Way2slow

Before you get too far into that one, let's clear up a couple of things. The smaller wire causes a voltage drop to the motor, reducing the motors performance, the heat is a by product of that, it's not going to drain the battery any quicker than if running the proper size wire, other than you will have to run the motor longer to cover the same distance. What you are looking at when you see 500 - 800 amps on the battery, that CCA or CA, that does not relate to the 42 amps that motor is going to draw in one hour. The amp hour capacity is what you have to use to determine TM run time and even that's misleading because most batterier use a 20 hour discharge rate. Your average group 27 deep cycle battery will have approx 115 amp hour on a 20 hour rating but use a 42 amp discharge rate (TM wide open for one hour) and the Ah drops to about 60 Ah for the same battery. That gives you about 1 1/2 hours of run time at a 42 amp draw. Now cut that to half power and draw 21 amps for one hour and the battery goes up to about 80 Ah battery, so you have increase your run time to approx four hours. A good source to help understand this is to looking at how Trojan show's their Ah capacity. Look at the five hour rating and the 20 hour rating for the same battery, you will see there is a significant difference, and here I am getting back into battery discussions that I said I was not going to get into on here anymore. Sorry.

Mine usually get hid under other scratches. If they really bother you, you can sand them out with 2000 grit wet/dry and then buff it out with a fine buffing compound. The only problem with this is, that spot will be so shiney, you will want to do the rest of the boat. That's why I like my method of taking care of scratches. Should mention, this is for very minor surface scratches. Deeper scratches and you will sand too much of the gel coat off and get down into the base coat or metal flake, and that's not good. I'm the same way about my boat as my truck, I buy a 4WD truck to go places I don't care to walk and I buy a bass boat to fish in areas the bass like to hold, so neither of mine a pretty for very long.

As mentioned, most likely you have a very fine strand #10 wire in the motor. If I was going to lengthen mine 6 feet, I would get a very fine strand #8 to splice onto it. I would not try splicing in the middle, each splice increases resistance and as mentioned also, potential problems. I would get me some of the crimp on copper splice connectors, crimp them firmley and then solder them and put a double layer of heat shrink over the splice. One over each splice and then a larger piece over the whole thing. I would also get me some copper lugs to crimp on the ends and then solder them and heat shrink the conneciton. Check with your auto parts store and see if they have #8 battery cable. Cabela's used to sell some at a somewhat reasonable price but there's not much of anything copper that's reasonable nowdays. Another cheap source is a set of jumper cables, but watch out for the really cheap ones, the wire they use only has a few strands. If you go with cheaper stranded cable you will need to up that to a #6. Current travels on the surface of the wire, the finer the strands, the more strands and the greater the surface area. So a #8 fine strand wire can carry a lot more current than a #8 with just several strands. The less the surface area, the greater the resistance, the greater the resistance the greater the voltage drop and the more heat generated. I would also have to question the rational behind wanting to keep those connectors. I would have cut those things off and put copper eyelets on when I first got it. You should either be tightening the wing nuts with pliers or have thrown the wing nuts away and using hex nuts and a wrench to tighten them. Doing that usually makes those open ended connectors spread apart and get where they won't stay under the nut.

If your cranking battery is a dual purpose or deep cycle, use the deep cycle setting, otherwise use the normal setting. Same with your TM batteries, if dual purpose or straight TM deep cycle use the Deep Cycle setting. Only use the Gel setting for Gel Cell batteries. Ideal charge rate is 10% of it's amp hour capacity so use the 10 amp setting, since most fall into the 95 to 120 Ah rating. If in a hurry you can use the 15 amp and it's not going to hurt it.

What kind of truck? Most newer vehicles require a tailer light adapter to connect them up. If the vehicle has separate turn and brake lights, your trailer shares turn and brake so blocking diodes are needed, the trailer adapter has these diodes built into it. They can be bought at most parts stores. If your friend used an adapter, then you could have blown it or as mentioned, have a grounding problem. You need to make sure the white wire coming out of the connector is connected (clean connection) to the trailer frame. An the one on the vehicle is connected to the vehicle frame/metal body, again good clean connection, no paint or rust under the connections. Same with all the grounds on the lights, good clean connection to frame.

Avid is the guy to talk to about the outriggers. He uses them and loves them.

If the boat is very old, it's not going to have a vin number so there is no whay it can be traced to see if it has ever been registered. Unless you just want to scrap it, it most likely can be titled by doing as mentioned above. Even if wanting to get rid of it, you will get a whole lot more for it as a titled boat than scrap metal. Last time I saw a price for scarp aluminum it was 50 cents a pound. Even if it weighs 150 pounds, that's only $75.

