Way2slow

I'm sure most don't even have a clue what that title is but I'm hoping at least one person does and knows their stuff on writing sketches for it and is willing to give me some help.

Either by renting at indoor ranges or shooting friends and neighbors, I probably shot a dozen different makes. I knew from the start I wanted a semi-auto so I didn't mess with any revolvers. I was not set on one particular caliber. I was just seeing what gun felt the best, with the most natural feel that I felt I could shoot the best. After trying several different guns in 9mm, 40S&W, and 45auto, I shot my neighbors Colt Delta Elite 10mm and I was hooked. I knew it was going to have to be a 10mm, but there were no Delta Elite's to be had. I even waited a couple of months looking for even a good used one. I had also shot a Glock 20 10mm he had and liked it, but not like the Delta Elite. Then a new Glock 20SF came along at a deal I couldn't pass up (out the door for $435 ) and I got it. This was about six years ago. I still keep wanting to get that Delta Elite or a Kimber 1911 10mm, I've just got to convince myself I need two pistol the same caliber but I do luv the look of the 1911. I also have very large hands, like I wear 2XL gloves, so the Glocks SF grips work pretty good for me. I also reload everything I shoot so I can tailor loads to my liking and that 10mm gives me a lot of flexibility. I would just suggest you keep renting and shooting different ones until you find that one the feels natural.

The biggest one suggestion I can give you is, Learn how to use the trim. So many people I see don't have their boats properly trimmed. Start off with the motor trimmed all the way in. Once you get comfortable with the boat and used to the way it feels, you may find it doesn't need to be all the way in/down but for now, trim it all the way down. Once I go full throttle to get on plane, I also start trimming out at the same time. Unless the boat is sluggish and slow to get on plane, it should come up a lay over about the same time you want to quit trimming, but make sure you have not trimmed it all the way out. Now is when you really want to start paying attention to how the boat feels, what the tach is doing and how the motor sounds. Each speed you drive and the number of people in the boat greatly affect the trim. Regardless of the speed you are cruising at, trim the motor so the hull feels the lightest, there is minimum torque on the steering wheel and the tach does not gain rpm and the boat does not gain speed. Basically, the motor will gain a couple hundred rpm but you don't notice any change in the boats speed. That is over trimming and creates a cavitation in the prop. You should learn to hear and feel this condition and trim back in just slightly when you do. Just before cavitation is usually the best trim. How the boat feels is what you need to pay attention to, some hulls just don't like very much trim and it's very easy to over trim, especially on a the riveted aluminum hulls. You will find you are regularly bumping the trim because even the amount of chop on the water affects your trim setting. You should also make it a practice to ALWAYS trim down a little when crossing boat wakes, at any angle, and when turning. A visual indicator of running with the motor over trimmed is to look at the prop. Before long, it will develop a spot about the size of a quarter/fifty cent piece on the lower face of the blades that looks like someone sanded it. Painted aluminum props show it pretty quickly, stainless takes a little longer.

Kinda like something saying, "INSTRUCTIONS ARE ON THE BOTTOM". You flip it over to read them, and they are in a little pouch. You pull them out and the first line says, DO NOT TURN UPSIDE DOWN.

OK. The double oiling is probably most of your problem. I wouldn't be too concerned until you get it broke in and the proper gas/oil mixture and can run it full throttle for several minutes to clean it out.

I'm sure you have read and are following the owners manuals break-in procedure but you have made one comment that sort of baffles me. "I am still in the double oiling stage so was thinking that had some to do with it, just not sure. Any have any thoughts?" I thought the 115 Pro XS was a four stroke, and if it is, where are you putting this oil you are talking about double oiling it with? If it is a four stroke, and you are adding oil to the gas, guess where your problem is at. If you are adding extra oil to the crankcase, that's a no-no also and needs to come out. Over filling a crankcase can damage a motor.

One other option. I don't know what kind of a mechanic you are, but have you pulled the head off and looked at it. If the sleeve is not screwed up too bad, you might just be able to throw another piston in that one and have it running for a few hundred bucks. Pulling the head and putting it back on is is a very basic procedure, even my granddaughter can do that. The OMC/BRP 3.0 you can replace a piston without having to tear it down, not sure about those Black motors.

