Way2slow

Yes, they will send you a puck that you can bond into the hull, but you will most likely pay for it. Shooting through the hull does reduce sensitivity a little, but it doesn't get knocked out of addjustment. I have them shooting though the hull and on the transome. Other than it getting knocked around from time to time, I actually prefer the transome mounted skimmers. My skimmer reads just fine to about 70 mph and then it starts getting flakey because where it's mounted starts getting lifted out of the water. You can also run into problems shoothing through the hull. I thas to be solid glass between the Xducer and the water, If small airbubbles happen to be in the glass it can cause problems. Oh, also, a skimmer can be epoxied in to shoot though the hull, doesn't have to be the puck.

First, before wanting more speed, are you willing to spend several hundred dollars to get it??? There are a number of things you can do to most any setup to get more speed but it comes at a price, time and money. Adding a jackplate is just about a must. Depending on the boat, this could also mean having to change to longer control and streering cables. Next is the prop, finding the right prop for your setup can be a challange, and it won't be an aluminum. Normally your going to need something like a Raker and preferably one that gives you one or two hundred rpm more than the motors red line. You get the boat pretty well dialed in with that prop and then send it of to one of the custom prop tuners and have it tuned for your boat. Depending on the hull, this could be anywhere from 2 - 3 mph to 7 -8 mph gain. At approx $100 - S200 per mph. So, back to the question, just how much do you want more speed A properly set up and proped boat will have more speed and more hole shot. Just trying to go to a bigger prop will not work.

My first action would be to clean and rebuild the carbs and replace the needle and seats, it's probably leaking by them. I think that motor also has a rebuildable fuel pump, if so, I would go ahead and get the kit for it also.

No, it's not a non rechargeable battery. It's a junk battery. When you go to Wal-mart to buy a replacement, buy new ones for the cranking battery and TM battery. Will make you a much happier fisherman when you don't have to worry about batteries. Not too sure what you mean by "Grounding" the negative terminal but that does nothing.

First off, unless the boat is aluminum, there is nothing to ground to. Even on an aluminum, you don't want any connections of any kind (negative or positive) going to the hull, this can create all kinds of corrosion problems. Everyelectrical connection should have a positive and a negative wire going to it and everything should be isolated from the hull.

I was going to suggest a new fuel pump. That sounds more like your problem than anything else. If the system is sucking air in the fuel line, it usually only runs a short time before it dies and even then it would have to be between the bulb and the tank. If it was beween the bulb and the engine, it would be spraying gas where the leak was when you pumped the bulb. If there was a leak between the bulb and the tank, you would have a hard time getting the bulb to pump up for the air it would be sucking and you would see wetness around the affected area. So, replace/rebuild the fuel pump and your problem will, in all likelyhood, go away.

The RC of 200 minutes means that that battery will run 200 minutes with a 25 amp draw before is reaches a discharge of 80%. So, with two batteries in series, (series increases the voltage but not the capacity) running your 24 volt trolling motor, if it's drawing 25 amps, it will will run 200 minutes or 3.3 hours before it's considered fully discharged. The 115 Amp Hour @ 20 hours means that if your 24 volt TM is only drawing 5.75 amps, it will run 20 hours. The 95 Amp hour @ 5 hours means that if your 24 volt TM is drawing 19 amps it will run 5 hours. The 75 amps rate is saying the battery will only last 52 minutes, but don't think you really need to worry about that one, unless you're gonna try to do some welding with it. As for the batteries, they are among the top brands and are very good batteries. As I've said many times before, as the amp draw on a battery increases, the amp hour capacity decreases, Trojan is just company enough to publish those figures to show you what you can expect. That's why you can not figure a 115 Ah battery running a 40 amp TM full speed is going to last 2.8 hours because with that draw, that battery is probably only a 75 Ah battery and would only last about 1.8 hours.

For that length and that big of a motor running on 12 volts, you really need to go with #6 fine strand wire, absolutely no smaller than #8. You can order the cable from Cabela's if you can't find it locally. I would install a 50 amp breaker on the battery, you can probably order that from Cabela's also. All connections should be done with heavy guage crimp connectors and solderd after crimping to ensure good connection.

