Way2slow

Tin boats respond a little different to trim than glass boats with riser hull, and I'm not a tin boat person. I trim a glass boat until you feel to bow lift and the hull breaks loose, making the boat feel almost likes it's floating on air. Not sure a tin boat will do that, having never driven one, other than smaller jons. Usually the key indicators for being over trimmed are, the sound of the motor will change to kind of a hollow sound. The rpm's increase but the speed doesn't. The boat gets an unstable feeling and chine walk is uncontrollable (this one I don't think you have to worry about. A lot of times you can look at the prop and it will form places about the size of a 50 cent piece on the low part of the blades that looks almost like it was sand blaster after they have been run a while. Since I don't know anything about your hull, I can only shoot from the hip on suggestions, most tin boats don't do as well with high rake props. They are designed to get more bow lift for boats with riser hulls. Another thing, your boat is over propped for my likings. I like to see my rpms right at max at WOT and normal load. That makes a huge difference in hole shot overall performance. Now, some of that could be caused by setup problems, like the motor too deep and not enough setback etc. Don't think for a minute the dealers set one up properly. That takes more time and money.

Wow, this one got resurrected from the dead. I've always said, if there was a "one best" of anything, that would be the only one made because no one would want anything else. What's best for one person use, may be totally wrong for another persons.

I've had a couple of them and liked them. I had a 285 Pro until I got my Renegade 20. The 285 felt like it had more storage room than the 20 Renegade. I have to say, can't speek for how well it performs with a 150 because I bought mine with a dead 150 Johnson and didn't bother trying to get it going. I just put a 300+hp motor on it and that was all it ever ran. Not going to give numbers but lets just say it was fast. I enjoyed wiping smirk grin off those Triton drivers they gave as the went by, and then I went back by them like they had dropped an anchor. I think by then they had dropped the hull weight to around 1,200 pounds is the reason they only went with a 150 max, so it should have respectable performance.

Actually, if you had pulled the pulse valve as I suggested way back when I first said it was a reed or intake problem and applied a little pressure, you would have found it right off the bat, because of the amount of blow by you would have been getting through the carb. That was my first suggestion before pulling the intake and if you could'nt do that, it was to pull the intake.

Slowly coming along, but I think it's going to look pretty good for a $20 piece of walnut (in 1969). I just rubbed water on it to highlight the grain, on finish yet, still too far to go.

Well, if there was a zip tie stuck under one of the reeds, sounds like you found your problem. Like I said in the first post after seeing it run, it looked like you had a problem reed or something on the intake side. Personally, I don't run glass reeds unless it's was a motor that was going to be turning over 6,800 rpms. The factory steel reeds are good up to that point. Plastic reeds are much more problem prone and too easily damage by lean spit, something carbureted motors are subject of, especially on a cold morning. If the reeds lay flat enough that if you hold a flashlight on them and just barely see light between them and the block, they are usually good to go. If there is a noticeable gap, then they might be questionable. Also, you never want to flip one over thinking you will make it seal tight. They usually break from the being flexed backwards from what they had been. If I have any that are too far gone, I replace them with the OEM steel reeds. The zip tie was probably caused by poor maintenance. Someone cut it off or dropped in and the carbs sucked it in. How they managed to get one in the fuel line is more puzzling to me. It can't go through the carb and get in the fuel line.

Not sure what you are talking about with the zip tie. As for how to check the reeds, technically, they are supposed to be laying flat against the valve block, "but" they are steel, and steel tends to develop memory from stress, so with age, the can have a very slight gap between the reed and the reed block. This gap is very slight and easily closed with even the slightest amount of back pressure. Now, how much gap can you says is ok, can't tell you, that comes for experience of having messed with them for years. One of the things about carbon fiber or glass reeds, they are suppose to lay flat and closed, but over time, I've found they are worse than steel reeds about having a slight gap. Normally, the motors idles better at first, but over time, they don't. They also can't withstand any lean spit. This can break carbon fiber and glass reels very quickly. It's very easy to damage them the first time it's started because they change the idle mixture settings and the motor lean spits if you did not compensate for the mixture changes.

