Way2slow

A lot of people assume since the motor has a charger, it will keep the cranking battery charged, most of the time, that's not the case with bass boats unless you are doing a lot running because of the drain the electronics and pumps put on it. Also you will want all the batteries on a maintainer.

A number of companies make four bank chargers. As for a how to guide, don't know of one other than start asking questions as they come up. Then sort through the replies and work with what you feel comfortable with and looks like will accomplish what you are trying to do. Don't leave the cranking battery off the on board charger, it usually needs charged after each trip the same as the TM batteries. Plus a good on board charger is also a maintainer to keep them charged when the boat is stored/not in use.

I use these. http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/attwood-bench-style-seat-mount?repChildCatid=10770 You can slide it back and forth where you want it. They make them with longer slides to give you more side to side movement if you do the search.

Every year, I pull the wheels off my trailers to clean and inspect the wheel bearings. On my Javelin that has always meant buying four National 473317 seals at $10-$14 each. The last time I went the el cheapo Chinese ones from Summit Racing for about $3 each. I figured even that cheap junk should last at least a year. I lost a grease hub last weekend and didn't notice it until after launching the boat. Since it had be a little over a year I went ahead and cleaned and packed all four. Other than the one the RED EYE hub came off of, there was no sign of water in them. So, I picked up another set from Summit and giving them another try. $16 for four beats the heck out of $50. Would I have put that Chinese junk in something like a Crankshaft seal, NO, I'm not into buying this Chinese junk, even though it's getting hard to find anything else now, but figured for the short service time I'm using them on the boat trailer, hey, price ain't bad.

I'm not sure what clunk you are talking about. If it has brakes, then you are going to be some because of the tongue sliding back and forth for the master cylinder. Other than that, I don't know why you would be getting a clunk if everything is right back there. Oh, I read you post again and apparently you are saying you are getting movement between your hitch and receiver. I've never had that problem. Matter of fact, if I leave mine in too long, I usually have to beat it out.

As for the hydrofoil, I have to disagree. Most people don't/won't run them because the look dorky as ***l. They will greatly improve the whole shot on any boat you put one on. Now, the big whale tale, no I would not put that on my boat, but I do run a SE Sport 300 and trust me, this is not on a motor that's too small and underpowered for my boat. Not unless you consider 326hp@6,200rpm and 300 pound feet of torque at 4,500 rpm not to be enough power for a 20' Javelin, and for a long time it was on a Stratos 285 PRO. I have to admit, when I first installed it, it was to fix a prop problem, the motor would blow a stock 26" Raker prop out just as it started to lay over. So bad you had to come completely off the gas and pedal it to get it to bite, but at WOT, it was turning 6,600-6,800rpm with an 11% slip (do the math and you will see it was flying) I put the SE Sport on just until I could get the prop to the tuner and back. I will also say I was almost embarrassed to show up at the ramp with that thing sticking out the back of my motor but after running it for a while, When I got my tuned prop back, I had fallen in luv with the way the boat shot out of the hole with it, it became a permeate part of that motor. Been running that dorky looking thing for seven years now. Granted, I've never installed one on my 225 Ficht because I don't want that dorky looking thing on it and I know if I did, I would want to leave it, and then have all ya'll thinking. It WILL improve hole shot on any boat, but most had rather have all that extra bow rise, that that thing on the back of their boat and a fairly straight launce.

I hate to say this, but you need to rethink what you are doing. If you are already running a whale tale to help get on plane because it was struggling before, when you go to a higher pitch prop, it's going to be even harder to get on plane. Plus, if the motor is not already turning near max rpm with your current prop, when you go to a higher pitch, it's probably going to make the boat run slower. Basically, going by your first post, there is a chance you are already over propped, and going to even a higher pitch is going make things a whole lot worse. I would make sure who you get the prop from has a try before you buy agreement because you could be throwing a whole bunch of money away. Now, as for going with the stainless, yes, a stainless in the same pitch will out perform an aluminum, but you can't just throw any pitch you want on a motor and expect it to perform, they just don't work that way.

Pretty easy to figure out, See what battery the negative cable from the TM is connected, call that battery 1 . The positive of that battery 1 will be connected to the negative to another battery, call it battery 2. Now, if it's a 24V TM, the TM's positive cable will be connected to the positive post of battery 2. If it's 36 volt, the positive of battery 2 is going to be connected to the next battery, call it battery 3, and the TM's positive cable will be connected to the positive post of battery three. For sure, one battery is the cranking battery. Now, if it is a 24V TM, there are two things he could have done. He could have his electronics on a separate battery by themselves, I have seen people do that, or he for some unknown reason he could have parallel two batteries for the cranking battery. This will have two batteries positive post connected together and their negative post connected together. If for some reason two batteries are parallel for the cranking battery, then you only need a three bank charger Or, maybe he just bought a new cranking battery and forgot to take the old one out.

