Save That Pump!!
I've seen many a boat heading down the highway on a real crappy day, mud and goo everywhere, including the leg of their $20,000.00 motor!! A simple insurance policy to ensure you won't be having problems with the motor upon arrival at your destination cost nothing more than a couple of garbage bags, its that simple. When you leave that leg unprotected, be it on the main motor or kicker, there's alot of goo that gets lodged in the pump openings on that leg, and when you first start the motor up, where does it go?? Right into the impeller and an impending breakdown. If 'you've got the money for one of them fancy dancy engine covers than go for it, otherwise, just bag it! It ain't pretty but it sure works!
|
|
Prop Spin??
Something I just saw on Fishful Thinking and seems like a good idea, when your going down the hwy do you realize that the wind turbulence can actually cause that prop of yours to start spinning? I've never thought of it before but at higher speeds that baby could really be doing few miles per hour no doubt! The problem you "might" have is the wear that's caused by that prop spin when it isn't in the water. Granted, the unit is sealed and the bearing are being lubricated but there certainly isn't the cooling effect when that leg is submersed in water. I honestly don't know what the wear factor is but, if it at all concerns you all you have to do is put the motor in gear and no more spin! Pretty simple and with the price of repairs nowadays I think I just might start doing this myself!!
Trailer Bunks
Hey, here's a no brainer for some of youse people that have so many problems loading their boats. See the pic below, they are called trailer side bunks or whatever other name you might want to give to them BUT GET SOME!! I realize it's tough some times to get that boat on straight, especially in a spot like we have at Sicamous, wind, current, can really screw with a guy when loading up BUT, GET SOME SIDE BUNKS!! These things make loading..................a thousand times simpler, and that doesn't matter if its a big or even small boat. It lines up the hull almost perfectly with the bunks or rollers underneath but if nothing else it can keep the boat from drifting off the trailer itself. Mind you, if you'd only put the trailer in so far rather than drowning it sometimes that could make a difference too! I'm by no means the resident expert with loading but when I see someone tieing up the ramp for up to a half hour because they can't load the boat properly then its time they found a different hobby or got some lessons from someone! Have a sit a the launch sometime and just watch people loading up and you can learn not only what to do but also and more importantly what not to do. Way to many domestics happening because of something that should be so simple, 'nuff said!!
Drain Plugs aka Drowning Man's Butt Plug
Ya, I know, sounds pretty simple but, it'll probably happen to all of us at least once, and today was my day! I guess it just boils down to being in to big a dang hurry to get out and get the fish and before you know it your boat is sinking!! In the fall/winter I like to make sure as much water as possible is out of the hull portion of the boat, not good when it freezes and starts doing weird things to your boat, like break stuff! This morning was no different, pulled the plug on and laid it on the frame, like I always do, and got the rest of the boat ready to launch. I backed the boat in, tied it to the dock, went and parked the truck, came back, started up both motors to make sure they were warmed up a bit, went and untied the ropes and put the fenders up into the boat, jumped in and was backing up when, I saw this huge puddle of water on the floor area at the stern!! My thought was that I left the wash down hose on and it was pouring into the boat, NOT! Once I checked the hose and found it was turned off, I opened up the canvas at the stern that exposes the battery area and holy crap, the water was up over the floor and about an inch over bottom of the battery boxes, I forgot the plug on the frame!!!!
The next 20 minutes were somewhat fast and furious to say the least, my first thought was to get the boat back on shore in the event the stern did submerge, this I got done. The next thing was to get the bilge pump on to start draining some of the water however, even though its an 1100 gph pump, which translates to 18 gallons per minutes, there was 22 gallons per minute coming in!! I grabbed one of my hand rags that I always have on board, thank goodness, and stuffed as much as I could into the drain hole from the inside, try to do this on an inboard boys!!!! With the bilge pumping, I actually ran, yes, this 52 year old pecker can really run when his boat is sinking, and got the truck and backed it down the ramp ASAP. Once this was done I got back in the boat and did a little hand bailing because that pump was just now catching up and the water was still covering the rear floor area!! Once the water was off the floor I backed the boat out and got it onto the trailer in pretty quick fashion, boat saved!!
