AKRISONER

heres the inspiration for my set up. The details start at the 12 minute mark.

Like you said its not overly complicated just takes a bunch of time. I spent last winter rewiring everything. I obviously dont have as much space as these guys in their 21 foot boats, However I do one thing different than all of these guys. Seaclear specifically IMO doesnt use the best connectors for their wire. I know some guys also swear by soldering, but soldering 10awg wire can be a royal PITA, (maybe its just me?) and theres arguments that in the marine high vibration environment its not best.

After a lot of research, I actually used MC4 connectors. They are popular in the off grid community for wiring 12volt solar systems. Crimping, plus a locking wrench system, and then a clip together thats also waterproof is about as good as it gets as far as im concerned. The only downfall to MC4's is the need to double up the crappy 16awg wire they give you with garmin units. Thats one thing thats driven me absolutely nuts about these marine electronic's manufacturers...everywhere you look on their recommend wire guage guides its way heavier guage than the wires they provide you from factory. Youd think spending a $1000 on a graph they could give you even 12 awg wire for the 6 foot length they give you SMDH.

curious barry, given the location, what is helping you distinguish that golden bear as a black from a juvenile grizz?

That bear to me looks like a young grizzly, but I know nothing to help me distinguish between the two.

I know most folks think the grizz are in the actual mountains, but my cousin has had them on his property near hinton.

personally, id fish the tri-lakes, they had a pretty decent population and spawn of them come through a few years ago. I wouldnt call the fishing for them "excellent" by any means though. Not a lot of places have good walleye fishing anymore.

5 hours ago, 12 Volt Man said:

the Regs in Ontario always drive me crazy they are so needlessly complicated.

generalized regulations are to the detriment of our fisheries. Specifically addressing areas and lakes is important. You most certainly do not want the same walleye regulations implemented on lake erie as you do on the ottawa river.

The only thing that ive found to be a bit strange are the new bait management zone regs. The catch and retain limits are not very complicated.

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.

On 4/22/2024 at 11:27 AM, CrowMan said:

I do. We were living on Durie St in the High Park neighborhood of TO.  At the final buzzer everyone ran out into the street to celebrate. Car horns blaring everywhere.  I remember by Dad walking around and pouring shots of Crown for the neighbours on the front porch. As a 9 year old, I thought I'd see that sight again, at least a few more times  in the years ahead. Still waiting. Hope I see it while I'm still upright on this planet.

When or if it happens, it'll probably be the only time I'll miss being back in the city...just to experience the collective jubilation.

Never mind the World Series, NBA Championships or Grey Cups...Toronto has and (hopefully) always will be a Hockey town. There'd be one hell of a hangover afterwards..

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. 

1 hour ago, siwash said:

 

Well, one way to avoid getting stuck on the water is to buy a kicker.  I was going to do that either way as I do like to troll and I was thinking about adding auxiliary power

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

4 minutes ago, siwash said:

So if it's close to pooched, what would this current engine be worth if I opted to buy another one and sold this as a "parts" motor? I see them advertised in the $500 range

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.

1 hour ago, siwash said:

So what should I be expecting to pay for this work (re bore and new rings, if that's all I need)?

 

And, does anyone know who does this in York Region or Simcoe county? I could even head a bit further west toward Bolton/Oragneville/Dufferin County.

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

3 minutes ago, aplumma said:

A 30 lb difference between cylinders is a sign the motor is starting to self-destruct. The compression will continue to lose as more metal and the numbers become more unbalanced. This is equal to walking with one leg stronger than the other. For now, it might be less expensive to fix it before it damages the crankshaft, crank bearings, and piston walls. After reading your responses, I do not feel that you can do the machine work and ensure the correct tolerances and torque specs are accurate. Anyone can assemble a motor but without experience, the mistakes become apparent when you are not at the dock or home. Just some insight from a person who has been building high-performance jet skis and motorcycles 2 strokes since the late 80s. 

Congratulations and enjoy your new boat. 

Art

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

8 hours ago, siwash said:

the boat I just picked up has an older MK Powerdrive.  I've heard the heads can be replaced to make the spotlocks.  Is this correct? 

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/

18 minutes ago, siwash said:

I wouldn't even contemplate this. I can drain oil at the end of the season, change plugs and fog it! The rest I would leave to a marine mechanic! What would this cost if a mechanic performed it.

On another topic, should I get a transom saver ?

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!

42 minutes ago, strik said:

They could  not even clean it up for a picture..... Run

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

36 minutes ago, siwash said:

I came across a Terrova but the transducer not longer works.  Can these still function without them? Can I replace the transducer (i.e is it even worth it?). Thanks!

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.

17 hours ago, Lape0019 said:

Like I mentioned before, if you’re not worried about spot lock or any GPS needs, a Fortrex is a great option too. 
 

As for brand, I’d be more concerned with the sizing than brand. An 80lb is what I feel you are best with and will serve your purposes and I personally feel minnkota was the superior option (now with Lowrance, powerpole and garmin having trolling motors, I’m not so sure) but motorguide does have some pretty good options in the 80lb market as well that you might be able to find used. I’d just try to stick with their cable steer options.

 

never used their electric so can’t comment but they didn’t get good reviews the last time I looked. 

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.