I've tons of refinishing, bedding and modifying stocks, just have never shaped a full length stock. Right about now a duplicating router would be nice, but have no desire to buy one just for this project. Right now, cutting the initial shape on the band saw and going to work with a wood rasp seems to be the direction I'm headed. Past experience with the butt stocks tells me tools like the die grinder or disc sander a too fast and too easy the created a low spot.

Looking for help, pointers, advise, other than have someone that knows what they are doing do it. I've got a 60 year old piece of fancy walnut my brother butchered back in the late 60's where he thought he was going to make a fancy stock for his model 700. Well, it was beyond doing anything for a 700 with it, mainly, what he had done, was for a long action and I no longer have a long action 700. It was however a perfect candidate for a Tikka T3 Varmint so I'm going to try making one for it. For it, I can cut out all the mess he made in it. I've got the barrel and receiver inletting done so they drop nicely in it and pretty soon will be where it's ready to cut the shape. My brother had already made the rough outline cut for the 700, but thankfully he left enough to save it. Shaping a one piece rifle stock is something I've never done. Have made several butt stocks for Remington and Browning shot guns but no long guns and that's where someone with some expertise in this would help. I also have a basic checkering set, I bought many moons ago when I made my first butt stock. Found out real quick I didn't know what I was doing and it has stayed tucked away ever since, I'm thinking about giving that another try but with some scrap walnut first. Again, I'm open for any words of wisdom there also. My brother bought the wood from Bishop Stocks when they were going strong back in the 60's, he paid $20 for it back then and it does look like it's going to make a very nice looking piece of wood when shaped and finished, if I don't screw it up.

Yea, the big bite is going to be a trailer. I've probably got a motor I had forgotten about, I can stick on it. I have a 3 cyl 70 Johnson I can put on if all else fails. The motor has been under my shed for at least 8 years and had not been run for probably 5 years before that. When I get the pontoon to my house, I will probably hang that motor on it, get it running and see how it checks out. I also have a 1996, 130hp Johnson the needs a crankshaft I have never fixed because I've had not need for it, but now, might see if I can come up with a crankshaft reasonable, and see about building it. There are a couple of options that should be better than spending over $2,000 fixing that merc that was on it, unless I can come up with a good, used block at a reasonable price. Plus, I also have a 96, Johnson 150 Faststrike I rebuilt for my son two years ago and it has been sitting on the back of his old boat, that has been in my yard for 10 years, (another story) that I might just take off it, and use it and tell him his storage fee ate up what he has in it. I did some research and the crazy thing is a 24' pontoon boat that the coast guard sticker rates as being able to seat 17, has a dressed out weight of approx. 4,000 pounds and it's only rated for a 90 so definitely can't put one of my 3.0 Loopers on it. It's looking like whether I build or buy a used trailer if I can find one, it's going to cost me at least another $1,500.

The wind wasn't real bad, 3-5 mph at about a 60 degree angle coming from my back My rest was the Caldwell Rock BR Competition for the front and a Protektor Rabbit Ear Rear Shooting Rest with Heavy Bottom for the rear, shooting off a heavy wooden table. The claims are the 6.5CM is more accurate than a 260. Well, my 260 consistently shoots 1 1\2" groups at 500 yards, sometimes when the planets are in perfect alignment, it will pop a loose 1" group and very rarely shoots larger than a 2". The 260 has a 20" Shilen #7 lite varmint carbon steel barrel on a Model 7 blue printed action and factory stock, with the ugly camo on it. The stock however has been highly modified, even has an aluminum V-Bedding block with pillars in it. However, it will regularly shoot one hole five shot groups and this 6.5 has never done that yet. That's at 100 yards. Both have select match grade barrels, just one is CS and one is SS. Both rifles shoot good enough I have to use at least 200 yards for load development so I can get enough spread to see how they are shooting. That's why I normally use 400 yards for load development once I'm getting close. This 6.5CM has a 26" Shilen #7 heavy varmint stainless steel barrel on a blue printed Model 700 action in a Magpul Hunter stock that has been skim bedded . I tried to use the factory composite stock but the barrel is so heavy, it collapses the forend against it when you set it on the rest. So far I'm not really convinced that Magpul stock is going to work. I keep getting those off shots, not really flyiers per say but in a five shot group it will put two or three bullets in the same hole, and then throw one out, sometimes as much as a 1/2". Usually when I get this, the bedding is off in the stock and I can re-bed the action and it fixes it. I've tried that with this stock and it didn't help. I'm think about reinforcing the factory composite stock and try it to see if I still get the same results. The 260 loves 4831SC, the 6.5CM hates it. The 260 won't group RL17 at all, and that's the best powder I've tried in the 6.5CM. 44.5gr of RL17 is what I was shooting the top two groups with. 43.0 was that lone lower group.

