Massachusettslargemouth

Maybe a poor connection, although I finger tightened as hard as I can (and I've got tough hands and grip). The more I think about it, it DEFINITELY wasn't hydrolocking. I just didn't spray nowhere near enough to flood the engine and even if I did, cranking it over (before storage) would've gotten rid of it the excess. So my guess is it's down to 3 possibilities: Poor connection somewhere. (maybe the finger tightened nuts, but I tightened the heck out of them) Weak or failing starter (2 year old outboard!) Weak or failing battery (1 year old battery) I wonder if anyone experienced a starter that was weak after sitting for a winter. You're right. It's obviously related to starter health. I wonder if a weak connection can mimic a failing starter.

That would really annoy me. The engine is 2 years old. I wonder if finger tightening it gave a poor connection. I just finger tightened it to test out the boat.

Makes sense. I definitely love my tracker and have no regrets, but it's definitely a no frills type of boat.

Yes, I had the plugs removed. I do that to lubricate the rings and cylinder walls as well, but I mostly do it to get rid of excess fogging oil so I don't have issues in the spring. If I did have too much oil in the walls, it probably would've smoked for much much longer than it did. Not that mercury's vesselview is definitive, but there were no fault codes that popped up when I ran the engine. I even revved it up a few times to 3500 rpms. Sounded fine, no skip, and no faults. I shouldve mentioned that when I tried to start the engine, I just heard the engine click, like it turned over an inch but was binding. I'm a bit of a worrier, lol. But I just can't make sense of what it could've been. Only things I can think of so far are: Hydro locking Poor battery connection (I just finger tightened it). But it would start instantaneously on subsequent tries. Corroded/rusty starter Poor battery (it's only 1 year old and I had it on a trickle charger) I under fogged a cylinder/fogging oil didn't work and the rings rusted onto the cylinder wall (I find this the least possible)

So I decided to fire up the boat for the season today. A little background first. I did a 100 hour service before putting it away for the winter. I decided to fog the engine and cranked it a tiny bit to shoot out the excess fogging oil. The only thing I didn't do in the 100 hour service was change the spark plugs ( I know 100 hours is a bit overkill). So when I went to crank it, it wouldn't crank. It seemed to just jam or bind. Battery was 1 year old, maintained, and charged up. Tried a second time, same thing. I shouldn't have tried a third time, but I did. It slowly cranked and sounded like it was struggling. It fired. Smoked for 15 to 20 seconds (I'm thinking the fogging oil) and smoothed out in about 30 seconds. It sounded like it was running fine to me. I turned it off and started it again. It fired up easily. I was terrified I hydro locked it by putting too much fogging oil in. I decided to change the spark plugs because it would give me a chance to compression test it. Pulled the throttle wide open and cranked it for each cylinder - 190 on the dot for each one. I finished changing the spark plugs and tested it. Fired immediately and ran smoothly. I really don't believe I hydro locked it damaged anything, but that just really scared the hell out of me. Any ideas what it could have been?

Yeah. I think 2 things are happening. Tracker went with the minimum gauge necessary and minn kota is over inflating the requirements.

yeah. I followed minn kota's recommencation and put their 60 amp on.

Thanks. I just wanted to confirm what I thought. I don't care about losing performance at the top setting. I was mostly concerned from a safety perspective. When I had a 42 pound trolling motor, I was at max all the time, but it's because it was pretty underpowered for the boat. I'm going to have close to twice the power now.

I upgraded to a new trolling motor. I went to a 24v 80 pound from a 12v 42 pound trolling motor that came from stock. I looked at Minn Kota's website and the wiring gauge is the same for both so I figured if it handled 12volts, it will handle 24v. The problem is I took a look at the stock trolling motor cable. It is a pathetic 8 awg and according to Minn Kota's website it needs 6 or 4 awg. My boat's 16 feet long and the cable runs the majority of that length. It must be at least 10 feet long. 8AWG!? What the heck Tracker!? Will I be ok or should I replace the r 4stupid thing and go with 6 o

I think I'm going to install the ninja grass blade on my minn kota ulterra. From random google searches, it seems that people have had bad luck with the double sided tape the blade comes with. I was just wondering what others have done. I'm trying to NOT make it a permanent thing (heavy duty marine epoxy or whatever) because I know that water, time, and weeds will wear down the blade and I'll have to take it off to sharpen it or replace it.

I have a 2 bank alternator charger from minn kota that basically piggybacks off of the starting battery. It says "In order to achieve full output, the minimum input to the Alternator Charger from the engine alternator should be 25 amps" for charging 2 trolling batteries. I have a 50 horsepower mercury efi. My google search says it comes with an 18 amp alternator. From Minn Kota's information resources, it basically charges the trolling motor once the starting battery is over a certain volt reading (13.6V I believe) and stops when it falls to a certain point which is why it doesn't allow a lithium battery to be the starting battery (it also does not charge lithium trolling batteries). The reason being that lithium batteries never drop below 13.6V so it can potentially just drain the starting battery completely. Would anything negative happen by using this? I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to electronics, but I believe it will work just fine. My thinking is that it will not charge as often (shorter cycles).

While we don't get as many as the big trophies you guys in Florida and the south get, we get the the pre winter aggression up in the north. I went to my favorite stream today and caught 8 bass in an hour and a half. I was feeling lazy so I bought shiners and just used a bobber and shiner so I knew I was going to catch more than whatever lure I tried. Smallest one was exactly a pound and the biggest one was almost 1 pound 14 ounces. Nothing crazy, but I just love the aggression these bass get when trying to get ready for the winter.

I'm with LrgmouthShad. I love giving people what little knowledge I have about fishing, but I'm not going to share any "secret spots" I have. People are leeches and if you ever need some help, they will not reciprocate it. So help out people with your knowledge and tips, but don't do it at the expense of your time and convenience.

I'll be taking a trip down to see an old buddy who moved to the Raleigh area. He wants to hit up some fishing while I'm down there. If anyone from the Raleigh area knows any places where we can bank fish. We won't have access to a kayak or boat. I'm also going to have to look into getting an out of state fishing license.

Monsters. That bottom one looks like it never skipped a meal. The top one looks like it never skipped a meal or snack. lol