Way2slow

A couple of things I might suggest. First, I think Long Mike made a slight typo that didn't get caught. Yes, it's a good chance the 50# TM could be a 12 volt motor but with a 12 volt system, the two batteries would be connected in "Parallel" not in series. In parallel, the two batteries would only produce 12 volts, but twice the amp hours of just one battery. In series they would produce 24 volts at the same hours of just one battery. If it is a 24 volt system, the electronics and accessories can only be connected across "ONE" battery. If they accidently got connected across both, it will fry anything connected to them. Second, as mentioned, all electronics and accessories should be running of the cranking cranking battery, not the TM batteries. Before spending bunches of money on new batteries, you should do a little simple trouble shooting and maintenance. I would start by removing all cables (one at the time since you are not very familiar with what you are doing" and clean each cable and battery terminal until it's bright metal. If you have wing nuts, tighten them with pliers but replacing them with stainless steel hex nut's are better. Since you don't have the knowledge of how to use a meter to check amp draw, but you do need to get some sort of digital volt meter. Fully charge the batteries, then disconnect one cable from each battery, let them sit a couple of days and check their voltage. They should read at least 12.6 volts and both should have approximately same voltage. As for the self discharge rate, that depends a lot on the type material the batteries are made of, cheap batteries generally have a much greater self discharge rate than good batteries, and Optima's are not cheap batteries. They actually should have a very low self discharge rate so even letting them sit for a couple of months should not cause much self discharge, unless one or both are bad. One easy, simple test you can make to see if something is drawing on the batteries is to take a reading between the battery terminal and each of the cable's/wires you disconnected. If it reads battery voltage, that means there is something drawing current. It does not show you how much, but you should not be reading any voltage doing this test if nothing is creating a current draw. Another simple test you can do with a volt meter is to place the meter across each set of battery terminals (the terminals, not the cables), with all the cables connected, and run the TM while watching the meter. The voltage should only drop a few tenths of a volt with no more load than you are putting on them with the TM out of the water. If it drops more than a volt, then that battery is probably bad.

Optima_Jim I need to apologize for one comment. Glenn sent me a PM questioning the moderator comment and I actually still had it from a year ago. After going back and reading it, He DID NOT, ask me not to make negative comments about the Optima battery. He just asked me to try and be more positive about them. Kinda the same but not quite as bad and not posting negative comments. That was a year ago, and it discouraged me from posting for a while.

When you start buying idividual parts, power cable, transducers, mounting braket etc, they can get very expensive. Usually, the only way to come out ahead just buying the head unit is when upgrading one that all the stuff with your old unit will work with the new one.

Trailer tire life is no different from vehicle tire life, it greatly depends on axle alignment. Other than a few of the top of the line companies, very few trailer manufactors align their axles. The problem you are faced with now it the computer generation, 95% of the so called alignment shops today depend on what's programed into their computer alignment system for how to set your alignment, and I haven't seen one yet that had "Boat Trailer" in them, and it's highly unlikely you're gonna find some kid using one that knows how to mannually bend and axle, even if the had the equipment to do it. If you can find one of the "old timers" that has an alignment system to do your old straight axles in old pickup's etc. he can probably do your boat trailer. Get it aligned and if they can balance the tires, tire wear will be greatly reduced. It should eleminate all that cupping you are probably seeing around them.

