Hydrofoils
This could almost go under that "gimmick" category I'm
working on but, they do work! I'm on my 3rd boat now and have had one on
each of the first two and just finishing the install on my present boat. The idea
behind these "fins", according to the manufacturers is that they give you a
better hole shot (getting up "on step" or plane), stabilize the boat on turns
and reduce/stop porpoiseing (that bouncing up and down in the water when your
motor is trimmed up to much) in the water. Lots of other claims such as
higher speeds blah blah but, after all the wrapping is thrown away I will give
them this, it can make for a way better hole shot, and the quicker you are on
step the less fuel you use, pretty simple!
My first boat was a 20' Four Winns with a 302 Cobra stern drive in it, you'd think it would have enough power but when loaded up with fuel and people, it actually kinda sucked outta the hole! On that boat I put a Sting Ray fin, same idea as the one I put on my present boat, just a different style. Big diff in the hole shot but no difference in anything else the companies brag about. My second boat, a 24' Trophy with BIG inboard/stern drive also kinda sucked on the hole shot, even with trim tabs. I also put a Sting Ray on it and although not as big a difference as on the Four Winns, it did work. So, my present boat, a 19' aluminum with a 150 HP outboard on it, you wouldn't think I'd need such a fin but, its that hole shot stuff again. Even with my boat, full load of fuel, all the extra batteries on board, fishing gear, coolers (with just ice in them of course) and toss in 4 adults, and it works to get outta the hole! With the fin? A little blurp on the throttle and it pops right up onto step, and at way less rpm that before! For you guys that didn't listen to Cappy when he told you "get as bigger motor rather than smaller and are now sorry you didn't, this device just might make a difference. Every boat is different when it comes to hull designs so this device will work better on some than others but for 50 bucks, I don't think you can go to wrong.
The installation of these things couldn't be simpler, so simple
in fact, that even my buddy SCPP (Greg) could install it! Now that's
simple, no, not Greg, the install! Take the thing outta the wrapper, read
the instructions NUMEROUS times, take the fin and set it on the cavitation plate
where the fin goes and just have a look at it. Then, go back and read the
instructions, again! Its like that wood cutting rule of "measure twice and
cut once". Although it may be a little un-nerving to drill holes into the
aluminum plate, by reading the INSTRUCTIONS it makes it alot easier. With
this unit there was a nifty tear out template that you put right onto the cavitation plate and it showed you exactly how to line it up and where to
drill those scary holes!
Just make sure that when you have the template in the right spot that you take a
bit of masking tape and tape it down onto the plate, then there's no errors when
marking your holes for drilling. Because we're dealing with aluminum here
its pretty soft, so a nice sharp punch (I use an old screwdriver with the tip
sharpened up) works great and also gives you a wee indent for starting your
drill bit in,
I take the punch and put it right where the arrows indicate on the template and give it a bit of a rap, do all four holes of course. You then take the template off and take your drill with a 1/8" bit or smaller and drill your pilot holes. Now, your gonna find that the two hole closest to you are easy to drill straight up and down because the drill has lots of room. However, those two holes towards the front are tight and your drill may not be straight up and down, that's why the smaller drill bit and if necessary, offsetting the hole just a smidge to the outside of the spot its supposed to have the hole. What I did then for those inside holes is take the prop off, (and take it off guys, it only takes a second!) and drilled the final hole of 1/4" from the bottom up, which put the hole exactly where it was supposed to be. With that done, the fin was all ready to be installed with the supplied hardware, make sure you put the stuff on in the right order! Remember those INSTRUCTIONS I was talking about!
The nuts that come with the unit are a "one time" only use,
so if you screw them up you'll have to get new ones. And, they are of the
Nylock nature where you don't need a lock washer with them. I do however,
still apply some LocTite to the threads of the bolt, there's no reason why I
need to ever take that fin off so better safe than
sorry.
The finished project actually doesn't look that bad either, especially if you
get a color that matches your motor and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb!
The other thing I did do was throw a coat of wax on the plate under the fin and
onto the fin itself, just a bit of UV protection and to make it even more
slippery than the company claims it already is! Oh ya, one "no no" when
putting the prop back on and torqueing the nut down, do not, let me say again,
do not, wedge your 2 x 4 against the fin when holding the prop in place! I
don't know if it would break it but, just don't do it, that's the easiest.
