Way2slow

When I was a senior in high school (1966) I was taking home $40 a week and bought a new 14" GlassMaster fiberglass boat, 65hp Mercury motor and the trailer for $1,427 drive out price. When I retired in 2011 I was making $1,600 a week. Based on income, that made me pay the equivalent of over $57,000 for that boat in 1966. About twice what I could have bought it for in 2011.

TOXIC, I'm just the opposite, my wife's car, I take very good care of, but my trucks I buy to use, and abuse. I keep my vehicles maintained, but I don't concern myself with keeping the nice and pretty. I will only buy 4WD trucks because I want them to be able to go through places I don't want to walk. A lot of times that means driving over small tree and through limbs hanging off bigger trees. Doing that I not very beneficial for keeping a keeping scratch free, shiny finish on one. My 2500HD is a 6.0 gas engine and only needs one battery, but I run two and a 350-amp alternator because of the 12,000-lb winch that can draw 400 amps, and has saved my butt a number of times. I properly maintain them, but don't hesitate to use and abuse them. As for shop using flat rate manuals. That's common practice. They are geared toward an average mechanic that is probably doing that repair for the first time so an experienced mechanic will get it done much faster. Before I retired, the company I worked for used them but they doubled the hours. The owner said half his mechanics were so bad, they usually had to do the repair twice so he built that into the billing.

I agree, dealers are "usually" the best place to get repair work done, they generally have the knowhow and special equipment most run of the mill shops don't have, but don't think for a second, they are all honest and upfront about their repairs. Seen and heard too many horror stories of what dealers tried to do the customers. For instance, about 10 years ago, I was with my son in a chevy van, traveling in Florida to pick up some furniture he bought. Van died on the expressway about five AM and had it towed to a dealership about 10 miles away. I told him it acted like the crankshaft sensor went out but I had no tools or anything to check it with. I was watching though a large window as they did their thing. The mechanic spent about 20 minutes working on the van and two hours working on anouther vehicle in front of it, then comes back, closes the hood down and backs it out. Then they hand my son a bill for $500 to replace a crankshaft sensor. They were charging $180 for the sensor and three hours labor to replace it. I called their hand on that one. I told them to show me in their computer where that part list for $180 and explain how I stood there and watched their mechanic working on another vehicle for over two hours of that three hours labor. They finally reduced the bill to $260 which was still more than it should have been but not the total screwing they were trying to do.

The kind of customer Car, boat, (ALL) dealerships and service centers love to have. What's the old expression, "bend over, grease up", because it's coming. I'm 75 years old and have never paid anyone do to anything for me, (other than medical, dental etc), but I'm getting to where I have physical limitations and that's scareing the crap out of me. I went to start my 2500HD pickup the other day and the batteries were dead as a hammer, even though it was on a 2-amp maintainer. The relay that controls the 7-amp heater blower went bad and it was constantly running, maintainer couldn't keep up with that. The relay is part of the resistor pack under the dash and because of the arthritis in my neck, I could not get under there to unplug the connector for the blower. I had to cut the wires and splice/solder the new wires to them. It cost me $30, and I was thinking then, if I had to pay for this repair, it would easily have been over $300, when you figure they would charge $100 or more for the part and at least 2 hours minimum for troubleshooting and repair, even though it only took less than a 1/2 hour, and that would have been from a somewhat honest shop (and those are rare). Plus, one of the batteries (I run two big AGM's) was bad and should be replaced as a pair which would have been another $500-$600, where I can get them for $165 each.

The only reason I sold it is I'm 75, mostly had to go by myself, and it was a 250-mile round trip to the lake I liked to fish and cost me close to $200 in gas each trip, 2500HD only got 9-10 mpg towing it. It was sitting a year at the time, at times. I just decided my jon boat would be good enough for what little I was fishing and I could tow it with my 93 4WD Toyota.

I sold my Renegade 20DC last year after close to 15 years of owning it. It had the 225 Ficht and I loved the boat. Road good, took rough water very well, and was rather fast. It ran in the low 70's with two 200+ guys and gear with the 225 Ficht, and 83 with a 3.0 modified Johson (326 Hp). Can't say there is another boat I could wish I had instead of it. As for one being in production vs another means absolutely nothing with boats that age. You can pretty much bet no manufacture still has parts or any kind of support for them.