I don't get on here much anymore and forgot Optima was a Supporting Advertiser, or I would have never gave my .02 cents. Because I would have known I would get hammered for it. My experience with AGM batteries is based on many years of running them in material handling equipment, powered pallet jacks etc as a service tech for Clark Material Handling, and to be honest with you, I've never gotten good service from the Optima's that came as the OEM batteries. It was very common to be replacing them after just 12 months in an industrial application. When Deka came out with their stacked cell AGM, we could run them two to three times longer than the Optima's. The Deka's also had a greater reserve capacity and the user got noticably more run time between charges with the Deka's. As for the plates swelling, if they don't swell, what is it that's causing the ends of the cases to bulge out as the battery ages and starts getting close to the end of it's life cycle. Anyone that has ever had on old battery will see the ends buldged, this is not just the case doing this, it's the cells pressing against it after they have swollen. I'm sorry, I'm just not an Optima fan, and feel ya'll have spent huge amounts on advertising your product to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but I'm not sold. I have been asked to not say anything about them by a modirator, one reason I quit posting on here. I didn't specificaly mention Optima batteries in my fist post because of that, only the generic spiral wound batteries. As the old saying goes: You can please some of the people all of the time All of the people some of the time But, you can't please all of the people all of the time, I'm just one of those that have never been pleased with spiral wound batteries, when I gotten much better service and longer run time from stacked cell batteries.

Main benefit of AGM's When properly maintained and charged with a good AGM charger, they will give you a higher cycle count than flooded cells They are much safer for saltwater use. They are less likely to cause corrosion in aluminum boats. They don't have to be installed with the terminals sticking up, they can be installed standing on end or on their side, but you do loose approx 10% capacity doing that. Stacked cell AGM's will usually give you a longer life than spiral wound. As the cells age and swell, the spirals tend to short sooner than the stacked cell because they don't have to abilitly to expand as much. Cons They will not have the AH capacity of a good, similar size flooded cell, Mainenance free flooded cells will not have the capacity as one with service caps but still more than similar AGM. They cost more. However, not that much more that a high quality flooded cell, like a Trojan or other top brand. The higher cycle count should offset the cost difference, but that is only true when using a high quality, AGM charger that will give you the higher cycle count.

Loading the boat in swift water. Have you ever noticed all those boat trailers running around with side bars sticking up four or five feet in the air. That was not to get the trailer lights out of the water, although they do that, those are to hold the back of the boat on the trailer and keep the current from pushing it sideways while you are trying to get it loaded.

Small rivers with a lot of mines in the water are a dangerous combo for bass boats with large motors. As mentioned, they are very stern heavy so they naturually run deep at slow speeds and the lower unit on a big motor sticks down a lot, making anything less than two foot from the surface a dangerous obsticle, Runnning at low speed where the boat is plowing makes it even worse, that's when the motor is at it's deepest point. Have your buddy sit in at the bow of the boat and put as much weight forward as you can. When you start off, go full power, get on plane and then cut back to the minimum speed it will stay on plane. This is also one time where a hydrofoil is worth it's weight in gold. It's helps greatly in poping the boat up on plane. You will see the people running large boats with large motors that know the river running fairly fast. This is so the minimum amount of motor is in the water and is actually the best way, but again, they know where they are running.

A heat gun should let you peel the sticker of and MEK solvent will take the remaining adhesive. What you may find is there will aways be an outline of them when the gel faded. My boat was a FLW tourny boat that didn't have a wrap when I got it several years back, and to this day, you can still see where all the stickers were.

Sounds like you have a whole lot of somebody not knowing what they were doing. One battery on that size TM running on or near max is only going to give you a between one and two hours run time. , If it was me, I would make sure the cranking battery was a good dual purpose, preferably a group 27, battery and connect everything but the TM to that battery. However, before I did anything, I would do my recommended load test. Then I would run #6 cable (the stranded stuff from Home Depot will work but marine is better) between the other two batteries. If there is room in the back, I would get that battery out of the live well and move it to the back. I think you will find the boat will run much better, unless it's wanting to porpoise on you when it's back there, that is a problem tin cans have when the weight distribution is not right on them. Two good group 27/31 deep cycle batteries in parallel should run you all day with no problem unless the TM is living on high or very near it.

