Bernie

Tighten it until the thread strips, then back it off a half turn. Seriously though, on mine I set it to 80 lbft. Take a couple extra cotter pins of the correct size, preferably stainless. After a couple of bends I don't trust a cotter pin to stay in place, especially when dealing with the expense of a propeller.

It's still March in Quebec dontcha know!

That was the smartest political move in ten years.

So sorry to hear this Dan. My condolences to you and your family.

When I was a kid my parents front lawn turned into a baseball diamond. They liked the front lawn, but they loved the kids being there even better.

Been fixing cars longer than I care to think about. I have a fairly large workspace. My favorite one is the "big shop" (the great outdoors). Here's a picture of two of the autoshop guys fixing the overheating issue on the airboat. My son Nick on the right, is now working on his automotive apprenticeship and doing well, tops in his class! Ivan, inside the cage is a great young fellow with lots of talent. I just try to keep things moving along answering the phone, getting parts, dealing with customers, invoicing....geez, I guess I do keep busy There are also 6 mechanic guys in the same shop doing the marine side of it. We have a lot of work to do, but we all have fun doing it.

That's what the fox must have been living on Joe. Each meatball had to have 10,000 calories. The hard ice made it a bronco. Was glad to hit open water. Ya Will, forgot about that! Good possibility that's what it was. It was quite an experience Terry. I was a little more at ease on the return trip. He offered to let me drive it. Think I'll wait until open water season.

Water came up close to 2" from Friday to Sunday evening. Last nights rain should help. I heard Fish Bay opened up last night.

Couldn't load this on dial up. Here is a quick video clip of the ride across Fish Bay.

Actually I hope it hangs around. It appears healthy and there are lots of squirrels to take care of. I threw some leftovers out for it. Ya, I bet it would go faster than you wanted it to, on ice especially. Its a fully enclosed cab with a heater but still really LOUD. The hull is well over an inch thick but he did damage it last winter. Ha, adrenaline for sure! It was smooth on soft ice and the water but the hard ice sure shook it good. Not quite open water Dave, that's why the airboat ride. A week or two depending on weather and I'll be back in the boat. Yes, they are a pretty animal. An airboat is a great way to travel but you would have to have a need for it. There are more efficient, quieter and better handling ways to get around. But for situations like the way it is now it's great. It was a fun ride Joey. And I'll get another ride back home this afternoon. It's really quiet out here right now. Only the wildlife and me. I just happened to luck out with the picture. I have seen a fox out here before picking up food scraps but it's been a few years.

The lake is beginning to open and the ice is softening so it makes a trip to the island impossible by anything I own. A friend however has an airboat and was kind enough to take me across. Wow, what a thrill to ride in. You can feel the soft ice give way under the boat and open water he needed to give it more throttle. Hard ice it was only just above idle to keep it moving. It has plenty of power with a 350 cubic inch Corvette engine turning a 3 blade propeller. You have to stay well back behind this thing as the ice and water were being pushed at least 30 meters. Here is my pilot, Mark Purdon, a long time friend that operates Wades Landing and Anglers Haven. A view from the boat underway. While out here it's a good time to do some cleanup around the shoreline so I burned up some fallen branches and driftwood. Also installed hydraulic steering in my boat. This morning while checking out the forum and having a coffee a motion caught my eye outside. Had a visitor.

For sure a bad ground. Drill a small hole on either side of the swing point and run a ground wire. Use grounding washers on each terminal and give it a protective coating to help prevent corrosion.

Make sure you get a quality bit to fit it. The impact driver has a tendency to break the el-cheapos.

I have concerns of the water level again this year. The snow is mostly gone around here and the lake is still quite low. The rivers are flowing but not a great amount. Hope there is some snow to the north to fill it up!

It's called an impact driver Lew, and they work great for this kind of thing. I had to use it on mine last fall. I replaced them with the newer style Allen head screws.

OK guys. No more boat reports until Nipissing opens!!!

12 gauge.

That looks like a lot of fun Brian. You did well for a first time out. I'd be tempted to try that if the rivers held fish like that around here.

Also there may be some parts availability problems for engines manufactured in Japan. I know that Honda and Yamaha have had some of their plants damaged from the earthquake and is causing delays getting some parts. Sorry if my advise isn't "solid"

Probably not that simple Craig. There were some older engines that were actually not all that bad on fuel consumption. I'm not sure what HP that BB has in mind either. Just from my experience I remember when the first 50 HP twins came along in the early 70's that were able to stretch out a can of gas much better than any engine I had used before. And Those 9.9 and 15 models would troll for a long time on a fiver and they also packed a lot of wide open punch in a little package. My advise direction to BB was more aimed at the larger engines where 4 or more pistons can really add up a repair bill. Edit. They all will need work at some point in time BB. None of them are indestructible. Most of the really common parts are still available. I just redid an old 1957 18 and we had the water pump, carb kit and a few other tidbits. Fortunately that's all it needed. Can't buy a headgasket for them anymore.

There may be an older outboard out there that would be a good purchase. But there certainly will be a risk involved. With the recent economic downturn, many companies have trimmed costs by eliminating parts availability for engines more than 10 years old...or in some cases even less than 10 years. If going used for an everyday engine my thoughts would be to look for something no more than 5 years old that has been used little and maintained. A rebuild on some of the larger engines can cost up to 5 grand depending on the parts required. And a bad lower unit could be close to the same.

It's pretty much a necessary tool in automotive and marine RT. Mine reads right down to 1 milliamp. There are so many things in a vehicle that draw power there are specifications for the amount allowed key off.

Ideally a clamp on ampere tester is best to check for a drain. But in a pinch I will hook a 12 volt test lamp by taking off a battery terminal (preferably the negative) and installing the test light between the battery and the cable. A large drain such as yours will probably light the light. Disconnect the devises hooked to the battery one at a time until the light goes out. When it does, that is the problem. One more thing, the test light needs to be an incandescent bulb as a diode test light does not draw enough power.

You fellows that are saying it isn't dangerous haven't seen the results from propane explosions. Don't treat it as if it wasn't! Filling a container more than 80% full doesn't leave enough room for expansion. I have done courses on propane conversions in vehicles in the past and presently have a filling licence. Also as a retired volunteer firefighter we also had extensive training on propane fires. Proper handling is needed.

That was a very good post Limey. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of fishing with my son at that age.