Way2slow

After reading the post, what I would not recommend doing is treating one that way. The maintenance should have been done a couple of years ago. Also, the spark plugs, re-gapping them was only temporary. Since the plugs need to be indexed and I can't find anyone that sells the different thickness Champion seal rings for indexing them, I've ordered three sets. It usually takes three sets to get one indexed set Champion used the make seal rings in three thicknesses. If they still do, I haven't had any luck finding them.

Ever hear the old saying, mechanics drive the junkiest vehicles in town. Well, that goes for boats also. I've been giving 20' bass boat some much needed TLC. Replaced the five year old water pump. Changed the fuel filter I put on it nines years ago. Re-gaped the spark plugs that were about .070", factory spec is .030". These plugs are only seven years old so I didn't feel it needed a new set yet!!. Washed several years of crud off the powerhead. Replaced the roller that opens the throttle bodies where the outer shell was missing off it. Changed the gear lube in the lower unit, since it hadn't been changed since the last water pump and greased the motor. What is they usually say, "do as I say, not as I do". There is no way I would ever recommend doing this kind of crap to any motor, much less one as finnicky as a 225 ficht.

I launch mine off river banks that are sometimes a couple of feet drop. As for one certain way I don't have one because how I do it depends on the situation. If I can back the trailer in, letting the tires drop off the edge, and get the boat in the water, I do that. A good 4WD truck is going to pull it back out of anything so it's just a matter of being able to get the boat on and off the trailer. On a few occasions I've had to take the motor off and take the boat off the trailer and use a rope to slide it down a steep bank. I have a 4HP Merc I use those situations that's very lite. However, I keep my jons, a jon and not all that added junk trying to make a mini bass boat out of them. My 14' weighs 144 pound and if going to an area that's real rough, I take my 12x32 that only weighs 86 pounds. It can easily be drug and handled if needed.

First make sure the charger has a maintenance mode. That can be a float mode or cycles on and off, based on preset voltages. With all this "high quality" Chinese junk, if it goes into a float mode, you need to verify the float voltage. If too high you don't want to leave it on 24/7. Also, verify with the battery manufacture their recommended float level. Charger manufactures have a tendency to exaggerate the numbers.

A couple of things. After connecting the charger, wait until the next day and check the voltage with the charger still on and connected and see what the maintenance voltage the charger is putting out. My Minn Kota 330D is 13.68 volts, which is way to high for flooded cell, deep cycle batteries. 13.2VDC makes them a lot happier. Too high of a maintenance voltage will cause the water to evaporate much faster and shortens the life of the battery. I no longer leave mine on 24/7 until I take the notion to open it up and see if it's adjustable. Second thing, the battery could just be on it's last leg. As a battery ages, it gets hotter as it's being charged and cooks the water out a lot faster. You may also notice a strong sulfur smell if it's getting very warm. Always add distilled water. All that evaporates is the H2O and the acid gets stronger. Also, only add it after the battery has been charged. If you add a lot of water to and uncharged, cold battery, as it charges, it can make the battery overflow. If the water gets below the plates, it lets the plates start deuterating and flaking apart. This can cause the cells to short.

Oh, I'm sure it's going to wind up in small claims court. After several text messages back and forth between them and him telling my son don't text him anymore, he had nothing to discuss with him, my son has gotten fairly upset (the mild term I can post). I guess the guy does not know Paypal has already assure my son he will be getting his money back because the seller violated their policies by not shipping it and having the shipping documents. When my son told Paypal he had the motor, they asked it he got what the seller said it was and as described? NO!, they said then he didn't get what he was supposed to have gotten so they left it that way. My son say's after all the trouble and the shady dealings the seller is trying, instead of trying to get the guy into refunding him $500 that he was originally asking (actually he start off only wanting $250 to pay for the sleeve replacement), he's only going to offer him $500 for the motor. I told my son to plan on making a trip to GA (he lives in south Texas) because I'm sure the guy is not going to going along with that. I also reminded him of that thing called Carma. I'm a firm believer in it, if you don't do what your gut feelings tells you is right, it 's going to come to bite you two fold somewhere down the road.

