1985 champion 184 super v

[gatorbitu]

Congrats on the champion! Good looking boat for sure.

[Codywskeeter1521]

Good find Cody. That video mixer put up was awesome. Are you going to try some of those turns?

Lol don't think so.

Thanks everyone for the responces. Sorry for the taking so long to get back. Had tounrys on pomme this weekend. champ I called ulrich and asked about the steering cabled they said everything checked out.

[Codywskeeter1521]

<p>

I've owned my 1985 184 since 1989 (garaged). I have a 1997 175 EFI on boat now with A45 25p Tempest.

• Original live well valves were metal, mine rusted and started leaking, replaced them several years ago with similar plastic valves. I have 20 gallon tank, so I could probably see the valves by removing the carpeted board in front of the gas tank, but had to remove the gas tank to replace the two valves.
• Original steering cables had to be replaced in 2003. Had no-feedback type installed at shop.
• Original seat pedestal bushings were replaced this year, posted this in Tips & Tricks section.
• There is a 1998 Mercury service bulletin No. 98-6 concerning Tempest or Trophy props (A45/A46) and Flo-Torq II bushing. I switched from Flo-Torq II drive sleeve only TO Flo-Torq II drive sleeve and Flo-Torq II bushing. I never had any problems with just the drive sleeve because my hours per year were low and I had yearly prop maintenance. Guess some people had damage with no Flo-Torq II bushing with Tempest or Trophy props. Service bulletin 98-6 is for Mercury/Mariner 135 thru 250.
• Your motors service bulletins can be viewed online (free) by entering motors SN at a large online parts seller / shop. no login required. I had maybe 16 service bulletins, including 98-6.
• Replaced the 4 carpeted wood steps on trailer with diamond plate several years ago, wood got weak.
• Do not drive like the Champion or the crash YouTube videos!!

Thank you for this. I'm going to look over mine and see what has been replaced/fixed. I really appreciate everyone's pointers about this boat.

Yeah don't think thats quite what I had in mind. Glad to see he had a life vest and kill switch on.

[mixermarkb]

Guys,

I don't recommend being reckless in any way, but after picking up a copy of the Missouri Watercraft safety pamphlet, and reading it cover to cover at least twice, every new bass boat owner should most definately put the rods out, strap on a real, (not an inflatable) PFD and go drive the hell out of their boat. Do it on a lake without a lot of boat traffic, a weekday is ideal.

You owe it to yourself and others on the water to learn what your rig is capeable of. You need to learn how it turns, how tight it will turn before it wants to let go. You need to learn where to trim it in a tight turn. Too high, and the prop will lose bite and the back end will slide loose and want to spin. Trim down too much and the bow will drop and grab the water and hook, causing what the performance guys call a "bat turn", which is another kind of spin.

You need to learn how to drive it to prevent it from chine walking, so you don't end up in a preventable accident like the guy in the other YouTube video.

(Hint- a long straightway, wide enough to keep the boat in a very slight left turn will help a novice learn to deal with chine walk. Slight pressure to the left counterbalances the prop rotation torque and keeps the boat level. Keeping the boat in a very slight left turn, and then turn it back to the right when you have to correct course will help you learn to keep the boat from washing the decals off the sides and causing an accident like the guy on YouTube.)

You need to learn how the boat feels at various speeds, when to expect it to get loose as the hull rises and chines pop out of the water. Some hulls will sort of pop free and jump to one side or or the other, some will get very loose very quickly, and you need to know at what RPM and speed that is going to happen.

Bass boat drivers need to learn how trim effects their hull, and not just at top end. Knowing how slow you can go and stay on plane is important. Learning where the boat likes to ride to keep from porpoising at slow to mid throttle cruising speeds is something to practice. Watch your tach, and your GPS or speedo, and work the trim with small bumps until you find the sweet spot where you are getting the most speed from the least amount of RPM will help you find an efficient crusing speed and save gas money. Keep an eye on the water pressure gauge while you are experimenting to make sure you don't trim your water intakes too high and loose cooling pressure. Learn how to plane your boat off the best. Some hulls/prop combos like to start with the motor tucked all the way under, some like a slightly more neutral trim to get them moving, then trim down the rest of the way as the hull starts to break over on pad.

Learn how to stop your boat.

Fast.

Bass boats are VERY fast these days, even a few Rangers will run 70mph now (sorry- had to take the shot..lol). Chopping throttle at speed without trimming down will cause bad things to happen. Learn how to turn out of the way of an imaginary object at speed. In a boat, it's more of an "S" maneuver, because simply turning the wheel to one side often times just pushes the prop right over whatever you are trying to avoid. It could be a floating log you run up on and need to miss, or it could be a swimmer or downed skier out at dusk.

What I'm trying to say is that modern bass boats are true high performance machines, and don't require any sort of drivers test to get in. It is up to is to get enough seat time in our machines to understand how to maintain control of them, in ALL conditions, and under ALL speeds. It is the boater's responsibility to avoid accidents. That is what most of those maneuvers in that old Champion video are about. I'm not saying go try to duplicate all of that, but going out and just driving until you really get a feel for your boat's capabilities and it's limits, is something that ALL of us need to do.

