Way2slow

The kill switch and drain plug are two easily forgotten to do things. I run my motors in a tank or on a hose every couple of months when not using them. A while back when trying to start my bass boat, it wouldn't start. It was fairly cold that day and wasn't spinning as fast as normal, so I stuck a 1050 CCA battery in, but still wouldn't start. I connect a timing light to one of the plug wires and it's not firing. I put it on one of the injector wires (DFI motor) and it's not firing. Checked voltage going to the ECM, it's good. Checked the kill wire going to ECM and it's grounded (meaning the ignition is off). I go to the console to check the key switch, looked down on the floor and was wondering why the red, coiled cord for the kill switch is laying down there. Pick it up and the little clip that goes on the kill switch is still attached to the cord. So, after about a 1/2 hour of trouble shooting, I put that clip back under the kill switch where it goes and it started right up. How it got in the floor, don't have a clue, it had only been a couple of months since it was last run and I didn't take it out and had not touched the boat since the last run.

Spray Nine and a pressure washer with the boat tilted up enough the water runs out the drain plug. I don't take anything out, it all gets washed. I don't worry about any crud that might be under the batteries, that gets cleaned when I change batteries. Just wear safety glasses and be willing to get wet, more than once it's going to blow back in your face.

If I do, I will take some picks of the process, but I'm probably not going to make it look new again. I'm sure the gel coats trash and probably won't do anything the make it look good. The boat is burgundy and white. I probably have enough carpet to replace the carpet in it, but it's light blue, so it will get light blue carpet in a burgundy boat. It currently has the 115 I6 Mercury tower of power on it. and don't know what condition the power head is in, my brother used it for several years, so I may have to come up with a motor. I still have one of my 300+ hot rod V-6 loopers (I just need to put it back together) I could put on it, but the boat already sits so low in the back, I'm not sure how that extra 60 pounds will do back there. 300hp on a 1,100 pound 17' hull, that oughta get the job done. I also have a 130 that needs a crankshaft, push come to shove.

I'm 73 and 74 in a couple of months. I just sold my 20' bass boat, it had only been in the water 3 times in a past two years. I also have 17' Stratos, that I haven't seen in a few years, a 14' jon and a 24' pontoon. I've been playing with some Chart plotters/sonars for the past week learning them and spending a lot of time looking at the lakes I fish, and how far some of my favorite spots are apart. They didn't seem that far when you could run 70 mph to them. I'm already getting sellers remorse, and then my wife hits me with she wished I hadn't sold it and my granddaughter almost cried when I told her. I had it for 18 years and she was almost raised in that boat. My Stratos is at my brothers and I asked him what condition it was in. He said the floor has gotten soft and the transom was bad. He has pulled the lower unit off to put on his pontoon boat's motor and the control head out because his was bad and he took that one. Looks like I have a cap to remove and a lot of fiberglass repair work to do, because I'm probably going to make it fishable again.

A few years ago I was in Walley World and they had a Lowrance Elite-4xHDI with the DI Xducer on clearance for $56. At that price, I couldn't walk off without it in my hand, and asked if they had any more. Figured that would make a great little unit for my 1436 Jon. The thing has a very good DI but I almost never use it, just never saw where it made that much difference over the traditional image. I have the Lowrance HDS-10, 7, and 5 with the Side Imaging. I used SI all the time, very rarely ever used the DI. Sometimes I will go from the traditional view to the DI just to verify something I'm seeing but that's rare If the DI in a unit quit working, and the SI worked fine, I would keep on using it. If the SI quit but the DI worked, I would be buying a new unit or getting that one repaired. I've been playing with these Garmin Echomap UHD since the 11th sitting at my desk learning them. They have a great DI in them, but again, I don't see where it's that much better than traditional view. I will definitely be using the SI on them a lot though. So to make a long story short, I can do without DI, but I definitely want the SI if I had to pick one over the other. You've already missed the Echomap UHD 9sv with the GT54 Transducer, they had that one for $650 back on the 11th and 12th. I picked the 9 and 7 up for me and a 7 for my brother. They are nice units for the money. One note, if you make your road trip, pick you up a 32GB class 10 micro USB also (32GB is the max the unit will hold so don't get bigger and a class 10 will have a C on it with a 10 in the middle of the C). You will need it. One, for the extra storage memory, two, if you want to use the Active Captain app, it's required and three, both of the 7's I bought needed the software update, they had 4.6 and the new version is 5.1, and you need a micro USB chip to do that. Just do the update first, because it's going to erase everything on the chip. After the update is done, you erase it off the chip and use it for the extra memory

