Way2slow

I mainly bass fish out of a 20ft 2,000 pound bass boat and fished points on a very large lake with rolling white caps. The boat pitching bad enough to keep the trolling motor out of the water 1/2 the time. I would have to go past the point and drift backwards using an 80# TM on max to slow the drift. It would not pull forward because of the waves lifting it out of the water so much. However, I was catching numbers of nice bass where the hard winds were pushing the bait fish against the points and the bass were having a field day. Sometimes you have to fish high winds because that's the only thing providing current and current attracts bass. However, when in my canoe, I avoid any wind I can.

Well, I happen to know just a little bit about them. Enough to know that first off, you can't tell a whole lot about the way one idles when connected to a hose. It requires the back pressure created when the motor is sitting in the water at it's normal depth. Second, even then, the motor needs to be trimmed so it's level (vertical to the waters surface. Tilted like you have now throw the float level way off. Now, if it's in the water, at the proper depth and idling rough and lean spitting, you probably need to do a full linc and sinc on the throttle control linkage and carbs and verify timing. In all probability you will end of having to clean the carbs also.

Not sure if you are referring to the drive shaft, is so, no one person is man enough to do anything to bend it. Sounds like you didn't get the shift linkage back in place properly and you are not shifting into neutral when you think you are.

They are also known as Gas Springs. A lot of your local parts houses refer to them as gas springs If you can't cross reference the ones you have by the part number or info on it, see if it has the weight rating on it. It should say if it's a 30#, 40#, etc. Then you can take it to AutoZone or one of the others and see if they have one that matches it.

If you are getting into the 40's even with great conditions and a strong tail wind, I wouldn't touch a thing. I have to assume that's by a happy speedometer, a 15 on that motor won't run 40 even with zero slip.

I've raised and trained dogs all my life and have never not had at least one. Back in my quail hunting days, I sometimes had as many six at one time. I've never had one that I could not break up the unwanted barking, it's just a matter of training. If you don't know how, then I would suggest you learn. There are not a lot of bad/nuisance dogs, just bad owner's. The dog is just doing what he thinks is acceptable. I'm like the others, I've also camped most of my life and mostly tent camping and no way on gods green earth do I want to be listening to somebody's dog, night or day. Matter of fact, you want to make a bad neighbor out of me, have a dog that constantly barks, especially at night. I just cost a neighbor behind me a $153 fine for not controlling his dog's barking. I made an attempt to discuss it with him, which proved to be the wrong thing to do, so I let the city discuss it with him. There happens to be a city ordinance against nuisance animals, the first fine is $153.

First, you need to check with your state game and fish and see what the states requirements are, they are all different. Some require a whistle, horn or other on board signaling device. For instance, here in GA, you are required to have a throwable cushion or safety ring. A boating safety course is mandatory in some states. Simple things like knowing what they consider sundown and sunup and how long before/after then you are required to have your lights on. They even have rules on how bright and how high the rear white light has to be and how far you can see the red/green running lights. One thing you will find out about a game warden, they usually don't cut you any slack, if you are out there, they expect you to know the laws and are not bashful about teaching you the hard way if you don't. The two most important things you should never be without in a boat, Toilet paper and a device to pee in because it's not always going to be in places you can just stand up and go over the side. Then comes the role of Bounty, cloth towels get pretty funky. Next, a poncho, large umbrella or something along those lines for the unexpected down pour.

Jack plates don't usually do a whole lot for hole shot. There's usually more than enough adjustment in the motor to optimize that. However, set up for the best hole shot usually means a slower top end. Where a jack plate really helps is getting it dialed in for top end performance. Also, if this is a fairly new boat, check with Ranger before installing a jack plate. Most manufactures have their own thoughts about jack plates and you can void the hull warranty if you go outside their rules. Hydraulic jack plates will give you the best of both worlds, but then you are talking about even more weight back there. It lets you drop the motor down to get that better hole shot and then lift the motor up to get those extra few miles per hour and better bow lift. They also let you get the setback where you need it to get that extra leverage to lift the bow so do your home work on your hull to find out exactly which amount of set back works best on it. That extra setback can actually make the boat sit lower in the back when stopped and fishing.

Well, those that are worth nothing are the kinds I like to buy. Being retired, I have a whole lot more time than money, and I have all the tools and skills to make it like new if I wanted to, and all it cost is what ever parts and materials needed. I have a lot of parts for that motor, even a lower unit. Actually, that other jon boat in the background looks more like what you would need. The boat pictured probably has a closed in battery compartment and without doing structural damage to the whole rear of the boat, it probably wouldn't have much room the put a large bank of batteries for an all electric.

