Way2slow

It would definitely be time for a road trip if I was buying it. Just make sure it is going to be available for you to actually drive away with it and he has all the paper work in order so when the money goes in his hand, all titles are signed over to you and in your hands and the boat it hooked to your vehicle. If he comes up with an excuse that's it's not available to view or there is some reason he can't close the deal when you show up with the money, back away from it, it's probably a scam. Most scams, when you try nailing the deal down in person, so you can look at and drive away with the boat, they come up with excuses for why that can't happen right then.

1" groups at 300 is a pretty good group, even if it's just three shots, for an out of the box factory rifle with factory ammo. My 223 very regularly shoots 3/4" - 1" five shot groups at 400 yards and it's a full custom build with match grade loads developed for it. I'm pretty tied up right now, and half crippled where I've had Basal joint surgery on my left and (and I'm left handed) so it's almost useless to me for a while, but I will try to type up a detailed discretion of what all I do and how I do it but you have to be serious about it. It's going to required high quality dies, a way of checking run out, chamber depth, throat depth, bullet seating depth to the .001" inch, case OAL, neck turner, primer pocket conditioner, good brass (Lapua) several different powders and primers and other stuff I'm sure I haven't thought about. In other words, it's going to be a little expensive to get set up if you are wanting to get serious about accuracy.

First you have to answer, What is your objective? This dictates how you will be reloading. If want to reload to save money because you just like to go out and play shootem up bang, bang with an AR. That's about the most basic form of loading you can do. You just want them as cheap and easy as you can and still be safe, chamber and fire. If you just want to punch holes in paper with the smallest group possible, that gets a whole lot more involved and requires a different skill set and more of a financial investment. Now, if you are a hunter, and want to load the most accurate hunting load for your rifle, another different skill set is involved and a lot more time and effort into load development. I consider good hunting loads to be the hardest to develop. Reason being, accurate loads just to punch paper, don't have to get very concerned about velocity, just accuracy. Good hunting still have the target load accuracy, but normally at much higher velocities. Sometimes you have to give up some accuracy to get good velocity. Finding the key to that combination can require trying numbers of different powders, primers and bullets, and a whole lot of trigger time. I bought my first reloader in 1965 and have loaded for just shooting, competition bench rest and hunting. I am an accuracy freak, no matter what I'm shooting, pistol, rifle or shotgun. Everything is custom tailored for accuracy. My hunting rifles and hunting loads are close to competition bench rest accuracy, and I put about the same amount of work into case prep and load development for a hunting load as I do for a load that I wanted to shoot bug holes in competition with. So, back to my original comment, figure out what you initial objective is, because if it's the very best possible accuracy, you have a lot of money to spend on specialty items and a huge learning curve to get there. If you want to be able to just load up some bullets and go shoot, then there are only a few basic items you need. A 223 is a good rifle to learn on. It's about as cheap as anything you can shoot to load for. Get the right rifle in it and they can be inherently accurate right out of the box. Just make sure you do your homework and know what you plan to use it for. That dictates the type and make rifle you should plan on getting. If it's a hunting rifle, you don't really want a big heavy, bull barrel, but a target rifle, you don't really want a small thin hunting barrel. If you are going to be shooting small targets at closer ranges, you want faster twist barrel. I you want to shoot a lot of 400+ yards, you want to slower twist barrel for heavier bullets. Don't go into it blind and figure out after the fact you screwed up.

Mine is too small for me to want to stand in, some of the others might have an answer for that one. As for size person though, I used to take a retired game warden with me sometimes and I'm sure he weighed close to 300 pounds and I weighed 215 and that little boat handled it with no problems, but we did not stand and was very careful getting in and out because that was a load in it. Once in it and set down, it was very stable with that much body and a couple of coolers. That was sliding over logs, limbs and all kinds of junk that would have easily rolled a canoe, been there, done that so I know.

