Made It to The Big Leagues

Nicolai

Active Member
Great advice Joe, thank you, I was seeing they started introducing the 4 strokes after 2002, so I've been hunting for one around that year! 5 miles seems kind of scary to be honest haha but maybe experiencing fast travel time might make me change my mind. I'd love to troll around and find some rock piles to get the big one! When are you going down again Joe?
 

audsley

Well Known Member
Fine for days without wind and waves. Generally best for smaller bodies of water. I wouldn't take it far from shore in the ocean.
 

Old55

Well Known Member
Fine for days without wind and waves. Generally best for smaller bodies of water. I wouldn't take it far from shore in the ocean.
My buddy has one like it in Beaufort Sc....it is awesome in the tide flats ,rivers and inland stuff....gets dicey near Paris Island...
 

Nicolai

Active Member
Joe, I finally got a Jet Ski set up! Going down this coming Sunday to try her out, gunna go look for some structures out there probably nothing more than 7-10 miles out!
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Joe, I finally got a Jet Ski set up! Going down this coming Sunday to try her out, gunna go look for some structures out there probably nothing more than 7-10 miles out!
That's awesome brother! What were you able to get your hands on? I'm jealous! I want to be there getting a line wet but I have to wait a little while longer...
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
BOAT BUMP

I haven't been on the forums for a minute due to my absolute obsessive work ethic to get this boat ready to start fishing RP. In the two months that I've owned it, only in the last week and a half has she seen her first two lake trips. I have well over 100 labor hours into this boat so far. Honestly, I've lost track at this point. I think I've hand scrubbed the boat and hand wet sanded it in total 5 or 6 times. I had to become a contortionist to start the electrical inside the center console. Holy shit that's fun! Same with the battery compartment. All deck screws were a complete B!tch to get out because the PO used regular steel screws... SMH. That was fun! I broke multiple impact rated phillips head trying to get all the rusted screws out of everything they used them on. That was fun! Multiple rounds of taking the hose inside the hull and spraying out the CUBIC YARDS of dirt, sand and 2 stroke sludge mix... That was fun!

Just when you're ready to stop having so much fun something funny happens. You start to see glimmers of a boat. You start to see glimmers of a vision and it peaks the brain again!!! FUCK YES!!! I'm having fun!!! So then I finally was able to get to the fun stuff... I cut all the holes in the glass that I needed for 4 speakers and a 10" subwoofer for the center console. I had to run 4 pairs of 14g copper to the front of the boa for the 2 bow speakers and hatch lights that I wanted to put in the hatches for lake nights. I snipped one of the existing navigation lights for the bow at the battery compartment and used it to pull through my new pairs as well as a replacement for the nav light and additional mason/construction string for future pull throughs. We plan to get an electric winch in the future. I also had to run 4g beefy copper from battery compartment to center console for the sound system. That actually was rather easy as those wires slid on top of the gas tank along the factory harness all the way to the back unimpeded. I was then able to get the stereo system installed with 4 true 150w rms 6.5" speakers and a 600w RMS 10" sub... My truck is still under the knife right now so for the time being I jacked the amps from my truck system to get this going. Running a 4 channel 1000w amp that realistically is about 150w RMS per channel and a 2 channel 1000w amp that I'm only using one channel for maybe 400w rms. I'd have to look. THIS SYSTEM IS LOUD AAAAAAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!! LOL damn!!! Pry overkill for a fishing boat but we do use this at PLEZ as well for our float/lake days so it's par for that course at least. I also installed a knockoff CHINA (DT voice) Switch Pro switch pod to control some future additions and GPS/FF VHF radio and some hatch lights. Those things are so legit! $100 and you get 8 switches and solid state relay to keep the wiring super simple and clean.

