Wayne P.

The type of service provided by a BPS or independent Tracker/Nitro dealer is relative to the service personnel. That goes for any boat dealer. Ask local purchasers for their experience with either. How someone is treated somewhere you are not has no bearing on the service you may experience. Your local BPS may have the best service personel in the area----or not.

All of the smaller diameter superlines will dig into the spool more than the larger diameters no matter which brand. Samurai is no better or worse for that. I use the Samurai 30# and 40# on spinning gear and the 40# which is 8# mono diameter is less prone to digging in when subjected to stress. Use at least the 8# mono equivelent diameters to lessen diging in and also keep tension on the line as much as possible when using them. When installing the superlines, keep a lot of tension on the line to get a tight wind on the reel spool. Even the smaller diameter lines can be used with no substantial problems if user error is eliminated.

Go to the Teleflex web site and then to the mechanical steering page. There is a diagram of the parts. It looks like 4 screws are removed to separate the rack from the pinion housing. See if that matches what you have.

Thanks George, I'll be checking the mfg. of the battery instead of the brand name the next time I need some.

PM sent

Thanks burleytog, good info

George, does Johnson Controls make the Exide batteries? I have four Everstart batteries in my boat and all of them state (distributed by Exide Technologies) I also have an Energizer deep cycle battery that is "distributed by Johnson Controls" and a Megatron Interstate deep cycle battery that is "marketed by Interstate Batteries" I read the lables on all the Everstart batteries at Walmart: lawn tractor, motor cycle, auto starting, deep cycle, dual purpose (starting/deep cycle) and all were "distributed by Exide Technologies" I think you guys are getting the names Everstart and Engergizer mixed up. My local Walmart carries Everstart batteries. I think I got the Energizer at Sam's Club.

Tungsten (W) is #74 on the Periodic Tables and Lead (Pb) is #82 on the tables. Stainless steel is mostly Iron (Fe) which is # 26 on the tables. It is an alloy of iron with carbon, nickle, chromium, titanium, nitrogen, vandium, copper, or silicon depending on the needed properties. Evidently the tungsten sinkers are an alloy with some heavier elements to get a density higher than lead.

Exide makes all the styles of Everstart batteries that my local Walmart carries, not Johnson Controls. I think Johnson Controls is the mfg. of Optima batteries.

Jig Man, I sent Walmart Corp an e-mail about your statement and I visited my local Walmart with the warrenty question. The dept manager and store manager were puzzled with that question. It had no basis as far as they were concerned. I haven't received a Corp response yet other than to talk to the local store--I told them I already had and wanted an official Corp. response. I'll post their response when/if I get one.

Taylor, no transducer that has a cone shaped beam will produce any image close to what the Side Imaging or Structure Scan can produce. Also the software to process the images is specific to that technolgy. You can get a transducer for Humminbird units that have 2 90 degree horizonal (left and right) beams and 2 vertical beams (20 degree and 60 degree). It is called the Quadbeam. It is available in the transom mount and trolling motor mount styles. edited: there is another transducer called the Wide Side that has three elements (one for left views, one for right views and1 for down views) for some of the Humminbird units.

A long time ago, Buck Perry said there were more fish away from the shore than at the shore. That was good enough for me. The Green Box Lowrance sonar helped me find those off shore breaks. I rarely even get within casing distance of a shoreline anymore.

I have both transducers and I can't tell any difference in performance between the two. I may have tried to see if there was a difference if I had read those specs. I'll be more attentive when the ice melts.

F1 bass do quite well in Virginia under the ice.

Bird Dog, if you have fished Lake Fork, there is a small version of that lake in Va. called Briery Creek Lake (845 acres).

If you want to know who really makes the battery you recommend, do an internet search for battery mfg. You may be surprised.

Wally World Everstarts, I get about 5 years out of them. They have a good return policy if one fails early and they are located conveniently to a lot of places.

You will give up a lot of screen resolution for that "cool" color screen. It only has 128 vertical pixels. The Eagle 320 has 320 vertical pixels and the HB 570 has 640 vertical pixels.

Smith Mountain Lake has enough coves and creeks in different directions that you can always find places to fish without fighting wind waves. If you want to fish for smallmouth, use the marina where the Elite tournaments launched from and fish Craddock Creek.

Never use a chart. Senko, the fish are scared of it. Send any you have to me and I will properly dispose of them, LOL

dick, I was not referring to any one person and I don't take anything personal. I just relaying what is going on reguarding that subject. Your reply is just the type of response that is prevelant on the other sites when discussing this subject. Please continue to help others understand the technogy and how to get the best performance with their units and leave out the who's stuff is better than someone's else's stuff comments. I just got that technogy in December and am going thru the learning process just like everyone else. I glady share the results of my trials, but not to try to show my stuff is better than your stuff. I have at no point made any claim that I posses any images better than anyone else's. I really don't care, I just want to get the best performance with what I have. As shown on the texas forum link, the image is quite remarkable for a non-camera image. When users of either brand can get that type of image, everyone wins.

I use a treble trailer hook on buzzbaits and spinnerbaits in smallmouth waters. It has increased my hook-up ratio a lot.

I use a medium heavy 7' 6" flipping stick and 20# fluorocarbon line. The hook I use is a size 4 to 1/0 feathered treble depending on the body of water. I tie to a split ring--no swivel.

TommyBass, PM sent

The Humminbird version of Down Imaging was just released on Feb 12th and 14th, 2010. There never has been a "gap" in the bottom coverage of the left and right SI beams. The beam coverage and the 2D sonar cone coverages are based on a certain decible strength and additional actual coverage range is experienced in all systems in other decible ranges. Just the strongest signals are represented in the published coverage angles of SI, DI 2D, SS and DS. With the Humminbird SI, the left and right beams actually overlap directly below the transducer and that overlap is part of the DI image. It is real easy to determine the overlap is occurring since an object is shown on both side images when passing directly over it. I haven't had my SI unit very long and have seen that overlap lots of times when passing over submerged objects. The Lowrance Structure Scan transducer uses three narrow beam crystals (left, right, down) and the Humminbird Side Image transducer uses two narrow beam crystals (left, and right) and also a 2D cone crystal with only the left and right being used for Side Imaging and Down Imaging. If you want to see what an experienced operator of the Humminbird system can produce, check out the images that TritonMike has posted here. I seems that some comparison posts are agenda motivated rather than showing how each system can perform at it's best.