Wagoneer

I've had my trusty Panasonic Lumix water/freeze/shock proof camera for the last 5 years now and it's been fantastic. I'm not easy on the thing. It gets tossed around, has been submerged many times (even went diving with it in bermuda) with no issues. Pictures aren't fantastic, probably as good as any iphone 6 or equivalent of today's smartphones, tends to wash out and over expose during really bright days if you aren't careful what you're focusing on (mostly because I have the auto focus on the center of the photo - it has other options that takes the average for the entire photo which probably works better for exposure rates) but other other than that it's been fantastic. Also has GPS tagging, and a really quick start-up time for when you don't have a lot of time to take a photo of something. And after 5 years I can still take it on a week camping trip and not have to charge it. I think it's going to be retired to my back-up tacklebox camera though. More often than not I just use my iphone to take photos and really only need the camera on rough days or when it's raining out and I don't feel like risking bringing my iphone on my boat. This is only because recently I left my iphone in my car because it was pouring out while setting up the boat and decided to try out Pond Mills in London. I ended up catching my PB large mouth bass on a hoola hopper out of the stupid little lake and I have no proof of it accept for my buddy who was with me as we both left our phones on shore. Lesson learned - will always have my trusty Lumix in the tackle box from now on. Don't think little ponds can't produce some massive fish!

21ft Lowe Fishing Machine with Evinrude 150hp Ficht Ram Injection 2-stroke with stainless 4 blade prop (can't remember the pitch or dia, we have it in the file though if anyone wants it) - 52mph empty with one person & ~43mph with 4 people, 2 dogs and gear. (Father's boat) 12ft Salter Mountaineer inflatable -20hp Suzuki DT20 2-stroke - 32mph empty with one person & ~25mph with 2 people and gear. -55lb trolling motor I get just under 5mph on a good day. -On lakes that don't allow motors - depends on how much caffeine I've had.

Title says it all. Any good spots for muskie or pike trolling in the fall inside the inner bay? I've had good luck trolling around Bluff's bar but that's usually early spring and the season for big pike there seems to be quite short. One week you'll get 10 inside of an hour and the next you can't find a thing. I'm assuming with the lack of any rivers going into the inner bay that they're pretty much gone by the fall?

Sounds like a fuel issue. I'm guessing the connector at the motor is sucking air. When you squeeze the primer do you notice any hissing from the engine? Or any air escaping at all? I had a similar problems with my Suzuki 2-stroke outboard. Idle was fine, but anything above half throttle it would bog really badly. Turned out the fuel connector (brand new) was sucking air and not fuel under any sort of load. I swapped it out with a much simpler (and this will be the only time I'll admit to using merc parts) Mercury connector at the engine as well as at the tank and it seals up perfectly now. Even though the Suzuki connectors never leaked fuel when disconnecting/connecting but the mercury ones spill fuel all over the place when you disconnect them, at least the Mercury connectors seal properly under suction. Doesn't really matter what prop you're using, that motor should get you on plane no problem on a 14' boat.

I like how they make it out to be some sort of crime that it's not legal in Canada. The ONLY place a car like this would make sense is downtown Toronto, or some other large metropolis where you spend most of your time in a gridlock. It has a top speed of 40km/h, so it's basically the passenger car version of an e-bike. And we all hate e-bikes. Secondly, it's powered by dang' deep cycle lead-acid batteries and has a range of 64km (which is rumoured to be greatly exaggerated and actual numbers closer to 30km). The entire car is an engineering joke and was headed for failure before the first one rolled off the line. Thirdly, electricity in 90% of Canada is anything but clean. We still make power the same way we did 80yrs ago. Not to mention we pay some of the highest hydro rates in North America. To have this as a second car is just stupid. When you factor in insurance costs (some of the highest in North America), electricity rates (dido), and in the city you'll have to pay a monthly fee for parking the thing as a second car - because this CANNOT be your only vehicle, you will NEVER profit from owning this vehicle.

It probably already has one that is plumbed into the radiator. A ton of vehicles use this setup. The tranny cooler is it's own little section of the radiator. This isn't the greatest setup because it gets quite a bit of heat soak from the coolant going through the rad. This is because your engine coolant is about 100 def F hotter than your tranny fluid regularly is. It's really only there to keep you from frying your fluid under extreme circumstances. If I were I would bypass the OEM tranny cooler altogether and run a standard aluminum cooler anywhere that it'll get good airflow utilizing the stock lines if you can. That's what I did on my 850R and installed a temp probe on the hotside and it kept the temps way lower than the OEM cooler did. Even attaching it through the radiator so it sits in front as close to the cold side of the rad as possible with insulator brackets will be a lot better than the OEM cooler. Even if you do run a cooler, you're tranny fluid is going to go through a lot harsher temperature cycles when towing and replacing the fluid on a regular basis is going to be your best insurance. Not as hard as it seems. All you need a hose fitting, a bucket, a funnel, and some tranny fluid. If your tranny doesn't have a dipstick you need to measure what you take out and put the same amount in. Easy Peasy. I used to do mine with every oil change, only took about 10min.