On 3/24/2024 at 9:20 AM, porkpie said:

I don’t thin powerdrives are as bad as a lot of guys make them out to be.  They certainly pull you around.  The pedals have been notorious for crapping out though.  What a lot of people don’t like is the release mechanism.  And it’s really not that bad, it just takes some more dicking around than a terrova does.

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

32 minutes ago, siwash said:

Bassman, see above... 

 

Thanks.. seeing quite a few used in the 70s lbs range.. on Marketplace. 

 

Thanks everyone.. 

those 70’s are some of their crappier line of motors like the traxxis and edge, and power drive. 
 

Also speaking from experience, do you want a motor that won’t ever die like the terrova or do you want problems lol

Speaking from experience, You could definitely survive on a 55lb thrust in a pinch but I’d personally recommend an 80 as well. On a windy day that 12volt 55 is going to be an issue.

You will need two 12 volt batteries wired  in series to create 24v which will allow you to push the 80lb thrust motor.

a 55lb thrust will only require one twelve volt battery. There is some consideration there for the fact that the two batteries set up is heavier, and more expensive and the 80lb thrust motor will also be more expensive. All for you to figure out. 
 

as far as brands go, stick with minkotta for sure. I’d never go motorguide unless it’s an old motorguide tour cable steer motor. Which for your application is almost most certainly not what you are looking for.

a used minkotta terrova will be the perfect motor for you. 
 

then you have some decisions to make about whether you want spot lock or not.

Thank you so much for this write up. I have started reading a lot, because when this set of batteries goes (im on year 3) its going to be time to finally make the swap. At the time, I was on the fence simply due to pricing, but everything I am reading now is certainly pointing me back to lithium for my next battery purchase. The collapse in pricing is astonishing, but not surprising as the tech became readily available.

To date I have not heard of one person speak negatively about switching the lithium, and holy cow a 100lbs weight savings is astronomical when it comes to boats, if your running anything under 20 feet long, it almost seems like a total no brainer. Jesus, anyone running a 14 foot tinner would have to be high to not go lithium. The gas alone would probably pay the difference in a year.

I am by far the most intrigued by getting one of those giant 36v's to run my trolling motor. I started my boat out with 3 trolling motor batteries and one starting electronics battery, but with the 3 10 inch screens and livescope, a few low voltage warnings after long days pre-fishing had me sketched right out about running out of juice on my starter.

Ive now swapped one of my TM's AGM's to an electronics only battery, and downgraded the trolling motor to 24volts. I do not notice too huge of a difference between 36 and 24, however I will say the 36 notably has more tourque when you need it and I do miss it the odd time. 

After fishing with a club member this summer that has a tinner rigged for walleye fishing up north, he put me on to a neat little invention called an Automatic Charge Relay. I personally call it the poor man's powerpole charge. It allows your boats alternator/rectifyer to send juice to another battery once it determines that your starting battery is back up fully charged after starting. This is ideal, now when im making my runs around the lake, some of that juice can be fired back to my electronics batteries to help me get through some of those 12+ hour days at the lake.

Anyways, enough about me and hijacking your thread, I actually have a question that I have not been able to decipher through my reading thus far about lithium batteries. You allude to it in your post, but perhaps you read into this further, It is my understanding that Lithium batteries do not like being charged when cold, but also many batteries available in the market are temperature protected or maybe even heated?

Now for the good ol boys down south, none of this is applicable at all, but for us folks in the great white north that fish in the fall, how does one get around these "low temp cut offs" Correct me if I am wrong, but I have heard that some will shut down as soon as they reach 5 degrees C? (i may be making that number up? but from memory?)

So honest question to you Bassman, what are do we need to look for in our Lithium batteries up here in canada? Im sure there is some way to pay for some feature that will have us canadians not worried about going fishing during the months of September through June lol. I couldnt imagine parking the boat at the dock at night on a clear september night only to find that my batteries arent charged when I wake up in the morning to go fishing.

On 3/4/2024 at 3:22 PM, craigdritchie said:

About 30 years ago I’m in The Pas, Manitoba

 

sounds like you may have been staying in the same hotel that my brother stayed at during a science fair trip in the early 90's 😆

He specifically remembers there being literal chain link fence over the windows and being woken up in the mdidle of the night to someone firing a lot of rounds out of a gun 

On 3/14/2024 at 8:27 PM, SirCranksalot said:

I read somewhere that goretex will pass water if you are sitting on a wet surface. I don't know if that's true or not but my old goretex don't keep me dry any more.

Speaking from experience, cleaned treated goretex will most certainly keep you dry when sitting on a wet surface.

my boat seats are soaked with overnight rain often  and my goretex bib most certainly keeps me dry.

On 3/12/2024 at 7:33 PM, Terry said:

With livescope

i have seen a lot of fish but the first time I marked a muskie and could even see its fins and tail moving and it was so big 

I just couldn’t believe it , it was worth the price of admission 

 

 

one of my favourite things is watching laketrout ice fishing on livescope...I never knew that they move similar to a cat...slowly approach and then burst onto the scene when they get within striking distance.

Sometimes they miss or circle the bait, and seeing the tail and fins is so frigging cool.

Unfortunately even big smallmouth still look like blobs, Im starting to get pretty good at distinguishing size. It was a major deal last tournament season, how blessed am I to now avoid the wrong bites!