Way2slow

If the wife wants a windshield and you expect her to go with you, she will get a windshield. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with my Startos 285 Pro. I thought it was the perfect size for two people. I had completely restored the boat, new clear gel coat, new carpet, new upholstery on the seats, new pedestal seats 325HP motor that would make the thing fly. A lot of work and money went into making it "MY" perfect bass boat, "BUT" then comes the wife, if I got over 30 mph and the wind blowing her in the face, the battle was on. I finally had to give the Stratos to my son (with a 150 one it) and I bought the Javelin Renegade 20 Dual Console. Just so when I went with the wife, she would have a windshield, but I think my dad enjoyed having it also when we running 70 and 80 mph. He never did care for wearing the full face racing helmets I used with the Stratos, but at 80 mph, they were almost a must if you didn't want your smile pushed back behind your ears.

Lets see, $300 for boat motor and trailer, I would expect a boat almost as old as me, been patched a few times and still leaks, a 60's Sears Game Fisher 9.9 motor that needs work, and homemade trailer built on an on straight front axle from an old car. If that' does not describe what you got, you got a good deal,

First, I have never and never would try to bass fish with four people in a boat. I have done three, me my dad and granddaughter, in a 20' Javelin, but that's crowded. As for weight distribution, you want the bulk of the weight behind the steering wheel and balanced somewhat evenly on each side. I don't put anything heavy in my front storage boxes. Snacks, Life jackets, rain gear, extra clothing, (windbreakers, sweat shirts etc, go in the front center box, rods and reels in the left rod locker and paddle, lights, umbrellas and utility type stuff goes in the right rod locker. I keep most of my hard tackle sorted out in stacks of those plano storage trays and just take the ones I'm going to be using (the boat wouldn't hold all of them) and they go in the right rear storage box, the plastics stay in their original package and go in the left rear, probably 50 pounds at least. Water and drinks go in the cooler storage compartment between the seats. In the summer, I sometimes take a small cooler with ice and drinks in it and it goes under the passenger console. Spare prop, oil etc go in the battery compartment. My boat is plenty wide enough where three people can sit side by side and I have a center seat that goes between the two main seats I can put in and take out when needed. I don't leave it in because it gets stepped in every time someone get on the rear deck. The trolling motor on the bow, is the only heavy thing forward of the consoles. All that other junk I described does add weight when you look at it as a whole, but nothing like what all the tackle and other stuff behind the consoles add.

I would never recommend using wheel bearing or general purpose grease on anything other than metal to metal contact surfaces. There are too many rubber and synthetic products that it can react with and damage them. My go to assembly lube for almost everything is LubriPlate 105 http://www.amazon.com/Lubriplate-Assembly-Grease-L0034-092-03494/dp/B00C7YUMQ4. I've been using this stuff on pneumatic tools and hydraulics and parts since the late 60's. Almost every engine I've ever built (and that has been a bunch) has been assembled with the stuff on everything but the rings (they say the rings also but I think it's too slick and can cause problems getting them to seat) and have never had a problem. There is nothing better for putting on rubber/synthetic parts, other than in automatic transmissions because it can cause problems with making the frictions too slick and slip. Can't say the same for stuff I've seen people put together with grease and some oils. As for the water pump starting up dry, it's never dry if the motor is trimmed all the way down with the boat sitting in the lake. The water pump is below the water line so it's going to already be flooded with water when the motor starts with the motor down and does not need any kind of lube when assembled for that. I use lubriplate because it makes it easier to assemble and sometimes you have to turn the drive shaft a little to get the splines lined back up. Doing that with a dry impeller makes it a whole lot harder. Once it's assembled and back on the motor, it's always going to water around it unless you start it up without being on a hose, in a tank or in the lake. Now, if you are one of those idiots I see that gets the ramp and starts and runs their motor before launching, just to be sure it's going to start, then all bets are off on what kind of condition the impeller is going to be in.

Go ahead and turn it all the way to the right to start with and see if that helps. About the only time that has any affect on one is when it's trimmed out properly and on full plane. I keep looking at how much curve that hydrofoil has and that thing has to be dragging the water when on plane. I would take that off and see how it does. Your hole shot is going to suffer because they do help that, but that one looks awful low and with the amount of curve it has, it has to be creating a whole lot of drag. That one looks Similar to the SE Sport 300, which is the one I prefer, but I didn't think they came with that much curve. I cut a lot of the side wings off mine but don't think it has any where near that much curve and down in the water that much.