I can't even sit in my LazyBoy recliner 5 or 6 hours. Even in my 20' bass boat, I took a break every few hours

Thats a fairly simple, basic motor. There are numbers of factory manuals on ebay for around $20 or so 1969 Johnson Outboard Motor Service Manual 25 HP | eBay or you can find you a Clymer manual for it. Crowley Marine is usually a pretty good source for parts. 1969 Outboard 25 [25R69B] - Parts Lookup | Crowley Marine. If you are smart, you will replace the water pump and service the lower unit. The lower units after getting that old are notorious for leaking and it's a good chance it will need new seals and O-rings in it. If it's not full of lube and if the lube is not black and stinks, it probably leaks. It's black because of wear and they seldom ever get serviced.

I would have a hard time letting any shop do my brakes. Most use cheap rotors that the first time you make a hard stop and heat them up, they warp and give you dreaded chatter every time you stop afterwards. That is, if they do anything with the rotors, most of the places just measure them and if they are still within minimum thickness specs, they just scuff them a little and throw a cheap set of pads on them. I'm getting ready to do the front brakes on the wife's Highlander and just the rotors pads and caliper rebuild kits were almost $400. The same parts in that cheap stuff from Autozone etc would be less than $100. When it comes to safety or something that's going to be a major job to have to do over, I refuse to use that cheap Chinese junk. Having to use Chinese parts is hard to avoid now days, but using those super cheap, junk parts I avoid. There is still one manufacture in the US that makes brake rotors.

Darth-Baiter, what you was getting I find to be a very common occurrence, too common. A very good friend of my wife was asking me to help her pick out another car, the shop quoted her more than the value of hers to get the repairs needed done. The biggest single item was the AC, they quoted her $3,000 to repair the AC and with front brakes and a few other things the total was over $5,000 on a 2011 Kia Sorrento. She was going through some hard times and didn't have that kind of money for the repairs they said it needed. Naturally my wife throws in, why don't you just let Keith look at it first. The $3,000 AC cost $235 for a new compressor. I replaced all for brake rotors, new, good quality brake pads, rebuilt the caliper, replaced a U-joint that wasn't on their quote, replace the timing belt that was not on their quote, replace a leaking water pump, and new belts that was not on their quote, replace a bad tie-rod end, serviced the transmission with new filter and fluid that was not on their quote, new plugs and plug wires that was not on their quote and several other small things they had listed and things they didn't. I spent a little over $800 on parts and going by their quote, it would have been over $6,000 by the time they finished with her. That was two years ago, and she has not had a problem with it since. My son took his 2011 2500HD diesel to the dealer because it kept going into the limp home mode. They quoted him $750, saying it was the TPS and the pedal sensor. I fixed it with the $5 tube of dielectric grease. That was six years ago, and it has never given him the problem since.

For towing the boat, a 4WD 2001 Silverado HD2500 with 6.0 gas guzzler. 12.5 mpg on its best day with no load and 10mpg with the boat behind it. For general purpose and towing the jon boat, a 1993 4WD Toyota pickup with 22RE. EFI, 4 cylinder. Even being modified with a better midrange cam, ported head, headers and 2-1/2 exhaust for about 30 more hp and much better midrange torque, it still gets over twice the milage of the HD2500.

What I always liked about my canoe; it was a go anywhere boat, even if you couldn't get a vehicle near where you wanted to fish, you could still get the canoe there. Growing up as a country boy and all kinds of farm ponds and small rivers to fish, that was critical. Farmers would let me fish their ponds, but they didn't want you driving a vehicle across their fields to get to them, and some might not even have a path to them. Even by yourself, it was no problem carrying or dragging the canoe around. One little trick for those not fully trained on canoe use. In a long canoe like my 17' and by yourself. The way you normally sit in one the rear seat is close to the back of the boat, and it makes it difficult to handle without throwing a bunch of weight in the front. To get around that, you use the canoe backwards. The front seat is a little off center from the middle so if you sit in the front seat facing the rear of the canoe, it has much better weight distribution and does not throw the opposite end way up in the air. When you are traveling light pond jumping and don't have a battery and bunch of other junk along, it makes fishing a whole lot better.

