Way2slow

First you need to make sure you know what you are getting into. Many times, the whole cap has to come off to replace the floor, that's a pretty good job in it's own. Then you have to support the hull because when you remove the floor, it can spread open like a clam shell. When you install the new floor and go to put the top back on, it won't fit. Also, a very common thing to find with rotten a rotten floor is rotten stingers and wet floation foam (the older boats used open cell foam that holds water better than a sponge), and they are totally no fun to replace. As for the wood, in the three boats I've done, I just used five ply, 1/2" plywood. It's a hellavalot easier to find than marine and cost about 1/2 what marine cost. I put a nice thick coat of resin on the bottom side and fasten it down while still wet. That seals it and the resin helps glue it down. I then cover the top with a layer of fiberglass matt, making sure I work all the air bubbles out so no water can seep through. Then you have to reinstall the top, making sure you get it sealed all the way around or water can come in during turns from your wake. Also be sure to get the transome (which you may find is rotten also and need to replaced) bonded completley across the back with no spaces for water to seep in. So, I hope you know how to work with fiberglass and have the means of taking the cap off if needed. I should mention, for an old boat that's not worth the money and work involved, to get a few more years service from it, I just put a sheet of heavy guage aluminum over it. I use a couple of tubes of silicon to seal between the floor and aluminum and some stainless wood screws to fasten it down where there's good wood the hold a screw. Then put your new carpet down and use it.

Ya'll are making all the great suggestions, but you are leaving out one very important one that every does at least once. DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE PLUG IN!! Unless it's pouring down rain, I always put the plug in when I hook to it at the house, then double check it again when I get to the lake, it's just tooooo dammmm easy to forget the thing and it can definitly raise the pucker factor when you stop for the first time and you start wondering where that water in the floor is coming from. The motor is either being supported by the trailering supports built into it or on a transome saver. Make your standard routine to undo the tie downs, trim the motor up to get it off the supports and check the drain plug. If you feel you need to unplug the trailer connector, do that as you are headed back to the rear of the boat to do all the previous mentioned. Personally, I never unplug mine, with good lights, it's not necessary.

I keep forgetting how much they have down rated the hulls hp ratings on these newer boats. Wasn't too long ago that same hull would have been rated for at least a 75. As far as performance, you will be much happier with the two stroke. Fuel economy and noise, the four stroke will beat it hands down. The nice part about the 40 two stroke, it's not a gas hog like the bigger motors so you won't be too bad there. If you find you have trouble getting on plane with a full load, you can go to a smaller pitch prop and that will help greatly. A lot of people have a tendency to over prop one, thinking that the bigger prop will give it more speed. That's usually just the oposite, they actually don't, they just make the much harder to get on plane and can actually make the boat run a little slower. Also, as dorky as they look, the hydrofoils help out a lot also At 255 and another person with live well full and the other gear, I have a feeling you are going to be wanting to try a smaller pitch prop, your wife is probably going to get tired of having to go to the front of the boat so it will get on plane. You may want to go to a smaller prop and the foil to get it to pop out of the hole.

If I understand the poster, he's asking about a 9.9 or 15 on the boat, not a 40. Even with a 40, I would think the boat fully loaded and two people would be difficult to get on plane unless you proped it down to where you would have to watch your rpm at WOT with a lite load.

With the motors you are looking at, picture yourself in a river barge. That's about the speed you will have and what the boat will look like going through the water. If you want to get it on plane without having to labor hard and having the passenger move to the front of the boat, look at 60hp motor and don't over prop it

I use Rod Tamer's. They make a gunwall mount that has and eyelet in the gunwall that lets them drop out of site, except for the hook and a small loop that fastens down on the deck. They use a solid round rubber strap that does not loose elastisity. Over time, if left laying in the sun, they do dry rot over the years but I have a 500' roll so that will last me a couple of lifetimes.

A lot of props are going to that system, even you high performance stainless props.

For the motors, yes, but I've never seen such an animal for boats. When it comes to working on you boat, you learn as you go. As questions if in doubt and maybe, if lucky, you will find someone with a similar boat has the experience you are looking for.

