bassboy1

I take it none of yall have seen the video of the 11 foot aluminum, with the 125 horse, V-4 Johnson? The guy at the front sat on the very nose, and leaned forward, until getting up on plane, then the acceleration was awesome.

Well, I will post a picture or two of a riveted on strake this afternoon. At least one of my boats is pressed formed, and the other two are riveted on. I haven't seen welded on ones though.

I agree welding is the way to go, but riveting, if done right, will hold, or else they wouldn't rivet strakes on. On every jon I have seen, with strake problems, it is because it wore through, not broke the rivets. Catt, I would love to see the pricing at your big box stores. At mine, an 8 foot stick of 1 1/2 inch angle is 20 bucks. New material at the scrapyard would be 10 - 12 for a 10 foot stick. "used" which can be new culls, cutoffs, or not needed material is 2 bucks a pound. LBH, sounds like Matt can hook you up welder wise. Seems he knows what he is doing. Good luck

Update those wheels to 12". Add Bearing Buddies while you are at it, and check the bearings. That does look to be a light duty suspension, so personally, I don't think your problem is there. Strap the motor down tight, as I said, that is how it is meant be carried, and so long as it isn't popping up, it won't hurt. Check though, and make sure the bunks extend at least an inch or so past the transom. Otherwise, it is overstressing it. If the bunks don't extend far enough back you can fix it by moving the winch forward, or changing something - be creative. If everything is strapped down tight, you won't have much of a problem, the rest is in your head (been there, done that) I hear ya on the gear thing. It is crazy how much time it takes me at the top of the launch to load my gear in my 12er, and strap on the depthfinder and such. Someday, when we get some free time, we will add locking storage, so that the only thing that will have to move, will be the rods, and the depthfinder (mount gonna be permanent, but I don't relish the idea of leaving the unit in the boat, secured by a set of thumbscrew)

I just wish I had listened to threads like this, before I bought mine. Now, I have something that I haven't put more than about 8 hours of use on, that I can't sell for jack diddley squat. I will probably get more by waiting until spring, but I need the money now. >

Biggest thing is, strap it down well. If it is bouncing on the bunks, you have a problem. Get the boat down tight. Now, if you can hang the outboard in the running position, by all means do so. Just run a nice strap around the lower unit, and secure it to the trailer. Now, they all move as one, and it isn't nearly as troublesome as you would think. Your transom should take the stress like that. The majority of the force comes from moving, then slamming down. ie, if the motor bounces up, then falls back down, there will be a lot of impact force. But, if it isn't allowed to kick up, then there is none of that impact force, and your transom should be fine. If you have eights, go ahead and change them to 12s. Smaller wheels spin faster, so they just eat up bearings. Go ahead and add bearing buddies too. If the suspension is too tight, nine times out of ten, you can take a leaf or two out. That would solve your problem. As far as taking the motor to the car, it may not be practical, as assuming that is a johnnyrude, it will be between 80 and 90 pounds. Plus, outboards are not exactly the most practical shape to pick up, so that will get real old real fast. Plus, the reason for trailers, is so that everything can be hauled, and launched, without having to carry anything. Makes for the most efficient launching/hauling.

You can get angle aluminum. Will be a lot cheaper at your local scrapyard (assuming you have one). You can get both new, and used metal at your scrapyard, and often, there is brand new stuff that people scrap, because they don't need it, so you can get it cheap. Just have to spend a while poking through, to see what you can find (probably the funnest part - we do it about every second Saturday - came home with 225 dollars worth of brand new steel, out of the used pile, at 20 cents a pound last week) As for welding aluminum. Ideally, you will want to find someone with a good TIG setup. Those will weld the aluminum a lot neater than the alternatives. But, they are super expensive to own and operate. But, someone with a correctly setup MIG welder can do it too. You need a different wire, different tips and all, and a different composition in the shielding gas, but it can be done (we do from time to time) It won't make it quite as neat, but should be fairly okay structurally. You could go the route of riveting. You can get air powered rivet guns, and all the dies off of ebay, for reasonable prices. The gun itself is like any air hammer, or air chisel. But, it is variable speed. You can do the research on it - a lot to know about that.