Finally got a load close enough to try the 6.5 Creedmoor at 500yds. While its not great, it did ok, but at least I have a starting point. The red center on the target is 2" in diameter. The hole just below the 9 was one where I was just getting it on paper. The thing shot a lot flatter than I expected. I first dialed in 11 MOA shooting at the center of a 5' tall, white back drop and didn't get in on paper. Dropped it to 8 MOA and barely hit the top of it. Went to 6 MOA and made the hole just below the 9. Made a windage and elevation adjustment and shot the three shot triangle in the second ring. Went down one click and shot the three across in the first ring. That was all of that load I had left and switched to a lighter load I was testing and shot the on the lower right. I had one bullet left and shot it at 100 just to make sure the scope dialed back to zero, and it did. I had used up most of my bullets testing loads and getting it dialed in at 400 yards and figured I would just give 500 a try with the last few I had. 2 1/4" groups ain't really something to brag about but for it's initial try at 500 yds, I thinks that's pretty good. I've tried five powders and couple dozen different loads to get to there. Plus the wind was bouncing things around a little so that didn't help. I'm shooting for 1 1/2" groups and no more than 2" at 500. That's better than a lot of rifles will shoot at 100.

Not true, I don't know much about Mercury motors and don't know if what his is doing is normal or not, so I haven't responded to it. Since I have just worked on a 2006 90hp merc, I do know there is a seal that slides onto drive shaft and over the top of the water pump that's probably suppose to keep it from doing that, but if it does or not, don't know since I've not had one on hose and seen where all the different places the water comes out. If the water pump hasn't been replaced in the past few years, it would not hurt to replace it and that seal on the drive shaft. On this 2006 motor, that seal had dried and split, so it would not have sealed if it was running.

Nope! Gotta decide if I want to try listing it now of next spring. I think boat buy season is almost to it's end for this year. Plus my granddaughter advised me this past weekend, since she has changed jobs, she has her weekends free now so she do some bass fishing. I have only had the boat in the water twice in the past two years, but I run it in the tank at least every two months for about 15 minutes on a small can of gas with SeaFoam added just to make sure it doesn't develop fuel problems from sitting. I'm left handed and they had to do surgery on it a few years ago for the arthritis, to much die grinding in those boat motors, and since then I can't get my thumb up enough to use a bait caster and hate spinning reels, plus going by myself is no fun. Add that to the fact that the lake nearest to me is 40 miles and I don't really know it and I don't like it because about all you are doing is fishing boat docks, hundreds of them. Clarks Hill, the one I do like, and no boat docks is 95 miles so I pretty much have to stay overnight kinda takes some of the enjoyment out. So, if I sell it now, my granddaughter will have to fish out of the jon or a 17' Stratos that I let my brother keep. He lives on that lake I don't like, and the 17' boat may or may not run since my brother used his pontoon more than the Stratos, so you never know if it's going to crank and run or not. However, if someone walked up and put $5,000 in my hand tomorrow, it would be gone. When I list it next spring, I will list it for more, but a serious $5,000 right now would have me saying by to it.

