KYRANGERMAN

With the Covid thing keeping everyone at home, and being retired with way too much free time on my hands I decided that my new Garmin ECHOMAP graph covers were, well to put it lightly, a little bland looking. Some VHT red paint, some pinstriping and I now have customized covers for my graphs.

I have a back up camera on my Touareg. I don't use it for backing the boat down the ramp. Thirty plus years of using the mirrors is a habit that's hard to break. I do use it to back up to the trailer to hook up. Then it comes in really handy.

Got my two Garmin's from BPS. They were both on sale. Ended up saving around $300.

Welcome to the forum.

What is this thing called a "weed" you're talking about.? All the lakes I fish here in KY have no weed beds.

They would work but I ended up with the 73sv up front since the 93 would interfere with my bow panel electronics. I also decided to upgrade at the helm. Found the ECHOMAP 63cv on a really good sale so I'm adding it.

Welcome to the forum. If you were oh say 150 miles closer I'd say let's go fishing.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum. Best way to learn is on the job . . . well I mean on the water.

We bought our grandson one of the 6 volt models for his 2nd birthday (they only go about 2.5MPH vs. the 12 volt models that go 5MPH). That was fine for last year but he's already wanting to go faster so we found a local guy who picks up used ones and restores them. He had a Power Wheels Hot Wheels that looked brand new and we were able to pick it up for $125.00. Not everybody has a local guy like that. I did see some off name brands on Amazon in the $250 - $290 range but I'm not sure how good they would be. Walmart has a Power Wheels (the best known brand) Jeep on their website right now for $279.

That's kind of what I thought. I have it where it's just barely above the U shaped piece when I stow the trolling motor so I'll need to move it below that. Thanks for the response.

I just added a PS22-TR Panoptix transducer to my ECHOMAP 73sv. When the trolling motor is in the water the top of the transducer is right at the water line (using it as forward vu, angled down slightly). I've searched the forum and looked on the Garmin web site and all I can find is that it should be as far from the motor housing as possible, not interfere with stowing the motor, etc. It doesn't address how installation should be done in relation to the depth of the transducer in the water. My question is, Do I have the transducer mounted correctly if the top of the transducer is right at the water line. Thanks for any responses.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome from another KY angler.

Welcome to the forum.

WRB has a good suggestion in checking with the local shops. Also, talk to your fishing buddies. One of them may have a prop that they will let you do a try before you buy test.

You may get better information from those running Mercury motors but, and I'm assuming that you are currently running a 3 blade prop, generally speaking a 4 blade prop should give you a slightly better hole shot as you have an extra blade in the water to push more water. Evinrude had the Raker 3 blade prop and I had it on my Vision 180 and Javelin 379 DC, both with 150HP motors but the recommended prop when I bought my Ranger was the Renegade 4 blade. It's been on my boat for 20 years now and to me, it's the best prop I've ever run.

I've got a 2000 Ranger R83, 18'9" with a 2000 Evinrude Ficht 150 (top HP rating for this hull is 175), with a Renegade 25p 4 blade prop and a Slidemaster 6" manual jackplate. I had it set up by the dealer when I purchased it new and I've never touched the setup in the 20 years I've owned it. It comes out of the hole and gets on plane quickly and top speed is in the mid to high 50's. I start with the motor trimmed all the way down which helps force the hull out of the water. Making sure that motor height, prop pitch etc. are optimized will give you better results.

I think you really have to look at the CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) for each of the things you're thinking about doing or people are suggesting. You said your main objective is to get on plane quicker. The most expensive option is to purchase a larger motor. The second most expensive would probably be adjustable trim tabs, followed by a new/different prop and finally the least expensive would be to add a hydrofoil. If a larger engine makes the boat more difficult to run at full throttle then part of the reason for going to a larger engine (increased speed) is going to be lost because the hull is not optimally designed for higher speeds. Plus other factors will come into play as there are different gear case ratios so that's going to have an effect. Think of it like torque in the vehicle you pull your boat with. Horsepower is good but torque is also important in how effective your vehicle is in towing your boat. The CBA may very well show that the least expensive option (hydrofoil) may be the best route to go to get the effect you desire. Finally, you need to think about the cost to put additional $$$'s into a boat that is already 13 years old. If you're planning on running it until it falls apart then that may not be a problem. However, if you're planning on upgrading in a few years then the return on the investment in a newer, bigger engine is probably not going to be that good. Not telling you NOT to repower the boat, just that you want to take a long look at all aspects before pulling out your credit card.

I just talked to my wife who is an insurance claims adjuster. She said as long as you had the engine listed on your insurance policy that you would probably be OK. Normally engine problems aren't covered by the insurance anyway. She said the bigger issue could be if you were involved in an accident, etc. that there could be some liability issues were it discovered that you had an engine HP that was over what the boat was rated for, then that could be used against you, e.g. if the boat had not been overpowered then you might not have lost control and had the resulting accident. Her final words to me were, "I would never overpower a boat." Again, this was her response. Talk to your insurer to be 100% sure.

Looks like, in their current line ups that Mercury has a 115 and then goes straight to 150. Evinrude does have a 135 in their line up. I have a 2000 Evinrude Ficht 150 that I've never had a problem with. Looks like Yamaha has a 130 HP motor too. Good luck.

You're probably correct on the weight issue but before you order that 150 you need to check with your insurer. Some companies will not cover, or pay a claim if they find that the engine horsepower exceeds the rating for the hull. It's worth checking into that before learning an expensive lesson later.