Way2slow

Well, it wasn't an accident but I did pull one major boner one time. When I launch by myself, I us a tag like connected to the front eye on the boat and to the trailer so when the boat slides off, I pull the trailer up and the boat comes with it. I was going striper fishing one very cold, mid Jan morning. Launched the boat and I either forgot to connect the line to the trailer or it came off. Anyway, when I started forward with the trailer, the boat kept going the other way. I was the only one at the ramp, the water temp was in the low 50's, the air temp was in the upper 30's so I was not about to dive in a swim out to get it. Thankfully, I only lived a few miles from the ramp, so I had to go back to the house and get one of the small pond boats and go back, paddle out, which by then with the wind was several hundred yards to get the boat. I figured someone was trying to tell me that was not a good morning to go fishing so I loaded the boat, threw the pond boat over in it and went back to the house.

I'm not going to use names because this person is now in the NFL Hall of Fame. Back in the early 70's When he was first drafted into the NFL, the small town we lived in had a special day, and parade to celebrate the occasion. A number of businesses gave him very nice gifts. These included chevy dealer giving him a new Blazer, and the local boat dealer gave him a new Bomber bass boat rig. A couple days later my dad and I was coming in from fishing just as this guy was launching his new boat for the first time so we just sat there watching and waiting for him to get off the ramp. He didn't know how to back a trailer and was taking forever. As he finally got to the water, I noticed he still had the tie down straps on, so hollered at him to stop and I went over and took the off for him. After finally getting the boat in the water, and going to park the Blazer, I noticed the boat was getting deeper in the water, and looked in and saw he forgot to put the plug in. I hollered again for him to get the trailer back down there, his boat was sinking. When he finally got it backed down to the water, he jumped out to see about the boat. Well, he forgot to put it in park, though he did hit the park brake, but not hard enough. This was a fairly step ramp and it started rolling, right on down to about eight feet deep. Pushing the boat back off the ramp and it also went down. I had a winch on the front of my Bronco, so I dove down, hooked to his Blazer and pulled it back up to the ramp so the trailer was still under water. Then dove down, found his boat and hooked to it and pulled it back up and got it back on the trailer, then slowly pulled everything out together, giving it time to drain the water as it all came out. We were the only ones there and I only lived a few miles from the ramp, (no cell phones back then) and it was 10 miles to town, so once I got mine loaded and to the house, I called a wrecker for him. Our paths have never crossed again, he went on to become famous in the NFL and I went into the Air Force. He was also my wife's junior high school sweet heart and I used to kid her about it.

SeaFoam helps keep the gas from breaking down and helps reduce carbon build up but you would need to run a concentrate of about 2 ounces per gallon every 10 to 15 hours or so. Yamalube does a good job also. OMC made a product called Engine Tune that did a good job. That you used about every 50 hours. If you use a small 12 volt bulb on small wire, you can stick it in a spark plug hole and it lites the inside of the cylinder up and you can look through the plug hole and see how the domes are looking. See how much carbon is building up. On the cross flow engines like yours, you can take one of the exhaust covers off and inspect it. Just need to undo four bolts and a new gasket.

Slonezp it's a whole lot easier the second time around. I raised my two and then when my daughter got married, that didn't last long, and she and our few month old, baby granddaughter moved back in with us. So, I ended up raising my granddaughter from the time she was just a few months until she graduated from high school got married and moved out on her own. It was a lot more enjoyable and I think I did a much better job the second time around. She still feels more like a daughter than a granddaughter, and she still loves her papa. She can also out drive (a lot of people can't back a trailer using the mirrors and she's been doing it since 10), out fish, and out shoot most guys. Most of her boyfriends wouldn't go fishing or shooting with us again after their first trip. I guess they didn't like having a girl showing them up.

Wasn't knocking your motor, just explaining to Toxic that's an old motor is the reason for no kill switch. I will pass on a couple of suggestions about the motor. If it has not been rebuilt in recent years, be sure to do a decarb at least every 50 hours. The top rings on the OEM piston is a tapered ring and very close to the top edge of the piston, making it very easy to break one if they get much carbon build up. Also, back when that motor was built, we had real gasoline, and not the crud we have now, so they had a good bit more compression. So, absolutely do not run old gas, I'm talking even a couple of months old. The gas we have now looses octane very quickly when left sitting in a tank. It would also be wise to back the timing off about two degrees. The 200 back then became the 150 when they dropped the compression for the lower octane gases in the early 80's and started reading the HP off the prop shaft instead of the crankshaft.

