Way2slow

Oh I know I was legally in the wrong, that's why I just had to grin a bare it, and thank him for just giving me a warning and not a ticket. However, when you apply a little logic. I was no where near a boat channel where any boat would have come through there other than at idle speed, TM or paddle. My black lights were well visible from any place on any part of that section I was in. When I'm fishing anywhere near a channel where there is the possibility of a boat even coming near me at night, I have my running lights on. I even have a rear white lite that's extended and designed so that it's only visible away from the boat and you are not looking at it from inside the boat and it's not putting white light in the boat, but it's still annoying having the stuff on and that pole in the way when casting. There is a difference between legal and logical. While yes I was legally in the wrong, logically, it takes a guy that fights shoo flies in his face all day to say something. If you don't know what shoo flies are, that's those little black flies you always see around a horses back end.

It would have helped a little if you gave us a little info on the motor. Make, size and year model, two stroke or four stroke, DFI, EFI, carburetor. Each has their own unique causes of the problem you are having and there are different process for checking each. The is no one magic bullet that's a cure all. Initial thoughts are it's running rich and wet fouling the plugs. Then on top of that, you might be trying to chock/prime it to get it started, and that's just adding to it not wanting to restart. Then it could be a 180 from that and be such a lean condition it's drying out the crankcase and you are just not getting enough fuel back in it, each condition has a separate way to check it. Personally, I prefer to narrow it down to the cause of the problem before I start spending bunches of money throwing parts at it.

I would guess a bulb, but it wouldn't matter to me, the first thing I do, since most boats have white lights in the gauges, I take all the white bulbs out and put red one in. If you night fish, those white lights blind the heck out of you, unless you are one of those like in that other post that runs around without your running lights on. Red LED strips inside the storage boxes and rod locker are very nice add on features also.

It's something I would want checked. I'm not sure to what degree you are saying it smokes but it should not be smoking. Perhaps if they did a long extend idle, like trolling or something it might emit a small amount but that should clear up after a couple minutes of WOT. Being white, it's possible it might be getting water in a cylinder, and that definitely ain't supposed to happen.

From what I've seen when I've looked, they can be either one, but to my opinion tend to run a little on the high side. However, I've never used their guide to buy or sell a boat. I do a visual inspection, do a little homework on the internet and determine what I feel I would pay if buying or set a price I feel would be the least I would take if selling. When I'm selling one, I tend to let the go pretty cheap simply because I don't won't it lingering on and don't won't to mess with a whole bunch of people asking about it. Plus I rarely have anywhere near the value of one in it. I've never sold but one boat for less than what I have in it, a nice 1988, 15' aluminum Fisher with a 40hp Evinrude I sold for $900 and had $1,300 in it, and wouldn't give a dime for a dozen more like it. I despised using that thing, you was always leaning to one side or the other when sitting in the front pedestal seat.

Yep, it's all about how bad you want it, and how bad the person selling wants to get rid of it, and how bad of a beating, in any, he's willing to take to get rid of it, and who's the better negotiator. You will rarely get your best deal on a boat you are not willing to walk away from if they won't come to your terms, or if it's a boat you feel is just what you are looking for and willing to pay top dollar because it is the boat you are looking for.

Yep, has happened number of times to me also. I came around a point one time and a guy was in the middle of the creek channel about 100 yards wide working a trout line across the bow of his jon boat. It was pretty dark in that section and he turned on a flash light when I was almost on top of him. I managed to cut hard and miss him but got his trot line. The motor cut it and wrapped the crap out of my prop. Then I had to listen to man cursing a raising H*** while I was having to wrestle with leaning over the motor getting his trout line out of my motor. I thought I was about to have to fight him until I finally dropped the TM and went down and around the next bend a few hundred yards to get all that rope out. Yet, one night, while casting around a cove with four black lights on, one on each side of the bow and on each side of the back for my dad, a game warden come up and gives me a warning for not having my boat lights on. Said I was supposed to have that white lite on so it could be seen at least two miles and the red and green lites so boats would know where to pass. Knowing better than say anything rude back to them and just keep my mouth shut, I still wanted ask the idiot what boat was going to see me two miles and be passing me in a cove that was not 200 yards deep and 100 yards across.

Going by his other post, looks like he is getting a 2014 Stratos with a 115 e-Tec.

If you go back in history, I had a 1989 285 Pro, same size boat as that one, and it was rated for 175hp. Then they make the hull a couple hundred pounds lighter and started rating it for 150 hp. Then they change manufacturing processes and started making the VLO's and cut the ratings even more. If yours' has a max rating of 115, I think they figured out 115 was at the bottom of the barrel for that boat and went back up to at least a 140. However, I was running over 300hp on my 285 Pro, so I wasn't worried about getting on plane.