Back when I was into this stuff heavy, this used to be the best source for parts. They bought huge amounts of manufactures inventory when they were bought out and shut down. Not sure if they have still been doing that but if they don't have it, it's probably no longer available. Team C&O Marine - New & Pre-Owned Boats, Autos and Trucks, Financing, Parts and Service in White Bluff, TN, near Charlotte and White Oak Flat (candomarine.com)

That's what prop shops are for. The old is pressed out and the new is pressed in. The hub kit you are looking at may be for the newer props that comes with inserts so they can be used on different motors, not for your prop.

I'll make it short, it's not a jon boat and if I had to fish out of that boat, you couldn't give it to me, even if it was delivered to me. If you plan on standing on that front deck, make sure you have a flotation device on and using a rod/reel you don't mind losing.

When I sold my Javelin last year, we took it for a test ride, it had the 225 not the 300+hp modified engine on it but still ran 76 with both of us in it but stripped of TM batteries. charger, TM and no gear, and only about 10 gallons of gas, so it was running pretty light. I told him since it has been a while since it was in the water, I would drive it first to make sure it was all good to go. I slowly eased the power to in intervals until I felt it was ready, then I trimmed it up and aired it out, 76.2 on the in dash gps. I looked over at the guy buying it and it was very obvious he had never been that fast in a boat, you could see the panic and fear all over his face. It was a dual console so your cheeks were not blown back past your ears. I then put him in the driver's and let him drive while I was showing him and teaching stuff about the boat. He got up to about 50mph and after a bit I told him he could go ahead and hit it and I would try to teach him a little about driving one with chine walk. I got a real quick, NOPE! I'm good. He's the kind that hopefully does not try to run one WOT for a long time.

There are a lot of times you anchor in one spot night fishing. Crappie fishermen do it all the time. That's why there are laws on the height and intensity of the white light, so they are visible from a long distance and must be visible for 360 degrees. The RED/Green Nav lights are only visible for 180 - 270 degrees and most of those you can usually only see them for a few hundred yards at most, so basically, if another boat is not coming at an angle from the front, they are never going to see them anyway. I've never had a problem with turning my NAV lights off at night, a lot of times they will have other light's on that are annoying and not needed when anchored. With my pontoon boat, I can turn on enough light they would think they are driving into the sun if they don't act like they see me. However, as they say, "different strokes for different folks".

I prefer any lights I install on a separate switch from the NAV/ANChor light switch. I don't like running at night with lights in the boat on, makes it hard to see. If on the anchor side of the switch, the Nav lights don't have to be on but then you still have no way of turning the LED lights off without turning the anchor light off, and I don't think you want to do that on the lake. Now I am assuming you know the Anchor side of the NAV/Anchor light switch is the tall white light in at the stern of the boat is the anchor light, and when you select the anchor side of the switch, it tuns off the RED/GREEN bow NAV lights and leaves the white light in the back on. I don't know how many people I've run into that doesn't realize that. The white light has to be on at night when sitting on the water, but not the running lights. For lights in the compartments and a little light inside the boat, I like those small led lights that are about 3/4" x 3" or so and mount with two small screws, self-drilling works great in aluminum, and they can be glued in it tight places. Green gives off a little more light if used inside the boat, but red is better at helping save the night vision. They draw so little current; you can easily use 18ga or 20ga wire to connect them. For casting and lighting up the bank some, I use UV lights with a color temp between 375 and 400. For still fishing or bow fishing where I want some serious light on the water, I use 24V high powered LED lights and run those off the TM batteries, don't have to worry about a dead cranking battery then. If you are running a 36v TM, you just connect them across two of the batteries. Beats the crap out of the old HID lights we used to use. Another thing you can do is get one of the small inverter generators, that are super quite and plug your onboard changer (provided it's at least a 10amp or so), into it to help keep the batteries lasting all night if you fish that long.

That's one advantage of being and old fart that had fast boats all his life. You could only go as fast as the technology back then would let you and as the technology improved, your driving skills and knowledge was able to improve gradually with the technology. There was no such thing as buying a boat off the show room floor that was capable of running in the 80's, 90's and 100+ mph, unless you do like I did back in the 60's when Mercury came out with the 135BHP and put two of them on a 16' Allison (that ran 83). I usually managed to keep modifying until they did. Where there is a huge disconnect between boats today and boat operators is the seat time at speeds where there are only one to two square feet of the hull in the water. First just knowing how to drive a boat that chine walks, fast boats are going to do that (except maybe tunnel hulls). The main thing missing is the most important part, knowing when and when not to have one aired out. My last bass boat was a 20' Javelin that would run a touch over 80mph with two men, and gear and it was fun to air it out from time to time, but the nicest part about it, I could sit back and comfortably cruise at 50-60 mph and burn very little fuel. When you are feeding 300+ horses running 80mph, it hits on the hip pocket pretty darn good.

