fishinwrench

Is it mandatory? They'd like for you to believe it is..... but No, not unless you plan to participate in sanctioned events, then it is "required" by the organizer, but not by law. Standard coverage is good for impact/accident damage reimbursement, or storm damage/meteor strike, but not for mechanical failures or failures related to faulty products. However you CAN purchase writers that cover just about anything....for a price. If you want your boat covered for the cleaning of bird poop then there is an agent out there that will sell you that insurance.

Of course. But the piston chamber just kept pushing more grease out, and even though it was shooting great I was having to clean the barrel every 100 or so shots or else accuracy would start to fall off. I thought I had gotten it all blown out, but then during a long period of trajectory plotting it went off like a black powder cannon, and after that the accuracy went completely stupid. I swapped scopes to make sure the hard blast didn't just trash the scope, but nope it was the gun. The piston seal has a 1/8" wide flat melted spot. One of the guys on the AGN board told me that I might have caused it by storing the gun standing up.....which is a possibility I guess. But IMO if it hadn't been too heavily lubed then storing it standing up wouldn't have hurt anything.

Yep, 1/2" plywood, and something to dampen the noise. Carpet or rubbery stuff.

The one on the far right....👍

"Golden Bones" If I run into Lefty in the next life, I'm gonna kick him in the knee for that one.

I don't like the tread-plate idea, but if you must...... 3/16" Rivets with rubber gaskets !

Hone and polish everything real good, replace piston seal, and breech seal. There is a burr on the inside of the transfer port that I'll either get off with a drill bit or I'll order a teeny-tiny rat-tail file. I have seals and some Moly paste on the way. It deiseled like a mofo and went off like a .30-06, then started shooting 14" low. Too much lube and/or too much repeated fire caused it.

Good deal! 👍

Here's the thing though.....that boat (the WHOLE BOAT) is going to twist and flex. Welds are too rigid and will not hold for very long on a project like this, I promise. They'll crack and let go. Rivets allow things to flex and twist, while still holding everything firmly in place. Just don't forget to use aluminum backing washers on every rivet, as long as you can get to the back side to slip one on. If you're riveting to a spot like the stringer braces where you can't get a backing washer on, then cut up a bicycle inner-tube and use pieces of it between your pieces of riveted aluminum. Everything can flex and move so it stays put, and vibration is dampened by the rubber gaskets, so the rivet never wallows out. That sucker will take repeated poundings, year after year, and never crack or come undone. Honestly, I've built up a bunch of modified Jon boat rigs and I gave up on welds a long time ago. A true PRO aluminum welder I'm sure could design a nice deck frame that would last.....but I only know one of those guys and he gets 200.00/hr.

The Prowler detonated and blew a piston seal, so......Here we go!

Most of the "figuring them out" is nothing more than knowing when you have a bite. Some days the fish crush the bait, and really hang on to it. Other days they'll swim up behind it, suck it in, then immediately blow it out. Adapting a fishing style that allows constant contact with the bait, or switching to a bait that they can't turn loose of once they bite it is more often the key to weighing in a respectable limit on days when they just aren't "killin' it". The Carolina rig enjoyed a long period of success for that very reason. Guys killed the edge of the C-rig though when they decided the best way to fish it was to not drag it with the reel, but to pump it with the rod. Drag it with the reel and you feel every single bite. This is one of the reasons why I have become so infatuated with the RedEye Shad.....if they bite that thing they are more than likely gonna get stuck. You'd be real surprised, on those tough days, just how many bites you actually got. You just didn't know it.

Allowing it to warm up a bit before putting a heavy load on the motor is a good idea whether it's a new state of the art model, or an old clunker. It doesn't take very long though. When I run them here at the shop on 54° well water the thermostats open up in about 3-4 minutes. When you launch, if you let it idle while you go park your truck then you are ok to blast off when you get back to the boat.

I've seen degredation of rubber (seals, diaphragms, hoses, ect.) in OLDER motors, that I blamed on alcohol, but realistically things made from rubber never did last forever, and since they were 15-25 years old anyway....who friggin knows? I don't have any problems getting motors to run good on 10% ethanol enhanced fuel....as long as it's FRESH. And I have torn down plenty of motors that have been running on it, and for the life of me I don't see any damage caused that I can blame on it. The whole ethanol scare smells like a giant propaganda movement to me, but it does have a shorter shelf life than the "GAS" I grew up with.