I was talking about filling it to add the weight, and see how it does. Yes, if there are three in the boat and the live well if full and it gets right up on plane, the that should be a pretty good test. I know 115 is it's max. The problem is Stratos was kinda ridiculous with that limit. Most 18 1/2 ft boats would carry a 150 to 175 hp motor. When Stratos cut the ratings on a number of their boats like that, I think it was to help push customers to their higher end models to get the bigger motors. If you look at the new ones, they are 140 and look at the 189, just a couple more inches and it's rated at 175.

When you and your friend take it for your test ride. Make sure you fill the livewells and I would sit an old battery in the floor to simulate how the boat is going to be loaded like it would be when you and a partner are fishing out of it. See how it gets on plane, it may have to struggle with that size motor and that's not fun when you have to deal with it constantly. Getting on plane would be my main concern, speed is not a big deal, but having fight to get it going sucks. With the e-Tec it may just pop right out of the water, those motors make a lot of torque. If it was a four stroke, I would really be concerned.

This was not a bass boat, more of a fiberglass jon boat. Didn't even have a live well. Totally open, but did have a floor. It had a round aluminum rim around the top edge. One little storage area in the bow, where you stepped into the boat and two bench seats. I was running an 18hp tiller Evinrude on it and it would push it about 25mph. Just realized, it had to be 1973 or earlier, because I bought that motor new with the boat and 1973 was the last year they made the 18hp motor.

Tell you the truth, not sure. It just had FishMaster painted on each side at the rear. I graduated in HS in 66 and it was after that and I went in the Air Force in June of 75 and I got it sooner than that, but when between those two times, I can't remember. Actually, I was married when I got it, and so it had to have been the early 70's and may have been as late as 75. I had five boats and sold all but that one and my canoe when I joined. I have developed a pretty good case of that old folks disease CRS, lately.

Wait now, I greatly appreciate it but I said within a reasonable drive from Macon Georgia. The last time I looked at a map, SD stood for South Dakota. I think that's getting a little bit beyond a reasonable distance. I was thinking along the lines of being able to make in a one day round trip. This is only a few hundred dollars worth of boat and while I want one, I don't want to spend way more than I pay for it getting it back to GA.

First thing you need to do is verify it's positioned properly on the trailer. To do this, have it loaded just like you have it when going fishing, gas in the tank and all. You want your normal load, right where it goes, and the motor tilted up and set in place for towing. Now take the boat to a feed supply or truck stop that has scales and weigh it with it just like you would have it fishing. Next you need to make sure you have your tongue height set properly on the truck. Check with you trailer manufacture but 13.5" is a good height on most. You set that by using different size drops on your receiver. Now you measure your tongue weight, for smaller boats this is no problem, just set a set of bathroom scales on something at the right height and set the tongue on them. Heavier boats can get fun trying to find a way to weigh them. Two set of scales side by side with a 2x4 across them and set the tongue in the center of the 2x4 will work most times. For conventional trailers with ball-mounted hitches, proper tongue weight is roughly 10 to 15 percent of the total loaded trailer weight. For instance, if a 2,000-pound conventional trailer is loaded with 1,000 pounds of cargo, the proper tongue weight of the loaded trailer should be between 300 and 450 pounds, or 10-15 percent of the loaded 3,000 pound total. Anyway, once you get a way of checking you tongue weight, you position the boat on the trailer by moving it forward or backwards until you have the proper tongue weight. Once you have that, you position your front stop so that it locks the boat in place at that point. Then you adjust your bunks and center rollers to ensure they are positioned to properly support the boat. Yep, it's a little bit of work, but I highly recommend you do it. I learned the hard way that dealers don't do a very good job at setting up trailers. The very first new boat I bought had the hull ruined by the way the dealer set the roller on the trailer. One roller was too high and after about eight months, put a hook in the hull. I noticed my boat was slowly loosing speed and after about eight months it had lost almost five mph. I was changing props and everything else trying to figure out why, until I found that that hook.

I know this is not the right forum but this one gets looked at more. Back in the 60's they made a 14' open style fiberglass boat with two bench seats in it called a FishMaster. I'm looking for one anywhere close to a reasonable drive from Macon GA. I had one I bought back then and let my son talk me into letting him take it to South Texas to use about 10 years ago. Well, he's the type that cares little about anything and just left it abandoned somewhere and doesn't have a clue where. I don't care what the condition is as long as the hull is still in tact. All I really want is the hull, don't need a motor. I have owned dozens of boats over they years and that has always been my favorite boat for bream and catfish in small lake and most rivers. Probably the most stable 14' boat on the water. I've tried finding a picture of one, but this looks like the hull of one upside down on a trailer. Mine was one of their first ones and the name was actually painted on free hand with a brush.

Clean all connections good. Swap each bank one at a time to the battery that does work and try it each time to see if they recognized it. I have a 330D in one boat and last year, an new battery went belly up and it was doing that. Two week old group 31 battery, put my Megtronic's tester on it and it was showing 4.3 volts and 23 CA. Charger was seeing it as an open circuit. Since that was only the second time those batteries had been charged, I just swapped out that one for a new one and it has been working fine since.