Yes, upgrading to a 24 volt TM would give you approx. 25% more run time over the 12 volt motor just for the difference in efficiency of the two motors. Before doing that, I have reservations about the condition of your batteries and how they are connected. First off, if this is has an outboard motor and not electric only, one of the batteries in the back should be the cranking battery and should not even be connected to the TM. All the electronics and accessories should be running off that battery. Next, you need to verify the other battery in the back is in fact connected in parallel with the battery in the live well, which is most likely there for the TM and they just didn't have enough room in the back to add a second TM battery. Then you should make sure that all connections between the two batteries a good and clean and strongly recommend you have at least #6 marine/battery cable connecting them together and going to the TM connector. My next suggestion would be to load test the batteries yourself. Get you two dual beam headlamps, connect/wire the elements together so both are in parallel and both will burn both elements at the same time and connect them to one battery at the time. Make sure you disconnect the cables so you are sure the other battery is not connected, this will give you approx. a 20 amp load. Look on the label and see what the reserve capacity is on the battery and connect the headlamps to the battery. It should at least as long or longer for the battery to drop to 11.8 volts as the minutes for the reserve capacity. If the battery is dropping to the 11.8 volts a lot sooner than the reserve capacity number, your battery is bad. While those electronic tester are great, and I use one all the time myself, it will lie to you when it comes to what the battery will actually do under a load. And the quick load tester used is does not give you an accurate indication, which I also use for quick checks and they are much better on cranking batteries that deep cycle. Nothing works better than the steady drain test for deep cycle batteries. I have a much more expensive and fancier tester but the head lamps work great for the backyard mechanic. Do not swap the batteries out as the run down, connect them in parallel. You will get approx. 20% more run time running them in parallel versus swapping them out.

Well, just for gee wiz info, I said I prefer Deka or Trojan. Guess what, Deka makes NAPA batteries. They are one of the best built batteries going now, and they are made in the good old U S of A by EastPenn manufacturing, right up there in PA.. I know the big yellow and Interstate's are made in the US also, but there's a world of difference what's inside the cases. I just bought two new DC27Ms and waiting on the DP27 go take to Texas with me in two weeks. The ones in the boat out there on going on their fifth year and since I will be using them pretty hard for six weeks, and I gonna be driving out this time, I'm taking new ones with me. The nice part about mine, the same group 27 deep cycle you get at NAPA only cost me $38.00 each. Soooo, I probably have to pay less for all three than you have to pay for one.

If you've already had them out of the motor, then you are half way home. Usually when they come out through the hole in the splash well, they don't have enough room to pull out of the motor. I suspect having the jackplate, someone has already installed 14' cables when they installed it. Giving you the extra to get it out of the motor. you will have to shop around for the Power Steering, the last one I bought was approx. $600. I made a quick search and here's one on Amazon but usually you can find stuff a little cheaper than their site. http://www.amazon.com/Teleflex-Marine-Seastar-Hydraulic-Steering/dp/B0000AXYHE When you say the run over the cranking battery, someone may have just pulled all the slack they could get with the existing cables. I usually have to remove the tank to gain access to that side of the gunwall so you can get the cables loose and work around all the wiring. Like I said though, without having to mess with the motor, it's a piece of cake, should be able to do it in less than two hours. Just make sure you get them back on the pinion right or you will be back under there moving them. Just noticed, that kit does not include hoses, and they are expensive, so you might want to check those out also.