Any transducer will shoot through the hull as long as there are no airgaps or air pockets in the bonding. You can stick it in a pool of water in the bottom of the boat and it will work just fine. The temp sensor will work but it's not going to be an instant read like it would if in contact with water. It's only going to read the hull temp, and it takes a while for it to change to the waters temp. I've been kinda laughing at this post about the Xducer clicking. If it's not clicking, it's not working. I had my first depth finder in 1968, it click and everyone since then has. As previously mentioned, a lot of fishermen cut them off when fishing directly under the boat and fishing an area the boat is going to be passing over the cone area. I keep mine off anytime I'm fishing close to the boat in heavily fished areas.

Either the cable you took off first got over on one of the others or you shorted your wrench across the battery some how. You should be able to look at the batteries/cables and see the big arc marks it should have made

Personally, I would not trust any fuel stabalizer to keep gas usable that long. I feel two year old gas is only good for a fire starter, not to be run in any IC engine. I won't even run three month old gas in an outboard.

Make sure you get any gas in the tank and fuel line out also. Do not run that motor on any of that old gas. Also, start off kinda slow and slowly give gas, give it about five minutes, at least before you start running full throttle. You do know it's probably going to smoke like a freight train when you first start it, after having put oil in the cylinders, so don't be alarmed when you start it the first time.

If I was doing what you are about to do, I would get a 65# TM and two 27 batteries. The 24V TM is about 25% more efficient than the 12 volt and you will definetly like that extra thrust, even on your 15' boat. At least get a 55# 12 Volt if they make one in the model you are looking at. Even in a 15' boat, a hard wind can cause you all kind of grief with a 50# motor.

CCA, CA and MCA mean nothing on a deep cycle TM battery. You want to look at the amphour (Ah) or RC min. Then you want to look at what standard they are using to measure them. Usually true deep cycles will not even have the CCA, CA or MCA listed. When they have this, they are usually rated for dual purpose or cranking battery. Dual purpose is ok, but you don't want a cranking battery, they won't handle the deep discharges of the TM but a short time. The standard rating for RC minutes is how many minutes the battery will last with a 25 amp draw. Some companies use a lower amp rating so that can make their RC numbers look better. What that means is if you are pulling a constant 25 amps on your TM, one battery will last 180 minutes and one will last 210 minutes (if they are using the 25 amp rating) A couple of things to consider, is this a battery that's going to be left in the boat all the time or one you are going to be putting in and out. That extra weight for the bigger battery gets to be a handful if you are throwing it in and out every time. The next is how much demand do you put on a battery. If you are only using half the batteries charge, then you could use the smaller battery, but if you want all you can get, then you might want to look at even a bigger group 30/31 with 225 RC min's.

A three bank charger that's putting out 10 amps per bank will only place an approximate load of 400 - 500 watt's, depending on how much internal heat loss it has. 500 watts on a 115 VAC line is less than five amps. Even at 20 amps per bank, you should still be looking at less than 10 amps. As for a drop cord, for most chargers, you could easily run a 16 AWG, 100 ft drop cord and have no problems. If the charger was drawing 5 amps, that would only be about a 4 volt drop. More than enough voltage at the charger to still run and cause no problem. If you used a better 14 AWG drop cord, there would only be about a 2 volt drop. So, unless you are running iddy biddy drop cords or pulling a lot more than five amps, I wouldn't worry about a drop cord. Most chargers will still operate at full potential on 105 VAC. I think my ProMariner says it will work just fine on 90 - 135 VAC.

Most likely, yes it is that much trouble. The head has to come completely apart to get it off. If it lower housing on the head has to come off the upper shaft, a lot of those are pop rivited on and if that shaft needs replacing, you've got more problems. Sometimes the threads strip out of the motor unit when you screw the be bent shaft out The shafts are not that expensive, and I do replace my own, but unless you feel comfortable doing something like that, I wouldn't recommend trying.