Nothing wrong with driving on the trailer, so long as you stay at idle speed. When you are pushing it on with 1/2 throttle, it just makes me (and many others) mad. But, idle speed power loading ain't a problem. Also, crank your winch down tight. At the bottom of the ramp, you can't always get it tight, as the back of the boat is floating. Once at the top, go ahead and crank her down tight. You won't break anything by cranking hard, you will actually break more by leaving it loose. Once at home, release some of the pressure, but don't forget to crank her down tight before leaving again.

Ants are the worst. Skeeters can be dealt with to a point, but I still hate the suckers. (No pun intended ) Roaches are bad too. Don't care for snakes, but they are actually useful, and I don't hate them, just don't want to be face to face with them. I hate chiggers. Those little bugs get under my skin.

Will it make the boat go? yes. Will you be happy with the speed in which the boat goes? probably not. One of my boats is a 12 foot vee, with a 4 horse Evinrude, and it will not plane, and is quite a dog, especially with 2 people. But, it is MINE that I paid, for, and seeing as I am 14, that means quite a bit. Also, someone said that the B&S motor is reliable, and I haven't heard anyone say they aren't. But, being air cooled, you have in effect, placed a lawnmower engine, on a lower unit. On land, lawn mowers are pretty loud. Think about how much better water carries sound, than land. Also, I think it is a single cylinder motor. That thing is going to vibrate all to heck and back.

Time for another strike like on the powerdrive. Cart tried to talk me out of it when I first bought it, but I didn't listen. The main reason was, and the only reason I looked at it was, because I needed the small mount, and would later need the 18 foot cord, on a boat we were restoring. Well, my needs have changed, and since I now have other options open, it makes me realize it could be better. When I first started, I didn't have any other options, so I could suck it up and live with it. It steers way to slow. The foot pedal is designed ALL WRONG. Not made to be practical on a foot, and the speed control is impossible to work, if the pedal isn't bolted down. The momentary on is nice though. The deploy method leaves a lot to be desired as well. Cart mentioned that it might be nice in elec only. When I started fishing those lakes, was when I decided I hated it. A bow mount, on a jon, without an outboard skeg as a rudder, going long distances is going to drift side to side. The stern will just start turning a little bit, using the TM as a turning point. You have to remain in constant control, and start to fix it before it gets out of control. You can't do that in a powerdrive. It is to unresponsive, and jerky. The only way I can see it used, is for slow trolling, with a big boat, that is going to "drift" for no real reason. Other than that, it isn't really a bass fishing trolling motor. But, on a plus side, everything functions properly, and it is 5 1/2 years old. Great quality in terms of workmanship, but just a bad design. I am trying to get rid of it, in favor of an Edge, or All Terrain, on my smaller boat, and a Maxxum on my larger one. In terms of how long does the average TM last, I just picked up a 1988 Evinrude 43 pound 12/24v hand control to keep as a spare. It shows plenty of signs of use, but still works. And, I got it for $13.75.

NEVER EVER leave a battery down. Perfect way to ruin it. We have a couple spare batteries, along with our boat batteries, in our shop. I run the meter over each of the batteries about once every 2 weeks, and if they drop to below 12.66 volts, I throw them on the charger for a couple hours. As far as the prop, there is no way to determine what pitch you need, without a tach. I doubt you wanna plunk down the dollars to put a tach on that johnny. Great motor by the way.

tin2win musta never been in a 14 foot vee, with a 25. I would say about 20 - 25 at the max for a 14 foot vee. I know plenty of folks who have 14 foot vees, rated for 25, that have 25s on them. No problem there whatsoever. If it is a true jon, it is probably rated for about 15, unless it has a 32 inch bottom, in which case it may be 10. Other than a 1432, I would say 15 would be fine. If it is a mod vee, go back to the 20 - 25 rating. Been there, no problem.

Reminds me of the one where the guy supposedly hid it under his untilled garden.... ;D BTW, if that guy who stole about 2 cords of our firewood would ever bring it back....

Used to be true - wives tale now. But, it is probably better, even now, to put a board under it, as the concrete is gonna be much colder than the wood, and that supposedly is worse for charging it. Sounds like bull to me. BTW, my batteries are stored on a board, on top of the concrete. I may be a youngun, but I still am rather old school.