As mentioned, it looks like that one should extend out longer by pulling the pin and sliding it out. If the motor does not have a motor rest that strong enough and built for trailering, then you have not option but to use some type of support or other device to support the motor. Here's my problem with many transom saver type supports. Most are a basically a solid bar that's between the lower unit and the boat trailer. The last one I had said to tilt the motor up, put it in place and trim the motor down on it until the trim piston were retracted. Now, when going down a smooth paved road, no problem, but when going over dirt roads, railroad tracks or something that causes and abrupt change in the surface, that boat is generally going to move up and down some on that trailer, I don't care how tight you have your tie down straps. When it does, that movement is being driven directly into the lower unit. If it's strapped down extremely tight, it can actually break the lower unit off the motor, I've seen this happen and heard of it happening many times. After a friend of mine tore his lower unit off years ago with one, I tossed mine. Now for the name transom saver, if there is enough force being generated that can actually break the lower unit, how much force do you think is being generated against that transom the bar is suppose to be saving? I have seen some that were spring loaded, but have never researched how they install, but if they install so it's floating on the spring, and not forced all the way down, then I might could see using one of those. If my motors did not have the supports built in, and if I used anything, it would be a sleeve or device that goes around the tilt rod and lets the motor sit in a balanced position on it, it would not connect the motor to the boat trailer in a solid fashion.

Transom savers can damage lower units/mid sections and basically do little to save the transom. However because someone picked a great name to call it, most think it's a must have. Because of that, motor companies use that to save a few bucks and quit putting the trailering supports on their motors so you are stuck using one because I would not trust the hydraulics to hold it up.

I guess I'm like and old dog, too old to learn something new. No way am I going to learn to deal with the heat and a full vest. When it's summer, high 90's - low 100 degrees and 85-95% humidity there is no way in heck I'm going to have full vest on when I'm not running down the lake. I put my auto inflate on as part of my prelaunch routine, and I take it off after the boats is loaded on trailer I'm getting the things ready for the highway. I keep my kill switch lanyard connected to my full vest that I slip it on (over the auto inflate) as I'm getting in the drivers seat and take it off when I get out of the drivers seat. Now, if you are one of that bass fishermen that only fish pre-spawn and spawn, and then in during the fall feed, then a full vest might work just fine, because temps are a lot lower then. However, I'm like one of the other guys, I've only in a kayak a few times, and been wet a couple of those, and if I did use one, an auto inflate would not be my choice of vest. For one, I don't think it would be considered legal as the only life vest so you would have to have a full vest in the boat, and they just don't have that much room.

When I say NO LOAD, I mean with the motor in neutral or the prop not being in the water and running on a hose. I think the factory recommended RPM for that motor is 5,300 - 5,500 RPM. I like to set them up so they turn right at max RPM at WOT and normal load. I always got to the high side, if I had to choose between a prop that turns 5,200 and one that turns 5,600 I would go with the one that turns 5,600. It's not going to hurt the motor and it will have better hole shot and performance.

I guess the 150 doesn't have it. The reason for not running more than 2,000 rpm when under no load, it's possible for a two stroke motor to go into runaway and grenade itself. that's why you don't want to pop the throttle, sounds good but when it all of a sudden hits over 10,000 and stays there, you probably want get it shut off in time.

If you look on that motor, it has a trailering rest that flips down with the motor tilted up and then you can tilt it down until it sits on that rest. I have a 225 Evinrude and a 225 Johnson and I don't and won't use the transom saver on them. Johnson has that rest so it holds the motor at approx. the balance point and is their recommended way of hauling it. when I said on a hose, you can unscrew that large nut that's around the pee hole, take it out and screw a garden hose in their for cooling water and run the motor in your driveway. Just be sure you always turn the water on before you start the motor. A couple seconds of dry running can fry a water pump. Doing that, or with it in the lake in neutral, 2,000 rpm is the max you want to turn it, which is a very high idle. Just understand, that whole thing is plastic so when you put tighten it, be very gentle, snug it good enough that it won't come loose, but don't force it down hard or you can/will break it and it's about $50 to replace. Trust me, I've learned that one the hard way. The signal wire on the back of the tach should be a purple wire if someone wired it properly. You will have three wires, one black for battery negative (ground) one that connects next to the light for the light bulb in the tach (this might be a blue wire if Javelin used that color back then) and the signal which should be purple. The signal and and ground may connect to the studs holding the mounting bracket. Measure across the signal and battery negative wire. You might want to do a continuity check between the negative wire and the negative post on the battery to make sure it's zero ohms and making good connection. A very common problem with tachs are they are nothing but like a small stepper motor. Once the voltage reaches a certain level, the needle starts moving up. What happens is the corrosion will bind that shaft or armature and keep it from being able to move with the very small amount of force it generates. Also understand, it's really working on the pulse count coming from the rectifier but the voltage also increase as the pulse count increases.