If your OMC motor is older than 1999, I would recommend replacing the VRO with the updated CRO. In 99 the made changes that did away with the variable ratio oil and also made them much more reliable. Just be aware, a new pump cost approx $300 plus labor. Another problem I've see a lot is water in the oil tank. I would recommend dumping the tank and cleaning it. As for whether to run oil pump or premix, that's a presonal thing. On my hot rod motors I'm turning 7,000 rpm I premix @ 40:1. On my stock motors turning 6,000 or less rpm I prefer the convienence of oil injection. So, my feelings are, if your running an older OMC with a pre 99 pump, unplug the wires going to it and the oil tank so they don't set off the alarm and premix @ 50:1 to be on the safe side. If there is a lot of oil in the tank, might want to wait until it's low, so you won't be double oiling. Unpluging the wires going to the pump doesn't stop it from pumping, just keeps the alarm from sounding, it's still going to pump oil until the tank goes dry. As for high peformance applications, don't premix 50:1 with the oil injection connected, only premix 100:1 under those conditions, 50:1 is way too much oil and despite what was said, can hurt the engine. It will double the carbon build up, it also make the pistons hold more heat. On a fairly tight engine, this can cause them swell enough to make them gall the skirts, and stick. The whole stock fuel system is only rated for about 6,500 rpm anyway.

No, I'm refering to a hook that's moulded into hull on the outer strakes. Don't know if Ranger does it or not, but several models do. All you have to do is run your hand under the trailing edge of the hull and you will feel them if they are there, about the last four inches of the hull rolls down about an inch. Another reason you have be careful with underpowered boats. The design is so that the hull lifts them out of the water when running WOT with the rated HP so they don't create drag. A smaller motor won't run fast enough to lift enough of the hull to get them clear of the water so you get a tremendous amount of drag and the bow stays planted in the water..

Haven't mounted your transducer but have mounted several on hulls like yours. I have a piece of that white plastic material used to make cutting boards, (can't remember the name) and I cut me a wedge on my bandsaw to shim the mounting bracket so it will point straight back. Also check and make sure your hull doesn't have those turned downed hooks on the outer strakes used to help a lot of hulls plane off quicker. These create a lot of turbulance if you mount on the transome behind one of them.

If your electronics are killing your cranking battery, you either have way to small of a battery, a bad battery, or charging system problems, or are not charging your cranking battery after a day of hard use. A good group 27, dual purpose should run any and all electronics and pumps in a bass boat all day without ever running the big motor to recharge it. (I don't consider a stereo as part of a bass boat package)

Yes, it will move it quit well, just be carefull and try to stay away from big water where the wind is subject to get pretty strong, could get you in trouble

Well, if your mechanic know what he's doing and that's all that wrong with the motor, the motor alone is worth more than what you're paying for the whole outfit. This is based on it being a fresh water motor, if a saltwater motor, I would make sure the boat and everything checks out good. Saltwater motors have a rather short lifespan and 14 years is a long time on one. Getting them repaired when something breaks gets very expensive because nothing wants to come apart. As for premixing, I would stronly recommend that anyway with a motor that age. Mercs didn't have the most reliable oil injection system back then to start with and with 14 years on them, they are a motor just waiting to blow if still being used.

I think they usually give you pretty good service for a couple of years. I've never seen an Ah capacity or Reserve Minutes on them but unless your doing some serious running times and need every minute you can get, probably do ok. I run them in a couple of my boats I don't use a much and have usually gotten two - three years out of them with a maintainer connected and keeping the water levels up. I don't run them in my Javelin that I use heavily.

Takes three things to make the tach work. A good negative battery connection (ground) and good switched positive battery connection (12 volts when the key switch or power switch is turned on (normally the key switch) and a good signal from the rectifier. First thing I would do is to connect a voltmeter across the battery, crank the motor, (in water or on muffs) and rev it up to approx 1,500 rpm and see if you're getting approx 14 or more volts. If you're not getting a voltage increase from battery voltage or very little increase with the motor running, you have probably blown the rectifier/regulator or possibly a stator, or possibly both. This is a very common cause for the tach not to work. Trying to run weak/bad batteries is the main cause of the reg/rec and stator going out. Then I would check the negative and positive connections on tach and make sure the positive has battery voltage and zero resistance between the negative side and battery negative. If all these check good, you will need to check your signal voltage. If that's good, you need to look at getting another tach.

It's made my ProMariner for Cabela's. Strickly from my point of view, ProMariner is the only onboard charger I would ever consider using and all I have used for about the last 10 years Granted, it's not the same charger as the ProMariner Pro Tournament models but, they have everything you need in a small charger. Also, as I've mentioned many time before, just because it's only listed as a 12 amp, it really performs as much bigger charger with their on demand technology.

