RenegadeBassin

Good to hear. Seems like if I can still hear the thing clicking then it is hopefully ok.

I hope its not

Last night I found out that there was a pinch point on my trolling motor that I missed the hard way. I was deploying my trolling motor in my garage to check clearance on something else and before I noticed my cable ended up pinched in part of it. I think I got lucky and didn't damage it because I turned everything on and could hear the transducer clicking. The rubber wasn't pierced but you can see and feel a small amount of wear on it. I won't know for certain until I can take the boat out in a month or so when the ice melts. My question is that if I DID end up damaging it, or I accidentally do in the future, can you replace just the cable on the transducer, or do you need an entirely new transducer to go along with it?

I haven't had any trouble towing, but its a lot more obvious than it looks in that picture to the point that it bothers me just as far as aesthetics go. I am doing what Glenn mentioned above and swapping my ball to the other side. Gonna re-prime and paint it while I have it apart. The only problem I do run in to is when I need to put it in the garage it is tipped so far forward due to the elevated height of the garage that I have to sit on my bed step and do like a leg press type maneuver to get my jack stand to deploy to where it needs to be. It's not very fun and I'm hoping that this will lift the tongue up enough that I will be able to put the jack all the way down without it running into the ground.

I was wondering if that was ok to do! Thanks

Level it out or no? What are the risks of towing with a trailer that isn't level? It's tipped forward if you can't really tell.

Yeah most places I fish unless its a tournament the launch is very quiet. Some days you could sit on the ramp in your boat and eat breakfast if you wanted to

I back my boat in without unhooking the strap, climb down the trailer onto the boat, unhook the strap and then push off. I troll back up to the beach or dock then go park my truck. Maybe that's a stupid way of doing it but I'm pretty quick at it and it works for me! I also use my trolling motor to put the boat on the trailer a lot of times if its calm out. One time, however, when I went to pull it out at the last second as I was speeding onto the trailer my stupid stock minn kota pull string snapped and I couldn't get it out of the water. Didn't do any damage those fortrexs are tough but I am going to be buying a cable before the ice is out and I can start fishing again.

Had a couple goodies show up in the mail yesterday...

I tried kayak fishing after I sold my first boat. I got one to hold me over until I could buy a new boat. I wasn't a fan. Having a boat is much easier in IMO, this includes jon boats. Spend more time fishing and not paddling to where you want to fish, and you'll have more storage and fishing area. I'm 23 y/o and not afraid of paddling a kayak around; I just sometimes believe in working smarter not harder. Can't bring your buddies in a kayak either!

Recently installed the bow helix on my own time. It was pretty easy since there was pre-rigged power for it under the pedal tray. Just had to run the ethernet cable to the console where my 5 port switch is. It appears to all be working but I'll find out for sure in a few months.

Me with my lund in April.

Renegades have only been out for around a year so it would be sort of tough to find one in your price range, but I think another great boat, the Ranger RT series has been out for a few more years than that, and you may have better luck looking for an RT188 or 178. That would be an excellent choice if you can find one.

I got a side imaging unit for the console and a down imaging unit only for the bow. They are networked together so If I really want to view side imaging on the bow I can view it from the rear transducer, and saved money in the process by not buying 2 SI units. I'm not very experienced with all this electronics stuff yet but I think what I did is what a lot of other people do as well.

In the meantime you can use your DI/SI to find structure that could potentially hold fish and then switch over to sonar which is easier to see fish on when you are first learning like I am, then the more you use them you the more you will be able to read them like @Further North can. Edit: Also if you can split the screen on the helix 7 you could put sonar and DI side by side and that may help you determine what fish look like on DI when you can see them on Sonar

Pair of fluffy dice hanging in front of the windshield?

I don't know @12poundbass the more I look at the chocolate brown the more I like it It's different.

Could anyone post some pics of where they ran their transducer cable to the fishfinder on a Fortrex? I have it about halfway done but I'm not sure where to go once you make it to the top of the shaft on the trolling motor. I've heard you don't want to fasten it to the big wire tube that goes to the foot pedal because it will give you interference. Youtube didn't really help for the fortrex. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Boat 80%, Ice shack 20%.

I haven't broken a rod on a cleat but one time I was pulling one of my teammate's rods out of his rod locker and the wind blew the lid shut and snapped the rod in half. You can bet I felt pretty bad about that....Luckily we won the tournament so I paid him for it with some of my winnings.

I'm really liking it so far. I got to use it 5 or 6 times before I had to put it in the garage for the winter (we just got 8 inches of snow this weekend and its snowing right now,) and so far I think it rides great, looks great, and I'm a huge fan of having a four stroke motor. I'm interested to see if the batteries that came with it will hold up during an 8 hour tournament day, but if it has any issues I think I can squeeze another one in there. Right now I have two trolling motor batteries and a cranking battery with all my electronics hooked up to it.

I just built what I think is basically exactly how my renegade came from the dealer and the price was about $1000 more online than what I payed for it. This includes something in the summary under discounts called NAPDISC though, maybe some of the more experience guys on here know what that is. Without that then the online price would be about $5000 more than what I payed for it. Give the dealer a call and ask what they would sell you one for. That's what I did. As far as the trolling motor goes I have a 24v. The dealer installed it. He had the boat already though I didn't order it so I'm not sure if they do that at the factory or not.

Thanks for the feedback I will check all of these options out. I've used nets with rubber in the past and really liked it and that's probably the way I will go, but I will keep an eye out for the depth of the net!

I was shocked yesterday when I went on ranger's website for the heck of it and saw that one of their new boats price tag is 98k. If I had 98k, I'd buy a 40k boat and and a matching truck to pull it

I will be fishing tournaments as a boater next season and will need to get a new net. I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews on the ones on TW. What do you suggest? Reliability is important.