As I mention before, just because it one companies brand name on it, does not mean that company made it. They are constantly being outsourced to different manufactures. This is just a small example, you don't know for sure who made what's under that label and that's truer today than ever before. Yamaha actually got started in the outboard market making parts for OMC, that's why so many of their V-6 parts were interchangeable with OMC V-6's and they looked so much like the OMC V-6's. There are also some things in that I don't think are right. I'm pretty sure Tohatsu still makes the 25 hp merc and probably a few others and they mayhave moved almost all their smaller motors to China by now. Who makes Mercury outboard motors? July 11, 2022 by Mark Bunting Tohatsu Marine’s factory has undergone three major reforms to date. One is a capital tie-up with Brunswick that makes the Mercury brand of outboard engines as explained above. Table of Contents show Is Mercury outboard American made? Mercury Marine gets a break on tariffs for its Chinese-made outboard engines. Boating engine company Mercury Marine, based in Fond du Lac, has been granted exclusions from 25 percent tariffs for its outboard engines assembled in China. Are Tohatsu and Mercury the same? Tohatsu Marine Corporation was set up in 1988 as joint venture with Brunswick Corporation, USA. Mercury Marine is a division of Brunswick Corporation and many of the smaller Mercury Outboards are just rebranded Tohatsu Engines. In addition, the entire line of Nissan outboards are rebranded Tohatsus. Which outboard motors are made in the USA? Elco electric outboard motors, Made in the USA, are available in a wide range of horsepower options, from 5HP to 50HP, with remote or tiller control and long or short shaft to fit boats of all shapes and sizes. Our electric boat motors look like traditional outboards because for us, they are. Is Mercury boat motors owned by Ford? Mercury Marine is a marine engine division of Brunswick Corporation. Are Mercury engines made in China? It opened Thursday and is expected to attract 150,000 spectators. Mercury currently manufactures some engine components in China and is shifting production of 40- to 60-horsepower four-strokes to the new factory near Beijing. What Mercury outboards are made in China? Re: chinese outboards – Mercury makes all the Verados, Optimaxs, and 2 strokes in USA. Where does Mercury make their motors? All of the new engines are built at Mercury’s headquarters in Fond du Lac. Are Mercury and Evinrude the same company? BRP owns Evinrude along with boat manufacturers Alumacraft and Manitou. It will now buy engines for these brands from former competitor Mercury Marine. Did Evinrude get bought out? BRP stepped in, purchased the brand, recalled bad engines, improved the technology and brought Evinrude back to the marketplace in 2003 with the launch of the E-TEC line of outboards. Do they still make Evinrude outboards? Evinrude outboard motors will no longer be manufactured. The boating world received shocking and surprising news. One of the world’s leaders in outboard motor manufacturing will no longer exist. Who is mariner made by? Mercury Mariner Manufacturer Mercury (Ford) Production 2004–2010 Model years 2005-2011 Body and chassis Are Honda and Tohatsu outboards the same? The eight new outboards — 60-, 75-, 90-, 115-, 150-, 200-, 225- and 250-hp models — are manufactured by Honda and rebranded under the Tohatsu name, Kurt Gardener, national sales manager for Tohatsu America Corp., told Trade Only Today this morning. Are Mercury motors made by Yamaha? In 2006 models, Mercury four stroke powerheads from 40 to 225 HP (except the Verados) are built by Yamaha. Mercury’s agreement with Yamaha ended in March 2006, at which time Mercury is expected to phase in more four cylinders (75 to 115 HP) based on the Verado engine block, but without supercharging or intercooling.

MN Fisher, I hope you are not putting 1 Qt per 6 gallons of gas. 6 gallons uses 16 ounces, (1 pint) Also, for those that have never heard of some of those Japanese brands. For many years, when you bought a lot of those "American name brands" you were actually buying a rebranded Japanese motor.

