BigAngus752

I was wondering if one charger would put the other into 'float'. That seemed logical. If dual pro says that it's okay then I will definitely feel better taping up the extra leads and leaving them to hang. Thanks much. You're right. If I don't get a response via email from Dual Pro right away then I will call and ask. I want to get it in and get both batteries charging so I can get on the water this week! Thanks.

I bought my Ranger aluminum last summer (just slightly used/one year old) from a dealer. It is set up for a 24V TM but I only have a 12V. It has a three bank Dual Pro Professional Series on-board charger. I used it all summer and fall without much thought and when winter came I pulled my cranking battery and my single TM battery. When I pulled the TM batter I discovered that the dealer (or someone) had hooked up TWO charging leads to the ONE deep cycle battery (there is a spare set of leads because I only have one TM battery). I thought it was odd but assumed it was okay since it came from a Ranger dealer. Spring has arrived and I found that my TM battery is toast at exactly two years old. I wondered if having two chargers hooked up to it was bad so I posted this question on another forum and a moderator told me it didn't matter. But then I went to the Interstate dealer and bought a new battery and he told me that it is very bad idea to have two 12V chargers hooked to one battery. I didn't know who to believe so I did some Googling and found numerous sites that claim that having two 12V chargers hooked up to the same battery is guaranteed to damage the chargers. So now I've emailed Dual Pro to ask them if it will damage my third bank charger if I have it plugged in and just tape the leads and leave them hanging with no battery attached. Does anyone else have a 3 bank with only one TM battery? Do you have two sets of leads on one battery? Or do you have them hanging unattached? Thanks in advance.

We left Illinois for a wonderful vacation in Jamaica and it was 55 when we left. When we got home we got 4 inches of snow. My big struggle is that I keep seeing these random days where the temp is going to be 60-70 degrees and I keep thinking I'll call in sick and go to the lake, but then I see that every single warm day has sustained winds of 30mph. Just 3 or 4 more short years and we will be moving several states to the south....

You couldn't have told me this in December?

Texas-rigged creature bait Lipless crank Zara Spook (If I'm being honest these three are going to catch the most fish for me year round, but I would desperately want a 4th pick because I love tandem spinners. They just aren't as adaptive as the lipless crank).

Where I fish, this is why I choose a leader with certain set ups. Generally a 30lb Hi Vis braid (so I can see subtle line movement at the water's surface) to a 16lb FC leader (usually 24 to 36 inches). This has REPEATEDLY saved me from losing any braid on a snag when I would have lost 30 feet of braid had I not used a leader. The FC retains the excellent "feel" of the braid where mono would not. And the abrasion resistance is a definite plus.

+1 Spinners are my favorite thing to fish! But I can't afford a lot of set-ups. If I'm fishing a really big spinner in cover I use my heavy (it's a M/H fast that fishes more like a heavy) rod that has braid on it and I just use a flouro leader. For the majority of my spinner fishing, though, I use a m/f rod with Yo Zuri hybrid. Here's why I prefer the medium rod: I fish very stained water. When I'm fishing clear water I can see the fish hit the spinner and I wait until he turns his head and then set the hook. My home lake, however, I can't ever see the fish clearly so the medium rod gives me that pause I need so I don't yank it away from the fish.

The biggest thing I've learned so far is the importance of adaptability. My OWN adaptability. It turns out that ALL of the theories are correct, all of the techniques work, all of the lures are effective, but not all work on the water that I'm fishing on any given day. My hardest learning curve right now is not "eliminating water" (I've gotten pretty good at that). Now I have to concentrate on "eliminating techniques and lures" to get to that one thing that works and get there in a days worth of effort.

Summary of a typical outing where I decide to try throwing crankbaits: 1. Choose a depth. 2. Choose a Dredger or SK for appropriate depth and fish it awhile. 3. Decide I chose the wrong depth so choose appropriate crank for new depth and fish it awhile. 4. Get fed up, put red, lipless crankbait of any reputable brand on and start catching bass.

I tow our Ranger RT188 with a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the V6. The boat sits level when there's no cargo in the Grand Cherokee and it pulls beautifully. When we take week-long trips and the Jeep is full of luggage, coolers, etc. then the boat tends to be a little low at the nose but still pulls just fine at 75mph or up and down mountains. But I would never, ever try to pull that boat with the trailer high at the nose. The Grand Cherokee just doesn't have the mass of a big truck and that boat would wave my rear end all over. If you stay a little low at the nose or level you won't notice a thing with your full-size truck.

Tried the bigger lake. Found that the nuke was generating so there was a little bit of warmer water, but that entire section of the lake was closed for some waterfowl something or other. Had a lot of difficulty finding shoreline to fish from. Technically I got skunked but I'm not counting it because I had so little time actually putting something in the water. I still enjoyed being outside and I did a lot of walking, driving, and looking so now I know my way around that lake much better. Looking forward to going back with the boat in a month or so when the waterfowl is done doing whatever they are doing and I can get in the warm area.

