Ben

Let me caution you on one thing when you start moving the boat on the trailer. Denpend on the type hull and trailer, you may have to go back under and adjust all the bunkboards/rollers. When you change the hulls position, the bunkboards or rollers may not be supporting the hull the way they need to be, causing the hull to develop a rocker, or they could be putting too much pressure on the hull in certain areas, causing the hull to develop a hook. You might think that fiberglass is real stong but it will get out of shape on you real quick, same with the tin cans.

BPS and Cabela's has them, or used to anyway, but I've figured a good thermos would do better. Here's my reasons for not messing with one. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but do drink a cup from time to time to help stay awake or for something hot when freezing cold on the lake. When I do drink a cup I prefer if be good coffee. When you figure the recommended brewing time for coffee is approx 2 1/2 - 3 minutes and at a temp of 200 - 203 degrees from start to finish, kinda figured anything you got out of one of those things is going to be anything but good. Oh, and that's if brewing one cup or a whole pot. Another little gee wizz, the BUNN coffee makers are about the only one I've tested that will come close to the recommend brewing. I've checked three and all three brewed at 200 degrees from start to finish but brew a littel quick if making a half pot unless you do some reengineering, which I did.

When the lake is dropping things can get a little tough but once it reaches a stable level for a few days, shouldn't be a big deal. Actually the fishing can be the best it's ever been on that lake. You still fish the same types of structure and holding areas you would fish when the lake was at full pool but now you have a smaller area to have to look for them. Now, where the problem comes in is if your strickly a bank structure fisherman, working the bushes laydowns etc, you've got a whole new type of fishing to learn. Because of the long drought the south was having until a couple of years ago, Clarks Hill was down to 14' below pool level and we were catching more fish than ever. This would also be a good time to take your camera, note pad, gps and get out there and start making notes and gps readings on key spots that have always been hidden from you before they dropped the lake. I probably video taped 100 miles of shore line (there's over 1,200 miles so wasn't about to try for all of it), took a couple of hundred 35mm pictures and took several hundred gps readings and a spiral note book full of notes of the main creeks and coves I fish when Clarks Hill got down to 13'. The time spent doing that has paid off handsomely since the lake is back to full pool because ain't no LCD in the world gonna give you the detail I've got.

I would check out the SE Sport 300 or 200, depending on the size of your motor. Depending on you setup, engine height etc, it should not slow you down on top end. I run the SE 300 on my hotrod motor and boat has no problems running 80 mph with it. It does make big difference in hole shot but if the motor is up where it should be, probably will not help porposing or the lean your talking about. When the motor is up and the prop is not buried 6 - 8" deep on plane, the SE Sports should be running just above the water's surface so it's not doing a whole lot at full speed. Stabalizers will do more for the lean and porposing than hydrofoils will. The do cost more but will come closer to what you're looking for. That's those things you see that look like flaps that mount on the rear of the boat. They will also dang near launch a boat on plane if you fish a lot of shallow water and have to get on plane quickly without bow lift and having the transome dig in.

If it's still running it's getting oil. The alarm is not going to matter much anyway. Usually by the time the no oil alarm sounds, the motor's already damaged to the point it's either locking up or knocking. I will say, if it has the original pump still on it, it would pay you to replace. In 99 they made some significant changes to that sytem and made it a whole lot more reliable than the early units. The pump will cost you approx $300 to walk out the door with it and a little more for the labor if you have a mechanic install it. Takes less than an hour to replace it. You should also take the oil tank out, dump it and clean the pickup screen in the bottom. Every oil tank I've taken out that was a few years old had water in the bottom. I've seen this water get high enough to get into the system and destroy the motor. I've got a 96 225 that just that thing happened to it. On those older motors, a lot of people unplug the pump wire connector and connector going to the tank so the alarm doesn't sound and premix the oil in the gas tank.

