gatorblazer

water is around 8lbs per gallon.

it was registered at some point so the make and model should be on your bill of sale or on the title

Not a bad motor, i liked mine when I had it. 4-5 was a major speed difference. I definatly liked the pedal feel of the value line minnkota vs the value line MG. I didnt like the shaft prop fork thingy on the mount, it broke the second time that i pulled the motor up, but didnt affect the functionality or storage of the motor. My honest advice would be to check craigslist for a tmotor or call your local tmotor repair shop to see if you can get a deal on one. I've seen lots of bigger motors for sale locally for $200 or so as guys are upgrading to newer units on their fiberglass rigs

Nope, did the Saturday event. Moved Kennedy, Shaw, and Martens (Lady Gaga CD blaring when I cranked his truck, Really?). Funniest part of the day was watching Taka run across the parking lot to stop a guy from backing his motorhome up. He didnt want anyone to touch that thing. He kept yelling "No Back, No Back!"

This year at the Classic, I got to help load boats for the pros. While backing Shaw's trailer in, I realized that ESPN camera's were filming me, along with fans taking pics of the truck. Talk about pressure. An old fart once helped me when I was backing his trailer up. He climbed in the seat next to me, put his arm around me in a grandfatherly way and explained, "Its not hard to do. Put your hand at the bottom of the wheel, look at your mirrors, and turn the wheel the direction that you want the trailer to go. If its in your right mirror, the trailer is going to your right. If its in your left, its going left." He says all this with a calm voice and follows with this, "If you cant see the trailer................ITS RIGHT #$&@*@ BEHIND YOU! DONT DO ANYTHING, ITS STRAIGHT!" Then he calmly got out of the truck. I'll never forget how to back a trailer up, ever ;D

I think its well thought out however, there is the issue of it fitting in a garage. I think its just a little to wide to fit in a standard single door.

For 9K you can buy a lot of nice used boats. If you just have to buy a new one, tracker has a grizzly that is 17' with a bigger motor for roughly the same cost. http://trackerboats.com/boat/motors.cfm?boat=3270

798 should just be a two wire power hookup plus the transducer cable if you are not linking it with another unit. Follow your existing power wire and run the new one there. If your confident that your existing GPS is a two wire as well, you could just tap into that wire and avoid having to fish any wire through your boat. Personally I think its easier than a car stereo to hook up.

Gatorjet fish and ski with a 454 motor and a flippin deck all the way to the consoles. They will run high 50's to low 60's in real skinny water and fish like the glass boats.

towing + family friendly = Dodge Sprinter

Biosonics makes that exact device and KVD and Skeet swear by them. As to sounds spooking fish, anything that they are not used to would spook them. In a farm pond, a gas motor is going to be a foreign sound. If your in a shallow area that is not pressured much, a transducer might trigger that spookieness. I try to be as cautious as possible as I do not know what will spook them. Its no different for deer hunting near a highway vs somewhere where deer do not hear cars. We are pretty close to each other so we might need to fish together some

On the coosa, bed fish are spooky too. My point is why would you risk any noise if you know they are going to be spooky. I definatly would use the SI for practice and spot locating. Once you find something, mark it as a waypoint and tell no one. When its time to fish it in competition, turn off the sonar and just use the GPS to guide you to that spot.

That shallow, Im not sure that you need it or want it. In less than 5' of water I always turn my transducers off. I am convinced that fish can hear/sense sonar pings. If I am trying to be stealthy, make quiet movements, gently flipping my bait in with little to no splash, why would I have something ticking away under my boat? Same with my bilge, I make sure that its not going to turn on when I am in a quiet situation. If you must know your depth and bottom type, dip your rod tip in and feel for it. I can only see the side scan being useful in scouting trips just to map whats there, but would turn it off when actually fishing.

Good discussion going here. I'm leaning towards the inflatable for my boat as it wont top 40mph, and then using the standard pfd when i go as a co-angler in an actual bass boat.

I read on another site where two guys had a pretty bad boat wreck. The doctor told one of the guys that his PFD saved his life, but not from the water. He was wearing a standard non-inflatable PFD. The cushion from the PFD prevented his heart from being crushed when he hit the console. The doc said that had he been wearing an inflatable, he would have been killed. Any thoughts from you guys regarding PFD's and your preferences?

Hi-Lift.

Two paddles, not just one. I had an issue on my last boat where all the batteries died and I was in the middle of the lake. My partner took the one paddle I had, I had to wrap my rain jacket around the net to make an extra paddle.

On a friends pond in a jon boat, sure. On any water where someone might have to drive, no

your right in saying premature is somewhat undefineable. Some last 100 years, some last a few weeks depending on the load and heat exposure. i would say that properly maintained, bearings on a trailer should last a long time. my point is, when you take it back to BPS, make sure they can guarantee that the bearings used were good quality. It sounds as if they installed them correctly, you have maintained them properly, there is no real reason why they should have failed other than being faulty.

i work for a major bearing distributor. There is very major problem with counterfeit bearings being sold to small distributors or your local auto parts place. The best thing to do is to ask what brand bearing is being installed on your trailer or to make sure you are buying a quality brand name. The authorized distributors of brands like Timken, S.K.F, F.A.G, Fafnir, etc usually have authentic bearings and will warranty them if they prematurely fail. The counterfeit or Chinease knockoffs often times are remanufactured, or simply just old bearings that are cleaned and reasold, a major reason why they might fail early. Other causes of failure include improper installation or lubrication.

without a source of light, white is as dark as any other color. your fine with what you have

Go to academy and look at their gun cases. I have a case that was meant for 5 pistols or so for around 5 bucks

Not in mine, but in a friends aluminum boat. Pros-it makes us feel much more confident in the entire livewell system, seems to keep the fish more spunky. Combined with an agressive recirc and pump in system, it seems to have elimated the need for ice. we still put in additives but have not used ice in a while. Cons-Spunky fish like to jump out and I do not have randy moss catching abilities. Also, the cost seems a little high for what it is. It didnt seem that hard to install on a normal boat, but the location of the livewell compared to the batteries presented a problem for us in addition to the livewell being aluminum vs plastic or fiberglass. It was a little harder to make the hole. The portable version might be better for those not willing to cut holes in a livewell, though I would recommend sleeving the wire in PVC to protect it from the fish. While we were there, we went ahead and insulated the exterior of the livewell to help with summer heat issues.

Ok, I'm going to go a little overboard on this post. A while back I spoke to my podiatrist, asking him what would be the best for multiple day tourneys as well as some of the trade shows that I attend for work. He recommended Saucony or NewBalance for the boat with a good insole. He said if you just have to wear sandles, go with something like Chaco's. For the trade shows, move the insoles from the tennis shoes to the dress shoes. The main reason he recommended those brands was for the harder sole and the ability to have a tighter fit. It helps to keep proper circulation flow in your feet and legs, reducing some fatigue. He also recommended an antifatigue mat (Lowes for $10) to put under the carpet at the tradeshow booth as well as under the carpet on the boat.

Our cat sleeps in the boat on the front deck. We dont have mice issues in the boat. Funny story though, I was taking dad's ski boat to the marina to put gas in it one 4th of July. Halfway across the chanel at Logan Martin, something runs up the windshield, down my arm, and turns and hisses at me from the back of the boat. It was a racoon that had taken up residence under the bow cushions. There was an intense standoff between he and I, weapons of choice were his claws and my slalom ski. After two whacks to the head, he jumped on the gunnel, where I attempted to knock him off. Right before he hit the water, he managed to grab the rub rail with one finger. I beat the #$%# out of that finger until he fell in the water and began swimming to shore. Scared the crap out of me.