You will enjoy your fishing a whole lot more if you get a variable speed and not one of those 4,5,6 speed things. First off, it will rarely have the speed you want so you are constantly cutting it on and off. Then there is the matter of run time. The variable speed will give you much long run times when you are just easing along casting. There is only One reason and one reason only to ever buy on of those with the selectable speeds, you are on a tight budget and just flat can't afford to pay the extra dollars for the variable speed.

Sounds like you are comparing prices between a discontinued name and the new name and both are the same charger. As for Dual Pro, first off, as they claim, they have a very proven track record and they are MADE IN THE USA, One of the very few that are. If you use yours more than about once a week and especially if you use it on back to back days very often, do yourself a huge favor and get the Professional. It will actually pay for it's difference in cost with the first set of batteries, plus with those smaller chargers, you most likely will not run the batteries down one evening late, and have them charged and ready to go the next morning early. Yes, the cost more, but are worth it. A second option that's cheaper is the Minn-Kota, which you can get in a smaller 10 amp model that works good, but not as fast as the 15 amp for making quick return trips to the lake. The Precision, would be a good first option because it has a more advanced and better maintenance feature. Second would be the Digital, good but does not have the same charging technology as the Precision. They are also brought in by boat, not made in the US. Also understand, when I refer to a 10 amp or 15 amp, I'm referring to amps per bank. Don't confuse that with a 10 amp than is only 5 amps per bank. Those are not what you want in a bass boat if you fish more than about once a week.

If my boat is not being used, the charger is plugged in. If you are scared to leave your charger plugged in to maintain your batteries properly, you should buy a better charger. Well, I guess that would depend on if you even bought a good enough charger to start with that has the maintenance mode.

A little basic education and you can do the math. For explanation purposes, lets assume you have a 100 amp hour battery. You run it until it has discharged 75%, the max you should ever really discharge one for good battery life. That means you have used 75 amps from your 100 amp hour battery, so the charger has to replace that much. Your charger can only replace a max of four amps per hour so all you have to do is divide that 75 amps you need by the four amps the charger can put out. So, with my limited math, that looks about like 19 hours. Now, you just have to hope you don't fish till dark or a little after and fully discharged your batteries, and then plan on being back on the lake by daylight the next morning with fully charged batteries to go the next day. That ain't gonna happen. I hate to say this, but what you have is more suited for a maintainer than a charger.

That is totally based on the type charger, (the method it's designed to use to charge the battery), the size of the charger, (amp rating) and the discharge level and condition of the battery. Usually, the cheaper the charger, the longer it takes to charge. A good charger, the recommend size (10% of the batteries rating) and a battery at approx. 50% discharge and it should take approx. five hours. A cheap charger the same size can take a couple hours longer, and a few can do it a lot quicker. The charging method the charger is designed to use has a major role in the time it takes to charge one. Some chargers start off strong on a discharged battery but as the battery gains charge, the also start dropping voltage and slowing down. The better chargers maintain a steady charge state through each of it's phases and a computer chip controls the level of charge and charge rate, and go into a maintenance mode when the charge is completed.\ Check out the The Pro Mariner, Pro Tournament 300. They will charge a battery about as fast as anything out there and a lot faster than most. That used to be all I would run but have fallen out with their quality and service so now, I would not buy one.

About the best thing Transom Saver did was to pick the name they did. Now, most everybody that owns a boat thinks they gotta have one because the motor is going to rip the back of my boat off going down the highway. Which could be the furthest thing from the truth. The stress the motor puts on a transom when starting off or just running down the lake is a helavalot greater than a motor properly balanced pivoted up. Guarantee you, they have destroyed tons more lower units than transom's they've saved. Now, I will have to say, over the years boaters have gotten the mindset they are a must have item, so a lot of manufactures have stopped putting trailing rest on their motors. Some have a dinky "prop" under them, but they say do not use it for trailering. Under those conditions, you are pretty much forced to use some sort of support because I don't think many prudent people would trust the hydraulics to hold the motor up booking down the road. Don't know if BRP does now, but OMC used to tell you to use the trailering rest, it's setup to hold the motor at the right angle to place very little stress on the transom. If I was going to use something, it dang sure would not be a long metal rod going from the boat trailer to the lower unit on my motor so every bump in the road was hammering the crap out of my lower unit by the trailer. Let a bridge or railroad track surprise you and you feel your trailer bounce and jerk when you cross them, and you could be in for a big awakening the next time you see the back of your motor. In many cases, you have more than a ton of boat being bounced around back there with the bulk of that weight on the rear of it, and don't think those tie downs are going to keep that weight locked solid so it does not move up and down on the trailer going over a big/hard bump.

Steel wool will not knock the burrs off, an they tear the steel wool to shreds in no time. Heavy backed 120- 220 sandpaper on a stick will work also

The VIN is the best and only way with some.