If you keep it back to 2/3's throttle I would think you could get about 4.5 - 5 mpg. If you run WOT, I would guess about 2.5 - 3 mpg. Understand though, I haven't run a small motor in many, many years, and other than my jon's, have never used a tin boat, so this is totally a guestimation on my part. If it was a four stroke or DFI motor, it would be a lot more, but carb motors generaly don't give you great economy. Hopefully someone with your motor and similar boat can give you better numbers

For the past 25 years or more I've had a number of bass boats, all have had big V-6's hanging on a jackplate on them and I've never one that didn't have stress cracks. I'm sorry, but stress cracks are a fact of life on most fiberglass boats if they are run hard and fast. If you are hitting wakes and white caps in rough water that jarring your eyeballs out of their sockets, and slamming the power to a big outboard, or even just bumping the sides against the dock or trees, the boat is going to get stress cracks. Now, to what degree are you talking about, normal stress cracks are just spider web looking or minor, superfishal cracks in the surface of the gel coat, not something that's leaving a on open crack down in the fiberglass. Around each end of the transome is very common areas for stress cracks when you run a big motor.

To bad you are that far away. I would sell you my 98 4WD Chevy extended cab pickup with 350 Vortec for $4,200.

As already mentioned, you have to worry as much about what you can stop as to what you can tow. I towed a 3,200 pound trailer weight boat for a couple of years with a small 4WD Toyota pickup, had no problems but when you have it push you through a red light on a wet road, the pucker factor gets pretty dang high, been there, done that. I installed trailer brakes the following week. As for the towing part, it depends on how smart you are about it. If you just hook your boat behind it and go hauling 70 mph down the interstate, it won't be long before the transmission shop is going to have a huge grin on their face. Install a good transmission cooler, and a temperature guage for the transmission, a good additive that helps reduce heat and keep it out of overdrive and it will do ok with a mid size tin can rig. A temp guage is critical for that small of a tranmission, it will build heat in a hurry and when it starts, you can slow down and take it a little easier. Hills will make the temp jump in a heartbeat. 205 degrees is about the max you want to see you trans get ( below 200 is prefered) so don't think the engine temp guage will show you when it's working too hard. I've always trusted LubeGuard and have been using it for at least 20 years but you have to get the one for the type fluid your trans uses. I'm sure there are others, just stay away from the ones that claim they stop leaks. These has seal softners in them that you don't want. You are just trying to protect what you have, not trying to keep a worn out trans going a little while longer.

That's because, like everything else, 1,000,000 people don't get in here and brag about how good their motor is. You only hear from the handful that had a problem and the 1,000,000 that has never owned one but read about the few that had a problem. Then they get on the net and repeat all the problems they read about like those were problems they had. No body on the face of the earth makes a product that does not have a percent of failure rate. Several years ago (back when these new powerheads were still in their growing stage) I was at one of the major B.A.S.S. Tournaments and the Yamaha factory trailer ran out of HDPI powerheads, the Mercury trailer went though at least a dozen Opti-Max's and the Evinrude E-tec guy's used five. I guess you can gather, I'm a little partial to the e-tec's and if I was in the market for another motor, it would be an e-tec.

B = Break O = Out A = Another T = Thousand. The bigger the boat, the bigger the hole it makes in the water for you to throw more money in.

Newer engines are going to take a little more than a simple drain and store. I have two problems with this philosophy, the first is the alcohol mixed fuel and the other is the injection system. Store a fuel injection system for three years that has not been properly prepared for storage can be very expensive to get running again. Just my 2cents worth, but since it's not mine, it doesn't matter.

You also have to look at the cost of storing. For it to be in the same condition when you get back as when you leave, it just about has to be stored in a shelter. Shrink wraps, covers, etc all help but if it's sitting out, the sun and humidity/condensation still take their toll. Unless you have family that has a shed, barn or something inclosed, it gets expensive to store one two - three years. If it's not in a shelter, you are not going to like what you will have three years later. By the way, it also needs to be covered, even in a shelter. Then what really pi**es you off, they say you are going for three years, you sell it and they send you back in one. I had that to happen to me twice in my 22+ years of playing GI Joe. One time I sold a boat I really liked but didn't want to store three years, the other time I sold a classic car I didn't want sell but didn't want to store it the four years they said I would be gone for. Both times I was back in the states 13 months later.

I think it's going to depend on how you bought it. If you financed the max, on a long term note to keep the payments down, the value of the boat is going to be a lot less than you owe. If you sell it, you may have to come out of your pocket a few grand to pay it off, or pay to store it while you're gone. If you do store it, you should have it professionaly preped, unless you're pretty savy with them.