Depends on water clarity, type cover, type bait I'm throwing and water depth. About the only time I'm within 15' is flipping/pitching. When working a spinner bait around cover, I tend to stay in fairly close 15 - 25' but other than that my cast can be anywhere between 25 and 200 ft. When working shallow water, I sometimes sling a buzz bait so hard, the blades sound like a weed eater running at the beginning of the cast. I tend to make extremely long cast fishing top water and crank baits. Top water because the shallow fish tend to spook extremely easy and cranks because I usually want to cover as much water as I can.

We eat a whole lot of them If it's a 12" - 13" bass and comes out of Clark's Hill, it goes in the fying pan. That's probably a couple of hundred a year. The DNR ask that you not release small bass in that lake. There are too many little bass and it's hampering their growth rate. Anything over that goes back in the lake. You couldn't pay me to keep a big bass out of their. The funny thing is, the will still give you a citation in a heart beat if it's less than 12" and if you have more than 10 per person. When fishing most other waters I never keep the bass. Fishing private ponds I only keep bass if the owner wants some or if he has the same problem of being over stocked with small bass and aks me not to throw them back. I have a couple of catfish ponds the owners call me from time to time and ask me to come catch every bass I can out of them. My dad and I caught 93 bass out of one samll catfish pond it two days. That fall they drained it to harvest the catfish and there was one bass in it. You have to remember, when it comes to small bass, catch and release may actually be doing the lake harm. It's always best to check with the local DNR fisheries people and find out what their recommendations are. There are lakes that have a hard time maintaining their seed stock (small bass), that's why you see slot limits and minimum 14" fish and larger. It boils down to you need to know the waters you are fishing.

Not sure what you're wanting to know. They are basically a four baded raker. The size is going to be determined by the boat and motor your running. In general you run a gade one number larger than a raker. If you're running a 24" raker now, you would run a 25" gade. I generally find I have to run a gade about 1/2" deeper than a raker. I feel the same way about the gade as I do the raker. They are ok/good props out of the box but to realy get one right, it has to be reworked by a custom prop guy that know's his stuff. This guy is one of the best hammers in the buisness http://www.bogerprops.com/. As with any four blade prop, the boat is a little more stable and handles a little better at WOT. Normally the four blade gade will be a couple of mph slower than a raker but with the right work done on it, that can be changed. At the same time, I think a properly built raker still outperform a custom gade so I only run rakers. I do have a couple of gades but just never run them.

My custom prop cost approx $1000, my lower unit cost approx $3,000, I don't carry insurance so it's gonna have to be at least 5' or more for me to keep on plane. That's in water I'm familiar with.

Your right in that you should never run a battery below 20% charge but I think you made a typo, 20% charge is approx 11.7 VDC. or approx 1.100 specific gravity. Don't want someone thinking it's ok to run one down to 10.5. Yes you can charge a battery at a much higher rate until it reaches 80% then it has to be cut way back for the last 20%. Doing this still shortens the life of the battery. Running a battery down to 20% or lower does not cause the cells to sulphate as long as it's charged shortly afterwards. It's when it's run down and left uncharged for long periods of time that cause them to sulphate. They can start to sulphate in less than 24 hours. I might recommend you put a good, deep equalizing charge on your batteries (I'm assuming you're running two TM batteries), let them sit 24 hours and check them with a good hydrometer. You should get a reading of 1.270 - 1.280 on most deep cycles. Some will show 1.300 but not many brands use electrolite that hot. If they are sealed batteries they should read at least 12.6 volts and if real good 12.7 - 12.8 VDC. From what your describing they are runnning down and charging back up too quickly. This is common in batteries that are near the end of their life cycle because the Ah capacity has been greatly reduced and it doesn't take as much to charge or discharge them. I have no idea what size batteries your running so I'm just basing this on two good 110 - 120 Ah deep cycle batteries which may be way more battery than yours.

