AKRISONER

just throwing it out there, for reference...but ive swapped to using a switch as my battery post for my electronics, and then another switch for accessories like lights etc. It cleans up your battery and isolates some stuff to allow you to kill power to your electronics. I also installed a grounding bar for my electronics. Ive got 6awg wire running to the switches and grounding bar and then individual feeds for each unit running to their respective spots. i went an extra mile and even made my own fuse clusters so that I can easily access and swap fuses if need be. Thats how the guys are sonar pro's are doing it.

leafs ever win the cup...southern ontario will most certainly be closed the day of the final game and the following. It might actually get downright weird for a bit.

as mentioned by bite me...batteries take a friggin beating in boats. just ask me about how I literally flipped an entire battery tray and unbolted three others in one single trip across the sound in parry sound lol. I just installed an Automatic Charge Relay in my boat. I call it the poor man's powerpole charge. Actually very very happy with it. Im pretty harsh on my electronics battery (10 hour days livescoping with 3 10 inch screens) and last year on some 12+ hour pre-fish days I actually ended up hitting the low voltage alarm which then sketched me the heck out because I needed to navigate back home in a new area of georgian bay with the possibility of not having charts. The ACR is most certainly the answer to the problem. Boat turns over, a couple minutes of the main motor running tops my starting battery back up, and the switch engages and my units that were just reading 10.9 volts are now reading 12.3 as they are being fed by the boats alternator.

A trolling motor is enough to get you to safety. ive been stranded multiple times, most recently on Georgian bay…in the fall, during a wind storm. made it home but it took a while

I personally think you run it until it explodes and then re power with a used motor with the max horsepower for your hull. You might get a year out of the motor for free.

Top gun marine in innisfil, but not sure he works on lower horsepower engines? maximum marine in port Perry does it for sure, my buddy got his motor rebuilt there

I agree with this…you truthfully are gambling when your motors compression is starting to go that bad. Sometimes the piston ring cracks and you “mildly” blow it. A re bore and some new rings and you’re back in action but sometimes she blows bad, your piston essentially super heats and gets stuck while firing and destroys the crank case, or literally blows through the top of the motor. I’ve seen videos of high powered motors shoot a piston literally through the engine cowling like a rocket. Needless to say, there’s no rebuild when it blows that bad

There’s some third party products that essentially connect with your phone that you install onto the trolling motor to effectively make them have iPilot. not sure if they are available for the first gen power drives. https://pronavmarine.com/alternative-to-the-minn-kota-i-pilot-link-add-on-gps-autopilot-for-bow-mount-trolling-motors/

Usually a couple thousand bucks will be enough for an engine rebuild. basically turns your motor new again. id get a transom saver, aluminum wood transoms are soft to begin with, I personally don’t like the idea of flexing them constantly. low compression equates to low power. Luckily on an old carbed two stroke it’s not going to be a major major issue until it totally blows.

just FYI, the whaletail is a sure sign that you wont be getting anywhere fast in the boat. Especially with friends coming along. The old addage that you want a boat thats maxed out the HP rating is true. Anything less and driving your boat with company will be a slow process. Its not the end of the world obviously...Not everyone needs a fast boat. Getting from A to B and out on the water and off of the bank is enough. Just think ahead of where and how you like to boat. A boat that wont get on plane is not a boat made for 20km rips up the lake to that prime honey hole. Dead honest question for you siwash...Is your intention to fish with your kids etc? If you just want the ability to get out on the water for yourself, have you looked into fishing kayaks? I have multiple buddies that fish from Yaks and straight up, love them...catch a load of fish and have everything you need to catch those fish with essentially 0 maintenance.

So crazy to see someone still driving quads out to go ice fishing. It’s 20 degrees here and perfect boating weather today!

This… right off the bat, the best boat you’ve posted is that super clean one. If the guys can’t even clean up the boat for their for sale photos they most certainly didn’t do any maintenance either. I’ve owned a couple of “old” boats now and here’s the deal. 1. compression test is mandatory, full stop. No one cares that it runs in the driveway or even on the water etc. a boat with no motor is literally scrap aluminum. 2. if you’re going aluminum, that thing needs to be leak checked. A single bad rivet and guess what, you’ve got yourself an anchor. if it floats and the compression is good, then it’s time to decide how much time and money you have left to actually make the thing run. ”but I thought If the motor is running, it is good to go!” nope…haven’t owned a boat yet that didn’t immediately need fixing. In my instance, a full re-wire for the trolling motors and electronics was required right off the jump. Even though the guys that owned my boats were well intentioned, they most certainly didn’t know how to properly wire boats, they clearly just were not the most handy guys, and truthfully that’s why they were moving on from the boat that they sold me. No one sells a perfectly functioning boat…that’s just how it is. finally, I see that you are operating on somewhat of a limited budget, so ask yourself, are you financially prepared to fix the stupid things that will constantly break on your boat? The adage BOAT BREAK OUT ANOTHER THOUSAND is real. Let me promise you, it is ohhhh so real on a boat that’s older than 15 years old. i seemingly can’t manage to go more than a week without something breaking on me. Thank god I own a Yamaha (knock on wood) so my motor doesn’t give me problems. But for some perspective here’s a list off of the top of my head of the work that I have had to do myself on my 2006 stratos since I have owned it. i have owned this boat going on my fourth year I’m not trying to scare you, I’m just trying to give you perspective. also I’ll add I’m not doing these things just to do them, im literally just fixing things as they wear out or break on me. -boat electronics rewire -trolling motor rewire - windshield screw in repair - new pole light - new trailer tires - trailer brakes service (needs more work as I speak) - new trailer plug - new winch strap - total reweld of the winch pole on the trailer - new trailer corner lights - new trailer tail lights - vst and fuel filter - water and fuel separator - new rollers for nose and tail of trailer - new trailer bunks - new middle seat - new batteries - total reinstall of my battery trays after they literally ejected in the back of my boat during a rough tournament day…in which I of course proceeded to misalign my work set up and you guessed it, drilled a friggin hole right through the bottom of my fibreglass boat…so guess who now has to re-finish a section of fibreglass on my hull - same tournament, I hit a wave so hard my livescope perspective mount snapped in half - new livewell pump - new transom saver and now…last but not least, I blew the lower end on my boat during that tournament that knocked all of my battery trays flying. $2500 later I’ve got a rebuilt lower end from top gun marine that I had to install, which I also ran into issues with my trim tab being seized/stripped. -new trim tab and two new bolts from japaN - and just as of Sunday, the boat buckle tie down for the front of my boat just stripped and now I need $90 to buy another one…it’s almost comical at this point! as You see from the list above, it sure as hell does not afford me a ton of time and money leftover to buy fishing goodies. I joke with my friends that I can’t afford to be a tackle junky because I own a fishing boat. it’s a labour of love. But man does it hurt…luckily I don’t have kids, and luckily I have the time and passion for working on this stuff. BE PREPARED

Simple answer, yes the 2d universal sonar transducer is only useful if you intend to use it with your other humminbird electronics. they are most certainly replaceable, and if you have newer modern electronics, you’d most likely be installing your own transducer anyways.

fortrex needs a front fishing platform. The OP's boat is a bow rider from what I understand. i.e. no ability to easily keep the pedal right close to the fortrex.

i personally killed 3 of them...that was enough for me.