Ain't no resistor in the world going to make it water proof

Actually, Paypal just gives my son a refund with no stipulations about the motor. Without the shipping documents, the seller broke their rules and they consider the motor as never being shipped, and my son not having it so the seller has no seller protection, even though my son told them we picked the motor up and his claim was for the false representation. Now, even though the seller tried to pull a fast one and lied big time about the motor, my son tried to work out some a settlement which would have been more than fair for the seller, and him telling my son tuffs*** that's what you get buying a used motor, I think he will probably change his tune when Paypal pulls the money back. Then I think he will be more willing to negotiate. However, this time I think the settlement will be a lot more in my son's favor. After all, if we wanted to be a couple of low life's like him, we could just keep his motor and the money. Now it's like the Jolly Green Giant joke. When you have a big green ball in each hand, what do you have? A dang good hold on the Jolly Green Giant. Well, now my son has two big green balls in his hands.

My son bought a bad 1995 150 FastStrike from a marina. I told him he was paying way too much for a bad motor but the shop assured him the motor had never had a wrench on it and it only had low compression. Since I was going to rebuild it, all it was costing was machine work and wholesale parts which would offset some of the higher price he paid. I drove six hours picking the motor up and tore it down Saturday. So much for a motor that had never had a wrench on it. It had a replacement (different SN) powerhead, five cylinders were bored .020 over, #1 was .050 over, meaning it requires a new sleeve. He tried contacting the seller but he would not respond back, so my son contacted Paypal about the guy misrepresenting motor. Paypal frozehis account until it was settled and told my son to try working it out with the seller, so the guy finally contacted my son and basically told him tuff s***. Well, my son contacted Paypal again and they said he should receive a full refund by the 16th of Jun. It seems when I picked the motor up, but it was paid for through Paypal, it was already paid for so I just loaded it and left. Paypal does not allow that and the seller is required to provide Paypal documentation he shipped the motor as part of their seller protection plan. There is no such document and paypal said without that he has no leg to stand on and they will provide a full refund. I guess we will see who has the last laugh.

A 10 amp per bank, 3 bank charger is going to pull less than 500 watt's. That's less than 4 amps on a 120VAC circuit For a 4 amp circuit, a 100ft drop cord should be 14 gauge. Some charts will probably say a 50ft cord should also be 14 gauge, but 16 gauge will work just fine for 50ft or less.

I have a long 3/4" a reg and log 1/2" a 1/4" flex head and a 1/2" flex that I used and abused them for about 10 years and never hand a one to slip, and they are very smooth operating. My favorite 3/8" is the S-K micro tooth. that one I've used for 55 years and S-K still sent me a free gear unit to go in it last year when the retainer ball fell out

That was always the best thing about them, but now most places give you an address to send them to in my neck of the woods. Break a socket or small wrench and it cost more to ship it than it cost. I had one retailer tell me a rounded out 12 point socket and a slipping ratchet of a friends was normal wear and that was not coverer by the warranty. If you ever use wright or S-K ratchets, you wouldn't touch a craftsman, and they don't cost what the tool truck brands cost.

Back when I was a young kid in my early teens, I fished some brickyard ponds (ponds made after removing the clay to make the brick) and they had canals that connected several ponds together. These were old ponds and the canals had a lot of overgrowth, trees and limbs hanging over them and were too narrow to go through them without going under that overgrowth. You learned real quick to spend more time looking closely at the limbs you were going to be going under than at the water for snakes and wasp nest. The wasp were worse than the snakes. Most of the snakes you came across where the non venomous verities so I didn't bother them, just went on under them, but every now and then there would be a cotton mouth laying on one to get warm. Those you kept a long stick so you could knock them off their limbs before you got you boat under them. Well, one day I was going with this retired army captain that had moved in behind us to show him the ponds and how to get around in them. We were going through one of the canals and I saw a water snake sitting on a limb, didn't think nothing about it but did tell him there's a snake so he would see it also. I found out afterwards he thought I was talking about seeing a snake in the water. This was after he happen to bump the limb with his paddle, the snake dropping into the boat at his feet, him being scared to death of any snake and emptying a 1911, 45, shooting holes in the bottom of the boat. Scared the total s*** out of me and it's a good thing those canals were only a few feet deep, because a 45 makes huge holes in the bottom of a plywood boat sitting on water. Needless to say, it didn't float very long.