You buy it for $500 and I will give you $800, all you have to do is get the paperwork so it can be transferred and registered, don't even have to put it in your name, just have it signed by the registered owner.. That lets you make $300 toward the boat you really need. One word of caution, if the boat has been sitting with the motor tilted up like that all winter, good chance the lower unit may be cracked from water freezing in it. They only have very small bleed holes and they stop up easily, letting it hold water.

The trolling motor idea won't work, it would definitely fry it long before it got there. They generate a lot of heat, and requires being in water to run under a load for very long. Next, I would resort to something much lighter. I have an old light weight aluminum 12ft jon that weighs about 65 pounds and a 17' canoe for those situations. I have drug that canoe all over the country. Next, learn how to paddle and ditch the TM and battery. Minimum gear. Also, take a buddy if allowed, that cuts the work in half. A small dirt bike would take it almost anywhere you can walk.

I'm the type of guy that can do and fix just about anything. You name it, I probably do it or have done it, and don't mind going out of my way to help someone. With that said, I'm also the type of guy that does not tolerate a lot annoyances, and very easily p****d off when things do annoy me and don't take much BS. When it comes to neighbors, it's like I've told two of them when we first became neighbors. Now this was two different incidences with them, one 18 years ago when we first moved here, one 7 years ago when they first moved in.. I, in as polite of a manner as I could muster up, introduced myself to them, then I explained the citation and told them I could be the best neighbor they ever had, or I could be the biggest SOB they ever knew, then asked them which neighbor did they want. I've gotten along with both just fine since.

Understand, being a sealed battery does not make it an AGM. The so called maintenance free battery is normally nothing more than a standard flooded cell battery with smaller plates to it will hold more electrolyte. A group 27 in those usually sell for a little over $100, depending where you get them. The Adsorbed Glass Matt (AGM) is a totally different animal and a Group 27 in those can sell in the $200 to $300 price range, again depending on where you get them. It was mentioned a Dual Purpose is expensive, that's because they are normally on made in higher capacity than el cheapo batteries. A true deep cycle is actually more expensive than the dual purpose. One little bit of info, if a battery has a CCA or MCA rating on it, it's most likelynot a true deep cycle since deep cycles are not intended to be use for cranking.

In reality, only the newer motors and designed to run AGM's. That old I6 is definitely not. It only runs about a 16 amp charging system and I can't say for sure, but I don't think it even runs a regulator, just a rectifier.

Before getting all twisted around about 12v vs 24 and one how one pulls half the amps as the other an all that other confusing stuff. Forget about all the amp stuff and just remember this. Energy used is in watts, the bigger the TM, and the faster you try to run the TM, the more watts it takes. How many watts it takes is totally dependent on the Size of the TM and load the TM is under. The load it's under is dependent on the conditions and how heavy and how much hull drag the boat has, and how fast you are trying to pull/push it. None of that's going to change, if you want to go 3mph, doesn't matter if you have a 30lb thrust or an 107lb thrust, it's still going to take approx. the same amount of watts to go 3mph. Now, without getting into all the equations and math to understand Watts. Just understand watts is a directly proportional ratio of volts and amps. The more volts you have, the fewer amps it takes to make watts. The fewer volts you have the more amps it takes to make watts. Nothing is going to change that. So, if you have two batteries hooked to you TM, be they in series for 24 volts or parallel for 12 volts, they are still only going to be able to produce approx. the same amount of watts to run the TM So, you ask, why bother buying the more expensive 24 or 36 volt TMs, over a 12 volt. This is where you start getting into efficiency because of the less current draw and internal resistance as the voltage is increased. A 24 volt TM is approx. 25% more efficient than a 12 volt Don't remember the exact numbers but I think the 36 volt TM is approx. 35% more efficient than the 12, that's a 1/3 more run time gained just by going to a higher voltage motor As lithium battery technology improves, don't be surprised if you don't see higher voltage TM's, with safety being the only limiting factor, since water and voltage make a dangerous combination. I also look for a new generation TM motor show up for the lithium batteries. like the stuff they are running in electric vehicles and RC planes etc. Also, when you increase the battery amp hour capacity, with two or three batteries, you decrease the amp draw on the batteries. As amp draw is decreased, the battery becomes more efficient. When you are pulling heavy current from a battery, it's rated amp hour capacity goes way down. A 105 amp hour battery is closer to being a 65 amp hour battery if a TM running on max is pulling 40 amps off it. So, you gain 25% more run time just going from 12v to 24V and then you gain another 20%- 35% buy decreasing the load on the batteries. That's why people run 24 volt and 36 volt TM's over 12V, and the fact that about the max you can get it 12V is 54lb thrust. One other bit of gee-whiz info. the Digital TM greatly increase run time at the when not running at or near max.

