TOXIC

While I agree the Endurance tire is a good option, there are some other things to consider when purchasing. I made this post a while back and copied it here for reference: I've recounted this story many times when I was looking for tires 2 sets ago on my dual axle Ranger trailer. Here in Virginia, we have to get our trailer inspected every year. The shop I take my trailer to is an independant (no brand loyalty) for inspection. He specializes in very high dollar equestrian horse trailers that carry a lot more weight and travel a lot more miles than we as bass fishermen do. Some of these equestrian setups run over 100k and get pulled 10's of thousands of miles a year. That being said, here's what he told me. When choosing a trailer tire you need to buy a tire that fits your trailering style. The golden rule of trailer tires is to buy a tire that is going to be replaced in 4 to 5 years, every tire manufacturer recommends replacement by age and not tread life on a trailer tire. Depending on how many miles you put on your trailer in that timeframe will dictate the amount you spend on the tires. If you buy a high mileage more expensive tire that you are going to pull a limited number of miles per year for 4-5 years (replacement time frame), you have wasted your money. Second consideration is weight. You don't need high capacity tires on a dual axle where the weight is spread out over 4 tires. Single axle are more of a concern. While the Endurance is a very good trailer tire and has excellent weight and tread life as does Kuhmo and Maxxis, my trailer guy recommended Power King Towmax, he felt the Endurance were overkill for my trailering habits. He does not carry the Power Kings but had installed a lot of them and none had come back for replacement. I took his advice and ordered a set to be drop shipped to his shop. He balanced and installed them. They were flawless for the 4 years I ran them and I make some long pulls. I put a second set on 1 year ago and they have performed well.

No different than any other worm or craw or creature. I have found some colors to be universal and some that are more specific to a body of water.

Usually a sensitive subject. Plenty of guides giving their perspective. Here’s a few of my thoughts having guided for over 15 years, freshwater only and on multiple bodies of water. I never expected a tip. I worked just as hard no matter who was onboard. As for the camp that claims it is my responsibility to price guide trips so that my profit is built in without a tip, that’s not how it works. In order for that business model to work, I would have to know how many trips I would book in a year, add in all my costs for boat/truck maintenance, fuel, insurance, baits, and divide that by the number of trips. Then add in an appropriate profit margin that makes me a living wage. With fuel costs alone wildly fluctuating, its difficult to put a price on it. Most guides work off of volume not trip costs. Most years if I charged what I needed to make a profit, most couldn’t afford me. That’s what makes guiding as a business so difficult. Most have other jobs or are touring pros. Funny thing though, some of my biggest tips came from days when we didn’t boat a fish.

If your guides aren’t nicked and you think it’s because you have line dig, the walk off the line from the spool and respool it with firm pressure on the line.

Interesting question. It would be worth a call to Minnkota to get your answer. I know lots of guys with lithiums and none of them have ever drained them while fishing but I’m sure it’s possible. They also only run Ultrex and Ghost trolling motors. The only negative I ever heard was that a lithium runs at full output until drained and that some were burning up trolling motors because they weren’t designed to run at maximum output for long distances. There was also an issue with using a lithium as a cranking battery but that has been rectified. Also the PowerPole Charge battery charger didn’t like the ecm controller in some lithiums.

Straight braid or with a leader? What’s your setup and how are you casting? Did both rods get the braid from the same spool? Putting everything you’ve got into the cast or loading the rod and letting it do the work. How old is the braid? I would walk off a good portion of the line and reel it back on the spool. As has been said, check your guides as well.

Not to be argumentative but if your tires went bald in one trip you have a trailer problem, most likely an axle. Driving style is hard for me to grasp for a trailer unless you are fishtailing it around corners and hitting curbs, etc. There is an issue with dual axles scrubbing the front tires on turns. Pulling at above the speed rating may cause a tire to blow as will over or under inflation. All of my trailer tires are balanced. But to give you a little comparison, I hauled my little 2 man pvc Bass Hunter to both Wisconsin and Florida from my house in Virginia on a tiny wheeled trailer from Tractor Supply and had no problems and still had plenty of tread left. Would I do it again…..no! I was pretty naive. Bottom line, you should get your trailer checked.

So by adding a split shot above the bait, is it not pulling the bait down? It seems to me that adding the splishot would totally kill the action whereas a weighted hook would not. Personally any weight in my opinion is going to reduce the action of a wacky rig but the weighted hook much less so.

Rumor has it that Yamamoto will be releasing a few new baits. ?

Gamakatsu used to make a weighted wacky hook with a flat weight that added even more action. They were red. Found them:

This is about tea stay on topic?. Things I learned about sweet tea when I lived in Florida. 1. You can’t buy pre bottled sweet tea. It has to be homemade. 2. If it doesn’t leave a sugar ring around your lips, it’s not sweet enough. 3. Sweet tea recipes are family secrets. 4. There’s no way you can add enough sugar to regular tea to make it sweet tea. ??