I sure am glad I'm not a young/new mechanic just starting off and having to buy tools. The price for good tools has gotten stupid. Every year or two, I do a tool box clean out and inventory to replace any sockets/wrenches missing out of sets. Since I keep serval sets of all common sizes, wrenches and sockets, it's no big deal if one comes up missing. Doing that also helps keep me from spending more time looking for a tool than I spend working on something. Trust me, I can sit in one spot, never move from it and loose a tool, sit it down, go to pick it back up a minute later and have to go get another out of the tool box where that one disappeared. I just spent over $300 ordering a handful of sockets and a few wrenches I was missing, to make the sets complete again. Three 1/2" drive sockets cost bunches more than the original set cost new. (granted that was probably several decades ago). Other than some sets of GearWrenches, if they are not made in the USA, I don't buy them. I don't pay the stupid tool truck prices for Mac, Matco, and Snap-On, other than for specialty tools that are only available though one of those, and Craftsman is the cheapest thing I will buy. Most are Proto, Wright, Armstrong, and S-K. I do have a lot of the old Craftsman from many years back when S-K and Echo made them and they were very good tools, simply because you could get replacements at your local Sears. Since K-Mart bought Sears and closed most of them, that ain't so anymore. At 70 years old, and started buying my own tools when I was 15. I've raced, go carts, cars and boat most of my life and worked as a industrial material handling equipment, mobile service tech for a major company for 15 years after retiring from the Air Force so I have a massive set of tools. I spent $9,000 just upgrading my tool box, when I became a service tech. Mostly larger wrenches, 3/4 drive and 1"drive sockets and stuff. Today, it would probably cost $30K to $40 to assemble the same set off tools. That's almost what I had to pay for my house when I bought it 25 years ago.

Welcome to the world of "MADE IN CHINA" and Chinese plastics, half the stuff that comes from there is not suited for what it's made for. You may get another one like that one and it works, or you could try another brand and hope that one works. If you get the cheapest ones you can find on ebay, then it's a crap shoot if they will work or not. I try to buy all my lights from a reputable company, they usually cost two or three times what the cheaper ebay ones sell for, but I've had better luck with them, but that's no guarantee they will last.

disconnect one of the wires where the pump motor is spliced in. Replace the fuse and see if it blows. If it blows, you have a shorted wire and need to find the short or just pull a new wire (mouse may have made lunch out of that one). If the fuse does not blow after disconnecting one wire at the pump, then replace the pump. Something may just have the impeller jammed but after blowing several fuses, it has probably wiped out the motor anyway, so I would just replace it. When you see a clear fuse flash like that and it's all black and vaporized, that means something is shorted to a near dead short. When it just melts the center section and is still clear, that shows it was just over loaded.

There is a 21' Flats Cat and a 20'Javelin R20DC sitting in my yard. The Flats Cat has never been in fresh water and the Javelin has never been in salt water. Both boats are purpose built and not really that practical for much of anything outside the purpose they were built for. The center console of the Flats Cat is on an elevate platform and has a tendency to be in the way when casting. Also, as mentioned before, the Flats Cat has an extremely limited amount of storage room. Now, can you bass fish from the Flats Cat, most definitely, you can do that from almost anything, is it ideal, NO!.

Rear airbags or air shocks is about the only reasonable solution I see, so you can lift the rear when you get ready to back it up the drive. With that said, I bought a Mustang the kid had put air shocks on the rear to clear the wide tires he had. The ride totally sucked, couldn't get them off fast enough, so I would lean toward the bags.