Where are you getting them from. One problem many don't realize, small dealers may have the batteries for months or even longer and by the time they sell them. they are already near the junk pile. There's a marina/store on a lake I fish sometimes that had the same couple of batteries sitting and a rack for almost a year, I know for sure, and no telling how long before or after. The reason I know at least one was there that long, I raked my finger across the dust on it, 10 months later, that same battery with my finger swipe was still there, with more dust on the rest, and some dust where I swiped it. Deka is a good battery, and they normally place a date sticker on it with the month and year they were put at that location. The month may be a letter of the alphabet A-L and last two digits of the year( like F/15). That's not the manufacture date, just the date the warehouse placed it at that location, so you might want to check for that sticker, and see what it is.

Still beating that same dead horse, but GET A TACH!!! That's the ONLY way to properly prop a motor. To find the ideal prop, you need a tach and GPS. You can't use just GPS because a smaller than ideal pitch prop may actually show more speed, but may be over reving the motor. However, since you are not interested in getting the ideal prop, the one that gives best hole shot, top speed at near the max rpm without over reving the motor, (which ain't gonna happen with an aluminum prop any way) you do need to know what rpm it's turning. Actually, that is the recommend rpm range for that motor, if you have a well calibrated ear.

From what you describe, it sounds like you are trailering the boat and leaving the motor down while driving down the road. If so, that's a very bad idea. When launching and loading the boat, you should have it trimmed out some and not straight down. The only time you want that motor straight down is when in the water, and you know it's deep enough not to hit bottom. As for how much trim while running. As you have found out, trimmed out too much and it will porous, not trimmed out enough and the steering wants to make a hard right. You are also going to get that hard right pull on the steering when running slow and the hull deep in the water, no matter where the trim is at. This is the natural affect of the heavy drag on the hull and the torque of the motor pushing against that drag. Get you speed up so the spray is well behind the drivers seat or off the back of the boat, and with the proper trim, you should have almost none of that wanting to go right, steering should be neutral. The motor can't create enough force to keep a good trim system from trimming the motor out. Now, if you already have it trimmed all the way out to max trim, where it's starts pushing on the lift cylinder, it will not raise the motor. The lift cylinder is not strong enough to raise the motor beyond the trim cylinders when under power. As for the tach, it works off a signal sent by the rectifier in voltage regulator. First thing you need to do is make sure the voltage regulator is working. To do that, place a voltmeter across the cranking batter - and +. With the motor running approx 2,000 rpm (the max you want to turn on a hose or out of gear with no load on prop)and see if the voltage on the cranking battery increase for the `12+ VDC to over 13.5 VDC. If it stays at the 12+ volts the battery had before you started it, the motors charging system is not working. If it's not working, most likely the tach is not going to work either. Since the tach signal is off the rectifier, it's possible for the regulator to go bad and tach still work, but normally, when it's not charging, the tach doesn't work. If the motor is charging, the next step is to check the tach signal and since I don't work on Mercs, I can't tell you what that is. On a JohnnyRude, it's between 6 and 12 volts, depending on the RPM, and some meters will only read it in the AC mode, some will read it in the DC mode, because coming off the rectifier, its actually an AC signal.

Not sure why he says it's way too small, that's a lot of prop for a 115. However, if you don't have a tach, anything would be a guess. Even the prop that's on it. Look on ebay or Amazon, They make cheap little tachs you can buy for a few bucks that just wraps a wire around a spark plug wire, If you don't have a tach, Get one of those and see what the motor is turning at WOT and your normal load. Then you can take most of the guess work out of it.

That only makes the thief have to steal a wheel from someone else. On a tandem axle trailer it only takes a couple minutes to tie that side of the axle up and drive off on three wheels. People do that all the time when they have a flat or bearing go out. Take that wheel off, tie the axle up and drive away. If a thief wants it, he is pretty much going to get it. Yea, they are going to look for the easiest target, but they usually get what they want. Several years ago, a friend of mine owned a small Mercury dealership. He special ordered an STV with a Merc 300HP Race motor for a customer. It came in late and he had a boat in the shop working on it so he just parked it backed in right in front of the shop door with a forklift blocking it in, inside a fenced area. Figured that was more than good enough just for the night. Next morning, he comes in and the motor is gone off the boat. They cut the chain link fence, took the motor apart and carried it out in sections. There were a couple of bolts and stuff on the ground they dropped is how they knew they took it apart. Like I said, if they want it, they usually get it.

It's not just the Mustang name, it's their technology you are paying for. I haven't shopped for one in a while but at the time, Mustang was the only company I found selling one with the hydrostatic discharge device. If you are not familiar with the different discharge devices in inflatable vest, you might want to do a little research. Most all other brands use some type of discharge devise that involves the water dissolving some type of device that triggers the auto inflate. This means if it gets wet, it goes off. Leave it enclosed in a storage box and the high humidity can cause it go off. The Mustang arming kits are going to be more expensive for the Mustang as well, but if you are fishing and get caught in the heavy rain, you don't have to worry about your auto inflate PFD inflating. Years ago I bought two, top of the line SOSpends, and after a couple auto inflates in afternoon thunderstorms, I found out how the hydrostatic discharge device worked and that Mustang used them and called it their HIT. I've had two Mustangs for several years now and have never had one go off when getting totally soaked in a number of thundershowers. No I don't work for Mustang, or have anything to do with their products, other that being a very satisfied user of them. After all, you can buy PFDs from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. I wear the auto inflate because it's too dang hot in the summer time here to where a full vest and when you get to be an old fart, things can happen that might put you in the water a lot quicker than when young. That can be from a heart attack, stroke, slip/trip and fall, or just clumsy, and I just prefer Mustangs auto inflation device.