This particular fin worked better than expected on my boat, it takes very little
rpm to get the boat up on step and, I can throttle down more without the boat
wanting to "get off" of step. Worth trying it out!
On Board Batter Chargers
This is an item that I said I'd never buy, so much for that
train of thought! I've have found though, that having 3 batteries on board
and having to "hop" around and hook up the charger to each one to charge it, was
getting to be a bit of a pain in the sphincter! On my last boat (Trophy)
it had a shore power plug in and it looked after the batteries all on its on,
and it only had 2 batteries. So, I did a little shopping around and
checked out some "road tests" on these devices and
one thing I did find out about all of them, they ain't cheap when compared to a
normal battery charger.
In fact, some of them are 10 times the price of a plain old charger, so that's a
bit pricey for sure. For the normal fishing boat however, you don't have
to go to the super pricey one or go cheap on some liquidation brand charger,
just go middle of the road, so to speak.
This one on the left was purchased locally for $125.00, the same one out of Cabelas is about a hundred bucks but throw in some shipping and duty (made in China of course) and they won't be far off in price. What impressed me about this one and I didn't really see it until it was outta the box, was the quality construction of the unit. Real heavy duty outer casing and the wiring was second to none, with heavy rubber cable guards the entire lengths of the wires.
This model is a 8 amp 2 bank charger, which means it puts out a total of 8 amps but, has the ability to charge two separate batteries at the same time, whether they are deep cycle or just a starting battery. It also is able to distribute different amounts of power to each battery, so if one of the batteries is almost charged and only needs say 2 amps of power, the remaining 6 amps will go to the other battery if it needs more to charge it up. You won't find this in your normal one battery charger. This unit also cycles through different charging states until the battery is fully charged and then stays in a "maintenance" mode to keep a trickle charge to the battery.
Installation is "Greg simple" so anyone can do this one,
just be careful when dicking around batteries, there's nothing worse than
grounding out a wrench or screwdriver or something and getting blinded by the
arch that's created!
That
flash actually isn't as bad as when you pull your arm or hand back from the arch
and get it snagged on a chunk of metal or screw sticking out, that's what hurts!
The instructions, yes, more instructions, call for putting the unit in a spot
that has at least 8"all around the unit, ya, good
luck with that! A more important factor in this is that the area is open
or can be opened up to fresh air when charging the batteries.
The wiring hookup is straight forward, there are two sets of leads for this unit, one went to the deep cycle up front (where the charging unit was installed) and the second went to the starting battery at the stern. Now, the unit only has 5' cables on it, so I "plumbed" in some 10 gauge wire to run to the battery at the stern. Something to note here, I looked for a "hot wire" in the fuse box which is located in the helm area. I did find one but, it was obviously wired through the big motor and regulator because, I could not get a direct voltage reading from that wire. I could get a lead through the cigarette lighter but, I opted for a direct connection. The instructions don't say anything about the wiring other than not to cut the leads shorter than the factory length simple because they have an inline fuse installed. In the end, a direct line is better anyways, IMHO, rather than running current through other devices to get back to a battery. So, all installed and all I have to do now is plug in one plug and my batteries are all looked after. A topic of debate on batteries is that some say they should always have some sort of charge going through them to prevent sulfates from building up on the plates in the battery. This may be true, depending on how often you use your boat and how long its running to charge the batteries properly. I know that in my case the big motor doesn't run that often and although the kicker does put out a trickle charge for the batteries, it is not long enough to ensure a proper "full" charge. The other thing with this system is that if I'm off on a fishing trip somewhere for a few days, all I have to do is plug in the small genny that I use for the camper and I can now keep the batteries topped up out anywhere! Ain't "stuff" great!! After using the charger for the first time I did find that my batteries were charged and stay charged at a higher rate than my plain jane garage charger did, and it too had a deep cycle mode on it! In fact, after an entire morning of running the deep cycle and using the stuff I usually run on it, the charge on the battery dropped negligibly, obviously due to it being charged properly, finally! You just gotta love technology these days!