If you are scared of your rig, by all means swallow some pride and get someone who is an experienced high performance boat driver to go with you and show you, and double check your setup to make sure it doesn't have a problem that is making your rig harder to drive than it needs to be. All too often, boat dealers are selling 20' rigs with 250 ponies on the back and not giving the new owner even a 15 minute lesson on the water.

Either we learn to be safe and regulate ourselves, or the public will demand that the politicians regulate our boating for us. To most of the public, we look way more dangerous zooming around the lake at speed than the wakeboard boats do plowing along doing their deal. Boating safety is up to us, and the ONLY way to be safe is to go get seat time.

[Codywskeeter1521]

Guys,

I don't recommend being reckless in any way, but after picking up a copy of the Missouri Watercraft safety pamphlet, and reading it cover to cover at least twice, every new bass boat owner should most definately put the rods out, strap on a real, (not an inflatable) PFD and go drive the hell out of their boat. Do it on a lake without a lot of boat traffic, a weekday is ideal.

You owe it to yourself and others on the water to learn what your rig is capeable of. You need to learn how it turns, how tight it will turn before it wants to let go. You need to learn where to trim it in a tight turn. Too high, and the prop will lose bite and the back end will slide loose and want to spin. Trim down too much and the bow will drop and grab the water and hook, causing what the performance guys call a "bat turn", which is another kind of spin.

You need to learn how to drive it to prevent it from chine walking, so you don't end up in a preventable accident like the guy in the other YouTube video.

(Hint- a long straightway, wide enough to keep the boat in a very slight left turn will help a novice learn to deal with chine walk. Slight pressure to the left counterbalances the prop rotation torque and keeps the boat level. Keeping the boat in a very slight left turn, and then turn it back to the right when you have to correct course will help you learn to keep the boat from washing the decals off the sides and causing an accident like the guy on YouTube.)

You need to learn how the boat feels at various speeds, when to expect it to get loose as the hull rises and chines pop out of the water. Some hulls will sort of pop free and jump to one side or or the other, some will get very loose very quickly, and you need to know at what RPM and speed that is going to happen.

Bass boat drivers need to learn how trim effects their hull, and not just at top end. Knowing how slow you can go and stay on plane is important. Learning where the boat likes to ride to keep from porpoising at slow to mid throttle cruising speeds is something to practice. Watch your tach, and your GPS or speedo, and work the trim with small bumps until you find the sweet spot where you are getting the most speed from the least amount of RPM will help you find an efficient crusing speed and save gas money. Keep an eye on the water pressure gauge while you are experimenting to make sure you don't trim your water intakes too high and loose cooling pressure. Learn how to plane your boat off the best. Some hulls/prop combos like to start with the motor tucked all the way under, some like a slightly more neutral trim to get them moving, then trim down the rest of the way as the hull starts to break over on pad.

Learn how to stop your boat.

Fast.

Bass boats are VERY fast these days, even a few Rangers will run 70mph now (sorry- had to take the shot..lol). Chopping throttle at speed without trimming down will cause bad things to happen. Learn how to turn out of the way of an imaginary object at speed. In a boat, it's more of an "S" maneuver, because simply turning the wheel to one side often times just pushes the prop right over whatever you are trying to avoid. It could be a floating log you run up on and need to miss, or it could be a swimmer or downed skier out at dusk.

What I'm trying to say is that modern bass boats are true high performance machines, and don't require any sort of drivers test to get in. It is up to is to get enough seat time in our machines to understand how to maintain control of them, in ALL conditions, and under ALL speeds. It is the boater's responsibility to avoid accidents. That is what most of those maneuvers in that old Champion video are about. I'm not saying go try to duplicate all of that, but going out and just driving until you really get a feel for your boat's capabilities and it's limits, is something that ALL of us need to do.

If you are scared of your rig, by all means swallow some pride and get someone who is an experienced high performance boat driver to go with you and show you, and double check your setup to make sure it doesn't have a problem that is making your rig harder to drive than it needs to be. All too often, boat dealers are selling 20' rigs with 250 ponies on the back and not giving the new owner even a 15 minute lesson on the water.

Either we learn to be safe and regulate ourselves, or the public will demand that the politicians regulate our boating for us. To most of the public, we look way more dangerous zooming around the lake at speed than the wakeboard boats do plowing along doing their deal. Boating safety is up to us, and the ONLY way to be safe is to go get seat time.

Best info I've seen in a long time. Very well said. even the ranger part. I had to giggle. Thank you.

[GNSfishing]

This needs to be addressed to all boaters not just bass boat operators. You'll find a lot of boat operators do not know how to maneuver their boat when meeting another boat head on. There's no center stripe on the water but in that book it will tell you and

I'll bet that at least 30% or more operators don't know what both operators are to do in this case. That is why I believe that young and old operators be licensed to operate a boat. At least they will be exposed to the laws and rules to operate a boat in all states.

[Codywskeeter1521]

This needs to be addressed to all boaters not just bass boat operators. You'll find a lot of boat operators do not know how to maneuver their boat when meeting another boat head on. There's no center stripe on the water but in that book it will tell you and

I'll bet that at least 30% or more operators don't know what both operators are to do in this case. That is why I believe that young and old operators be licensed to operate a boat. At least they will be exposed to the laws and rules to operate a boat in all states.

I agree took mine online. Very good info and helped me alot even taught my dad some stuff.