It's not that bad in your Stratos. Most likely the tank will have to come out if it's in the back because it won't leave room to get anything up the side of the gunwall. By the way, you may not think so when you try, but if yours has the rear tank, it will fit through that hole. Unless someone has replaced them once before, the cables will be tie wrapped to some loops for cable guides built into the side. You may also have some of the wires/cables tie wrapped to the steering cables so go easy. Once you get them so they will move back and forth, and have the ends out of the motor, tie 1/4" to 3/8" rope in the eyelet on the motor end. This gives you something to pull the new cable back through with. Use paper towels and wrap around the front and back of the nut on the motor end and tape it up so you make a nice tapper at both ends of the nut to help keep it from hanging stuff when going through. Pull it out from the helm end, pulling the rope with it. When you go back with the new ones, make sure you get the right teeth on the pinion or you will have more steering in one direction than the other. If you are lucky and someone installed a jackplate, they may have run them out the rear of the boat rather than through the splash well. If so, the will probably come out of the motor without taking the motor off. I not, and you have plans of installing one, now will be the time because it normally takes longer cables to install one. Plus they need to run out the back because trying to feed them out the splash well puts too much of a bend in them. As for trying to lube yours, don't waste your time. The are stiff because the cable has rusted. Even if you did manage to eventually get some lube all the way through them so the loosen up some, they are subject to break, and it's only temporary, they will stiffen back up before long. Been there, done that several times, it don't last and have had one break and another lock up where the strands broke loose inside and jammed it. Two people, two or three hours and a way to support motor and you done. 7/16" wrench and a socket, 3/4" wrench and a socket, an adjustable or wrench to fit that big nut, a couple 1/2 or 9/16 to get the bolts out of the ends for the steering arm and something to hold the tubes on the motor the while you screw those big nuts off, and a pair cutters to cut the tie wraps should be about all the tools needed. I guess I had better quit typing, I might mislead someone into thinking I know what I'm talking about.

You've created a problem for yourself. Not sure what kind of motor, but I would think you should be able to drop the lower pan and gain access with a drill. Center punch the bolt, (and I mean CENTER punch) because you want to be sure you drill the absolute center of the bolt because if you end up having to drill it out and using a tap to chase the threads, if off center, you will end up having to install a heli-coil. If it screwed in easily, you didn't cross thread it or bottom it out, and just broke from over tightening, it should come out fairly easily. Drill the center with a 3/16" bit and the use a 1/4" LH bit, reverse the drill and it should spin out. If you don't have a LH bit, grind a RH bit with a reverse angle on it. If it tight, be very careful with those tapered easy outs, they spread the bolt and will actually make it bite harder.I don't use those. They make a set that looks similar to a Torx you drive in and they work much better. Just be sure to drill the full length of the bolt to relieve the stress.

The cables are going to cost $100 - $150 each, depending on where you find them. Most likely they are going to be the 13' Teleflex, unless someone has added a jack plate, then they may be 14'. I think you will find them to be a pain to replace, most likely the tank will have to come out and the cables with be secured to loops in the gunwall with tie wraps and have to be cut loose. Then you have all the wires going up through there you will have to be careful not to rip out. Oh, you will also unbolt the engine and swing it away from the boat to be able to get the cables out of it. The ends are too long to pull out with the motor fastened to the boat. To be honest with you, if you have to any mechanical abilities, now would be a great time to convert to hydraulic steering, if you are going to pay a dealer to replace the cables. You should be able to install the hydraulic system without removing the motor. You can just take a grinder or something and cut the cables off and pull them out. The installation is pretty much a follow the book and the cost of the hydraulic system is not going to be much more than what it's going to cost you by the time you drive back out of a dealer's with it. Plus, this time of the year, the wait is going to be forever at the dealer. This is probably what you will find in there. http://www.amazon.com/Teleflex-SSC13413-Mount-Single-Steering/dp/B000FQ7LJM Look about a foot down the cable from the rack end and you should find the part number imprinted on the cable. Also, do yourself a favor and replace both, if only one is tight now, the other will be later. I don't know anything about these things so maybe one of the experts on here will give you better info.

I see you have Falcon as one of your favorite lakes. That's one of my favorites also. I will be there next month, leaving in about two weeks and get back the end of May. My son lives in Brownsville and we keep a 40' travel trailer, 4WD 4Runner, and a Javelin R20 at a fish camp on the lake near the Tigers, so I fly out and live on the lake every few months. I'll catch one of those 10 pounders for you.