I hope you understand, to get a lithium equivalent to your lead acid battery, you will need something around 100Ah. Those cheaper 40Ah would be like trying to run a motor cycle battery. A lead acid, group 24 are typically in the 80Ah range How many people run group 24 TM batteries. Maybe your pelican pond jumper. A lead acid group 27 are typically in the 105Ah range. A lead acid group 30/31 are in the 120Ah range You are still going to need the Amp hours, no matter what kind of battery you use. The lithium's are just supposed to last a zillion times longer (cycle count) than lead acid and a whole lot lighter. So, when you shop for them, you are looking at a $800 or so battery to use in the place of you $100 lead acid, $200 AGM.

Might want to check the price of pressure treated 2x4's and a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet (they have that at Lowe's and HD also vs the cost of the steel. Unless it has come down some, PT lumber has gotten almost like gold.

You can go on line and check prices but shipping would eat your lunch. Somewhere close to you, there's most likely a steel supply house. You can double check the thickness of the walls on yours but my guess is, it's probably only about 16 gauge. You can call around and ask if the sell drops cut to length, and what it cost vs what a whole stick cost.. Most places will make one cut for free so it's easier to haul, so give them the length you need for that one free cut, and then you will have a spare piece to lay around the house and rust. By the way, the easiest way to haul it, take the boat off the trailer and use the boat trailer.

As Toxic stated. No 12 Volt battery is just a 12 volt battery. That just means it will operate a system designed for 12 volts. They all have different charging requirements. Max current they can be charged at, max voltage they can be charged with, whether or not the can handle an over charge and how much over charge they require to be balanced and how much maintenance voltage they require. If any of these things are wrong for the battery you have, you will shorten the life of that battery. AGM's can give you triple or more cycle counts when properly charged and maintained. With the wrong charger, it may not give you as many as a flooded cell battery, which are the most forgiving to charge conditions. Now, with all that said, the common use of AGM's is not that old, so the charging systems in most earlier boats and automobiles are not designed for AGM batteries, so you have to be careful when you start running AGM's as cranking batteries.

The main reason for running flooded cell batteries that have caps and needed the water level maintained in them, nothing in a lead acid battery can match their run time. So, if you need the absolute max run time, it's a flooded cell with caps, if it max battery life, it's AGM. AGM can give you two to three times the cycle count of a flooded cell battery. Maintenance free batteries are nothing but flooded cell batteries with small plates in them so the can hold more electrolyte . Because of the prohibitive price, I have not even looked into the Lithium's. However, I have tons of experience with Lithium's in my RC planes and helicopters, so based on that experience, I doubt if anything in a lead acid battery is going to match them, in any way, other that price. The lithium price is a hard pill to swallow. Let me clarify, Maintenance Free, applies to any battery that you doesn't have caps that you have to maintain the water level in. It was originally coined for the flooded cell batteries that they just made the cell's smaller in so they would hold more electrolyte. That's why they will never have as much capacity as the same size battery with caps can have. AGM, Gel, Lithium, are all called maintenance free but are the same as the flooded cell maintenance free.

Catt's taking the easy way out, by just replacing the square/rectangle tube in the front with one two or three feet longer. Actually I had my head up my butt, because I have done that on a couple of them. Matter of fact, I have a piece of tubing left from doing one of my jon boat trailers several years ago. It's almost as cheap to buy a full 20'-24' stick as is to buy a drop (a cut to length piece) so I always buy a stick of metal. Actually, a lot of places are getting where they won't cut drops and you have to buy a stick, but it's not very expensive in a 16 gauge, which is probably all that is. Unless you try finding it in galvanized.