I've got doubts that a 36" shaft will be long enough to bow mount your TM. Those are primarily for transome mounting. I know you say it sit's low and it's going to have to sit real low for a 36" shaft. What is probably going to happen is it won't stay in the water if there are any waves or boat wakes. This can create a serious problem fishing close to the bank and rocks where you can get bottomed out because of no whay to control the boat, caused by the TM being bounced out of the water more than it's in.

Yes, but you should make it out of at least #2 guage wire to handle the amps it would be pulling during cranking You can mount and connect the Battery Minder in the boat, leave it connected to one battery, add a battery disconnect switch between the two batteries and all connections would be premenant, all you would have to do it close the switch when in maintenance mode and open it during operation. For just a few dollars more you could add a two bank BPS or Cabela's two bank onboard charger and be done with all of it. The ProSport II 8 is about all you would need and is only $100. http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat21276-cat600056_TGP&id=0043939018868a&navCount=2&podId=0043939&parentId=cat600056&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat600056&hasJS=true Didn't check BPS, they may even have a better price. Both brands are made by ProMariner and are excellent charges. Just because it say's it's just an 8 amp, don't let that fool you. They don't work like other 8 amp chargers with just four amps to each bank. With their on demand charging system, it charges the cranking battery at 8 amps and then switches to the TM battery. It will charge almost as fast as the Dual Pro 20 amp charger.

If you only mount the transducer, it should give you depth and temp. You have to mount the paddle for speed/odometer. Yes, to get Temp, Depth and Speed, you have to mount both units. To only get depth and temp, you only have to mount the transducer

First, the speed has to be calibrated with a GPS. Right out of the box, it can be bunches off. I have a Lowrance with speed and temp on my Stratos and once I calibrated the speed with my gps it was very accurate everytime I spot checked it against the gps, much more so than the speedo. I like it not so much for the speed but for the odometer. I think you will also find as mentioned, the Temp is in the Xducer, the paddle wheel is only for speed.

Scream and Fly is your best source of info for hot rodding a mercury. There are a number of racers and engine builders on their tech forums that can give you as much and more info than you could ever want. Eagle One Racing is one of the top dogs in building you a hot, reliable motor. He is also one of the very few I would want inside my new merc. The main problem you are going to run into is getting someone to do it for you. It is strickly a no no to mod the newer engines so most will not touch them for someone they don't know. There is not much in the way of quick, bolt on mods that can be done that would make a noticable difference. Big gains in performance are gained by one of the pro builders that know what to do with a die grinder inside the motor. One thing to consider also, like any engine, to gain top end power, you have to take away some bottom end power, something that you might want to consider long and hard considering this motor is on the back of one big, heavy Ranger. I'm not real sure you will find anyone that knows their stuff that would consider moding the motor on that heavy of a boat.

Most floatation foams provide about 60 - 66 pounds of floatation per cubic foot and add about 2 pounds to boat weight per cubic foot. Just be very careful when working with it. It expands greatly and will literally rip your boat appart if you put too much in an area. Don't think an enclosure is going to stop the stuff from expanding. You also only have an extremely short time to work with it. A drill powered paint mixer works great. Add the two parts to a can, mix for about 5 or 6 seconds and and pour it. It starts expanding in about 10 seconds. It's better to mix a little a pour a coulpe of times than to try getting enough in a spot at one time, because I can't stress enough, the stuff will rip everthing loose if you get too much.

I've never dealt with or used them but I think they are just a top of the line AGM. Not sure they would be that much better than other top line AGM batteries like the Trojan's. It's kinda like which car is better, the BMW or the Lexus. As for a bow installation, I personally would not want that much extra weight in the bow. It's hard enough to get good bow lift on most bass boats with just the weight of the TM sittin up there. Other than a few of the tin cans, I don't know of many bass boat that have bow battery compartments Now, if you want to be feel confident you are getting the one of the best in an AGM and don't mind the cost, they might be the way to go.

One thing that math does not account for. A 105 Ah battery is rated at that on a 20 hour draw down rate. Meaning it's only a 105 Ah battery if it only has about 5 amps being pulled off it. When you start drawing 30 amps off that battery it becomes about a 75 Ah battery instead of a 105 Ah battery so you can't figure at a 30 amp draw your going to get 3 1/2 hours run time, it's going to be more like 2 1/4 hours. Look at the Trojan SCS225, it's rated at 130 Ah on a 20 hour rate but only 105 on a 5 hour rate. http://www.trojanbattery.com/Products/ProductSpec.aspx?Name=SCS225 Look what happens to the RC when increased for 25 amps to 75 amps. The more the amp draw, the less the battery can stand it.