Thanks, I was looking at the area in the pick and it looked very similar to a friends that I haven't seen in years that had one of those 95mph bass boat, but his wasn't a Bullet. However, he had always said his next one was going to be a Bullet. His was a 20' Tunnel Hull/Mod-V with a 300+hp Johnson, something like a Challenger. (just remembered, his was a Shadow) By the way, Very Nice Boat, to bad it has to have a welfare motor on the back. One of my 400+hp (close to 500) 3.3 Ruds would probably send it on down the lake. I know Paul Nichols put a specially built 490hp JSRE merc on one several years back and went something like 119 mph in if. I've been out of it for a while so he may have even out done that now.

When you say "Older" that don't help a whole lot as to what carburetor it has. First off, you can't adjust anything about a carb (idle speed or mixture) while connected to a hose or with the LU just covered in water. The ONLY way you can properly adjust one is when the motor is sitting in the water submerged at the depth it normally sits while in the lake. There is no way you can get the proper back pressure with the motor out of the water. Trim angle can even affect some carbs. You will notice most motors idle very high and sometimes will lean spit when on a hose, that's caused by the lack of proper back pressure. Depending on the carb you have, some can be a little tricky to clean and adjust, and could just be bad. I've got a carb off a 1988, 48 Johnson that after four different times of taking it apart and cleaning, (and I know very well how to clean and adjust them) and it still wouldn't idle, I finally replaced it with one I rebuilt off another motor and it ran like a champ.

Those big yellow batteries a about as good as they come in cheap batteries, if that's all your budget allows, then I would say go for them. I would however go ahead and get three, and use one for cranking. Bass boats really need a Dual Purpose battery for a cranking battery. Straight cranking batteries tend to not do real well in bass boats because of the demands placed on them by all the accessories pulling on them when the motor is not running. I personally prefer Trojans or Deka batteries, but you ain't gonna buy them for what the yellow batteries cost.

Bullet 21, did you by chance live in Hampton a some years back?

I could post the facts of does and don'ts, but from reading the other post, it seems anything other than what other certain people think would cause conflict, so I wouldn't waste my time

I have had a 17' aluminum Grumman cargo (wide bottom) canoe with the square stren since about 1962 (I bought it used for $40 back then but it had a sail attachment that I never used). I don't have a clue how many miles or hours I've racked up in that thing since getting it. If you try to use it with just one person, you have to sit in the front seat but turned around facing the rear and still make sure you have plenty of weight in the back (which is the front now). It's almost impossible to fish from the rear seat unless you have a person in the front or you add about 1/2 your weight in the front. If you don't, the front goes up at about a 30 degree angle and only wants to go around in circles. However, needless to say, I still luv my canoe, after all, I've held on to it for 50 years. I have a little 1996, 4hp merc I put on the back, (which is scary fast on the thing and you have to be very careful). Until a forest fire back in 95 got the shed it was in, I had an early 60's 3hp johnson I use on it and it and you still had to slow down turning. I personnaly would not care for a canoe any smaller without stabalizer's or outriggers on it. Back in 85, a neighbors kid that had been with me a number of times in mine, got him one of those cheap, 15' plastic canoes and I was going to show him the does and don'ts of using one. With the two of us in it, it was so unstable, it was down right scary. Even with just me in it, I didn't like it, ungodly unstable. He tried it by himself, rolled it three times in less than five minutes, load it back up and took it back and swapped it for a better 17' fiberglass. Unless you have some seat time in one, I would strongly recommend you find one you can use before buying one, they are not for everybody.

Do not use the oil for air cooled 2 cycles in a water cooled engine and don't use the oil for water cooled engines in air cooled engines. Totally different temp ranges the oils are designed operate in.

I don't think you're going to be happy with the outcome. Speed with an 80# TM is not going to be anywhere near any kind of outboard. It simply is not going to have the rpm to make a lot of speed. Next is battery life. If you run at full thrust, the current draw is going to drain two batteries in about an hour. I have a 4hp Merc is use on my 17' Grumman canoe and even that motor will push it a hellava lot faster than any TM could ever hope to (it's actually scary if you run WOT), and will do that for hours, plus it doesn't weigh much more than a big TM.