Nope! A stock 225 Ficht, that has had DFI Technologies go through and do their 50 something updates/upgrades on the ECU to get rid of those high rate of failures OMC had and all the injectors cleaned and calibrated by them. Besides, most would probably prefer the fuel economy of the ficht on that size boat/motor. It seems like you can ride forever on gas as long as you keep it in the 4,500 rpm range

Normally, when I buy a boat or used vehicle it's a steal. When you figure with a running motor, they are advertised from $11,000 to $14,000 with no trailers and some condition problems. I figured I would be ok with the deal. These are the kind of deals I get. 2004 VW Beetle Convertible, $200, cost me $700 to repair $4,500 value and wife's done put 10k miles on it. 2001 Silverado 2500HD, $800, good body, paint and interior but had sat for nine years. $600 to get it on the road, not counting tires. $8,000 truck when done, been driving it four years. I could keep listing but that's where being able to fix almost anything man made comes in handy.

As if I don't have enough, I just bought another. One that I thought I would never own and have cursed many times while fishing, a PONTOON boat. A 2006 24' Bentley 240 Fish. Very nice boat in great condition, other than the motor and has no trailer. My neighbors daughter that I was rebuilding the 90hp Merc for that wound up having a junk block, and not enough money to fix it decided to get rid of it. The marina she first took it to told her they would give her $1,200 for it, I jokingly said, shoot, I'll give you $1,500. Got a text today saying she was selling it to me. So, I just gave her dad a check for $1,500. All I need to do now is find or build a trailer. She kept it in a boat house on the lake and didn't have a trailer and the motor needs a block. All of mine are either way too big, or not big enough. I could see hanging a 300hp motor on it, and it's only rated for a 90hp. Still think it was a pretty good deal. If anyone has a block for a 2006 Merc 90, I could use one. However, this helps me make up my mind to sell my 20' Javelin bass boat. Any body around middle GA looking for a good deal on a bass boat, I know where ones is at.

Take the tools to change coils, and if you still get that low rpm on 3, swap coil and wire from #1 with the one on #3 and see if it changes. If it's low on #3, you might have a timer base or power pack problem. To trouble shoot that you will need a good multimeter and a DVA. DVA is a module that you connect to the multimeter and gives peak voltage readings from the outputs of the timer base and power pack that feeds the voltage to the coil. Now, if you have a very good voltmeter that will read peak voltages, you don't need the DVA. Just understand, the peak you see on most meters is just a function that stores the highest RMS reading, it is not Peak voltage of and RMS voltage. For instance, an RMS voltage of 120VAC is 160 something Peak voltage. We also might getting over you head in your trouble shooting or you are about to learn a hellavalot more than you ever wanted to. The DVA is nothing but a diode, capacitor and resistor connected to a couple of leads to plug into the meter and a couple to take the readings with. You can do a search and probably find a DYI diagram.

A friend of mine bought one of those tachs several years ago, primarily for the hour meter, but he didn't say anything about having to do any math to get the proper reading. I would think on a two stroke, it would read directly. As for the bottom cylinder reading lower, either it's not getting a good signal or that cylinder is misfiring and causing the lower reading.

I guess I should mention, there is a catch 22 to all this. I've done so much work, making "her" house and yards look nice, now she's starting to complain about all the boats, camper, trailers, etc of mine. Say's it make it look like a junk yard coming down the drive way. A 1 1/2 acre yard and she's complaining about my stuff in one corner that's probably about a 50' square. She has hinted at me building a privacy fence in that corner. I told her it would have to be portable because there's no way I could make a gate big enough to get things in and out without spreading it out into more of the yard.

At least yours are small, these are from my wife's honey do list. The storage building has a 7' high second level and full of shelving space. The white thing on the right side is the wood fired pizza/bread oven. Plus I had to pour a 12'x30' concrete slab for the patio. Building all that by yourself is more fun than any man in his 70's should have.