Toxic, look at the model number of the motor. That's an old motor! Look at the wiring harness going into the control box or if you are careful, open the control box and find the black wire with yellow tracer and the solid black wire on the back of the key switch's M terminals. Most universal kill switches come with three terminals, one marked N/O, one marked N/C and one marked C or common. Connect the sold black wire to the Common terminal and connect the Black/Yellow wire to the N/O terminal by running wires from the kill switch to the wiring harness or key switch. If you have to splice into the wiring harness, DO NOT cut the wires, just shave the insulation off and solder a wire to them. Tape to protect connections. The way that motors ignition works is the key switch shorts the Black and Black/Yellow wire together when you turn the key to the off position. The Black Yellow is the ignition kill wire and is shorted to ground to shut the motor off, so all you are going is placing the kill switch in parallel with the key switch so either one will shut the motor off.

Before I retired, I worked on enough Kia, Hyundai, and Daewoo built engines and equipment to know there was no way you could even give me one, if you told me I had to keep it and drive it. I put Korean built in about the same class as this cheap junk we have to put up with. Yea, they are cheaper up front, but not a few years afterwards.

You will see some serious electric only boats running several trolling motors. and a boat full of batteries. It's all about whether or not you think it's worth the extra effort for not a whole lot of gain. If you are running them on high for that little bit of extra speed, they are still going to run the batteries down fairly quickly and won't get any more run time. If you just used one motor, which ever is larger, and both batteries on that one motor, it might be just a touch slower, but you can run twice as long. Now, there's two ways to go about that, the best way is to hook both batteries in parallel. That's the most efficient way for the longest battery life, or you could run on one until it's dead, then swap over to the other. That will not give you as long of a runtime, but gives you an idea of how much longer you have you can run, provided both batteries are of equal size and condition.

The motor should be trimmed so it's sitting vertical in the water with the anti-cavitation plate level with the surface of the water. (It's still several inches underwater, just sitting level) That's where it should idle best if it's going to idle. When it's in that position the carbs a level and the floats are not being held out of position. If the motor is stalling after a couple of minutes warmup and the fast idle lever is down, you have a problem. Now, what that problem is has to be determined. Most of the time, it's the linkage and carbs are out of synchronization and needs what's referred to as a link and sync done. It could be it's just idled too low, the motor should idle somewhere between 650 and 750 rpm in gear. That's in the water, not on the hose. Please note, the idle is adjusted by the timing adjustment, not by the linkage and stop screw. Trying to adjust it with the linkage throws the synchronization off. It could also be dirty or improperly adjusted carbs. There are a number of other things, vacuum leaks, bad recirculation valves, a bad reed valve etc, but these are problems that require professional troubleshooting. Even the link and sync requires a certain level of knowledge and expertise to perform to get it right.

Unless you are extremely good with a TIG welder, it looks like you are about to learn the art of installing solid rivets. Just understand, anything you use will either need to be aluminum or stainless, ABSOLUTELY NO GALVANICED. Galvanize against aluminum will corroded the aluminum and create much larger holes to fix. You could probably use a button head stainless screw with nuts, but make sure you use red 271 locktite and a dab of marine silicon 5200 under them. However, there's still a chance some might still a little Not too many automobiles operate below the water line, so replacing rivets with screws is no big deal there.

Tilt and trim is a whole lot more useful than jack plate.

Doesn't it feel good having kids you are able to brag about. I would take being able to brag about them any time over having to bail out of jail.

I think if they made a set that worked well, and had a feature similar to pop up blocker so you filter out selected voices, music or sounds, even people that didn't need hearing aids would start wearing them. Imagine, being outside and not having to listen to the neighbors dogs barking, of the wife calling you to come help do something, right in the middle of something you are already doing (especially if your hands are dirty or covered in something, which never fails to happen).

You would have to check it against another tach. You can buy cheap one off ebay that the pick will just wrap around a plug wire, or if you know someone that has one that uses the reflective strips or the contact type you use that. You might want to pull the cover off the carbs and have someone mash the hot foot while you are looking at the butterflies in the carbs and make sure they are going fully horizontal. Could be an adjustment or something hung behind the hotfoot.