Allcharge says it will charge your completely dead batteries in two hours. Two 110Ah deep cycle batteries in two hours will have to be charged at a rate of approx 50 amps each, what's that doing to the batteries? Two 110Ah deep cylce batteries run down to 25%. Charge them in two hours and that's about a 35 amp per battery charge rate, again what about the batteries? Cable going from the vehicle to the charger capable of handling 100 amps would need to be at least #4 AWG and should be #2. That would also be if the vehicle's system could even deliver that much current for that long without going up in smoke. Cable to handle even the 70 amps would need to be at least #6 AWG from the vehicle. This is not even adding in the cranking battery because I figure it will top off pretty quick. I'm not saying these system don't work, I'm just saying do the math and tell me how they work as they claim. I guess I just live in the real world and have to hard time understanding/believing what some companies claim their products will do when the realistic numbers say otherwise. Kinda reminds me of my old CB days when a guy said he had an amp that put out 1000 watts. I asked what all he had to do to his vehicle to get that much power and he said it was plugged into his cigarette lighter. Back then, it would have taken about a 1500 watt input to give a 1000 watt output. That would have been about 120 amps out of his lighter plug, yeaaa riiiigggth.

Just remeber what you've learned fishing the ponds, the areas that held fish and the areas that never produced a bite and apply that. That big lake is just a bigger pond, you just have to learn to break it down to a pond. This time of the year, concentrate on finding one or two coves about the size of a large pond that have the key features. An old creek channel or two, some back shaded corners that have deeper water with 100 ft (only needs to be a couple of feet deeper as long as there's a sudden drop or ledge, some points that run out with a slow drop on the crest of the point and at least one deeper side that has a fairly quick drop. Usually a cove that the deepest part of it is less than 20 feet at the main creek channel and works it way back getting shallow as it goes. When you find a couple of these, fish them just like you would your pond. There is a good chance they will be holding fish, all you have to do is locate them. They will give you a great education in following the fish in and out of their feeding areas. Some of my best fishing holes on a 70,000 acre lake is a couple of coves that might be 30 acres in size, they produce good numbers of quality fish year round.

I live in Ga but I start topwater the first couple of warm days. I've been hammering them on a 1/4 oz Booyaa buzz bait for about six weeks now. Every weekend I''m catching 5 - 10 big bass (3.5 - 7 lbs) and a large number of smaller bass. I'm throwing the buzz bait most of the day (not just early and late) when working shallow. Getting much better action on it than spinner baits. 75% of the fish I've caught this spring has been on a buzz bait or green lizard. Certain honey holes are holding numbers off fish in 3 - 5 feet of water and they will not come up for a top water but can't stand having that lizard in front of them. We caught 17 nice bass on one point two weeks ago and never moved over a couple of hundred feet all morning, just worked that point. Should mention, I'm not cranking on that buzz, holding the rod high and just barely keeping it on the surface so the blades barely clop, clop. Another trick they can't stand it throwing it on the bank of just at the edge, buzz it kinda fast about two feet and then slow down to the clopping, they hammer it with in a foot of slowing it down.

It's the circuit breaker. If it's the manual reset there will be a small tab sticking out one end, try pushing it back into see if it will reset. If it's an older boat it's probably too small anyway, replace it/them with some 40 or 50 amp breakers. If it's a 12 volt motor I would go with 50's.

You should see a better whole shot and probably a couple of mph more on top end. I've never run Michigan Wheel props so not sure how they perform but anything has gotta be better than the aluminum. Aluminum props have their place but not on the motor for regular use. They are cheap and much lighter than an SS so they make a good spare prop. If you're running in rocks or a river etc, where you're constantly banging up the prop, they are easier to hammer back out, they take a lot of the shock off the LU gears and are easier on the wallet to replace. You can replace an aluminum about as cheap as you can repair a stainless. I have one aluminum prop I run on my 25 Merc one for my 9.9 tiller motors is use when running a river near me that you don't go in without hitting submerged trees/limbs, or have to run across sandbars to navigate it, the other 10 - 15 props I have for my motors are all stainless. Stainless is the only way to go for normal lake fishing. I think you did the right thing dropping to a 13" prop also. An aluminum prop's blades lay back so much under a load, they tend to loose a lot of pitch, something the stainless is not going to do. I"m not too sure about the 11 X 13 though, not knowing what kind of rpm you were turning with the aluminum. If nothing else, it should make a great prop when carrying a heavier than normal load. You always want a prop that will keep the rpm within 100 - 200 of the recommended max rpm for your motor with your normal load at WOT.