Lets see, I remember when my depth finder was a weight on the end of small rope and caught lots of bass, so my $5000 worth of side scan sonars wouldn't be it. I remember sitting on the bow with my feet hanging over the front and a paddle in one hand while fishing with the other, still caught lots of bass, so my $1,500 trolling motor is not it. I've used long cane poles with heavy line and just dropping a lure in spots I though were holding bass, and caught lots of bass. So my $400-$500 rod and reels are not it. So, I guess I would have to agree with a few of the other, my knowledge of being able to figure how to catch fish in various conditions is more important than any thing else.

Problem with rebuilding yours or a new powerhead, that does nothing for what causes them to blow. The motors are good motors, it's the injection system and ECM that's the problem. Put a new powehead on and you are still running with a ticking time bomb. Now, one of the problems is people didn't warm them up good before they went hauling a** down lake. An injectors leans out get that sickening sound a piston makes when the dome in it lets go (if you are lucky). Sometimes they swell, stick, break the rod and saws the motor in half, or breaks the piston and sticks the rod through the block. Either way, it's not even good for an anchor then. I call it consumer engineering. DFI was the hot ticket back then and everybody was wanting to rush theirs to market with not much more than a proto type and let the consumer do the development testing and they just start re-engineering what's breaking. The consumer gets stuck with paying for all the development cost in repair bills, unless they happen to be lucky enough it's still under full warranty. OMC did that with their ficht's about the same time and that was the final straw that closed their doors.

Yep, you might have a problem there. A lot of the good ones that know them try to shy away from them. It has been a long time since I've kept up on those but even five or six years back when I was a little more involved than now, they would update the ECM, injectors and a few other things and the repair bills could run $7,000 Like I said, it has been several years and they may have some sure cure fixes for them now, I don't know. However, if they do, it's going to be expensive. When I was into it pretty heavy, Tony Brucato http://www.brucatosvs.com/ was doing a lot of research and development on the Mercs injection system. More so with the ProMax than Opti-Max but a phone call there might be worth it. There's was tons of support and stuff for the ProMax but they shied away from the Opt-Pops. I've got a couple JohnyRud's I was working on that would have made that boat fly, one was going to be a 450+hp 3.3L monster with about 390 pounds of torque, but Basal joint surgery on my hand has shut that down for probably a year, and the surgeon says it may be forever. I was hoping to have them done before having the surgery but long hours of using a die grinder is what was causing most of my problems and it just got too painful to keep going.

I wonder if he knows that was the generation of Opti-Max's that gave them the nickname "OPTI-POPS". They have ECM problems that can blow an new powerhead about as fast as you can stick one on. Even knowing how to build them, I've turned down several good deals on them.

Wow, that was brave. Sure hope you got one hellava deal. With labor, a power head can cost close to $5,000 to replace. This is one time I'm going to recommend you posting your question on the WEB site Scream & Fly in their technical forum. Most of the Mercury engine builders and racers in the country hang out there. That's mostly mechanics, this one is mostly into fishing. http://www.screamandfly.com/forumdisplay.php?20-Technical-Discussion&s=57df6361b0933066cd727efb4393c1ab

Even with the AeroPress, you've still gotta have good beans to make good coffee. The AeroPress is by far the quickest and easiest brew method out of all of them listed so far, (other than instant). It takes me less than two minutes to brew me a "good" cup of coffee. If you just want a cup of coffee, most any of the items listed so far will do that. A jar of instant and some hot water will even work but don't even thing about putting the word "good" in front of what most are going to give you. The French press will make you a very good cup also, with good beans, but it can take up to seven or eight minutes steep time. I can be brewed and drank my cup of AeroPress coffee by then.