For the batteries, if you have deep pockets, the AGM's will usually have a longer life span (higher cycle count) but the high end, flooded cell batteries will give you a longer run time per trip. For what brand, that depends on who you ask. Optima's spend millions on advertising to make you think they are the best, but never had their battery live up to their hype and they have one of the lowest reserve minutes. For a charger to do what you ask, I think Stealth http://www.stealth1charging.com/ is about the only one doing that. Pro Mariner, Pro Tourney used to but I think the dropped that several years ago. One thing you have to realize, in most cases that feature is useless. Unless you have a large 40-60 amp charging system and make fairly long runs, the cranking battery is never charged enough for the charger to switch it over to the TM batteries. With all the pumps and electronics running and the current used to start the motor, it's takes a little bit of charging, just to replace what you have used since you turned the motor off.

About the only thing you will see with a reverse are the transom mount motors. On those, yes, you need it unless you have the motor deep enough that the props clears the bottom of the boat when spin in 180 degrees. However, running it that deep makes getting is shallow water a problem. Understand, the bigger the motor, the more amps it will draw. Since a battery is a very finite power source, the more amps you use, the shorter your fishing time. Since I only run TM only in small ponds/lake with a gas motor restriction, I like motors in the 45# class. More than enough power and easy enough to handle. No matter what size motor you get, don't expect to go zipping across the lake at full thrust for very long and make sure you have a good paddle in the boat until you learn power management. Also, make sure you realize, the more amps a battery has to deliver, the less efficient it is. Don't do the math on your motors max amp draw and a 120Ah battery and think that's how long it will run. That ain't gonna happen. At 35 amps or more, that 120Ah battery is closer to a 80Ah battery, and go to 40 amps and it's probably 70Ah. So, you will see it's beneficial to travel slow and easy.

Depends on how much common sense you have. If you are one of these with tons of book smarts but can't tie your shoe laces without directions, then you have a reason to be concerned. If you have enough since to see what the weather is going to be like, realize 15mph winds can create white caps on large bodies of water big enough to sink a small jon, and to keep it off the big water and stay in the back waters you should be just fine.

Don't you know the biggest bass swim so fast from location to location, you need a high speed bass boat to catch up with them and stay ahead of them.

I stay away from the Hydro-Rockets like the Bullets and Allison's. Been there, done that, I've had a couple and most speed freaks (like me) can never be satisfied. It's a constant money pit and working on it trying to get those extra few mph out of it. Get a lead sled like my Javelin and you know it's only going so fast without massive amounts of power.

As mentioned, the extra drag and weight of the second motor, really does not give that much of a gain in speed. Sometime back in the late 60's I had a 16' Allison with a Merc 135BHP race motor on it. I installed a second 135BHP and gained seven miles per hour. Granted, for back then 87mph was hauling A**, and that's what the boat would do with twin 135BHP's. My Javenlin R-20 DC with stock 225 Ficht, will run 76mph on a good day with just me and not heavily loaded, 72 with normal load and two people. I can put my 326hp modified 3.0 Johnson on it and it will 84mph with full load, two people, and live well full. I put those 400+ hp 3.3 Rudes on it to break them in and check them out before sending them home and with no setup and the same prop I run on my 3.0, it gps'd 92.6. Now that moving for a 1,600 pound hull.

I've seen one Gambler with twin 2.5 260 merc racing engines. Can't say it was a setup I would want. I'm also a person with the need for speed but I prefer to do it with just one engine. You can go just as fast, and cheaper. First, you have to check the States laws on over powering a boats hull rating. Then you have to be wiling a suffer the consequences if you are in an accident. The lawyers will have you for lunch and not many insurance companies are going to cover you. You can build a 3.3 Evinrude with about 450hp (all you need is deep pockets) and call Dave Bush Racing for his piston/sleeve kit, then the know how to do all the work, or pay someone with the know how. I've built two of them and they are ungodly strong and fast. One I did almost a year ago and the guy still has not had the nerve or skill to go WOT with it.