Not trying to convince you of anything, I'm glad you are very happy with your system, that's why they make so many different brands. I don't think you read his post very well though. I read it as him wanting a system to charge his batteries overnight while he's camping. Didn't say your system won't charge going down the road, as for that, you don't need a charging system, for a few bucks worth of diodes, I can build an isolater that will let your vehicle charge all three batteries without and kind of charging system in the boat. Didn't even say it won't charge from the outboard, just said it won't work for what "HE" wants to do. My statement was directed toward him wanting to charge his batteries while at the lake and there is no onboard charging system that's going to do that in a feasible manner without AC power connected. Either the outboard or the vehicle is going to have to be run for hours to charge the batteries to 100%. There is no charging system that's going to let you get around that. Yes, StayNCharge, Stealth, ProMariner all will charge the TM batteries from the Outboard's charging system but again, not unless the outboard is run for long periods of time like making long trips down the lake and I would think it would be a lot cheaper to pay slip fees than just run the boat the time it would need to charge the batteries. Now there are other things he can do for work arounds, like take a spare set of batteries, etc, etc, but I personnaly don't like having to take the heavy things in and out. Now if your charging system will keep your cranking battery and your TM batteries charged to anywhere near 100% for several days of fishing off the boats charging system, or by a short time of running the vehicle connected while at the lake it has to be an FM system. Oh, buy the way, to keep from having to post again explaining an FM system, it's Frigging Magic

I don't use either of those but first let me ask, are you talking about charging the batteries with an onboard charger that will charge from the boat motor or from the tow vehicle? Neither of those charging system are going to be very practicle for what you're wanting to do. In fact, neither will probably do what you're wanting. Forget what they advertise when they say they will charge from the boat motor or the tow vehicle, yes they will do that but you have to look at the reality of it. Charging from the boat motor, what size charging system does it have, subtract at least 10 - 15 amps of that to run the motor if you're running a fuel injected, especially a direct injected motor. The remaining amps have got to charge the cranking battery before much is sent to the TM batteries. Even then, the charger should still only charge at the charge rate it's designed for. After all, you can't charge deep cycle batteries at 40 - 50 amps like you can a car cranking battery, about 15 amps is all you really want to charge one, 20 amps is really pushing it. Even at 15 amp and the batteries are only down to 50% charge, you're looking at at least three hours of motor run time to fully charge your batteries. Even using the vehicle, that's still a long time to have one running to charge your batteries. Pro Mariner's Pro Tourney Series chargers charge from the boats charging system. I've been running the ProTournies for several years, currently running the PT-300 three bank. I also run a Curtis, digital battery charge indicator (BCI) at the front deck monitoring the TM batteries. Unless I make a very long run, I've never seen the BCI show any increase in charge level from one fishing spot to the other. My motor runs a 35 amp charging system. All the adds make all those features sound good "on paper" to get you to buy them but take time to do the math and see just how benificial they really are. My suggestion is to do the same thing I do when going to remote areas that don't have power. Take along one of those small Honda generaters. I use a 1000 watt one, it's fairly quit, it charges the batteries and provides plenty power for lights and other small electric devices like a TV etc.

I've on heard a couple of things about them, they are well built, EXPENSIVE and fast. I think speed wise, the Allison is the fastest, then the 20' Bullet, and then the Stroker. It's hard to tell between the Stroker and the Bullet since setup plays a huge role in top speed when you start getting into the kind of numbers both of those boats will run. Unless you are very familiar with driving ultra high performance boats, you've got one hellava learning curve to go through before you can really air it out. It's going to take a lot of seat time, tested nerves and swearing there's something wrong with the boat when it's all just the driver. I had a friend that sold his Allison after just six months because he never could learn to drive it. It's no doubt you will love the boat but there is one huge draw back to having a boat like that. You will usually find yourself constantly spending bunches of money on props and different types of setup to get another mph out of it, been there, done that too many times. I'm still having a hard time dealing with my Javelin R20 only running 72 mph with the stock 225 ficht on the back when my other motor will push it over 80 with two big men, full tanks, full livewell and full of gear but the with the cost of gas now, I figure I'll try the ficht. Now, if you really want to make that Stroker fly, put that motor on it.