For personal comfort, you will figure that out as you go. Waterproof gloves that are thin enough to be able to use the reel are essential. You never realize how much water comes off that line unti its ice cold. I always kept a couple of those butane pancake heaters in the boat. They don't do much for keeping you warm, but they at least give you a chance to warm your hands. Keeping my hands dry and feet warm was always my biggest challenge. For safety, a boarding ladder on the back of the boat or learn how to use the motors tilt and trim if the motor has it, to lift you into the boat in you end up in the water. You will usually have so much warm gear on that when it gets wet, it adds a bunch of weight to you and in that cold water, you will find it hard to move, so don't think you will just jump back in the boat. The biggest thing with the motor is give it plenty of warm up time before heading out. Even after starting off, go slow and gradually increase your RPM for the first 1/4 mile or so. If you have been in one location for an extended period of time, try to keep the motor down and give the motor a couple of minutes to warm up again. If below freezing, after loading the boat, make sure the motor has drained good before tilting it up to trailer it. Make sure the boats drain plug is out and live well drained before too long. If it starts snowing or sleeting, head for the ramp because if it gets ice on it, you might not be able to get up it. Been there, done that and even with 4WD I had a hellava time getting the boat out and up the ramp. One more after thought. When moving or when windy, a vinyl rain suit or poncho makes a great wind blocker. That cold wind will still cut through any fabric type material, so you will need something to block the wind.

The fiberglass in not the problem with storing outside, it would take a lifetime or two in most cases to damage it. It's everything else about the boat that gets destroyed over time. Vinyl has a very short life span outside, the thread sewing the seats together goes fairly quickly, if there's wood in the construction, it tends to rot over time and the gel coat pretty much get destroyed. So, after about five years of being exposed to the elements, your new boat looks 30 years old. Covers help, but they create other problems, and the cheap ones only last a couple of seasons. So, after you buy a few covers, you could have bought one of the metal carport things to put it under. Now, if you live in the southwest where there is extreme sun and heat, that five years turn into about two years.

I wouldn't have the room to put something like that for mine. I used 3/4" PVC pipe, some Tee connectors and elbows to make some racks to hang down from the ceiling of my shop just a little over head high. There are two rows, one on top of the other about 8" apart, 6' wide. I probably have 40 rods and reels in it. They are up out of the way and easy enough to just slide them out when I want them. Most are in rod sleeves so don't have to worry about them getting tangled up.

A-Jay is a lot closer with his reply than that chart. If you depend on that chart, make sure you take someone that can help paddle. Mathematically that looks correct, but there are some variables that are not accounted for when doing the math. First off, it's not a true deep cycle battery if it has a CCA rating so you can bet it rated using the 20 hour method. Meaning a 100 amp hour (Ah) battery is only that at about 5 amps per hour. You are not gonna go very fast at five amps per hour. As the load is increased. internal resistance increases (creating loss due to internal heat) and causes the Ah to drop. At 30 amps, you can figure at least a 20% drop in the Ah capacity of a battery The next variable they fail to account for is, that 100Ah is based on when the battery has reached full discharge, that's going to be somewhere around 11 volts or slightly less. Even at 11.5 volts the TM is going to be slowed down to a ridiculously slow pace, to the point it's almost useless, so that's another 20% of battery capacity that's going to be useless to you. With all that hidden loss, your run time is only going to be about 60% of what the math says it's going to be, and if it's not a good, almost new battery, it's going to be even less. So, good luck on thinking you're going to get what that simple math says. I should also mention, this is all based on analog TM, no digital style. Digital motors use pulse width modulation to run the motor so the more off of full speed you run, the greater the run time you can get over the conventional TM. If you are using a digital TM, when just easing around casting, you can easily triple your run time. In general, the Reserve Minutes (RM) are a much more accurate way to calculate one mathematically. RM is based on a 25 amp load (with most batteries) which is a little more realistic to what you could be using over a 5 amp load in the 20 hour rating. You are still going to lose about 20% because the battery voltage being to low to run the TM at speed when it's discharged. and you are still going to lose some capacity as you go over that 25 amps used to rate the battery but it won't be as great of a loss as with the 20 hour rating. No matter the rating method, no battery is going to last what the math says it will because of those variables.