I have a one that's about 12-14' I use getting into sucker holes in a small river (more like a creek) that has laydowns and junk all up it. I use it because I've rolled my 17' canoe twice and it's almost impossible to get a jon boat through there. It's much more stable than a canoe and my 4hp Merc will dang near put the thing on plane. Very easy to push through the water and even though it rides very low in the water, it stay pretty dry.

I think I would be finding where the leak is. If in the wrong area, it could pull air in the place it's leaking out of instead of oil and ruin your day.

Is it clear, clean oil or black oil? If black, it's probably just the oily residue coming out of the exhaust.

How are you using the batteries? Are they connected in series and you are running a 36 volt motor, if so your math is flawed. Even though they are 100Ah, if connected in series the triple the voltage but still at only 100Ah. If they are connected in parallel, then they would triple the capacity to 300Ah but still only have 12 volts. Also, there's a little more involved even if you are running them in parallel Theoretically you would be right if it weren't for way they rate the batteries and the way you use them. Your battery is rated on a 20 hour scale, meaning that they only use enough current to discharge the over a 20 hour period, that's about 5 amps. As the current draw increases, due to the internal resistance of the battery, the efficiency of the battery decreases. In real life and actual use if you were to be pulling 45 amps off three batteries in parallel, you would probably loose about 15 to 20% of the rated capacity so you would have to figure about 20% less run time. However, if you are running them in series and pulling 45 amps, you would be loosing about 35 to 40% capacity so you would have to figure that much less run time. Now if you are not running them at the full 45 amp draw, then your efficiency is going to be lower than the 20 hour rating, but higher than the full load rating. A better indicator of what your run time would be is the reserve capacity rating. That is how many minutes the battery will run with a 25 amp draw (some batteries use a different amp draw usually it will be between 20 and 25 amps, you have to check their specification sheet). Typically, 15 to 25 amps is more common to what your will draw when fishing and casting so if the battery has a RC rating of 180, that means you should get close to 180 minutes of just easing around and casting. Depending on the type battery, if fairly easy to check them yourself with a voltmeter and hydrometer if you think one is bad.

When the transom saver came along, power tilt and trim was a luxury type option. Almost nothing but the biggest motors had it and a lot of people hauled there boats around with them down, most of the time locked down because if the gear shift was not in forward gear, the motor was locked down. Mercury has never recommended towing a boat with the motor on the tilt rest, OMC did recommend it and even sometimes referred to it as the towing support. Back then, there was many boats that got backed into curbs etc. with the motor down and a busted transom was part of the result. It was very common for those that were smart enough to not haul the boat with the motor down to have board or something they will stick between the motor and mount to hold the motor up. Needless to say, most of the time, it was not at the proper angle to be balanced and even if it was, it could rock back and forth when stopping. Somebody got tired of doing that and came up with a support to go between the trailer and motor to keep from having to do all that stuff, and so became the name Transom saver, and it caught on like a house on fire. Like many things, it was later discovered, while being great for one thing, it created other problems. An umbrella in a thunderstorm seems like a great idea, until that first hard gust wind hits it. Since those early days, many have figured out what was thought to be a great thing was not so great after all. The idea behind it was great, but the processes used to accomplish that idea was flawed. After discovering that, a number of companies has taken a much better approach to providing a safer support for the engine, safer for the boat and the engine. Some of the newer devices are much better than others, but most any of them are better than a rod between the trailer and the lower unit. Those that don't trim their motor down until it locks onto the transom saver, what is it accomplishing, other than holding the motor so it doesn't lay over sideways. It's not supporting anything. Those with the spring, if it's not compressed, is that couple pounds of spring tension really going to provide any support for that big a** motor sitting on it.

He was thinking about all that money it's going to take from the ATM.