Ditch the email and call them.

I can’t answer for the same reason that if you go to a well seasoned mechanics toolbox you’re going to find more than a ratchet, screwdriver and hammer. ?. I will say I’m going to have more speciality baits in my confidence areas just like a mechanic will have specialized brake tools if he does a lot of brake jobs. Not knocking your question but if I answered honestly, I would have to list every bait I own.?

Yes there is but I’m not one to cast a negative light on any manufacturer for the exact reason you gave, there’s a lot of them in service and I have nothing to back up failure rates. If you know what tire is factory mounted on the new rangers you’ll know. It’s no different than when the Goodyear Marathons moved production to China and the failure rate seemed to skyrocket.

Sammy. All day, every day. Red feathered rear treble. White/bone color.

Agreed but I moderate a Ranger Boats Facebook page and the number of posts made about belt separation is definitely alarming. That would tend to make me believe it’s an increasing problem. ?

There’s an argument to be made that the smaller wacky hook gives it a slower fall and hooking midsection gives it more action but I’ve never had the fish be picky enough to prefer the wacky rig over the Texas rig. I also fish around a lotmof grass/wood/rocks so Texas rigging keeps me from getting hung up as much.

Personally I don’t wacky rig but do you use an O ring, shrink tubing or any of the other rigging options to help with durability?

I’ll tell you what it won’t help with and what seems to be an alarming trend in trailer tires…..separated belts. My same buddy had a strange vibration on his trailer so he took the tires/rims into a tire shop to have the balancing beads taken out that Ranger uses from the factory and have them traditionally balanced. When they unmounted his tires from the rim, they found 2 of them had separated belts. This was on brand new tires. They were warranty replaced but they could have blown at any time going down the highway.

Back in the mid 80’s when I was traveling 100% of the time I stayed in some pretty bad places. Some had no phone, some you had to stuff a towel under the door to keep the snow out, and to top it off, in some cases I was required to stay up to 6 months. I lived in a Comfort Inn for a year and went home on the weekends. Here’s a challenge, I was in the original group who joined the Super 8 VIP club and my membership number was below the first 2,000 nationwide. ? On the flip side, I also stayed in a few Ritz Carlton’s. One for almost a year. I’ll bet there’s very few chains I haven’t at least done a few nights in.

My summertime routine when the anticipated temperature is going to be between 75 and 90. If lower than 75 I drink less water and if above 90 I drink more. I rise and shine at least 45 minutes before I have to leave. I go start the coffee and pack my lunch. During this process, my body knows I need to “evacuate” before I leave and I rarely have a problem. Note, I have never had to go to shore in all of my years of guiding and fishing. My average drive to the bodies of water I fish is an hour. I pour myself a travel 4 cup insulated coffee and a 32oz yeti with water. By the time I get to the lake/river I have drank both of them. I go to the porta John or the woods to pee before getting on the boat. I take 4 or 5 bottles of water with me. I used to take half waters and half propel, gatoraide or some other sports drink but I was really starting to swell up on my hands and ankles after I got home so I went 100% water. It’s also rare that I have to pee while on the boat but I do immediately after we get back to the dock. I then drink another water on the way home. That’s my routine.

It shows his trailer tires. Pressure and temperature. This is in addition to his truck tires. Those sensors only show pressure. Yes. The trailering package on his Silverado Trail Boss edition came with 4 additional sensors that had to be installed in the trailer tires. They Bluetooth to his truck. This was a factory option not aftermarket. This is what the screen in his truck looks like.

My fishing partners 2019 Silverado came with the max trailering package which included 4 trailer tire sensors. He has a page on his in truck in cab screen that shows the tire pressure and tire temperature of each trailer tire. I’m sure you could buy an aftermarket setup and gage that would do the same thing and I’ve been tempted to look into it.

When we first moved to Virginia some 30 years ago, my wife decided to get back into the hospitality industry. She had been out of it for a year when we lived in New England but before that she was the Director of Sales for a very large and expensive property in Kansas City. She took a position close to DC in a big nationwide high dollar property. I met the General Manager and we hit it off to the point that when my wife was asked to wine and dine big corporate clients, he wanted me to go with her. The hotel would send a limo to pick us up, we would take the client(s) out to dinner and then back to the hotel for drinks in the cigar bar. Believe it or not, I had to start bowing out because I couldn’t take continuous partying alongside my day job. ??

Also clarify if it’s interference or image clarity. If your units are shutting down when you crank the big motor, you have an undersized or weak cranking battery. My units never shut down even after a long day. I run a group 31 AGM for starting and electronics. If it’s interference, your wiring may be too close to the TM wiring, if it’s clarity, then it’s a setup or transducer problem.