Rig for fishing

[Seth]

Troutt's puts tons of perforated floors in boats. Pretty well every Blazer they sell will have one.

I hear you on the Meramec stuff. I'd love to have a small beater boat just for that place. My first boat was a 1648 with a 50/35 jet and I so wish I had kept it for using on the Meramec and for gigging. Last year I tore my boat up down below Stanton when I hit a rock at Roaring Spring and had to get a whole new hull. I'd love to go back and fish the Meramec again, but I'm still nervous about doing it at summer pool.

[Keiththom]

Seth: I fish above Cuba a lot. There's not much water and that's why I run with the Cargo Canoe. (People use these canoes to haul out moose) But I see guys with 60/40 navigating it pretty well.  I can't do it with my 90.  So my jet does a lot of sitting. I don't use it much.  If I downsized to a smaller boat and 60/40, id probably use it a lot.  I'm definitely gravitating towards another ETEC, just for the weight issue. (Even though I've had major issues with ETEC's plastic covers.)

[Keiththom]

I've got this 1756 Weldcraft with the 90 ETEC now. I'll probably see what they'll give me in trade for a smaller boat. If anyone is looking for something like this, I'll probably sell it for a little over what they offer me in trade in.  I've barely run this motor. The cover was cracking and so I went out and bought a new cover.  $1000.00 for an engine cover !!!  It's still plastic wrapped.  I'll run the old cracked one and put the new one on when / if I sell it.

[snagged in outlet 3]

[snagged in outlet 3]

Everybody puts in perm floors that I saw.  Troutt also put additional power on the deck for electronics 

[Al Agnew]

Keith, saw your reply to me on Riversmallies.  All I can say is that the 1652 seems plenty big enough for me and one or two other anglers, and it's light enough to draft pretty shallow.  I don't go above Steelville very often, but fish above Onondaga a lot.  Can't imagine not using a trolling motor, but if you didn't put in the troller you'd save a lot more weight.

That plastic cover on the Etec is the only thing on mine that's ever given me trouble.  I've owned mine since 2007 and though I don't put a lot of hours on it (I basically only use mine in the winter and early spring, with a very occasional trip in the summer), I've only had the thing serviced once in all that time...all I've ever done is keep the oil level up and squirt the lube in the pump.  But I did have to replace one side of the lower housing, and now the other side is cracked.  Can't believe how much they charge for a big piece of plastic.  Tried epoxying the thing and epoxy doesn't stick to it well enough to last.  Heck, I think I'll just duct tape the thing for a while.

I've beaten up my Blazer hull, but it has taken a lot of beating.  Not sure how much tougher another hull would be.

Ernies is a good dealer.

[Keiththom]

8 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Keith, saw your reply to me on Riversmallies.  All I can say is that the 1652 seems plenty big enough for me and one or two other anglers, and it's light enough to draft pretty shallow.  I don't go above Steelville very often, but fish above Onondaga a lot.  Can't imagine not using a trolling motor, but if you didn't put in the troller you'd save a lot more weight.

That plastic cover on the Etec is the only thing on mine that's ever given me trouble.  I've owned mine since 2007 and though I don't put a lot of hours on it (I basically only use mine in the winter and early spring, with a very occasional trip in the summer), I've only had the thing serviced once in all that time...all I've ever done is keep the oil level up and squirt the lube in the pump.  But I did have to replace one side of the lower housing, and now the other side is cracked.  Can't believe how much they charge for a big piece of plastic.  Tried epoxying the thing and epoxy doesn't stick to it well enough to last.  Heck, I think I'll just duct tape the thing for a while.

I've beaten up my Blazer hull, but it has taken a lot of beating.  Not sure how much tougher another hull would be.

Ernies is a good dealer.

I love / hate my ETEC.  Like you, I bought mine in 2005 and had it serviced once. The down-side of ETECs are, you can figure on spending $2500.00 every ten yen years if you want it to have upper and lower covers hanging on. 

 

[Seth]

This is the first time I've heard about these cover issues on Etecs. Google does come up with a lot of reports and posts about the issue happening though. I ran an 08 115 from 2010-2014 and then bought a 2013 150 in 2014 and have well over 200 hours on it. The cowlings have a lot of scuffs and scratches from limbs, lures and whatever else, but nothing has cracked yet. The issues do seem to be mostly occurring on the Etecs of 90hp or less. The 75hp model comes up a lot with those cracked cowling issues.

[fishinwrench]

Sounds like the guys doing your rigging and service are getting in a hurry when reinstalling the lower cowling.   It is a bit of a PIA (10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound can) but if done correctly the lower cowlings will not break.   

If you are using the bolts to pull the clam shell together then you're doing it wrong.

[Keiththom]

Here is my top. The bad parts are taped over with Guerilla tape.  Every dealer I've talked to about this say that they replace more lower halves than tops, but both are prone to cracking.  I wish knew if they've improved any in the last 10 years.  From internet searches, I'd say they probably haven't.