Way2slow

For me, it's gotta be a bigger boat, get used to a 20 ft boat with decks the size of an aircraft carrier and tons of storage to keep everything out of the way and its hard to consider a small boat. I have a 17' Stratos that stays at the lake and when I use it, it feels like I'm fishing from one of my jons. It's set up for stripper fishing with rod holders and such so that's about the only time it gets used.

10 amp and Deep Cycle/maintenance free

10 amps is 10 amps, it's nothing more than a 10 amp charger with a heavier Xformer and diodes to handle a 50 amp momentary surge that they put fancy terms on to make it look like you're really getting something. In the 10 amp mode, it will work just fine on any flooded cell battery, deep cycle trolling or cranking. You just can not use it on GEL or AGM's. Just don't leave it connected after the battery is fully charged. Plug the charger into a timer that will shut the power off to it after 10 - 12 hours so you don't have to worry about forgetting to disconnect it and you will be fine, even if it has Automatic shut off.

I think the Lowrance with speed sensor in my Stratos 285 showed I traveled 680 miles (and it was calibrated almost dead on with the gps at 60 mph) in eight months last year, before I started using my Javelin. I've been using the ficht motor on the Javelin since March of this year, I just had the computer on it last weekend and it shows I've put 81 hours on it since March. A lot of that has been at 60 - 70 mph so needless to say. I cover a few miles a year but the lake I fish is 77,000 acres and it no problem making one run of 50 miles. Just try not to do that very often. Yes, I do fish a lot more than I ride so needless to say, I spend a lot of time on the water

I guess it's going to boil down to which direction you think you want to drive. I would think the HydroSport could be bought a little cheaper than the 295 unless it's in a whole lot better condition. The double axle trailer is about the only plus I realy see between it and the 295. I also think with a 200 on the back of the HyroSport, it's going to be several MPH slower than the 295. I've never been in a HydroSport and only know one person that owns one. His has a 200 and says 60 - 62 is the best he's seen with two people, T-load and bunch of gas. With the same load the 295 should get into the mid to high 60's if running a jackplate and the right prop. 72 is probably running fairly light with just one person in the boat. The 295 I've fished from is a 200 with the 225 carbs (which makes it a 225), running an 8" jackplate and a Boger 26" raker. It runs low 70's with two people, and full load. I guess I should make a correction, not knowing the motor on either of those boats. Some of the J200S motor came with 225 carbs and were really 225's with 200 data plates and decals. The was their version of a 200 HO back then, they just didn't advertise that fact. Not sure why they did it, may have been out of 200 carbs and just used the 225 but I have seen a number of them with 225 carbs, so there is the possibilty it has the 225 cabs already. The easy way to tell is to look at the butterflies, if they have two screws, they are 200's if they have three screws they are probably 225. The next thing would be to measure the narrow part of the venturi. If it's 1.3 somthing inches, they're 200's and if approx 1.45 inches they are 225's.

I've fished from the 295 and a 201, couldn't tell the different as for fishing room. Never got into any really rough water in the 295 but boat was it was very stable and smooth when hitting multiple boat wakes. Just don't think you would miss that couple of extra inches in the 295. I have a Javeling R20 and that 295 feels just a big as it. Like cart7 said, try them both out and see which you like. The 295 will hold its value better since they are still in production. The ONLY thing I don't like about the 295 is the single trailer. I have a 285 Pro with a single trailer and there is a huge difference between the how it and my Javelin with a dual axle tows, especially when going across rough roads and railroad tracks.

My pick would be the 295, hands down. That is probably one of the best hull designs made for a 19' boat. It has good speed and provides great storage. Makes a very good fishing platform. It would have been better had it been a dual axle trailer but the single axle will handle the boat just fine. I've actually seen a couple of 201's on single axle's. They just don't tow as good, but once you get it to the lake, you can't beat the boat. Put you a set of 225 carbs on that 200, (that makes it a 225) and you will easily get into the 70's if your planning on fishing big lakes

Yea, it would be kinda smart to try and charge the battery. From what you describe, the battery is probably junk anyway. You can't let a battery sit for an extended period of time without charging it.