Hard to say. I always ask how old the fuel is, and customers either say "oh I just got it the other day", or they say "hell I don't know!". Everyone these days is sold on the various additives, and the worst thing in the world is old fuel with old additives in it. When I'm working with a carbureted motor with adjustable idle jets I can tell right away if the fuel is aged because the motor doesn't respond to 1/4 turns of the mixture needle. With pre-set jets or EFI/DFI engines the only way to tell if aged fuel is causing a problem is to hook up some fresh fuel and see if it helps. Some motors (like the old GT and XP Johnson/Evinrudes) will run ok on the nastiest fuel you've ever seen. While others will barely pull themselves off the trailer if it's being fed fuel that is 9 weeks old. Since you are never sure how fresh it is when you buy it, the question remains unanswerable. But if you ignore the propaganda that 91 octane is the best choice, then you are assured that the 87 you just bought is reasonably fresh.....or at least more "fresher(?)" .

That's nothing to complain about. Best thing you can do with the fuel you just bought is to burn it up as quickly as you can. Because the shelf life on that stuff is shorter than you think.

You need the kit #5007423 that has the preformed hoses, and new pulse limiter. I have one in stock.

If you're talking about a ground strap from the TM(-)battery terminal to the hull..... there's no need. The trolling motor isn't in the water all the time, and even if it was the TM shaft is probably composite, so galvanic corrosion isn't an issue. The hull is already grounded to the cranking battery through the outboard motor harness.

An old aluminum step ladder (or even a new cheap one) can provide excellent framing for a deck addition on an aluminum boat. If you plan it right you can even use the spaces between the rungs for storage hatch lids....or a livewell. Keep in mind that rivets (with backing washers) are 100 times better than screws. A few well placed rivets are better than a weld when building aluminum boats, because whether you want it to or not things are gonna flex and move. Better to just control it rather than trying to stop it.

From what I am able to find out, Mercury is terminating production on all 2-strokes (totally throwing in their cards/folding to Evinrude), and they are taking a crap on most of the Platinum Warranty contracts they sold. Cheaper for them to settle potential lawsuits than it would be to continue honoring the warranties. This really puts Mercury dealers in an uncomfortable place, as THEY are the ones who have relationships with these people and have to look them in the face. Have I not been calling this for years??? Oh yes I have!

I try to not get involved in propping boats because it takes too much time and there is so much guess work going on. But I will say that all the boats I have tinkered with are way easier to drive when 5400 is the top RPM (or ones that are just barely capable of hitting 5500). When you hear knowledgeable people say that it's bad to "lug" the motor I assume they are talking way more severe cases of "lugging" than 200-300 rpm. I have torn down enough motors to notice that spline wear on the crank and drive shafts is way more pronounced on motors that are propped for higher rpm's. What other possible issue could "lugging" the motor a bit cause? If your hole shot is good (motor wise) and your WOT feels safe, and the boat doesn't fight you on turns.... then leave it alone. Excessive bow rise, and porposing is a hull/motor angle issue. Propping 'til your heart is content might help some, or more likely just change the range at which the boat does it, but it probably isn't the cause.

They help some rigs. I have one on my old 18' Nitro because it allows me to stay on plane at 2400 RPM and jump across shallow spots so I don't have to do it at 50+mph. They also help rigs that are prone to backwashing when you shut down quickly, or boats that wallow side-to-side when at a fast idle. The only real down side to them is that if you hit a stick with it you can rip a big chunk out of the cav plate that will cost 250.00 to fix.

The boy acts like I've never had fish before If you're cooking me dinner..... I'll have the chili (thank you very much).

If he ever buys a NEW boat he will pretty much be forced to. That's the way they operate. Merc offers deals almost impossible to refuse, for the folks that rig and sell new boats. Almost every new boat comes with a Merc hanging on it. It's pretty much a force play. Johnny M. could put an end to that, and I hoped that he would when he started gobbling up boat companies, but apparently the greed got the best of him.

Typical Mercury shenanigans. This is what I'm talking about.... I know and have fished with Nick, he is impeccable on maintenance and doesn't drive like a maniac. Still he gets the shaft.

Muratic acid. Toilet bowl cleaner. 2.50 at Dollar General