Yes,

Now you need to know what RPM the motor was turning at WOT. Without that, its still just a guess. You want it propped to turn within a couple hundred RPM of the manufactures max rated rpm with a normal load. Even if it goes over a few, that's better than being three or four hundred low. As for being high, no, that's about a normal pitch for that motor on the size boat they normally run on. 15"-17" pitch are pretty much the most common size unless you are running an extremely heavy boat or extremely light boat. If it's very under powered, it might have needed a 13" pitch but again, need the engine rpm to know anything for sure. Two critical gauges that I won't run without, water pressure and tach. Everything else are just nice to have.

if its a OMC/BRP prop, take the nut and washer off and the numbers should be around that inner edge. Without knowing the current pitch and diameter, and the rpm the engine turns with it, it would almost impossible to know the size you need to replace it with.

5% difference between lowest and highest is OK, 10% between lowest and highest is considered a used up power head. Based on the numbers you have posted, I would say that one is at the end of it's life and would have to have one seriously good price before I would consider it. After all, you are probably looking at close to seven grand to have a properly reman'd power head installed. $4,000 just to have someone rebuild it with boring, new pistons and other parts it will need. Then throw in the problems the early OPTI's had that earned them the nickname OPTI-POP, and things could get a little expensive for you. I would do a search for average Opti-Max compression, since I don't mess with mercs, and see if those are even in the ball park. I would think they should have been up in the 120 range. I know it's hard to pin down a definite number because of difference in gauges, but most of the motors by that time had gotten back up into the 120psi range with the better computers they had to control the fuel over the older late 80's and early 90's. I prefer leak down test over compression, that takes the difference in gauges other things out of the picture. A proper leak down test is much more accurate and better indication of motor ring condition than any compression test.

One thing I forgot to mention, if you do take the pump off, DO NOT throw the mounting bracket away. If later you decide to go back to one, New pumps don't generally come with one and it cost over $100 to buy just the bracket.

PRO's to electric: Cost way less than any kind of pump that bolts to motor Don't need to use a primer bulb Premixing, you don't have to worry about whether or not motor is getting oil Motor a lot easier to cold start easy to install. Cons: You have to premix the gas and oil. You might have to buy a $35 pressure regulator is it pushes the needles off the seat and blows by. That usually only happens if the float levels are too high. If there are any bad connections in fuel lines, they will leak. You have to install a relay, very simple process. Fuel pressure on that motor should be 5 to 6 psi. Before replacing, you might want to check it. If you completely remove the VRO/Fuel pump, remove the pulse valve from the crankcase and install a plug. Just to bypass the VRO, you only have to unplug the electrical connector to it and the one to the oil tank, so they don't make the alarm sound, and dump the oil out of the tank. Run it for several minutes before dumping the oil tank, just to make sure there is no raw gas trapper some place. The main jets are very easy to check. Screw that big headed brass screw out of the bottom the fuel bowl and the main screws in behind, use a fairly narrow, thick bladed screwdriver to remove them. Might want to make sure they are all tight, they do have a tendency to back out against the cover and it blocks them off. If it's not coming out of the hole, it would more likely be with the mids or lows over the main, (if carbs are causing it). The mains don't ever start coming in until about 5,000 rpm. Now, with all that said, you could very easily have an ignition problem and it's dropping a cylinder or two. Neither the timer base, nor the power pack are the worlds greatest pieces. At that age, a coil or plug wires could be breaking down. The magnets in the flywheel will break loose and get slide together also. I have had the doughnut magnet for the timer base come loose and cause me to chase my butt all over the place troubleshooting it. One other point, if you install and electric pump, mount it low in the battery compartment so it's close to the level of the bottom of the gas tank. That helps eliminate the possible air pocket from causing cavitation after sitting long periods of time.

Sounds like a lot of that difference could be in the cost of the motors. You have to compare apples to apples. Compare the two boats, size and features and then how they stack up cost wise Then look at the accessories trailers etc. See how they stack up between each boat Then the motors. Motors can make a huge difference in the out the door price of a boat. That's why Tracker is bad about under powering the crap out of entry level boats so they can make the unknowing think he's getting a lot of boat for a little money. That's not the case in the one you are looking at, that's a lot of motor and you are going to pay for it. You didn't say if the Yamaha was a two stroke or four stroke, but you need to look at what each motor sells for and then cost of operating it. That 115 Four Stroke is going to very easy on the pocket each trip out for the size it is, and quite. Breaking it down in features, you can come up with a much better cost comparison rather than just looking at the retail price of the two.

personally, I can buy a whole lot of contact cement for $3,000 if that's the only issue with the boat. Yama is a good motor, what size and make motor is on the Tracker.