I will answer you basic electrical question and let the electronic jon boaters get into how many and what size motors. First, yes it takes two 12V batteries to produce 24 volts. Two 12v 105 amp hour (Ah) batteries connect in series will give you 105 Ah at 24 volts. Connected it parallel, the will give you 12 volts at 210 Ah. The higher the amp draw off a battery the lower the Ah rating. If the battery is rated for 105 Ah on a 20 hour rating, meaning that it is only having enough current drawn off it to take 20 hours to disharge it. Increase that draw so it disharges the battery in 4 hours it's only going to be about an 80 Ah battery. Naturally two motors are going to draw twice the current of one motor so if you try to run two motors off one set of batteries, you will significantly reduce your Ah capacity and over all run time from what you get if using two sets of batteries. As for battery size and capacity, you will need to determine how many and what size motors you plan to run. Use the total amp draw these motors will place on your batteries and then multiply that total amp draw by how long you think you want to be able to operate at the amperage. Figure two motors @ 50 amps each = 100 amps and you want to be able to run at that load for three hours, that's 300 Ah's (150 Ah per motor) of battery your will need. Since 120 Ah 12V batteries are about as big as they get (and they would not be 120Ah at that draw rate), you would need to run four batteries in a series-parallel configuration on each motor (eight batteries total) to get that much run time. Cut the hours you would like to run at the load to 1.5 hours and you cut the battery capacity required in half. Also, anytime you are connecting two or more batteries together, they must be the same type, age, Ah capacity etc. If two batteries are connected together and one goes bad, you must replace both if they have been charged more than 15 - 20 times or you will damage both batteries. You also want to be sure to figure enough capacity you don't run the batteries down below 20% charge or you will greatly shorten the life of the batteries. That much battery is also going to take some major size battery chargers. A bank of four 105 Ah batteries connected in series-parallel will require a 24 volt 25 amp charger to charge them. As for electric boat setup, I will let the electric boat people cover that.

OMC went belly up late 2000 and it was early 2001 when BRP moved in but it was into the 2002 MY before they got the bulk of OMC's problems worked out of the Evinrude's. Other than the crappy electronics, the Johnson line didn't have the large number of problems the early rudes had. They took care of the bulk of the rude problems in 2001 and 2002 but the 2003 and newer were your best motors in them. They used crappy casting methods to produce the 3.0 blocks. They are so mismatched and have so much casting slag and glue lines, You can look at the ports on them and wonder how anything gets through them on most of the blocks. I guess they figure if they used a 300 hp block to make 200 - 250hp motors they didn't need to worry about being pretty inside. That's why I say in the right hands, the can be made to make some awsome power and still not have to turn big rpms like the Mercs to do it. I have two hot rod motors I play with that one does 295 hp at 6,000 rpm and one is doing 312 hp at 6,200 -6,600 rpm, both are putting out over 290 lbs of torque at 4,500 rpm and will run for ever. There is a cooling mod to balance the cooling that has to be done on them when making this kind of power though. I guess that gives you about 10 times more info than you wanted.

Yes, Bombardier Recreational Products.

The 201 is a very nice boat and yes has a good ride in rough water. Probably not the ride of a Ranger and a couple of others but you would have to be in some very rough water to notice a difference. I don't think you will find a dealer putting a 300 0n the back of one. I built a 200 Venom putting out 280 hp that is pushing a 94 201 at 78.4 mph with me and the owner in it, (both about 220 pounds) and a full livewell. With the 225 HO they will run in the mid 70's The fastest of the Stratos's is the ASX they made for a short time but the slow down greatly with a full T-Load. The 201 carries a load very well.

98 and later are probably about the best OMC carburatered motors to have. If it has had a new powerpack installed, that's even better. They had their share of electronics problems but when BRP took over they redesigned them and made them much better. I would increase the main jet size in #2 carb one number to help cool #2 cylinder a little. All the 3.0 OMC motors have a cooling problem the causes unbalanced cooling. The port side of the motor runs hotter than the starboard side with #2 being the hottest. The egt's for #2 are approx 50 degrees hotter than the rest. This is why when you hear of one of the motors blowing, it's usually #2 that blew and it was because it lost the ring locator pins. In 97 they made changes to the pistons that helped keep the pins from backing out. Don't let this scare you, all makes of outboards loose locator pins if run at WOT for long durations. The earlier OMC's just lost more than their fair share. This is no more of a problem with the 98 motor than any other brand and going up one jet size just add a little extra insurance. In 99 they redesigned the VRO pump, changed it to a CRO and made it a lot more bullet proof. Personnaly, I would take that motor over any other 98 model motor on the market. However, I also perfer the OMC/BRP's to any motor on the market. It's very easy, in the right hands to make them almost bullet prof and still make incredible power without having to turn bunches of rpm.