Pumps pull 3-5 amps normally, but are only running intermittently. Depth finders only pull 1-2 amps normally. They could run a week and not drain a battery. TM's are the current hogs. On slow you are probably pulling 5 - 10 amps. On high, that can be 25-55 amps, depending on the size of the TM. On max, you might get 45-90 minutes, again depending on the battery and TM

To answer your question, can you use a deep cycle battery for cranking the battery? The answer is yes and it may never create a problem for you, but it's not advisable, here's why. Due to the plate design of deep cycle batteries, they deliver a small to medium amount of current over a long period of time, but they will not deliver a large amount of current for a short time. It's not uncommon for a six cylinder outboard to draw 200-300 amps for the initial cranking load, and that's demanding about the absolute max a good deep cycle battery can give, but it gets the motor to spinning. Now, here's where the problem comes in. If the battery is not real good and almost fully charged, the voltage is going to drop drastically. It may still be turning the motor over slower than normal, but the voltage may be too low for the ignition system to fire, and the motor won't start. Also, on a cold morning, a battery will not deliver it's full amp capacity, (that's rate the cold cranking amps) so you even though you may have a good deep cycle battery, it still may not crank the engine. In bass boat's, you normally run a dual purpose battery, one that can deliver the CCA needed, but also live through the numerous charges and discharges they go through running the electronics, pumps etc. It's also not real smart to run the cranking battery in parallel with the TM battery. I see people doing this quite often running 36V TM's and don't have the space for four batteries. TM batteries are getting used and not recharged by the motor, run too long and you may find your motor won't start because the batteries are too low. Several miles from the ramp, and no other boats around, you might be up that stinky creek. If thinking you can't run a 12V system on a 36V battery bank, you can. The motor and electronics just connect across ONE the three batteries, not across the whole set. The motor is also trying to keep that one battery charged, but sometimes that may not be enough.

$200!!. That might cover labor and parts for a compression test and new set of spark plugs. There is hardly no way that old of a motor is going into a shop that's worth a darn for a tune up and they don't find anything wrong with it. Like I said, it boils down to why you think you need a tune up. If the motor is running great, and you just feel it's time to give it a tune up. Do a compression check and put a set of plugs in it yourself. Both of those are things almost anyone that know which direction to turn a wrench can do. If it's having issue's when running, just does not run right. That's a lot more involved and no way on gods green earth are you going to put it in a shop and get it back out for $200. Closer to $700 - $1,000 would be a more realistic number. Just to do the carbs could run $350 or more. There are several ignition parts that can cause problems, and those can run in the hundreds. Then the labor involved in working out the problems can be a few hours. I will say, anything beyond replacing the plugs and doing a compression test yourself, you will most likely screw it up and then have to pay the shop even more to fix what you screwed up, I've had to go behind a whole load of those kinds of repairs, and in almost every case, it would have been a helavalot cheaper if they had called me first.

The serial number is what you have to use to determine year model. The S\n sequence number falls within a certain year. You might be able to find that online or call a dealer and have them look it up. Since I know enough about motors to do any and everything on one, I'm the worlds worse about periodic routine maintenance. 12 month LU lube change and water pumps every three to four years are about the only things I do. I just replaced the fuel filter after at least seven year, but I do keep a spare in the boat, just in case. I have two sets of spark plugs and haven't installed new spark plugs in years. Every spring, I pull the ones in the motor out, and put the spare set in. Then I clean, gap and inspect the set I took out and store them in the boat, in case I need one. Ficht motors are prone to foul plugs if idled for long periods, even with them indexed. I hate to say this, but as a non mechanic, trying to rebuild and adjust the carbs on that motor is not something you can do, they are not and easy set to rebuild or adjust. Especially, with most labor rates in excess of $100 per hour and much of the work on that motor is labor intensive. With todays overhead cost, most dealers inflate parts prices well above recommended retail, and labor hours are usually padded. Like going to a shop and they quote out of a flat rate manual, when an experienced mechanics can do the job in half the time allotted. Your fear of getting ripped off if a valid concern. I've worked as a mobile lift truck service tech for almost 20 years until I retired and during that time, knew one truly honest mechanic and no honest dealer ships. Mater of fact, the reason I finally retired, the company I was working for was on to do a number of things that were just down right crocked to increase billings and refused. Then they started demanding I start doing some of these, things. Being retired from 22 years of military, over 65 years old and eligible for almost max social security, I decided it was time to call it quits. I had lived that long without having to screw over people, wasn't going to start then.