If I had to choose ONE dream boat, it would probably be a BW 170 supersport with a Suzuki DF115 (I know it's max rated for 90, but many people run 115's on them). Not because I think it's the greatest boat out there, but it would be a beautiful clean slate to make an incredible custom boat that you could take fishing in the shallows one day, downrigging in rough waters the next day, and the next day use it for wakeboarding or tubing. That being said I'd need at least another 20k on top of the boat/motor cost to make it my own. I'm not a huge fan of purpose built boats because they're very good at one thing and that's it. If it was a perfect world I'd have a stable with 3 or 4 different boats.

Same technique at boat shows as there are at car shows. Manufacturers want that initial starting price as low as possible so they can plaster it all over their advertisements. US car companies are especially good at this. If you buy a base model sub-compact vehicle at the base price (which really only car rental lots do) you're basically getting a chassis and an engine.

We found that my grandpa saved a newspaper from the moon landing. He kept a few other significant history landmarks but I found that one the coolest.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra all the way. We just went to see them last week, we go every year. I think it's the ONLY christmas music I ever listen to.

The easiest thing would be to buy some convex mirrors for your side mirrors. Have you tried backing up with your tailgate/trunk open? I'm not sure what kind of vehicle you have, but with our grand vitara I always open the tailgate and have the seats folded down. This pretty much gives me the view of the entire trailer behind the car. We have a reverse camera for that truck that also works perfectly. But I like having the trunk open so I can communicate with my dad who's in the boat. But If you tow with anything other than a SUV/hatchback I guess that's not an option. Guide poles always work as well.

I once bought a hamper from walmart and when I got home I found that it was actually two hampers inside of each other. I brought it back and the lady at the returns counter looked at me like I had four eyes for bringing it back. Just goes to show how rare it is for people to do the right thing. My mom would have slapped me silly if she found out I "stole" a hamper, even at my age. Doesn't matter that it's a huge chain store that could undoubtedly handle the kick back from it, you did the right thing and can sleep easy knowing it! Imagine if everybody did this. Maybe they could afford to sell that fishing lure for $1 cheaper, or give that dude who's been stocking shelves for 12 years his long overdue $0.12/hr raise.

Two wheel drive (front or rear) with a limited-slip differential and you'll be able to pull sub-2000lb boats out of 99% of launches. My dad used to use my old Volvo 850R wagon (back when it was bone stock) to tow his 18ft aluminum Lowe fishing machine. FWD with open front differential. Pulled the boat out with never as much as any wheel spin except for one extremely hairy muddy launch (was raining) way up north on nippissing. We had to get an old ford bronco with front and rear air lockers to pull it out, and even then it was barely able to. We then switched to towing with a Volvo XC70 with all-wheel drive. That AWD system was a mechanical system with a center viscous coupling. No real difference at all when pulling out the boat. Most AWD systems with a full-time 90/10 torque split will barely send any more power to the rear in a zero traction or low-speed situation. So for pulling a boat out at extremely slow speeds those systems are barely any help. Very few AWD systems use a center diff with full-time 50/50 torque split. Some older manual transmission subarus, and a hand full of AWD cars that use a wet-clutch pack electrically engaged center diff have the options to lock it to get 50/50 torque split (suzuki SX4, new jeep cherokee, etc). And even fewer AWD systems have a limited slip on either axle, so you're basically still in the same boat as an open diff 2wd vehicle. So what I'm getting at is very few AWD systems will be useful at the boat launch. The only real step up from two-wheel drive is two-wheel drive with a limited slip diff or an actual 4x4 system that uses a 50/50 split transfer case. The big bonus of getting a real 4x4 is that it's usually paired with a two speed transfer case so you also get low-range. My dad's Suzuki Grand Vitara in low-gear can pull his 21ft Lowe out of the water with both feet off the pedals, and that's a 4cyl with 184ft.lbs. Just some things to think about. Factor in weight of the boat, what kind of launches you'll be using, how many times a year you'll be towing, etc. etc to see if you actually NEED a truck. The biggest mistake I see at the boat launch are people leaving their ESP and traction control systems on and can't figure out why their $50k 4x4 truck can't pull their boat out of the water with the gas pedal to the floor. That only becomes an issue if it's pouring down rain or if the slip is gravel.

I sure hope manufacturers start giving us the diesel options that other countries have been getting for years. 27mpg in a light duty truck is awesome, especially if you weren't being careful. If I can get about 31mpg with my 4cyl 2.0L gas engine in my lifted suzuki SX4 with big A/T's, imagine what I could get with the 2.0L turbo diesel that's available everywhere else in the world. The mileage wouldn't even be the best part, the heaps of usable torque would be greatly welcomed! Wringing out the gasser to get anything out of it gets old sometimes. I love dropping gears with the 6spd, but it would be nice to once be able to just keep it in 6th and be able to climb a hill on the highway. How's the tranny with that engine on the highway? I hear it loves to stick in top gear and takes a lot of throttle input to downshift.

I've had two PB's of other species (LM and SM bass) while trolling for muskie this year. Can't say I've been very successful for muskie, just a couple small ones, but it's crazy that bass will still hit a 8" lure being trolled along at 6mph!