Got to show off the fish with the Heritage 

You look too young to retire, now get back to work!   ?

21 hours ago, detroit1 said:

You look too young to retire, now get back to work!   ?

haha! I didn't get the boat for nothing! I'm gone fishing! 

On 6/7/2020 at 1:57 PM, SeriousBlack said:

haha! I didn't get the boat for nothing! I'm gone fishing! 

Congratulations!  Enjoy every second of it!

15 hours ago, jaimeastin said:

Congratulations!  Enjoy every second of it!

Thanks man! Bass beware!

Todays catch! We don’t need no fancy bass boats!!

Got this one and another the same size tonight! Love the little boat. 

On 6/18/2020 at 3:58 PM, SeriousBlack said:

Got this one and another the same size tonight! Love the little boat. 

This is a very happy man.  Seem like a good guy.  Keep posting and enjoying your retirement man!

All it needs is an avocado green cooler to match.

Getting ready to take the boat back to Arkansas and fish for a few weeks.  Today, I worked on the boat and trailer.  Started with the bearings.  One was and good shape.  The other I found water in the grease.  The rubber seal was no longer uniform.  It had play and allowed water to get it.  The hub and bearings were okay.  I just pushed out all old grease.  I used the Lucas blue Marine grease and ran till it was blue and not purple.  I will buy another rubber seal in the morning.

 

I changed the lower gear oil and the motor oil.  I greased up all the places with zerks on the outboard.  I topped off the trim fluid.  And made sure the tires were inflated.  I noticed one tire had sand in it!!??  I only one did... Apparently it came like that because I have never had it in sand.  I will get a shop to pop it off rim one day.

 

Since I will be traveling, I added a couple eye bolts to lock the back hatch with batteries and gas.  I made a custom length cable and swaged it.  I can now cable lock my boat. It will be good for when it is on the driveway too!  I know a their will get past anything, but this is to catch a person off guard trying to steal gas or my batteries.  

 

 

I started my trip today. I ultimately decided then rather than repacking the bearings, I just replaced all of the bearings and put a new seal on. I did all of the work on the engine as I stated before. I finally purchased a spare tires well.

 

So far so good. in Arizona currently and going to try to push through the rest of the night.  Anybody along I Forty?

Ok, 2k miles later, I am here and only had one issue.  One the guide bunks fell off along the way.  I guess it just loosened up and fell off.  I found out yesterday in OKC.  So I purchased some wood and carpet.  I replace it this morning before I got fishing. The hubs never got hotter than warm.  I checked things out at every stop.  I had the trailer tire pressure at max.  towards the end of the trip I lost some tire pressure and the trailer got jumpier, but all went very well.  Happy to see lower gas prices.  

On 6/26/2020 at 12:27 AM, jaimeastin said:

Getting ready to take the boat back to Arkansas and fish for a few weeks.  Today, I worked on the boat and trailer.  Started with the bearings.  One was and good shape.  The other I found water in the grease.  The rubber seal was no longer uniform.  It had play and allowed water to get it.  The hub and bearings were okay.  I just pushed out all old grease.  I used the Lucas blue Marine grease and ran till it was blue and not purple.  I will buy another rubber seal in the morning.

 

I changed the lower gear oil and the motor oil.  I greased up all the places with zerks on the outboard.  I topped off the trim fluid.  And made sure the tires were inflated.  I noticed one tire had sand in it!!??  I only one did... Apparently it came like that because I have never had it in sand.  I will get a shop to pop it off rim one day.

 

Since I will be traveling, I added a couple eye bolts to lock the back hatch with batteries and gas.  I made a custom length cable and swaged it.  I can now cable lock my boat. It will be good for when it is on the driveway too!  I know a their will get past anything, but this is to catch a person off guard trying to steal gas or my batteries.  

 

 

Noticed one of my tires sounded like it had sand in it last time I greased bearings.Weird.

On 7/1/2020 at 9:47 AM, jaimeastin said:

Ok, 2k miles later, I am here and only had one issue.  One the guide bunks fell off along the way.  I guess it just loosened up and fell off.  I found out yesterday in OKC.  So I purchased some wood and carpet.  I replace it this morning before I got fishing. The hubs never got hotter than warm.  I checked things out at every stop.  I had the trailer tire pressure at max.  towards the end of the trip I lost some tire pressure and the trailer got jumpier, but all went very well.  Happy to see lower gas prices.  

 

Have you checked out that tire yet?  Wondering the reason for the lower tire pressure. 

 

 

20 hours ago, ratman said:

Noticed one of my tires sounded like it had sand in it last time I greased bearings.Weird.

Yeah, I was going to have the tire unmounted to get the sand out... But I figured it's been ok this far...

9 hours ago, Bolar said:

 

Have you checked out that tire yet?  Wondering the reason for the lower tire pressure. 

 

 

I have not found a nail or anything... 

Ok...  One of my rear seals popped out at my destination.  I brought spares with me, so I was able to fox it quickly at my mom's house. 