And you could pull a Nitro Z20 with that Impala!

In reference to the bigger lake, I just found a site that confirmed the plant has not been running. Water temp has gone from 37 to 43 in the past four days. Water level has gone up 2 feet in the past four days. Water temp would be about the same in the smaller lake. And water level will be up there also. Sounds like a draw.

I thought the same thing. Unfortunately I’ve no way determine that as I can find no one who has been out on either yet. It could be the cooling lake just because it’s a cooling lake. However sometimes the plant output is very low so it could be the smaller lake because it’s much smaller and has received a lot of rain. Hard to tell.

Our ice is finally gone thanks to some above-freezing temps and a deluge of over four inches of rain over the past week. I have time to fish tomorrow but the boat is winterized and staying that way for a bit longer so I'm a shore fisherman for now. Remember, with all the rain both lakes are higher than they have been in a long time. Here are my choices: Lake 1: 5000 acre cooling lake; not many places to shore fish but enough it might be worth a try; average depth is 15ft; 130 miles of shoreline; not a tremendous amount of cover; best known for it's LM and crappie; had 75 tournaments on it in 2017 and the top five LM were all over 7 pounds with the biggest being 9.3 pounds. Lake 2: 900 acre lake; HP limited and well known for shore fishing; average depth of 20ft; lots of shoreline and lots of cover; best known for saugeye and musky but well-respected for LM also. 20 tournaments last year and the top five LM went from 6.2 to 8. I am leaning toward the smaller lake because of more places to shore fish and the fact that since it's a smaller lake I can reach a greater percentage of the overall water from shore. Also, the smaller lake has more timber, etc. around it and I think the rain has been washing more prey into the smaller lake since the larger lake has more open fields and man-made development around it. Both are about the same distance from home. I've not fished either before so I'm trying something new. Which is your pick?

It's like you know me personally! LOL! Very true. Once it's a thought in my head it remains for eternity.

You should note that I am the OP. You should also note that I started this thread asking about preferred truck colors and was soon lambasted as a wasteful elitist because I am going to buy a 2yr old truck and even eventually called a "moron" by a highly-respected member of this forum because I don't care for a particular truck color because (shame on me) I saved $4000 buying a boat in that same disliked color. Your "hopefully" faded a page or two ago.

That is true. I had not considered that. Now that the problem has been identified we can all go home. My mistake for asking.

We don't tow the Wrangler. We drove it from Illinois to Colorado though. It's a daily driver. If we ever do tow it we will do so on a trailer. Wranglers must be towed flat with all four on the road or on a trailer. No dolly. I doubt this will happen with this rig. There is a distinct possibility that we will build a YJ or TJ in the future that is a dedicated off road rig.

That's sharp. That's downright tropical! That's sharp. Is that Race Red?

Wow, that's deep research! Nice!

Hey thanks! That's good to know.

I like those ideas but if it comes down to charcoal or silver I have to go silver. That would be awesome. If I could, both the truck and the boat would be full-on, waving-in-the-wind American Flag.

I asked a couple of non-fisherman and they thought I was kidding. I am not. This is bugging me. I know you guys will totally understand. The wife and I are about to buy a low mileage 15-17 F150. It will be a very long term truck or perhaps even the last we ever buy. I thought I was settled in on the color silver (it would immediately get black wheels). We have a silver Wrangler which we off-road and I've found silver is the perfect color to hide dirt and scratches (the new truck won't have dirt or scratches as I take care of my stuff but still nice to have a color that hides). Plus the truck matching the Jeep is appealing. I thought I had it figured out and then I saw a dark blue F150 with black wheels and I am quite enamored with the look of it. Here's the rub. Our boat is a 2yr old Ranger RT188 in dark red. This will be our boat for a long, long time along with the truck. When I picture it in my head a blue truck with black wheels pulling a dark red boat with polished trailer wheels just seems off. What do you guys think? What if I got some black trailer wheels or had my trailer wheels powdercoated black? Does that make it better or worse? Important FYI here: I do not like red trucks. I would like a dark red truck when I was pulling the boat but I would hate it the other 300 days of the year when the boat wasn't attached. Please chime in with your thoughts and opinions! Unless you think I'm crazy in which case you can just keep it to yourself...

Favorite: The Magnificent Seven. I have watched the movie it's based on, Seven Samurai from 1954, but I only watched it once because it's 3 1/2 hours long and subtitled. Very hard to watch. Our western version is in my top 5 movies of all time. 2nd: Big Jake. The ultimate John Wayne movie. So many quotes! And I have taught my dog to come to me when I say "dog!" Just like the Duke! 3rd: Unforgiven Almost heresy that a modern movie should make the list but what an amazing movie. This movie has absolutely no redeeming characters. None! We end up rooting for a group of prostitutes and a murdering gunslinger! Great movie. Honorable mention: The Outlaw Josey Wales Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Shane Rio Bravo 3:10 to Yuma (both versions)