Round here, the common swimbaits are 75 and 80 dollars, not 15 and 20. But from the numbers I have seen on forums, my lake seems to hold the majority of the humminbird side imaging sonar owners too. Must be a rich lake. ;D

I haven't a clue what you should do with contacting city folk, but as a future engineer, I want to get a better mental picture of the dam. Not necessarily to help you, as I am not qualified to do that, but just out of curiosity. In your second picture, I see the top of the dam, holding back water. Where is the 5 foot cut? I see what looks to be a wall, with a cut in it, in front of the dam holding the water back. But, I am not exactly seeing how that held an extra 5 feet of water. Do you mind giving me a couple reference points as to what I am looking at? I am not seeming to piece together where each picture is, in relation to the rest. Thanks.

We don't have the 5 inch extension, but have seats like that and swivels. First, we cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood, where it has a few inches on each side of the swivel. We then attached the swivel to the plywood with bolts from the swivel, into the ply, and Tee nuts on the other side. Then, we bolted the seat to the swivel. Now, we got 15 foot ratchet straps, available at Walmart, or Northern tool, or Lowes etc, and strapped the wood to the bench seat. The nice thing about it, is the placement is never set in stone. Our first placement had the back guy offset to the right, and the front guy to the left. This didn't balance out well, as dad weighs significantly more than me, and when I was alone, it was off center too. Then, we moved them to the center. Well, that interfered with the OB tiller. Now, we have the back one on the very front of the bench, and it works perfectly. Couldn't be happier. As for the stiffness, you would break the bench before flexing the seat mount off. Since they are ratchet straps, and not cambuckle straps, you can get it super tight. The seats have stayed attached that way for a few fishing trips, and a couple hundred road miles without a problem.

If they don't have bearing buddies, put them on NOW. Take them fully apart. It is real easy. Take off wheel Pull off the cap (or BB, if it has them) Now, you should see a cotter pin, and castle nut. Put on rubber gloves, and remove these two items. Trash cotter pin, and clean castle nut in mineral spirits. Now, the hub should slide off, and the outer bearing might fall out the front. Pull the seal. A seal puller is handy for that, but a screwdriver works. Now, the inner bearing should come out. Spin the bearings in your hand. If they grind, or upon inspection, have any pitting, replace them. Many auto parts stores have them, unless they are one of those weird sizes from the 50s and 60s. If replacing them, replace the races too. They are the machined pieces inside the hub, that the bearing sits in. Punch them out with a BRASS punch. Steel WILL scratch the inside of the hub. Clean the hubs real well. Now, press in the new races. Clean the protective coating off the new bearings, and smother them with bearing grease. Set the back one in the race, and press on the new seal. Clean off spindle, and put back on. Put front bearing in, and then put on the castle nut, and a fresh cotter pin. Load the inside with grease, and then put on bearing buddies, and fill them. They WILL save bearings. I have two older trailers, both neglected, sitting out back. One had BBs, one didn't. The difference is amazing. When buying new bearings, and seals, make sure you get the right size. Many spindles are stepped, so the inner bearing is larger diameter than the outer one. Make sure you take this into account when buying new bearings, races and seals. If you want, you can carry a spare hub, pre grease, on your spare tire. Many folks have a spindle for their spare, so if they have a flat, they change out the whole wheel, with hub attached, or if they have bearing trouble, they replace the whole wheel, instead of having to leave the trailer, to go to an auto parts store, and pick up the supplies to press in new races and bearings on the side of the road. Changing a castle nut, and cotter pin is just as easy, as just changing the wheel.

Go aluminum. You will beat yourself silly if you don't. Also, buy used. Buying new is a great way to lose money.

Just do the things you would do to any boat in salt - flush motor, give it a good rinse, and especially rinse the trailer, even if galvanized, or aluminum.

Naw, yall all have it wrong. Check out Gluv-it. Though I have never used it, as the last 7 aluminums we have had don't leak, but it is well praised in the aluminum boats restoration world.

I am not an auto body tech, but our tools stay inside. That is the first step. Also, the more use they get the better. The grease from whatever you are working on works wonders. Also, a coat of WD-40 every now and then will keep rust at bay. If it is already rusted and pitted, you are SOL. You could grind, and paint as much as possible but once rust starts, it is a never ending process. If you grind all the way past ALL the pitting, it might work, but that is gonna weaken your dollies to the point of being unused.

Great quote! I think I may save that for future use.

That is actually the preferred position. Straight ahead wastes space, and I guaruntee that you will be the butt of all gossip if you do. ;D Clamp it down, and run through the stow and deploy methods, and steer it all the way around a couple times. Those powerdrives are a little different to mount, than a conventional scissors mount, and with some of the odd angles, and insets of the parts on them, I would definitely try it first.