"Out of Stock", that seems to be the national theme these days.

Just to haul the boat with no motor and batteries back there, just supporting it with better with bunks will probably work for you. Just pay attention where you put stuff in it. You will want to keep 30-50 pounds of tongue weight to may it tow properly. Also, even if you add a motor, batteries etc to it, it's not a total loss. It's more than simple enough to add a couple of extensions onto the back of that trailer and move the axle back more and get the weight distribution where you need it. They can be welded by the right person, galvanizing is a problem to weld but it can be done. They can also be made to bolt on, with a little smart fabrication. Then you always have the option of selling that one and buying a longer one.

I believe I would try my luck here. After my first episode with arming kits, I've always gone with the manufacture, cost a little more but they have always had very good dates on them. https://mustangsurvival.com/products/auto-hydrostatic-33g-re-arm-kit-b-ma5283?_pos=5&_sid=0f1415983&_ss=r

About twice as good as the fast food places. $13 per hour is considered a pretty good job in middle GA, especially if they have any insurance benefits. $8 and no benefits is very common.

At least you came out better than I did on some SOS. Years back, I order two SOS auto inflate vest on sale from an online source. They came in with expired kits in them. Figured that was why they were on sale but even then, they were still cheaper than BPS, so I order two kits, back then they were about $30 each. Got the two kits and they were also expired. Called the seller, he said not to pay any attention to those dates, there was nothing in them to go bad and refused to make them good or refund my money. Finally got VISA to make a claim and two months later, got refunded.

Wow, with the boat sitting that far back on the trailer, you are going to have to be very careful how much weight is on the back of the boat. You really don't won't to get below about 10 percent tongue weight or you run into the problem of the boat wanting to sway back and forth when towing. That will eat up tires and can get dangerous, depending on the size and weight of the vehicle. That far back, by the time you have the motor, batteries gas, etc, you could end up with a negative tongue weight, and you definitely don't want that. Hit a bump and watch your boat pass you going down the road. Have you moved the front winch/stop bracket as far forward as you can? I see that's a galvanized trailer. Are the axle hanging brackets bolted or welded on, it looks like they are bolted. If they are bolted, you might want to look at moving the axle and fenders back some. It looks like you have about four of five inches you might be able to move them back.

I've seen tons of regular zip ties used, a lot of people don't even know about this type. I have also seen regular zip ties cause problems. Where the biggest problem comes in is on thinner hose or hoses that don't fit real tight. I've seen some hoses that fit so tight, the clamp is just a safety precaution if it happens to swell. It lets the hose pinch up right at the joint where that ramps is, gear clamps can do the same thing, but even worse. A couple of years ago a friend was having problems with his boat surging, like if was running out of gas. He had replaced the fuel filter, fuel pump and rebuilt the carbs and was still having the problem.. Suspecting it was sucking air some place, I used an air hose to pressurize the gas tank so any leaks, anywhere in the fuel line would show up. He had replaced his primer bulb and use regular zip ties to install it and the end on the gas tank side was leaking, letting it suck air. I know there are probably a million regular zip ties out there on fuel lines that have never given a problem, but I've seen numbers of them leak a little when you pump the primer bulb up firm, and I had just as soon not take a chance of having fuel vapors inside the cowling on my motor.

Don't use regular zip ties on fuel line. This 2005 Merc I'm working on uses the same fuel line zip ties OMC used. They are not regular zip ties, those can cause a leak where the come together. The ones OMC uses and the ones used on the 2005 Merc had what looks like two ramps under the square part to apply pressure. This prevents the void and possible fuel leak. These are also better than gear type hose clamps Sorry about that, it's yours and you can use what ever you like, but I would not use regular zip ties.

Are these pivoting bunks on the rear or are they straight and anchored at both ends. If they pivot, you have very little option on how long they can be. They have to be off center enough there's enough weight to make them drop down at the rear when the boat is launched, so you can get the boat on. The length is going to be determined by the trailer height because if they are too long, they will dig into the surface when you try to back up. If you try making them longer toward the front, the will drop down in the front and leave the back sticking up, kinda hard to get the boat on like that. So, the back half has to be longer than the front half but short enough it doesn't dig into the rap/ground when backing up. Now as long as you meet that requirement, you can make them what ever length you like. You might can look at putting some sort of stop on the trailer that keeps them from dropping down far enough to dig in when backing. That would let you make them longer both ways.