If you can sew, it's not a major job to do it yourself. I've done a lot of car restoration work (all my own) over the years so many years ago I picked up a good used commercial walking foot machine a lot cheaper than what they wanted to just do inserts in a Camaro I was fixing up for my son. I've done the seats in several of my boats and it's not difficult if you take your time. Just take your old seat apart and use it for the pattern. I did all the seats, pedistal seats included, in my Stratos for less than $100 and they look just as good any shop could have done (better than what I've seen come out of some shops). If you can find an old home machine cheap that has all metal gears, one made back in the 60's, they will work pretty good if you don't use the heavy weight material. Nothing beats a walking foot though.

The software is usually very expensive, it would be much cheaper and easier to just install your own hour meter. If you do a lot of your own work it might pay you to buy the software because you need it for the diagnostics (much like the what they shops hook to your newer cars) but if not, you really have no need for it.

They are benificial if you try to do your programmed maintenace. You can get a couple of different types. Theres one that uses a wire the makes several loops around a plug wire and it show rpm and hours only when motor is running, they run about $40. The standard meter just hooks to a switched hot wire and a battery negative. It counts in whole and 1/10 hours the whole time the key switch in turned on. They too run about $40. I usually mount them under the cowling on the engine. Be surpised how long it takes to put 50 hours on a motor unless you run the fool out of one like I do. I guess, I should have asked what kind of new merc. The Opti's keep track of the hours but you have to have the software to get it out.

Wait now, it's time to back up and regroup. I thought you said the hub was stuck on the spindle/axle. If you have the hub off and are talking about the inner bearing being loose and floppy inside the hub, that totally normal. You have to take a drift of something and go in from the outer bearing opening and knock it and the seal out. If you have a seal puller, you might be able to pop the seal out and then the bearing just lifts out, I just use a drift or rounded edge chisel and knock them out. The seal is the only thing holding the bearing in. Knock them out, wash them up good with mineral spirits and if they or the races are not pitted, pack them, replace the seals and put it back together. Sounds like the only thing you need is a pair of seals. If the race is bad, it knocks out from the opposite side and the new one knocks in, just be careful putting the new one in if using steel tools, you can chip/break it if hit it with too much force in one spot. Those bearings sets show the race with them, just not the seals. I think the race is a 11910. Yes, it will take a 3/4" diameter spindle. About the only difference in 3/4" spindle will be the end that welds on, they be come in square or round end. If the spindle in not bad, and there is not a grove in it where the seal runs, I wouldn't mess with it. You can call their support and they should be able to tell you which hub. The have Northern tool stores in most cities so you may have one close to you. With a tapper roller bearing, the spindle nut is what holds everything together, that's why the inner bearing is loose and falling around in there right now. The two opposite tappers are forced together when you snugg the nut. tighten the nut to snugg and back if off (loosen it) slightly to install cotter pin. There should be a very slight movement in the wheel when you try to wiggle it back and forth after installing this. This is so the bearing has a small clearance for the grease. Too tight and there will be no grease film clearance, the bearing will burn up in a short time.

Maybe this one is a little better http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200308411_200308411 After telling you might want to go to them for a spindal, figured they would have the bearing also. That must be a little jon boat trailer to have those 3/4" diameter bearings.

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Depends on how "stuck" it is. You may have to knock it off from behind, you may be able to give it a couple of good yannks and it comes off. If it is really stuck, it will either pull through the seal or the seal will come out of the hub and stay behind the bearing. Now, if it's that stuck, there are several levels of effort to get it off. The first is getting a chisel and trying to knock if off from the back side, you may want to go ahead and knock the cage off so it and the rollers are out of your way. If that don't work, the next step it to bust the inner race with a chisel, wear a face shield and jacket trying this, those fragments will pentrate skin if they fly off and hit you, A cheap chisel will not work for this operation either and use a big 2 - 3 pound hammer. The next step is to take a tourch and cut if off. If you have a tourch, skip busting the race and get the tourch out.