The last time I sold a house was in Texas in 1996. When I sold that one, I had to fill out a form that had a whole lot of questions about the integrity of the hose and what repairs had be done, such as termite damage or rot repaired. If you lied about anything on that form, and the new owner found out you could be held liable for any repairs or items cover up and not repaired that you lied about. Now, as for ethical, when it comes to that all mighty dollar, most will throw ethics out the window to squeeze every dollar they can out of a sale. Then hope enough time goes by that they can say it must have happened after it was sold. That's the same with most anything, cars, boats, houses, you name it. Me personally don't even like selling things because I always afraid there might be some hidden problem I knew nothing about that shows up with the new owner and feel responsible for it. I once sold a car to a neighbor, and a few weeks later the torque converter seal started leaking. He was a young airman and just as poor as me, but I pulled the transmission, resealed and freshened it up and put it back in, for him, at no cost to him. I'm a firm believer in karma.

It can run like a swiss watch on the hose, that basically mean nothing, other than it will run. Even at 2,000 rpm on the hose, (the max you should ever turn one not under a load) the motor is only running on timing, the carbs are not even open or if so just barely cracked. That's why shop usually have a dino or a tank with a test prop, so the motor can be loaded and turned to max rpm. The motor could have a bad high speed stator and you would never diagnose that on a hose. Sometimes the trigger modules will work fine at idle and low rpm, but start breaking down under a load. Also, mercs are kind of tricky getting the carbs right, so unless you really know them, it's very good chance about all you have done is take them apart, somewhat cleaned them and put a dirty carb back together, that has not be balanced with the others. I would suggest you follow my recommendations if you want to diagnose the problem or take it to a shop that has the know how and equipment.

If and wouldn't not plane with an 18" prop, it dang sure was not going to plane with a 21" pitch prop. The higher you go in pitch, the harder it is to get on plane. However, I would think a 135 on a 16" hull would turn a 21" pitch but not if that 18" was a good prop and it wouldn't get on plane with it, because it should have shot out of the hole with and good 18" on it. So, that boils it to hull/setup problem or a motor performance problem. Funny thing about a two stroke motor, you can have a cylinder not firing and you not realize it. Do a compression test and check the plugs after letting it run hard at full throttle trying to get on plane, but don't let it idle before you check them. They might still be black, but none should be wet. As for the compression, I don't know what the 135 merc should have pound wise, but probably around 100, the main thing is there should not be any more that a 10% variation between the highest and lowest reading. A good motor is going to have less than 5%, more than 10% means it's rebuild time. Another issue, the early Stratos boats had open cell foam in them that was prone to become water logged. I had an 89 285 Pro, I took of 300 pounds of wet foam out of. See what the dry hull weight of that boats supposed to be, add the weight of the motor, batteries, and gear (but try to take as much as you can out of the boat) in it and have it weighed. make sure you are not too heavy. I have a hunch it's going to be more of a motor problem than anything though. Even with an elephant in it, that 135 with an 18" prop should have gotten it on plane.

Motors like that have very little worth to a person that doesn't know how to fix them. To pay for the labor and parts needed to bring the motor back to a good running order, would probably be two or three times what you could buy a good used, running motor, that size. The dry rot on the wires, depending on which wires can be mended, unless it something like the plug wire or coil housing crack, then they can ark through. As a bear bone minimum, the carb and probably the fuel pump will need rebuild, and the water pump. That's only if it has good compression. As for most of the wiring, liquid tape painted on them will work fine, but usually not for ignition high voltage. First thing you need to do, put it in a tank or muffs on a hose. Get access to the carburetor, spray some premixed gas in the carb and try to start it. If it fires, hook the gas line up to a tank or gas can, prime it and then repeat the gas in the carb. It may start and run, but will probably just start, run a few seconds and shut off each time you spray gas in the carb. That will at least let you know there is hope for getting it to run, but the carb and fuel pump need cleaned. If it fires and runs a couple of times, then do a compression test. That will let you know if it's worth going any further.