Not in live, real time. Look in your setup menu under communications and see if it has WIFI. If it has wifi, the Active Captain app by Garmin will let you sync with your i-phone through wifi. You can build routes and waypoints on your i-phone and then sync it with the Garmin to load load them to it. Garmin has a whole series of video's on using Active Captain. I've been using Google Earth Pro to identify waypoints that look interesting and using my i-phone transferring them to my Garmin when done. You are supposed to be able to do it with your PC with a version of Active Captain that's using an emulation program like BlueStacks. I can get the active captain loaded in BlueStacks, but haven't been able to get it to connect through the wifi to my Garmin.

Remove the main jet access screw from the carb bowls. Pull the fuel hose off the engine side of the primer bulb. Use low pressure compressed air to blow in the hose, it will blow everything out the jet screws. Actually since you are doing this just to get it running, Pump the tank out, put fresh gas in it and then just use the primer bulb to pump fresh gas through it until sufficient amount comes out the carbs to make sure it purged of old fuel. Look at end carb bowl screw, if they are black and grungy looking on the end inside the carbs. You definitely need to pull the carbs and rebuild them. Siphon or use an electric fuel pump to pump out the tank.

Now that the GT56 transducer is out, and they are calling the new Echomap UHD 7 and 9 series, version 2.0, with the GT56 transducer, (but probably the same unit) they are starting to run clearance sales on the ones with the GT54 transducer. BPS just had the 93SV for $450 off and still have the 73SV for $350 off. If you happen to have a military ID they give another 5% or so off. That's only in store, not online. Garmin Factory outlet will probably run the same sale before long. If you buy the Live scope, from any Garmin dealer, you will $1,500. The live scope has it's advantages in some situations, but the more I research and learn about it, I would not want that as my only transducer, so I don't see a benefit of buying a unit with the live scope but without the GT54/GT56 transducer. I walked out of BPS with the 93SV, with the GT54 transducer for $609. I could add the live scope for way less than they sell any package with the Live Scope for. So, if you are considering a Live Scope, I would suggest you jump on one of the 93SV sales at $450 off and then look at adding the live scope later, it will save you a bunch.

They are called Gapless Plugs. If you do a lot of idling and running at lower speeds, they tend to foul easier, you would do better with a gaped plug If you pretty much run at the higher rpms, a lot, the gapless seem to perform better. The oil will not go bad. The gas can go bad very quickly, depending on how it's stored. I don't store one with gas in it, not even a few months. I pump it out and purge the system, or pump it out and run it every couple of months on a gallon container of gas. When I get a motor like that, the first thing I do is completely drain and flush the fuel system. Then I rebuild the fuel pump (if it's a type that can be rebuilt, not all are) and rebuild the carbs and if you don't know how, it's basically a waste of time and money just to take them apart wash them out and put them back together. When putting the carbs back on, I do a perfect synchronization of them. I generally go ahead a slap a new set of plugs in and check ignition voltages. After doing the power head, I stick and new water pump in and service the lower unit.

I've been operating two 73SV's and a 93SV on and off since I picked them up at the BPS sale on the 11th. These are my first Garmin's so I've had them at my desk on a power supply going through setting them up, reading the manual and learning all their features. No, the transducer does not get warm and it doesn't bother them. If the transducer is not connected, it will shut the sonar down, found that out when I accidently knocked it unplugged. (I haven't put the lock on them yet). Yesterday, I did set the transducer in a plastic container with a couple of inches of water in just so I could get a depth reading on the sonar, but that was only so I could play with those features. That was not required just to operate it. One thing, I posted this in another post but will mention it to you. When setting mine up, I was surprised to find they did not come from the factory with WAAS enabled in any of these, and haven't really seen a mention of that in the manual yet. WAAS being enable can make a huge difference in accuracy.