Once I had the music installed it became much easier to do the rest of the work. The vision was becoming clear. I got the hatch lights all done. Two up front in the bow deck hatches, one in the battery compartment and one in the center console. The lights I chose to use are LED rock lights for jeeps and off roading. They were like $20 for 4. They are super bright! Perfect for the hatches. Around this time I also purchased one of our new batteries for the starter and got the automatic battery isolator dual battery set up done. I went with a standard Autozone $100 unit. 1050 cranking amps which is overkill for our 4 cylinder but why not right? The battery also has 180 reserve minutes. Largest for the price that I could find. It is an absolute monstrosity. Right now our house battery is the pedaso de mierda battery that came with the boat. Genuine RP special that looks like it would barely start my Honda Civic but it's getting replaced soon with an marine/rv deep cycle anyways.

So I got the electrical done and started tuning everything else in to my liking. I got the center console rearranged how I'd like it. I got the chrome bow rail and helm cleaned up of any rust and oxidation. Also around the time of wrapping up electrical I got the bilge pump installed with automatic float switch and a second inline switch on the center console to manually operate the bilge pump. I did find out that the raw water pump for the bait tank does work but the original copper from the CC is too corroded and I was getting way too much resistance in the copper to turn the pump on. If I wiggled or held the wire at a certain angle I could get 12v but as soon as I let it go, no continuity! So I will have to run more copper from CC to battery compartment later to get that thing wired in.

A few of the finishing touches. We wanted to do a deck matting for anti slippage and really more for aesthetics. I think it looks good and makes an old boat POP. We got that laid down. I installed a swim ladder on the back of the boat. After we got the deck done I was able to get the T-Top and cooler seat remounted with stainless steel hardware this time. No rust, no frozen bolts ever again!!!! DO IT RIGHT FOR GOD SAKES!!! DAMN. I was then finally able to wax the boat and damn she's wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better than before but I know it could be better so I plan on doing it again or maybe two more times to cut more of the haze. We got our AZ REG stickers applied and my new SEASWIRL decals for the back of the boat. Before we could get her out for the first lake test I had to take care of a few trailer issues. New winch. New LED marker lights and LED tail/brake/turn.

Shit I completely forgot that I rebuilt the carbs, put on a new (fresh water exlc condition used) engine harness, spark plugs and wires and added a fuel water separator... I'm sure there are more things that I'm forgetting but it's been an absolute tiring two months of hard labor on this love affair...
 
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Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
First lake test was semi satisfactory. This boat is a B!TCH to start! I don't know what it is but I guess these things are known to be hard starters but damn!!! Once it starts it idles fine and goes into gear fine, no issues there. Really smooth shifting, no clunk at all. One immediate concern or question was the boat was really laboring to get up on plane with it punched. My other note to self or concern was that our top speed was only 32mph on the GPS. The water was glass smooth too so I kind of thought that was weird. I thought it would have been 38-40. It's a 17ft boat with two smaller than average adults and a dog. It's a 1995 Evinrude 90... The tach is old and kind of bouncy but it looks like we're spinning 5200 +-200 and the factory says peak power is 5500 with this motor. After playing with the trim a little I was able to get it to plane a little easier but I've been on boats in my life it just seems to me that this thing is taking more time than it should to plane. I don't know. The just is still out. We launched from North Ramp PLEZ Harbor and went straight up the agua fria to the no wake zone. I'm about 98% sure that's a 9 mile ride. We then decided to enjoy driving the boat for a bit and did a complete perimeter lap of Lake Pleasant going 30mph the entire time. I need to know the difference between regular miles and nautical miles. I can't remember which one it was but one lap around the lake in the fashion we did it was either 15 regular miles, 17 nautical miles or vise versa. We ended up going to a few of our float spots throughout the day but in total we did 3 complete laps around the lake doing the almost identical perimeter pattern. I think we logged over 45 miles of cruising at 28-32mph that day in total. Our only concern was/IS that the boat is just extremely hard to start. You sit for 30 minutes and go to start her back up and it's almost like it's so lean, like it's getting no fuel.