At least you didn't say he has a huge dog that barks 24 hours a day. All saying anything to him about any of it is going to do is aggravate him and then things start to escalate from there. If he's breaking city or neighborhood codes, go to the proper departments and file a complaint about those items. Neighbors are something you have to deal with in city living. Trust me, he could move or you could move and the next could be even worse.

You don't really give much to go on, other than it's an older 115 merc with oil injection. If I were to guess, it's probably the late 80's, I6 tower of power. Those are nice motors, if it quits, just turning sideways into the wind and use if for a sail. As for a tune up, a lot depends on how it's running now. If it's running great, a set of plugs might be all it needs. If you are having intermittent problems with it running rough, misfiring, and bogging down coming out of the hole etc, then it's gonna have to go to the doctor. You could be looking at carbs cleaned, ignition parts, a stator, plug wires, and probably due for a water pump. Basically, a whole bunch of money. The first thing it needs is a compression test or leak down test. If the compression isn't where it should be, it's not worth spending the money for all that other stuff. I would say you could probably do the compression check yourself, but if it is one of the I6's, doing that bottom cylinder sometimes requires dropping the lower cowling. It can be a royal pain to do.

If you had my 60 years of experience working on motors, nothing to it. Without that, If it needs anything more than a new set of spark plugs, trying to do it yourself could get very expensive.

Looks great, but there is one area that might cause a problem. The first night you take it out, take something with you to use as a shield over the tops of the deck lights. I have a feeling when you start using it, the light coming up from those are going to make it a little harder to see if they are on. If just turning them on temporarily, I think that much light coming upwards, as bright as it is, still might be enough to cause you to loose some night vision for a bit. I don't see where you raised the lids so we could see the LEDs you installed in the compartments.

My personal opinion, I think you are considering ruining a boat. Never have been in your brand specific but have been is several of the 12/14 pointed bow aluminum boats like that and the bow is not stable "AT ALL!" I disliked them so much, when I bought my 9.9 Johnson from a co-worker many years ago, he said it was the motor and a 12' jon. When I went to his house to pick it up, the 12' jon was one of those pointed bow boats with the rounded style bottom. I took the motor off the boat, since that's all I wanted anyway, and left the boat sitting there, I wouldn't even haul it off. If you install and elevated deck, make sure you keep a flotation device on and don't have anything in the boat you don't mind getting wet or loosing. I would strongly suggest, before you do any mods you are considering, put the boat in the water and try to move around in the bow and get in and out over the bow. If you don't, you might be making an expensive mistake. One other misunderstanding about weight and stability. Weight in the bottom of the boat will add stability, weight above the bottom of the boat adds instability. I also realize this is not what you want to hear, so I'm just some dumb*** that don't know what he's talking about. What's that they say about advise and why I rarely try to give any "A wise man doesn't need it, and a foolish man doesn't listen to it".

Like I said, don't know a lot about Yamaha's but when mentioned adding a super charger, I've assumed he's doing it to a four stroke. As mentioned, 2 strokes are not very receptive to super chargers/turbo chargers. Several had done a lot of development on supercharging/turbo charging two strokes but, because of the fact they don't have valves to capture the extra boost, performance gains have been hit or miss. Before Wayne Taylor died, he was doing a lot of development work on trying and was claiming some good success, but since then, and the fact I've been disconnected from the high performance world for a few years, I haven't heard much out of anyone being successful. I think Dave Bush was doing some development, but not sure of that either. Again, I have been out of this stuff for a while and there may be a number of them out there, but I don't think anyone is claiming the big numbers. Speaking of Dave Bush, it would probably pay you to contact him. He probably one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet when it comes to make Evinrude's, Merc's and Yamaha's go fast and what works and don't work.http://www.davebushracing.com/products.html