You will need two paddles. A canoe paddle which has a much longer and slightly broader paddle surface than the standard boat paddle and a short paddle about two-three feet you can work with one hand to while fishing. Wear your PFD and make several canoe trips without anything in it but yourself until you get used to it, they can dump you in a heartbeat, so get your bodies balance system trained before adding gear. When you're paddleing, hold the blade of the paddle at approx a 60 degrees and at the end of the stroke, make a slight outward kick with the paddle. You will have play with the anlge a little but learn to do this and you can paddle from one side of the boat without having to change sides with the paddle to keep it straight. Use more angle and and extra kick out to turn left, less angle to turn right. Another trick when you're by yourself is to use it backwards. Sit in the front seat facing the rear seat. The front seat places your weight closer to the center of the boat and helps keep the end from riding way up in the air and will require much less ballast weight in the other end. If you put a TM on it, place the battery in the opposite end from where you're sitting.

If price is an issue, forget it. Look for something you can swap them out with. You can't get seats more than a few years old from Stratos and if they have them, you're looking at over $200 per seat and some will be about double that. If you want them redone to look like the original, lube up and bend over because an upholstery shop is going to ream you a new one. Even to do a plain-jane cover will cost a bundle. I reupholstered the seats in my 285 Pro back like the original and it's a lot work, you may even be hard pressed to find a shop that would even do them because getting everything to line up is tough. It cost me $150 just in materials to do mine, and I did all the work, and NO, I don't want to do your's.

A whole lot of people that owns boats don't have a mechanical bone in their body and don't have a clue what would be considered snugg or tight, for them one would be highly advised. In the nearly 45 years I've owned boats with Mercs, Johnson's and Evinrudes, I've never once used a torque wrench on a prop, and never had one come loose or be stuck on and wouldn't come off from over tighening.

Two people, one boat, my butt ain't gonna be in it unless it's at least a 1232 Jon and prefer it be at least a 14'.

You pretty much have to scrape the plastic outer off, just being carefull not to gouge the fiberglass. Heat gun helps for that. M.E.K solvent will take the glue off with little effort. I would recommend using solvent resistant gloves when using the MEK. Not that it's that toxic but is absorbed into the skin and long term exposure can cause kidney/liver damage. MEK can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot in the paint dept.

My Javelin was a CITGO BASS tourney boat and was very nice boat but as mentioned before, that's not always the case. A lot of the condition is going to depend on the type sponsership. A lot of the lesser ranked guys fishing the FLW and such are furnished the boat and given a big discount. They have to sell the boats when they get their new boats to pay Ranger. If they can't get what it takes to pay Ranger, they have to make up the difference. Because of this, most of these guys take very good care of their boats because it can get expsensive when it comes time to sell and the boats beat to hell and they can't get what they need to pay Ranger.

A jackplate would only be necessary if you want to get peak performance and handling from it. A hydraulic jackplate lets you drop the motor down deeper for better hole shot and then bring it up for to optimum hight for max top speed. They are also handy when running shallow water, you can bring the motor up about four inches without having to use the motors trim. This makes it much easier to manuver.

Very few chargers have "fluff" as you call it. You pretty much get what you pay for, buy a cheap charger, you get a cheap charger. Most any charger worth having is going to cost you around $50 or more Do yourself a favor and don't buy one of those cheap, automatic cutoff chargers. You want go get a charger that say's it a 10 amp or 12 amp Smart charger, Intili charger or something along those line. What you are looking for is a high frequency charger that drops into a float mode when the battery is fully charged and you can leave them connected indefinetly without damaging your battery. Actually, it's best to leave your battery connected a good, high frequency charger that goes into a float mode. They work just like your better onboard chargers.

Hp rating; Johnson changed in 1986. The 1985 235 became the the 1986 175. The 1985 135/140 became the 1986 115. The 85 115 became the 86, 90. Most of this was due to the change between rating off the flywheel and rating off the prop shaft but some of it was because they detuned the motors by dropping compression on most and going to smaller carbs on some. Performance wise, doubt you will see a difference between the early 60 and the later 50 if they are both two cylinder motors. If the 60 is the three cylinder then it would be a lot stronger than a 50 two cylinder. Sound like your linkage was out of adjustment for reverse. YOu could have spun the hub. Put it in gear, spin the prop and see if the prop shaft spins also. If it does, there's something wrong internal. If it doesn't spin it harder and see if the prop slips on the hub. This may or may not work because sometimes you can't get enough torque on the prop to make it spin on the hub.