Lake day 2 this past Sunday. Again, boat was stubborn and took a minute to start but again, once started I motored off of trailer and pulled out into the bay to wait for Claudia to go park the truck. In Neutral the boat is idling at about 1000rpm. To me is sounds better if I advance the neutral throttle to 1100 or 1200 but I don't know. I put it in forward and go pick up wife and dog at the dock, no issues and my dock game is strong. We motor out and go. Before this weekend however, I thought I was messing with the idle and I ended up messing with the timing on accident. It was a minimal change but the boat felt better initially. It felt like it was getting out of the hole quicker to plane. Top speed was down however to 29 or 30mph. We stopped briefly to jump in the water before heading back to Plez Harbor to pick up my late arriving sister. I go to start her back up and again, just a labor intensive butthole tightening experience because she's getting more and more stubborn. Again, she starts but now this bullshit is starting get worse. Now when you go from neutral to forward she dies. She will restart and once restarted you have to advance the neutral throttle to rev her up a little then back down into neutral then into forward and good now we're moving. Get to the no wake zone, down to idle maybe 1500 or so 1800... all the way to the dock, no problem, I'm pulling up at my steep approach angle, turn into it then do the classic throw it into reverse and move the ass end over to the dock while you throw her back into neutral and glide into the dock sideways like a complete BOSS!!! Nope! As soon as I put her into reverse to move the stern over she stalled... we floated the 6 feet to the dock where my sister hopped on board. Again, she was a B to start. But again, with enough finessing she starts. Neutral idle up to get the fuel pump going and then into gear and away we go. But every time we stopped throughout the day the same bullshit and then towards the end of the day it was stalling out every time you go to put it into forward gear. Then restart the delicate process over. It got bad enough that when we made it back to the dock at the end of the day we were waiting for dock space to open floating in N in the bay and it stalled and this time it almost didn't start. When it did I immediately made way for the dock to get us tied up, right before the dock I put her into reverse for speed check and stalled. We floated into the dock and tied up. EMBARRASSING!!!!! I felt like a NEWB!!!! I figured for sure we were walking this thing onto the trailer. It was Sunday so while we were waiting for Claudia to go get the trailer and get in line for the ramp I decided to take off the hood and unscrew the screw back out to where I thought it was before I had played with it previous to our outing. I realized the screw is for the idle but it's not an idle stop screw like I thought. On these motors the idle is controlled by advancing the idle timing. The the screw is for the idle advance rod. I pulled it back out to a place I thought it was previous. When Claudia got the ramp for shits and giggles I thought I'd rather try to drive this on the trailer than walk it if possible so I tried to start it and reluctantly, it did start. I put her into gear and forward I went for about 30 feet right as I was about to come around the dock and line it up with the trailer she died again. I yelled fuck, put it in neutral and turned the key again and she fired right up and went into gear again without stalling. I had the boat pretty much onto the trailer perfect right as she stalled again. DISASTER AVERTED!!!

My take aways thus far. I believe this idle problem lies with two things. Fuel delivery and timing. I have a new fuel pump coming and I'm reviewing the factory service manual that I purchased to make sure that the timing is set up correctly. LYNC AND SYNC ?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just new BS I have to learn all over again. After 4 years I became a SEADOO PRO and now I feel like I'm in first grade again.

All in all we have had smiles on our faces the entire time so I know this boat is here to stay. I just have to iron out some of the wrinkles before we can reliably take this out in the ocean.

Sorry for the long winded update. That's two months worth of information and I'm a full on bullshitter so if you got through this one you're my hero!!!

Joe

RIP CHUCK BLAIR! You will always be remembered!
 

Nicolai

Active Member
That thing looks way different than when you first got it Joe, amazing work! A lot more than I would have tried to take on that's for sure, can't wait to see it on the ocean after you get your idle/time issue resolved! Also I fudged bad I bought a seadoo fish pro, went all out with it, my Tacoma couldn't pull much more than this so a boat was out of the question. What happened to lucky Chuck??? So sad to hear the news!
 

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brokenwave

Well Known Member
Joe, The new boat looks great. You have a sound system that will blow away the all the locals partying in front us on Pinto point.
I hope to see that in play. :cool:
 
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