There are numbers of them, Motor Mate, Lock-N-Haul, M-Y Wedge are just couple and there are numbers more, not about to try naming them all. Almost anything that does not go between the trailer and the lower unit is better. What people don't understand is once the motor is tilted to the proper angle so it's at its balance point, which is what most of the built in trailering supports manufactures used to put in them did, there is very little to no stress on the transom, other than the weight pushing down and your going to have that regardless. All you need is something that's going to hold it at that angle so it's not rocking back and forth, beside the motors hydraulics because they can leak down. With the way most Transom Saver style devices are used, they actually put tremendous stress on the transom the way the trailer is bouncing and pushing on the motor. Down on the lower unit where they go gives it a lot of leverage to push on the transom when the trailer bounces. Study the situation, use a little common sense and apply some basic physics and you can see a Transom Saver type device is a very dumb idea, but they did a brilliant job in picking a name for it. I also say if you think those tie downs are locking that that ton of boat and motor down on the trailer so it's not moving when you hit a bump, I say " dream on Alice, you're in wonderland now".

A friend had a 93 several years back, he loved the boat but was getting sick of 58-62 mph fully loaded with his 200 Johnson on it. I built and modified his motor for him and while breaking it in and then tuning it, I put several hours on it and loved the way it rode and drove. That's part of what convinced me to get my 20' Javelin. He loved it even more when I told him to meet me at the lake, it was ready and I needed to show him a little about driving it and he took his first ride in it. Since it never ran fast enough to chine walk, he knew nothing about driving it at speed and at the 79.6 mph on my GPS with two people in the boat and live well full it was running, it definitely want to chine walk if you didn't stay ahead of it. It was over a month before he could finally air it out.

First, You should be looking at a four bank charger for a 36 volt system. Three TM batteries and one cranking battery. Unless you are one of those that like to live on the edge and use you cranking battery as the third TM battery. People actually do that a lot, but make sure you take enough provisions to spend the night on the lake if you do. You can almost bet you will be doing that somewhere along the way. Boat has nothing to do with the batteries, other than having enough room to get them all in it. Other than that, You want to have a charger that can deliver approx. 10% each batteries rated capacity per bank. Group 27 Deep Cycles are typically about 105ah, so that means you want about 10 amps of charging power to charge it. That's 30 amps total for three batteries and 40 amps total for four batteries. Some chargers will switch power from the cranking battery to the TM batteries after the cranking battery reaches about 90% charge so their four bank 30 amp total will still do a good job. Lets see, 107 thrust 36V TM, three new TM batteries, because if you have two, you can not just add a third, they all have to be Identical and no more than 25 charge cycles difference between them. A big charger to charger them all with. I hope you have birthday and big Christmas bonus coming up.

What do is one of the first things you do when you are trying to get a stuck bolt loose, you hit with a hammer to create an impact force that will jar it loose. Same thing a transom saver is doing with it's jammed between the trailer and the lower unit. The road vibration and sudden hard jolts when hitting railroad tracks, bridges, dirt roads etc can make the lower unit start coming loose. A friend of mine with a large dealership in California said he would usually see several a year servicing water pumps and not even have to break the bolts loose and bolts missing out of them. Does it happen to everybody, of course not, or the internet would be lit up with all the complaints, but when you are one of those each year that does get you lower unit damaged because of one, it ain't fun. You are no different that the million other boat owners that think it's a gotta have item and that's the way it will always be. Shoot, I helped a guy one time I felt bad for, find a good used lower unit dirt cheap from a friend and helped him put it on for free. He had completely broke his LU loose around the top flange with a Transom Saver. After getting it all back together, and he's getting ready to leave, what does he do, he grabs that transom saver that broke the other one off and sticks it under there. I asked "what are you doing"? and he replies he didn't want to tear his boat up. Oh yea, when they first came out, I jumped on the band wagon also, thinking those things ought to be great. I bought one and started reading the directions. I said to put it on the back guide roller on the trailer, place it about center the lower unit and trim the motor down until the tilt pistons were fully retracted. About the third time using it, I had about two miles of washboard dirt road to go down the get to the ramp I was going to and realizing just how hard it was beating one the trailer and thinking about that aluminum rod forced between the trailer and my motor. When I loaded up to come home, it didn't go back under there. I just say, if it gives you peace of mind having it under the motor, It's worth every penny you threw away on it. If your motor is one of the many made today that does not have a trailering rest, there are system available that's a whole hellavalot better and safer than a transom saver.