I hope they are leaving out one step in starting their motor before going to the lake and that's hooking a water hose to it so there's water going through it. Personally, I never start mine before I go to the lake or before I launch it. I take care of my batteries and boat, and over 40 years of doing this I've never had a problem with one not starting after I launched it. I've seen people have problems because the did start it the day before and forget to turn off the power switch and have a dead battery when they got to the lake. If you do feel you need to run it before hand, NEVER, EVER start a motor without having water going through it. Yes, you will see people do this all the time at the ramp but all the idiots are doing is frying hell out of their water pumps. Spinning at 1,000 - 1,500 rpm with no water, it only takes a couple of seconds for the thing to get extremely hot. Just a couple of seconds causes the impeller to start hardening and loosing it flex, causing reduced pressure and volume. Any more than a coule of seconds, it starts burning the tips off the impeller or even melting the housing.

Mine is the ProMariner PT300 three bank. It's not big bulky or heavy. In my Javelin there was enough room for mine to fit snuggly between the fuel tank and compartment panel. I installed a Peko external plug that's mounted up on the gunwall outside the battery/fuel tank compartment so all I have to do is pop up the plastic cover that's over it and plug my extension cord in. It has been there over three years with no problems. I keep a boat cover on my boat so before I cover it, I prop all the hatch lids open a few inches and use keep a small ventilation fan running under it at all times to keep everything from sweating and getting condensation build up.

You only need enough to push the boat and a 9.9 will do easily do that. From that point it's what you are satisfied with. If you can put two or three people in the boat with the rest of the gear and it will get on plane and go fast enough to suit you, that's all you need. If you want the boat to shoot out of the hole with a load, and get up on the pad at WOT, blowing your checks back to your ears, you need all the max rated HP and sometimes even more. I'm the latter, I've over powered almost every boat I've ever owned. The last bass last time I owned a bass boat that would not run at least 60 mph was back in 1985 and the last time I owned at least one that would not run 70 mph was in 1992 I've had 15 foot boats with 150 hp, 17 foot boats with over 200 hp, 18' boats with over 300 hp. I currently have two motors that make over 300 hp, one of those is over 345 hp I run on a 20 foot boat when I get board with the 225 on it.

Not sure how heavy of a motor you're talking about but a grocery cart makes a pretty good one. Just add enough weight in the basket to keep it from flipping.

paddle will spook a fish a whole lot quicker than the TM.

All depends on hull, setup and whats pushing it. For instance, my old 1989 Stratos 285 Pro. Dry hull weight approx 1,500 pounds, that's with no rigging, motor etc, just the hull. A 1989 Evinurde XP150 would push it 52 mph with 22" raker and six inch jackplate. A 1977 Evinrude 200 would push it 56 mph with same prop and jackplate. A mildly modified 1989 200 Johnson 3.0 looper on a 8" jackplate and 26" raker would push it 78 mph after blueprinting the hull. A more modifend 3.0 looper on a 8" jackplate and custom 24" raker would push it 83 mph. All these were gps speeds on the same hull with different setups and modifications. I can push my 20 Javelin over 80 (81.3 best) with two people and gear in the boat with one of my motors. Just remember, these ain't your average fishing motors. A guy I built one for just had his dino'd and it was cranking 326 Hp @ 6,300 rpm on 91 octane and 306 lbs of torque at 5,500 rpm. That was a conservative build for a ski boat.

Al, Thanks for the kind words, but I don't get on here much anymore. The last couple of days is one of the few times I've been on here in months and usually don't get into these battery discussions because there are too many experts and I'm just a dumb country boy. Because of his location, I just thought this guy might be Air Force, and being retired from the AF, I figured I would try offering a little help, but as usual, I'll just leave it to the "experts".

I would get a small jackplate if you don't already have one, bolt a plate or 3/4" plywood to it and mount the 9.9 on it. Yes, the 9.9 should push the 285 around but be sure to get a very low pitch prop, dry hull weight on that boat is close to 1,600 pounds. Don't let the dual cable steering throw you either, it works just fine only using one cable, just be sure to fix the other one so water can't get in it. You may have to come up with an adapter for the steering and not sure it the control cables are going to connect up. It will take a little research and improvising and talking to a dealer to work out all the hookup aspects. To change out the control box and controls for a smaller one that works on the 9.9 will be a major job.

James Heddon, to answer you question, is floation foam necessary in a boat. NO it's not necessary, you can always use a boat without, as was done for many years before it became a Coast Guard requirement for the manufactors to add it and as is still being done in older boats. It's nothing more than a safety device, the same as life jackets. There have been more than a few people that have drowned that could have still been alive had their boat had flotation foam that would have given them something to hold onto when it got swamped. I have personally been in a boat that a guy stood up to take care of nature, lost his balance and capsized the boat and threw me out also. The boat didn't flip upside down but complete filled with water by him panicking and trying to get back in. After getting him a life jacket on, we were able to bail the boat out enough to get in by each of use getting in on each end. We got the boat to the shore and finished emptying the water out and finished our fishing. Had it not been for flotation foam in the boat, we would have lost everything and possibly his life because he didn't swim well and totally panicked when he went into the water.