They make some mighty large thermoses that will keep it hot for quite a while. However, if you are like me and just not liking your coffee after it has been brewed and sits in a thermos for and extended time, there are some other options. My preferred brewing method is an AeroPress. I use that at least twice a day to brew me a cup of coffee. When on long road trips, I either take my hand grinder and beans if it's going to be several days, or I grind enough to last a couple of days if it's a shorter trip. I just stop and get me large cup of hot water. On the lake, there are not many places to stop and get hot water but they make 12 volt water heaters and kettles that can heat the water in the boat. However I'm probably more of a coffee snob than you because I don't even drink over the counter coffee because there are very few I like. I buy very select green beans and roast my own. Been doing that for over 15 years. Even built my own computer controller roaster. So, when I have a cup, it's a dam good cup. By the way, I had a stint placed in my heart about six years ago and I asked the cardiologist about drinking coffee and he said that if he thought it caused problems, he would quite drinking it himself. Well, he's still drinking, so am I. What's also funny, I spent 23 years in the Air Force and didn't start drinking it until several years after I retired. Before then, I probably hadn't drank 10 cups of coffee in my whole life.

Actually, I think buying a good, used boat is much harder for the average individual that buying a used car. Most anybody can look around under an automobile and see it's eaten up with rust, dumping fluids every where and things not moving when they should be, or moving when they are not supposed to be. If they can't, there are hundreds of places with lifts and some type of mechanic that can look at if for them within a few minutes of bringing it in. That's not the case with boats. You usually have to find a dealer or someone very knowledgeable of them because all it's "rust" is going to be in the form of rot, and it's all covered with something. Instead of finding someone on every street corner, you are lucky to find someone in every city and they are usually going to laugh if you ask if they can check it now. Usually it's leave and check back in a week or two, something not many sellers are going to agree on. Most cars also have four stroke engines. When things start getting worn in those, they tend to make bad noises and smoke badly, making it very obvious it has serious problems. That's not the case with a two stroke. Without a qualified mechanic to check it, many times you don't have a clue what it's internals are like. Then you have ego's and believing the person trying to sell the item would "never" tell a lie about it's condition.

One thing you might want to look at, depending on how yours is built, is just converting your trailer to a tilt trailer. I'm sure a fabricator could do that very easily and a whole lot cheaper than another trailer. Most boat trailers are built with the center beam going back and welded to a cross bar that goes between the outer frame rails. All you need to do it cut the center beam loose, weld length of channel to that cross beam than will fit over the center beam and use a large 3/4" bolt as the pivot point right at the cross beam. The length of channel will lay on top of the center beam when the boat is trailered and you can use a removable pin through them a few feet up toward the front. when you want it to tilt.

Nope not me. Mine was split almost in half. Mine was built with a piece of 3x3 box steel for the center tongue section about 8' long. A piece of round tubing was welded cross ways to it and that was the pivot point so the whole square part of the trailer would pivot up and down. One area of concern I see, since you said it's 25' gheenoe, (I didn't realize they even made them that long) with almost 200 pound motor on the back and I'm sure TM battery, gas etc, is going to be the transom going under when you get the bow up very high. They normally have a fairly narrow transom so when you start lifting the bow, there's not a lot of flotation area back there to keep it from taking on water. I know on my 14' boat with a 52" beam width, it would come very close to having water coming over the back with a 25 Merc on the back when I launched and recovered off the bank if there was much of a drop. With that rig, as long as it is, I think a tilt trailer would be make it easier to launch and recover off a steep angle, provided it's not too steep and dunks the transom.

I've never seen one for anything much bigger than a lighter weight 15-16' boat. I had one a 14" fiberglass fishing boat that weight about 300 pounds and it came in handy a several times when loading it back on the trailer after launching it off the river bank. If your boat is much heavier than a few hundred pounds, not too sure how well it would work trying to winch it all the way on at a very steep angle. Might have to make some changes to that front eye. A lot of those are either not strong enough or not mounted in solid enough to really apply a lot of winch pressure.

Yea, by the time you got out of jail and thru paying all the fines if you got caught??? Shoot, I can't even guess at the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost. A whole lot more than I'm planning on taking a chance with. Believe it or not, fiberglass boat are extremely hard to dispose of in most places. Like a lot of landfills, ours won't take the whole boat, but chopped up in pieces, I can throw it in of the counties large dumpsters, if they will every empty them so there's enough room. Still waiting on that one.