I would recommend getting a Mustang HIT. It's an Auto inflate. A manual is cheapest, but you have to be able to pull the cord, there are times that may not be possible. It's hydrostatic inflator, meaning just getting it wet won't cause it to discharge, it has to be submerged.. They don't do much good if you have to take it off in the rain, or put a raincoat on over it, which could cause it not to inflate or delay inflation. So, as asked before, how cheap do you do value your life. People will spend $250 on a rod or a reel in a heartbeat, but want the blue light special for a PFD.

No, I'm not agitated, sorry if it cams across that way. It's just to go beyond the basic procedures I explained to see if flooding or not getting enough fuel on the initial startup, you start getting into technical side, of the troubl shooting, and let's face it, you are not exactly that sharp on the technical aspect. Plus I don't no that motor well enough to step you through trouble shooting it. As I mentioned, I have an 82, 25 Merc and the few times I've had to work on it has been several years ago. I just don't work mess with the Mercs much.

Well, I've give you about all the info I know that you should be able to try. There's a number of things I would check but, it's starts getting more technical and I probably know a little more about them than you, and I ain't driving the 160 miles to Valdosta. Maybe somebody else has a magic bullet they can shoot your way.

Weed guards have been around almost as long as motors. I've tried a couple over the years, when I finally got my first TM. It kept the prop clear, because all the crap would build up and hang on it. You spend more time pulling the motor up and clearing it than you did without it. At least the motor would chop up some of it. Actually tried another years ago, and while a totally different design, it ended up no better than the first. About the best weed guard I've found is the four blade Ninja prop but the stuff still gets hung around the shaft. As for fishing line getting wrapped around the prop, as long as these idiots keep throwing it in the water, it's going to happen. If that prop touches it, it's probably doing to suck it in and for the one or two times a weed guard might keep that from happening but from my experience with them the battle with keeping the weed guard clear of weeds is not worth it. Now, my last experience with a TM weed guard was probably 25 years ago, maybe someone has one that works now, buy I doubt I will ever waste the money on trying another.

Crowley has been around a long time, but never had any dealings with them. Personally, I would shop around for a good used unit from and individual, that's where you are going to get the best price. I've seen what some guys call a rebuilt/reman'd unit and with those, all you are paying for is that little bit of guarantee they give with them. Years ago, I knew a guy in VA that ran a small salvage business, repairing, buying and trading in used motors. Motors that would cost too much to repair, he stripped down and sold as reconditioned parts, meaning he cleaned and inspected them. His reconditioned lower units were normally just pressure tested, flushed and painted. If they failed the pressure test, he either resealed them or stripped them down and sold for parts. Granted, they were checked out, but most of the time, you were paying a very high price for a 1/2 hour of his time and a little paint.

If your remote control has a little black lever for cold start, it should be raised all the way up. If it has a tiller handle, it should be turned all the way to the start position. These should be some source for setting a fast idle for cold starts, As for having the throttle open, the neutral throttle stop in the engine should not let you open throttle beyond it, but yes, you should have some way to set a fast idle and should be using it. If it has a fast idle, and it does not seem to make a difference, then it may need adjusting.

Either the positive wire is getting against a negative wire or the pump motor is bad. Checking for a short in a basic circuit like that is about as basic as it gets. If you are not familiar with how to do that, you might want to take it to a shop or find a friend. All you have todo is disconnect the red wire near the pump, turn the pump on, if it still blows the fuse, the wires are shorted somewhere, just run new wires. If the fuse does not blow when you turn it on, the pump is bad. I guess the first question should be, what size fuses are you using? Depending on the size pump, it should be between a 5 to 7 amp.

As mentioned, it's pretty easy to get a homemade trailer title in many states and they don't leave it as a boat trailer. The big tandem axle trailers used for big bass boats convert to a very nice flatbed trailer very easily. Cut out those V-shaped cross braces and install straight ones, throw those fancy fenders away, put a floor on it, paint it plain Jane black you have a home made trailer that will haul an automobile, or yard maintenance equipment for just a couple hundred dollars. Even the smaller trailers have gotten to be fair game for those that don't need something big enough to haul a vehicle on. A thief has no problems with the large sums of money he's costing someone else as long has he's getting a few bucks.