on you auto's painted surface to remove adhesives.

use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat it up and a putty knife to scrape it off, not one sharp enough to dig into the glass. After getting the the plastic part off, use some MEK solvent to take the glue off. Home Depot or Lowes should have a quart for just a couple of bucks.

A lot is going to have to do with the GPS. I've got a three year old Megellan that you couldn't consistantly find a dump truck in a football field with. You can mark a waypoint and be darn lucky to get within 25 ft one out of three times.

$250 - $300 boat, $250 - $300 motor and $75 trailer, If I were buying it, that's a long way from $1,500 OOP's sorry, you asked for expert advise, I should not have made this post.

When it won't start, first thing you need to do is isolate if it's fuel or ignition related. First thing would be to pull each plug wire off, stick a #2 phillips in the wire and hold it approx 3/8" - 7/16" from a metal surface on the motor and make sure each wire is throwing a good, blue spark while cranking. If there's no or weak spark, you need to start troubleshooting your ignition system. If it has good spark, then the problem is most likely a fuel delivery problem. It could be flooding out or not getting enough fuel. Have to chase that rabit when you find out if you have an ignition or fuel delivery problem.

I like to make my Yozuri top water bait make a couple of skips at the end of the cast but do that with my bait caster. The lake I mostly fish doesn't have docks or overhangs so don't do much skipping under them. A method I use on lakes that have docks and actually prefer is your dang old Zebco's on a short 5'6 or 6' rod. Hold the bait in one hand, the rod and reel in the other with the thumb button pressed, pull back on the lure to load the rod and shoot it under the docks buy letting go of the lure and the button at coordinated times. I've can shot a worm, tube and others 20 feet under a dock doing this. This is not something you're gonna learn in just a few trys but once you get the hang of it, you will get to fish no one else can. All you gotta do is hope your buddies don't see that "ZEBCO" in your boat or you will never live it down, until you match catches. I got this from Woo Dave's when he won a tournament in VA many years ago using a Zebco to shoot under bushes/trees hanging way out over the water that there was no way you could make any kind of normal presentation and get it far enough back under them.