Might want to check with Yamaha. The ECM probably tracks hours.

I think that's a little steep for a bass boat of unknown make, model or year, condition and other options other than he's a Bama fan, and it has a XR6 and HB798si on it. It takes a little more than that for me to decide on a boats value.

As for the 285 Pro, I have a 1989 285 Pro I leave on lake Falcon, and that's the biggest fishing 18' boat I've ever owned. It has more storage than my 20' Javelin. It rides great, even in rough water. The only thing that makes it seem smaller than a 20' boat is the size of the front deck. Mine is a little tight on room for the TM foot peddle and between the seat the bow. I have a bad back and sit a lot so that lack of room gets very noticeable. An offset seat post might help that but never tried one. Reading through some of these replies, you will probably never find a used boat in your price range. First, boats without plywood glassed over in the transom is going to eliminate buying most boats that are more than about 10 years old and even many newer than that. Also, just because it's an all composite boat, doesn't eliminate it from having transom/water damage problems. I've never removed a motor and drilled core sample to check a transom. I seriously doubt many people are going to let you start boring holes in their transom. There are some simple methods to get a good idea the condition of the plywood. One: is you can take a transom mounting bolt out and use a screw driver and push into the wood there. Two: You can just try tightening the transom mount bolts. If they start pulling deeper in the transom on the inside and making a pocket, it's soft. Three: Trim the motor all the way up and if you don't weigh over 200 pounds, have someone that does stand on the anticav plate and bounce up and down while watching and transom and mount closely. If there is any movement (other than the boat bouncing) the boat is junk. I can't believe someone blames a seller for a bearing failure three years later. Three months, maybe but not three years. Bearing maintenance should be an annual thing. New seals can fail and bearings don't last forever. If someone came back to me whining about a bearing failure three years later, I would laugh and tell them to take a flying hike. That was their screw up for not doing their proper maintenance. To say it had previous damage, that's hard. Once one fails and starts cutting groves, who knows when any damage might have been done other than at that time.

No, the moral is to check it out before you own it. I had already checked this one out and determined the condition of this boat "BEFORE" I got the chainsaw to it and had decided I was not going through the work and expense of taking the cap off to remove and replacing all the rotten wood even if it was my dads. I don't usually go around whacking up good boats. If you think it takes a chainsaw to check one out, then I would not recommend you ever buy a used boat, and don't think it has to be an old boat. A few years back, I checked out the three year old Sprint bass boat a dealer was selling that the customer had bought a new hull and put the motor off the Sprint on the new hull. The transom on that Sprint was already soft and rotten, and fully water logged where they apparently didn't seal the engine mounting bolts. Pure junk.

This was actually my dads first bass boat that I hauled home from the farm. For sentimental reasons I kept thinking about restoring it (and if it had been just a little larger I may have) but knew I would just let it sit around the house for ever, with that notion I was going to restore it one day. I offered to give it away for someone a nice project boat but got no takers on that. Well, I made dam sure I got that notion out of my head and relieved myself of ever changing my mind. The land fill won't take a boat, but I can put the pieces in the big county dumpster, so I made nice little, easy to handle pieces out of it. I need a utility trailer and trailer will make me one just the size I need. I checked the motor out and it needs a power pack. Which I probably blew because the starter solenoid was just clicking so I used jumper cable to go straight from the battery to the starter and all the arcing it was doing probably fried the power pack. It's actually a nice little 1978 70hp Johnson with PT&T so I will stick it away just in case I ever need one that size.

Here are a few pictures of problems you can't see but are very real anytime you buy a used boat. This first picture is of the a transom. I easily pushed that 10" screw driver into what's supposed to be plywood. This next picture is what's supposed to be the wood stringers than run from the front to the back of the boat and keep the hull from breaking in half. There were supposed to be four but all are basically gone. This next one shows you what the old open cell floatation foam can do. What you are seeing is water coming out of the foam as I pushed the screw driver in. This can add several hundred pounds to the weight of the boat. This is what happens when I got bored and wanting to check out my chainsaw I just worked on.