jhoffman

Wish I could make it, unfortunately theres two other series that are going that weekend that have sunday tournaments and are not only single open events but points races. Im not gonna mention names as I dont want to detract from this event but the guy I fish team tournaments with will be at one trail and I at a completely different trail. Had it been the weekend prior to when its scheduled I wouldve been in. Sounds like an awesome time.

Is it a true open as in anyone can fish? What weekend, pm me. HP restricted lakes or not?

sinks completely?

that mouse sucks, dont fish it

ill take your word for it, i did taste deercane once

i have a local lake that im fairly certain the pattern changes every single day. You go catch them at 25ft at dark one day and the next day you catch them in inches of water. Relative to lots of things, boat traffic, water pull, water incoming, heat, sky, clarity... so many variables and so little time. Never forget this... even the big shot pro's zero now and then or dont make the cut. A week later they might win.

Bet thats a nitro is it not? Theres a thread on a texas forum about the entire underside of a nitro delaminating. Hopefully that boat if so is no older than 5 and hes no more than the second owner cause if its a defect they wont honor it based on what I read in that other situation. The other guy insisted he never had an impact either but only bought the boat two weeks prior. Maybe he never hit anything, but unless hes the original owner, it doesnt mean it never was hit. Its also possible a rock came up off the road, hit it, cracked it, the waves cause the failure.

my boat is at the dealer right now getn a rebuilt 40, but its a 2 stroke, was there a reason you want the 4 vs the 2? Fuel injection?

Yeah, theres been lots of discussion on forums about guys having regular garages doing marine trailers only to have bearing failures cause they didnt use a double lip. Your thread reminded me to order a backup set for my trailer to have on hand as I lived that nightmare before of trying to find a bearing in the middle of no where. It was $9 for two bearings/races, a double lip seal, retaining washer and an extra $1.25 for a retaining nut. Cheap insurance. its highly unlikely that both will ever go at one time unless you just never do maintenance

Which part didnt you understand, ill try to be more clear. The ezlube system, has a grease fitting on the end which pushes grease through the axle and out holes inside the hub filling the voids with grease. You still must pack the bearings as neither system, including bearing buddies should be relied upon for that. Theres two different versions of rear seals on hubs. A single lip seal is made for land applications, think utility trailers while a double lip seal is made for a marine environment. Most kits sold assume that its for a land application and not marine, frankly, i dont know why they even bother to make a single lip seal considering a double works on both.

Worst one ever was I grabbed the waders and not the boots. It was pouring rain, I almost said forget it but I drove home and got them and thought.... what else are you gonna do? Returned and laid them out(trout) and caught two very large browns.

If I am correct thats an ez-lube hub system, no need for bearing buddies, the axle is designed to take grease and push it in from the back side. The problem is people just keep pumping and pumping till that rear seal blows. Also, do not use a single lip seal that come in a lot of kits, it must be a double.

The night tournaments are by far the worst for me. It ruins my entire next two days. Im only 33 but with a 6" plate in my tibia it transmits right up my back. I gotta sit down now and then, only way I wont is if I am on fire. I quit my club for many reasons. One of which was the fact they always had either night tournaments or tournaments when most guys have to be at work. They avoided the crowd on Saturday and Sunday which on one hand i can see. If you need to only fish during prime times when no one else can, are you really that good? The answer for me was no, but it wasnt the only reasons I gave up said club. I decided that I would fish tournaments when and where I wanted and not be dictated by a schedule thats not the real "tour" mid week wasting vacations for no reason. Lots of opens out there... lots.

Yes, I have it on my guide ons

When the wheel is off the ground, yes you should be able to pull on it and see if it moves however note that you dont torque an axle castle nut. Its hand tightened, then backed off a hair and pinned. If your gonna go through the trouble to jack it up, pull the wheel and then the hub. Its a two second job to see if you have a problem to prevent a headache. It requires no special tools. If the rear seal is blown youll see it coming out of there. Looking at that, I would do a rebuild on both sides just to be sure before you have a race/bearing go bad in the middle of no where. When a race burns up you can either spend hours knocking it out or buy a new hub assembly for $35. Let me tell you, looking for a bearing and pounding out a race under the headlights in the dark isnt fun. Letting your boat sit along the road... ugh.

Looks pretty cool, what makes it "G2" , I know you can tune the first gen to run 100:1 on full synthetic, I also believe that first gen motor runs it through the block via direct injection of some sort. Id like to see this technology laid out as to what makes it special. I see its only available in 200-300hp. Guess you wont see many guys running them for awhile.

You tried the koppers mouse?

I used to be a pro, not a bass pro sadly but i made it by "pro standards" in fishing as my income was all fishing based, i did seminars. Honestly, you couldnt give me that job again.

If I were buying brand new aluminum id go for the xpress too. You might have to give up something to come down to what you can afford but the xpress is proven. I cant in good faith give you a recommendation on a ranger, that design is too new. If it was glass, yeah sure. Did jfranco ever sell his xpress? If not that would be the used boat for you to buy. Might be a long trip but worth it.

How long is it sitting between runs when the power cuts out? It can be a symptom of a coil if it heats up then loses spark. If heat isnt an issue then I would look at fuel but based on your symptoms id be looking at a spark issue first. What motor are we discussing here?

Fell in raging water over the top of my chest waders and dropped an $800 rod/reel combo. Got the rod back, reel was shot, company replaced the rod. That one scared me!

fluke stick? swim senko! Take a tail off a beat up swimbait and put that on a senko

If I were gonna buy another used boat tomorrow my criteria would be that it be less than 5 years old and I want proof it was taken care of. I want compression readings, I want receipts, I want information from the dealer if serviced there. I want an oil sample if its a four stroke and Im sending it to blackstone labs for an analysis. Yeah, its anal, but man getting the stickns on big money toys hurts me way to much to just take it. Ive missed the spawn two years in a row now dealing with motor issues due to neglect. Its why its getting a rebuilt motor from a dealer thursday. I saw motors cheaper, but once you have towed a boat to a ramp several times and not gone fishing, you get sick of that real quick.

Im telln you, if you got it, go buy the new boat. Machines in life live one of two lives, babied and cared for or strait up beat. Its really hard to find the guys that take care of their toys, not impossible but its typically reflected in price. If you see a boat that you think wow thats really nice but his price is a tad high, he probably has an entire folder on the maintenance done to whatever that machine might be. Theres so many ways for something mechanical like a motor to fail that if you dont keep on top little things fail which lead to big things. Maybe the guy saw it quit peeing and ran it all day anyhow in short bursts cause he just felt the need to fish, do you know that happened? Of course you dont. Did they change the lower unit oil regularly? If it was a four stroke did they change its oil, if its a two stroke did they mix it right? Did they spray ether in the carb throat to start it one day? Do they ever lube the grease fittings. Its on and on and on. The only way to ever know is to buy the machine new and then you know what happened from day one. Youll read about a guy finding a good boat for a killer deal, but for every boat a guy got a deal on ten guys got blindly screwed without ever knowing. I read on a texas forum the other day, guy bought a three year old nitro that delaminated the hull within two weeks of purchase. Being that he was now the third owner, it wasnt under warranty. A lot of guys thought the previous hit something and never told him and my guess is thats exactly what happened. He was out.... $30k

I bought my boat local, dropped about 2k in it right off the start for electronics and what not that were shot, thursday its getn its new rebuilt motor thats another 2k... point is, I wouldve had a new one half paid off by now.