Composite generally meant it had composite transom and stringers. As for the floor and deck, I don't know. A small drill bit would answer that one real quick. All composite meant it had no wood used in it. C&O Marine in TN, did tons of repair work for Stratos, might try calling them and see if they will answer your concerns. The company that bought them and stopped production of them might be able to answer your questions (870) 453-2222 or sending an email to info@stratosboats.com

I wouldn't bet the farm on it but I don't think Stratos went to all composite until the early to mid 2000's on their upper lines and phased in the others as time went on. Most of the ones I've seen have a small sticker on each side toward the rear the says "Composite" and another that said "Hand laid hull" if it had one. You could probably check with one of the larger dealers that sold Stratos back then and ask them. The Sports Center in Perry GA would be a good source. Ken in the parts/service department could probably tell you, he's been there for a very long time.

Well, they could always do like they did down in Brownsville TX. They got tired of those plastic bags all the stores use at the check out, so they placed a ban on them. If a store uses one, they have to pay the county for each one they use. Of course the stores saw this as a great opportunity to cut cost. They just quit using all store furnished bags and started selling the fabric bags. So, now if you forget to take your bags in, you buy more or take everything out piled in a cart. However, you don't see those plastic bags blowing all over the place. There are a few stores that still feel the customer comes first and use paper bags (no ban on the paper bags), but not many.

I was told several years ago I needed them, but have put it off, but have an appointment next month at the VA to see about getting them. I also have a couple of extra incentives to go ahead and get them. One is to shut my wife up about me getting them and the other is my VA disability. Supposedly, since I already get a percentage of disability for my hearing, if I have to go to hearing aids, they would have to increase that percentage of disability. Well, if they have to do that, I'm already at the max point I can be and they not have to pay me 100%. So, that should means the hearing aids will qualify me for 100%. I've tried before to get a couple other things increased but they keep shooting me down, saying there's not enough of an increase. So, I'm gonna see what happens with the hearing aids. That would mean about a $500 per month increase in retirement and 100% tax free.

I had a friend that ran eight 225 Evinrude's in a commercial application. His bench mark was 2000 hours when he replaced a motor. He said over the years, he found that was about the time they started having failures that increased maintenance cost over normal routine maintenance. Now, these were properly maintained and cared for motors, something most boat owners seem to know nothing about. The type engine also plays a role in it also. For instance, Mercury racing engines like the 300sx etc, can require a re-ring every 100 hours. Of course they can also be turning almost 8,000 rpm and a modified one over 10,000 rpm

I takes fuel, ignition and air, all delivered at the right time and proper ratio, so all you do is isolate which one is missing. The two most common causes of your problem is fuel delivery or bad magneto/coil. The first thing you want to do is run it until it cuts off, check and make sure you have a good blue spark to the plug. Easiest way to do this is take the plug out in a low light area, put the plug wire on it and hold the base against the metal block. If the spark is red and not blue, or if there is no spark, good chance the coil is bad, but you need to make sure the kill wire is not shorting to ground first. If you have a good blue spark and it's not wanting to restart, then it's probably a fuel delivery problem. To help with that, I would need to know what kind of motor and carburetor.

It's like buying a car that runs over 100 mph. Not many places have speed limits over 70mph. Doesn't mean you have to drive it as fast as it will run, but it's nice to have the power to pass when you want to. Normally boats that run 70+ mph is just fact they are larger boats, it's takes a lot of horse power to get them up on plane with much of a load in them. Then like most cars, these boats are built for low drag and fuel efficiency so you afford to feed them. Speed is the result of this, but doesn't mean you have run as fast as it will go. With the modern day hull designs and the new fuel efficient motors, that boat that runs 70+ mph can cruise at 45-50 miles per hour and burn less fuel than a 18ft aluminum boat with a 90 running full throttle at those speeds. Plus, when you fish a 77,000 acre lake like I do, and my want to go 25 or 30 miles, it's nice to be able to go ahead and there if you want to. The true scary part about these 70+ mph boats is the operators. A whole lot of people that have never even owned a boat, get one. You are in a whole different realm of skill level to drive a boat at those speeds versus one at 50mph. A boat that is fully up on the pad with only a couple square feet of hull in the water, is nothing like a boat where 2/3rds the hull is running in the water, but you see these idiots jump in take off. These are the ones you see on U-tube being fished out of the water or reading about in the paper.