If a race has any pits, marks or bluing from heat, it's 100% pure junk. Since you have already pulled it home with your new bearing on that bad race, you get to do it all over again. Get you another new outer bearing with a new race, and also a new inner bearing with a race and two new seals so when you knock the inner bearing out of the other wheel to clean and inspect it, you have a new seal to go back with if everything else looks good. The reason for not using the inner, it's was contaminated with fine metal from the outer going bad, and will most likely fail before many trips. It just does not cost that much more for the heartburn they can cause to go ahead and do it right the first time. Again, NEVER!!!!!!! reuse a bearing or race that has any kind of markings other than a smooth, somewhat shinny surface. Sometimes they will have somewhat of a textured look, if so, replace it. that's the metal starting to peel.

First off, if you are still using the VRO, I would strongly recommend bypassing it on a motor that old. It's not uncommon for the valves in the fuel pump side to be bad and it not delivering enough fuel. I've had a couple of those old pumps do that. My standard setup for one is one of these. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/crt-p4594 You will need to buy two 3/8" barbs with 1/4" mpt on them, That or go to a larger pump with 3/8" fittings. If you do this, you will need to install a standard 30 amp relay to run the pump, it draws too much current to run directly off the key switch and will eventually burn the switch up. On rare occasions I have to add a fuel regulator set at 6 psi to keep one from blowing by the needle seats in the carbs. This whole setup is still about 1/2 price of what a fuel only pump cost for the engine and about 1/5 of what a new VRO (actually a CRO now) would cost. It also lets you throw that primer bulb away and it makes the engine start like DFI. Just turn it on, hold the key in a couple seconds and it fires right up.

It would be good for the depth finder, but it would never run a TM for more than a very short time.

To each his own, but no way under the sun would I consider a 2.0L anything to tow any kind of a boat much bigger than a canoe on a light trailer, and that would be with no more than one other person in the vehicle. I know that Tracker is not that heavy and he has tons of options if he's not planning on anything bigger in the near future, but that 's getting pretty small for something to tow it with. My wife thought she wanted a RAV4 several years ago. She got it, we took a trip from GA to Arkansas a couple months later with four of us in it. The next week it was traded in for her first Highlander, which she is on her fourth one now.

That's probably one of the best year models. That was the last year they used the open deck block and started redesigning everything about them that it took another 13 years for them to get all the changes they started making in 92 right. In 92 they went to a closed deck block that had an unbalanced cooling system that didn't change until the 3.3 block came out, and a different design carb and intake that was junk. In 95 they went with light weight rods but didn't rebalance the crank and redesigned the piston. Created all kind of problems with top main coming loose and locator pins coming out of pistons. In 96 they changed the carbs and intake again for the better. By 98 they had gotten the majority of the kinks worked out redesign the VRO to a CRO and made it fairly bullet proof. In 99 They threw out the carbs and went to the Ficht DFI, which pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy in 2000. By the way, that 200 XP is probably a 225 with 200 decals. I know the earlier year models were. Kinda like their HO version. Very good motors, just not very good on gas mileage.

That's a lot of boat behind a Trailblazer. I hope you have a large external cooler on your trans if automatic and there's not a lot of hills.

From what you describe, it sounds like it's dropping a cylinder and then goes back to running on it on an intermittent basis. Now, what's causing it to do that could be a number of things. The carbs have three different fuel delivery stages in them, low speed/idle, mid range and high speed. Could be a dirty carb causing delivery problems in the mid range or fuel pressure issues in the mid ranges. Then there's the ignition system where the are a whole host of things that can cause it. Intermittent problems sometimes require considerable trouble shooting and since you don't have a Dino or test tank, that means having to do it at the lake and preferably with a test prop. If you start just throwing stuff at it, it can get very expensive. My first step would be to replace the spark plugs, next would be to clean the carbs, which for me is just a couple hours of my time, for you it's could be a couple hundred dollars, and that could be money ticked away.

If you are towing easily with a Pilot, I think most anything you get of similar size or bigger is not going to be an issue. My wife has a Toyota Highlander I have pulled my Jon with a few times but would never dream of hooking my 20' Javelin behind it. I've gone from a full size 4WD, pickup with 350 V8 to a 4WD 2500HD for it, and it still knows it's back there. The three key issues on selecting a tow vehicle is the distance you tow and the speed you tow at, and ability to stop quickly and safely. Which has a lot to do with the weight of what you tow versus the weight of the tow vehicle. The Terrain you tow in, The further you go, and the faster you drive increase the demand on the drive line of the tow vehicle. Flat roads are a lot easier on a vehicle than hilly roads.

In a situation like that, I would tell him "Dream on Alice, You're in Wonderland now!" He can probably get the trailer, accessories, rigging etc and the other stuff he wants for $2000, but not the boat and motor also.