And you probably use a transom saver. That's not totally uncommon when using one.

If you have and old farts prostate and can hardly pee past the toe of your shoes, you need a boardwalk to keep from peeing one the boat. Since that's me, I keep one of those plastic urinal cups/pitcher looking things they give you in the hospital in the boat or a quart plastic milk jug with part of the top cut out but leave the handle. That way I don't pee on the boat, can do it a little more discretely, and don't have to worry about the TM or boat wakes sending me swimming. Pee in it, dump it, rinse it out and throw it back in the compartment with the TP, another critical item.

If you listen to the manufactures and engineers that design them, they tell you to only run the recommended octane fuel. Higher octane fuels burn slower and cause and increase in carbon fouling and decrease in performance. If you listen to the internet, they are apt to have running 107 octane racing fuel. It's just a matter of where you put your trust. The best is not always the best.

Normally, if it's a carbureted motor, you want to trim the level, that was actually critical on the old 92 - 95 V6 OMC's. The carbs on those motors a basically junk. When the motor is trimmed off level it screws the float level up and some motors just don't like that, especially if it's one the level is not properly to start with. Plus it puts the motor a lot deeper in the water, increasing the back pressure which some motors are also picky about. Fuel injected motors are not quite as picky as carb motors other than those sensitive to the increased back pressure. Now, with all that said, use what ever makes the motor the easiest to start and it idles smoothest. Other than out of the water, that burns the water pump within seconds.

Exactly. DP is for Dual Purpose, 31 is group size, DT is dual terminal, meaning it has studs and lead post. One word of caution when buying one. There is a huge price swing on them, depending on who you buy from so make sure you shop around. I pretty much get the wholesale from a distribution center near me. Most all BPS Marine batteries are East Penn batteries, who also makes Deka's and I looked at theirs, but they only stock the group 24 in a Dual Purpose. If you happen to have a Deka/Voltex battery distribution center near you, they will sell you one at MSRP, which is usually a lot cheaper than most retailers sell them because unless they are a major company and have a national contract, they only get about a 10% discount so they mark them way up to make a profit. One of the discount parts store brands is an East Penn battery also, but I've forgotten which one. Easiest way to tell is take a Deka spec sheet and compare the specs. they will be identical across the board if it is. You can get a full spec sheet from East Penn's web site but it's hidden pretty good. Now, I will say, I like and buy Deka's and have for many years, one reason is the price I've been able to buy them and they are a top of the line battery, but are they any better than the Delco or Interstate, don't know. Both of those batteries get good reviews also. Also another little word of wisdom. Only buy batteries from a place that has a fairly high turnover rate. It don't take many months on the shelf to start degrading them. Deka's have a very low self discharge rate, but they still need to be topped off every few months and most places don't do that. Also, that little sticker on them is the date they were put in that location, that is not the manufacture date. That's encrypted and engraved into the battery, but I've never been able to get the code for it.

Having never owned a Ranger, I'm guessing it's part of the splash well. Even in a 20+ foot boat, when you are coming off plane and conditions are right, you can still get a backwash that will run over the back. In most boats, that means it washes right on up on the back deck, and even your back if bad enough. With that recess all the way across, it looks much better than having the splash well all the way across but still functions as a splash well to stop the backwash, and yes it does give you some handle bars. Even if you have a boarding ladder like the one in the picture above, it helps to have something to grab onto to pull yourself up. You gotta remember, young guys can just climb right in, us old farts need all the help they can get. I don't have a boarding ladder because I use the built in elevator that comes with the motor. Get to the back of the boat, stand on the anti cavitation plate and use the trim button on the side of the motor and trim it up. Don't care how big and heavy your are, it will pick your butt right on up so you just climb in the boat, you just have to be agile enough to ride it up.