The good old days for me was the 60's. Amazing life back then for a teenager. But, as mentioned, unless someone comes up with a way to time travel back in time, those days are long gone, and while I think about the good times I had back then, I think more about the good times I plan on having in the days to come, and doing things the with the grandkids they will enjoy. I didn't have those back in the 60's. I guess my brain works on a different wave length that others because I don't know that I have ever been "depressed", and don't really know what being depressed would feel like. I get frustrated and aggravated to the point sometimes I have to walk away from something I'm doing on one of those days nothing seems to want to go right, but I don't think that's getting depressed. I just go do something else that hopefully will go a little better. I don't think I've ever had a time I just wanted to sit down and do nothing because I felt like it was useless. I've just spent most of the day dragging out an old radio controlled 4WD truck and getting it back in good working order and thinking about how much fun the grandkids are going to have with it. Just have to do something to limit the speed control. The sucker runs over 30mph and does wheel stands if you go full throttle from the start, which is probably a bit much for a five and six year old if I want it to live more than two minutes. I spend a whole lot more time thinking about the things I'm going to do than those things I did.

I think it was what was your favorite, not the "Best" which as you say, there is not such thing, other than to the individual using it.

I'm a south paw also, but only own one left hand bolt gun. I've shot right hand rifles so much, the left hand doesn't feel comfortable and I'm slow to get that second round in the chamber just in case it might be needed. Plus, neither of my kids, nor none of the grandchildren are left handed, so when I do leave the world, they would be more usable to them as right handed, if government still allows people to own a firearm. Dave, funny thing about the adrenaline. My brother bought a M700, 300WM back in the early 70's. Shot it one time and handed it to me and asked me to zero the scope for him. He was about to cry it kicked him so hard. The next morning he killed a nice buck with it, and the first words out of his mouth was "I never felt it kick".

My thoughts on this one is, it depends on the individual and the conditions you hunt in and how much you shoot. Plus the willingness to let a deer walk by if a good, clean shot can't be made. I started with a Marlin 336 back in the early 60's. After four years of having to go find a deer after a good shot in the vital area, I wanted something with more hydro shock and I started hunting more open areas. That ended being a Remington 6mm and loved it, but it's limited to 200 - 300 yards for what I consider an effective distance. To solve that problem I also bought a 7mm Magnum. Those were my main rifles until about eight years ago, when I built my grand daughter her 260 and after shooting it, I had to have one for myself, so I built me one. I also reload so I can tailor a load for most anything I want to shoot. I am experimenting now with a 6.5 Creedmoore. I think about anything in a 6.5mm would make a great deer rifle if there is a good selection of bullets available for it. Reloading, I can go up to 160 grain round nose bullet that will out perform any 308 or 30-06 in a similar bullet size. Now comes the shooting experience. A lot of deer hunters can buy one box of bullets that will last them several years. Then they buy the shoulder held cannons like the 270 and 30-06 or even larger. Rifles with so much recoil and don't shoot enough to learn to manage that recoil so they jerk the trigger, and no telling where that bullets going to hit. Then you have those that are scared of a little recoil and buy the small calibers like the 223 or even the 243/6mm (which I thing is a great caliber in the right hands and right conditions) and they take shots they should have never tried in thicker areas The 270 fans are going to jump me for saying its not a good choice for most. I have been shooting for over 50 years and have just about everything from a 460 Weatherby to a 22, never shot a 17, and a Winchester Lite in a 270 is about the hardest kicking rifle I have ever shot. It was actually a very accurate rifle but the guy that owned it couldn't zero the scope and hitting all over the place from jerking the trigger. I own a 270 that is extremely accurate but have never hunted with it an rarely shoot it. A good 6.5mm caliber with wide range of bullets is hard to beat. It has minimal recoil, inheritably accurate, has plenty of hydro shock and an effective range that will be more than most deer hunters ever shoot. At the top of my list is the 260, then it would be the 6.5 Creedmoore that's gaining huge popularity. From there its just picking one that has a good bullet selection, unless you reload and can brew your own load..