I've used a 30# TM for many years on a 12' Lowe while fishing small lakes/ponds with two 220 pound men and have never had a problem. On high it has pretty good speed and will go slow enough to creep around. If you're talking about a bow mount, hand control motor when asking why the handle is turned backwards, on the transome the motor pushes the boat, on the bow the motor pulls the boat. The battery is going to be determined by the anount of run time you think you're going to need. The more run time the bigger and heavier the battery. Also, if you're having to lift the battery in and out of the boat, you might want to consider a smaller, group 24 @ 80 - 95 Ah. If you think you iwll need a bunch of run time, then look at the Trojan SSC-225, thats about the baddest of the TM batteris but will cost you between $116 (jober price) and $145 list price. The big Yellow Maxx batteries from wally world will fall somewhere in between and cost about $65 As for a charger, get at least a 10 amp and make sure it's a three step Smart or Intelli charger that drops into a float mode when the charge is complete. These can be left connected to the battery 24/7 and not damage the battery. Your standard Auto Shutoff chargers can not be left on the battery when charge is complete and take much longer to charge the battery.

there are a whole bunch of the newer 20/21' bass boats (if not all) with max hp on the back will get you into the 70's and many will give you a great ride. When you start wanting to get into the 80's you will have to give up a lot of ride and the number of boats get much smaller. I think the Gambler is considered the best riding boat (other than the Allison) that will run in the 80's. You can count on one hand the bass boats that will get you into the 90's. On word of caution/advise. If you get one of those Hydro-rockets, you will never be satisfied. You will constantly be spending money trying to get another mph out of it. Seen and done it too many times.

In bass boats, the fastest boat with the best ride is an Allison but you wll pay dearly for one. The next fastest are going to be your Stroker and Bullet but neither will have the ride of an Allison. Between the Stroker and Bullet, I think the Bullet is a little faster in the 20' models by a couple of mph. I think either are capable off 100 mph speeds with 300 SX Mercs, running light with the right setup but the Stroker might be a little harder to get into the tripple digets than the Bullet. Paul Nichols has had a 20' Bullet at 119 mph with a 390 hp JSRE built Merc on the back. As for ride, compared to Stratos, Champion, Ranger or other good riding boat, neither of the two will begin to compare. Any one them will take you a few months of seat time before you can air them out. You will not just jump in a go hauling a** down the lake. I had a friend that sold an Allison with a 300 SX because he never could learn to drive it. Kept swearing there was something wrong with the hull/setup, yet another friend that has one could drive it with no problems. Also knew a guy that bought an Allison and four months later his wife was a widow. These boats are not something you can just jump in and go fast.

I've had bass boats for many years and I've never taken one off just to store it.

I will never run fuel that's over a month old in mine, Fuel will loose octane very quickly. You will have some say they've left it in for months and ran it with no problem but not me, I've seen too many times what bad fuel does to a motor. However, if you have oil injection and bad fuel damages the motor, you can always blame it on the oil injecton. That's what gets blamed about 90% of the time anyway. What I will do on 87 octan motors that has only set for a couple of months is pull about half the fuel out of the tank and fill it back up with 91/93 octane. When that is gone, pour the other half in and top it off again with high octane. After it's three months old, I pretty much consider it lawn mower gas, even if it had stabalizer in it. I just don't take chances and try to run old gas, it can bite you big time.

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Oh yes, and the bigger the boat, the bigger the hole it makes so you can sink larger sums off money into it. Look at it like this though, if you wasn't spending the money of boats, motors, and other necessary fishing items like custom rods, high quality reels, you would be spending you would be spending it on other things or your wife would have that much more to spend shopping

I've never seen anything other than OMC tilt/trim fliud recommended but if your manual says you can use type A or AF, then either one should mix with what's in there. OOps!! forgot your run one of those Mercury built things. Either fluid should work just fine, I think Type A is usally a little eiser to find. They would be much more specific if there was a problem mixing with what's already in there.

OK, different animal than what I have. Mine are no more than two fins that go down in the water on each side of the boat. About twice as wide as a boat paddle and about two feet long. The keels are about half again was wide and three feet long. All they do is keep sudden moves from making the boat role over, but like I said, these were 1950's technology.

The 200's and 175's not the 150's

Reliability wise, I would go with the GT150. Performance wise the Evinrude will be a little better. Hyper trim is just a fancy name OMC used when they went to a faster trim system in the early 90's. The old X-flow motors are some tough motors, they burn a little more gas but had no where near the issues the 60 degree motors. Even with a rebuilt powerhead, I would want to know particulars. What all was done during the rebuild. Was it bored and new pistons or just rings. Just rings never worked in those motors for very long.

Kinda what cart7 said but has more to do with the shearing affect on how the water release from a smooth surface and a rough surface. But to make it more simple, unless your boat will run in 70's or faster, you would probably never see a difference in performance. It does not affect hole shot, only top speed. If you have a fast boat that will get up on the pad and run 70 or more You can wax all the hull but the last six feet of the pad. From the last six feet back in an outward V shape, wet sand that part with 320 grit sand paper. With one of my hotrod motors on my Javelin and running fairly light, I gained 3 mph (from 81.7 - 84.5) just by blueprinting the hull and wet sanding the pad as described. However, don't waste your time doing this unless you have a very fast boat to start with. Wax it, take care of it and make it look pretty, because it's not going to make any difference.