If you were reading off the battery terminals and not the cables, sounds like your cranking battery is toast. 12.6 to 12.8 volts (again, based on type battery) should be your voltage. A two amp load should not even cause a measurable voltage drop on a good, fully charged battery. Understand, I'm keep referring to reading off the actual battery post. Reading off the cables can lie to you because of them possibly having bad connections. I don't think Trojan makes a cranking battery, they are king of deep cycle batteries but you should not use a deep cycle for cranking. Because of their plate design, they can't deliver the high currents needed for cranking you larger outboards and can cause starting problems, especially on cold mornings. For my cranking battery, I run the biggest, baddest, group 30 or 31, Dual Purpose Deka, flooded cell battery I can get. I don't want a straight cranking battery because they are not designed to be discharged more than a few percent, and bass boats discharge the crap out of them. Cranking battery plates are designed to produce very high currents but not to be discharged. Deep Cycle, batteries are design to be repeatedly discharged and charged but not deliver high currents. Matter of fact, a true Deep Cycle battery like the Trojans will not even have a Cranking Amp rating on them. The Dual purpose is a marriage of the two technologies. A portion of the plates are open like a cranking battery to give a quick surge of current, and the rest of the plate is solid and designed to handle the discharge cycles. I noticed you are running a group 24. You should be using no less than a group 27 in a bass boat.

You should not use an AGM on your motor. It's hard on the charging system and hard on the battery, and can shorten the life of either or both. Some of the newer motors with belt driven alternators can run them just fine but not the others. The last time I checked, CDI, one of the largest manufactures of aftermarket charging and ignition system parts, would void their warranty on charging system parts if used on AGM batteries, so that should suggest something. Now, I know there are bunches of folks going to say they run them and that's fine. That's when I say it boils down to, it's yours and you can run anything you dang well please. There are lots of things people do wrong and get away with it (for a while), but if and when it does bite you in the butt, it's going to be very expensive. As for trouble shooting your electrical problems, there is nothing more valuable than a good DMM and knowing how to use it. Use it and follow the voltage or voltage drop in your case, always going from a known good spot to an unknown. Which means, start by check the voltage drop across the cleaned, battery post. If you are getting low voltage on the battery when there is much of a load on it, then it's not getting fully charged, or it's bad. Use a battery hydrometer (one with the floating glass bulb) and check it. Depending on the type electrolyte, it should be 1,260 - 1.280 on a good, fully charged battery that has rested 24 hours after charging. Once you have a know good source voltage, then go to the Sonar and check it there. If low, start following it back until you find the source causing the voltage drop.

I think a lot of states would not allow the blue like WIGuide has because blue lights are reserved for LE only. As for the amber and red marker lights on the trailer, I can't see that being a problem as long as the amber was on the sides and reds in the rear and they are not so bright they would be blinding. I Don't think they would want reds on the side, even behind the axle. A quick call to a State Trooper/Patrol office would probably answer you questions better than anything.

Very nice. Be sure to add a hold down for the battery. I did notice one thing I would not have done. Your main cables are connected with 1/4" spade connectors. Those can get loose, corrode etc, and cause problems. I would have used eyelets and screwed them to the buss bars with self locking nuts on them and them some liquid tape on them.

Pressure treated in boats don't work well. First, the bulk of it is low grade plywood so you have to use a heavier, thicker piece to keep it from flexing as you walk on it, plus a host of other problems. I prefer to spend a few dollars more and use 1/2" Raw MDO, it is the best and about the stiffest you can use. If you want cheap, get 1/2" B/C, it's a 5 ply pine with exterior glue. It's about as strong as marine grade, holds up as good as marine for decks and floors, but 1/2 the price. Make sure what ever you use is 1/2" and is 5 or 7 ply with exterior glue. Which you may not find at Lowes or HD. With MDO, you can use 3/8" if the pieces are braced so there are no large areas you will be walking on. I have used 3/8" B/C in floors of jons that have raised ribs fairly close and wanted to limit the added weight.