 

I launched my boat and not only did I lose the side bunk, but I lost all but one lag bolt on the trailer.  When I pulled my trailer out of the river, the bunk was floating.  I took one of the bolts from the other side when I left. 

 

So, check your bolts of you have not yet.  I see how screws get in people's tires... I have five on I-40... Sorry world, lol!  

So anyone fish at night?  I went out super early the other day, to try and beat the heat .  Anyhow, it was dark when I started, plugged in all the lights no problems there.  After I got to my first spot, WOW the stern light sure is bright when I'm standing on the front deck .  It's right there, eye level with me.  I'm considering a way to try and lengthen the 3/4" pole for the light .

On 7/9/2020 at 4:19 PM, Bolar said:

So anyone fish at night?  I went out super early the other day, to try and beat the heat .  Anyhow, it was dark when I started, plugged in all the lights no problems there.  After I got to my first spot, WOW the stern light sure is bright when I'm standing on the front deck .  It's right there, eye level with me.  I'm considering a way to try and lengthen the 3/4" pole for the light .

I fish at night all the time.  I modified my stern light.  I put the led lights on the front where they are bigger, brighter, and no longer in my face. I also put spot lights on it and a bigger deck light..  i and debate running new wire, heavier gauge wire, to support my power draw.  No issues so far... just want more light, lol!

 

i will post pics later when I go out to my boat.

On 6/24/2020 at 11:40 AM, jaimeastin said:

This is a very happy man.  Seem like a good guy.  Keep posting and enjoying your retirement man!

Thanks man! Fishing and snowmobiling make me happy! Playing in the outdoors. 

On 2/23/2018 at 9:34 PM, ratman said:

I put mine next to drivers seat,you can put it way up in the console.best place i found,only place i found that was long enough.

The stern light fits really well laid behind the driver and passenger seats. You need to tip the seats forward to get it in and out, but it fits perfectly.

6 hours ago, Shortstrike said:

The stern light fits really well laid behind the driver and passenger seats. You need to tip the seats forward to get it in and out, but it fits perfectly.

This is where I keep mine also.  It works very well there.

On 5/6/2020 at 7:26 PM, Bolar said:

It seems like the trolling motor battery longevity is all over the place.  Mine started to act up last fall, and I was thinking it was the trolling motor.  It won't hold a charge and is out of warranty.  I got Duracell from Sam's, we will see how long this will last. 

 

On 5/7/2020 at 10:59 AM, slowworm said:

Check the charger that you are using.  It may be cooking the battery.

 

J.

 

 

Wow, it's been quite here.  I hope everyone has been busy fishing.  My work schedule was messed up for the summer because of the COVID thing, but I'm back to normal now, and get to fish more often. 

 

Anyhow my latest problem, my charger went dead.  I was walking by the boat and I always give the back-end a look and noticed no lights.  Unplugged and plugged back in, still nothing.  I unhooked all of the wires tried it again.  All it would do is the red light would faintly come on then fade to nothing, and the whole unit (Minnkota 210D) would buzz. 

 

Called Minnkota and they had me e-mail them a copy of my receipt and they then e-mailed me a UPS label to have the whole thing sent back to them.  I started the process on a Tuesday and had a new unit Friday.  Two thumbs-up to Minnkota for such a hassle free warranty experience.  It's one of those things that when over you stand back and think, "wow that was too easy". 

 

I did replace the trolling motor battery this spring.  Was the old battery going bad anyway or did the old charger contribute to it's demise?  The charger was charging, and charged the new battery when I put that in.  Also, I've never had a problem with the motor battery. 

 

So all is back to normal...for now. 

 

 

Has anyone installed gas springs to hold the hatch doors open?  I'm curious on how to determine mounting location.  

I vacuumed, cleaned and shined the heritage from bow to stern.  It looked great so I was ready to take it out and then I looked at my dirty truck. It didn't look right to pull a nice looking boat behind a dirty truck so I washed and waxed the truck.  My wife learned of me washing my truck and asked me to wash her car.  I did. No time left to fish.  At least I have a nice looking rig and a happy wife.  

16 hours ago, Terrance Waters said:

At least I have a nice looking rig and a happy wife.  

I need to to amend this statement.

It should read:  At least I have a nice looking rig and a stunningly attractive happy wife

In my quest to prevent hatch doors from slamming on my hands, I ended up getting these 45N/10lb 9 11/16" gas struts from Amazon:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H18I46K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Four struts for $17 wasn't bad, and the directions that came with them aren't terrible.  However, the measurements they provided for mounting locations required drilling through the top of the hatch and I didn't want to do that.  I wanted to utilize the center support.  So, I experimented with the mounting location for a while before I found the right one.   

 

 

I only installed one strut because 10lb was the least powerful struts I could find and that's enough to open the hatch.  I don't think that the torsion on the hinge will bend it, and I'm afraid two 10lb struts would pop the hatch open in rough water since the only thing that holds them shut is the friction produced by the carpet on the edges of the hatch.  Here's a video of the operation:

 

https://streamable.com/sltcww