Now, for a couple of safety tips that I myself am going to follow now, and forgetting to put the plug in has nothing to do with them!! Number 1, bilge pump, without it I would have been hooped, to say the least. It saved the boat and the day, even though it couldn't keep up to start with it gave me time to get other stuff done. If your boat doesn't have one, invest in one and in fact, I'm going to upgrade mine so that it comes on automatically, if I'd had this feature I'd have know right off the bat there was trouble! Number 2, and this may not work for all boats but what I did find out is that on my boat is that the drain plug hole is the same size inside and out. What that means is, with a spare plug on board (and I did have one, somewhere!) and readily accessible, the problem could have been plugged off from the inside very quickly. In my case the hand rag worked great, it cut the water flow down by half at least. And 3rd, and something which I have just fabricated up in view of my "forgetfulness" is the patent pending Drowning Man's Butt Plug!! Again I'm not sure how everyone else's drain plug looks or attached but mine is simply a rubber grommet that expands when the T Handle is tightened from the outside. Sooooooooooo, what I have done now is drilled a small hole into the base washer of this assembly, and placed a piece of stainless steel cable (from the downrigger actually!) through that hole and attached it to the stem of the drain plug. A simple loop held in place with one of those rigger wire crimps and it can't come off. Then, the wire is run through the plug hole and into the stern and attached somewhere handy, giving me about 4-6" of slack so the plug can hang outside when NOT plugged in!! Then, in the event my mind again fails to remember to put the damn thing back in, all I have to do is, pull the wire from the inside and plug the hole!! Now, that doesn't tighten it nor will it pull the plug all the way into the hole so, you'd still have to get the boat out to do this but, no sinking boat!! I also have the spare plug handy and can still plug the hole from the inside as well. I know this all sounds pretty basic to everyone and that's what I kinda figured as well, but this will happen to you, one day, and hopefully you'll be prepared for it because, it fills up pretty fast!!!!! So, next time I'm at the launch and some guy comes running up to me yelling "hey, can you give me a hand, my boat is sinking!!", I can quickly remind him of the DMBP (Drowning Man's Butt Plug)!!!
Fuel Valve
I keep an eye on the Harbercraft website and other boat stuff sites and, do
actually pick up some interesting tidbits some times. The latest one and
one that may have some merit to it relates to those boaters who have their
kicker plumbed right into their main tank rather than having a separate gas tank
on board. It was mentioned that if you did not have a separate fuel
valve/shutoff between your kicker and the main tank, this is assuming you have
plumbed your gas line into the main motor gas line rather than right from the
fuel tank, that you can actually cause a lean burning condition in your big
motor when its running at speed. The reason for this is, if the big motor
is sucking fuel out of the main tank, it is also sucking fuel and/or air through
that kicker line, via the carb on the kicker! I've never given it much
thought and have had 3 boats all plumbed into the main line without a fuel valve
and have had no problems but, this "thinking" does make sense! Even if it
isn't causing a lean condition (and it may only affect carbureted motors rather
than fuel injected ones) I would have to wonder what it is doing to the carb on
the kicker if in fact it sucks the gas out of the fuel bowl and leaves it dry!
I do know that on other motors such a condition would dry out gaskets or
diaphragms and eventually lead to big troubles on the water. With all that
said, a quick trip to my local NAPA and a small fuel valve was picked up and
installed as shown in the pic. Cheap insurance for both motors and with
the price of them well worth the effort!!
Window Treatment
This is a pretty simple tip but, one that I wasn't aware of
and after trying it found out it works quite well! I was out fishing with
Jim a little while back and in a bucket in his boat he had a can of Pledge.
You know, the stuff that you polish wood furniture with. I looked
around his boat but couldn't see any teak or walnut cabinets hanging around
anywhere and that's when he told me that he uses it on his "plastic" windows in
the boat! He got the tip from the guy that did some work on his boat
canvas and the Pledge is supposed to keep the clear plastic moisturized and
flexible. I gave it a whirl on my boat and you know something, it actually
did seem to make them more............supple? Hey, if it works it works
and, the boat now smells like oranges instead of fish! Thanks Jim!
Water/Fuel Filter Separator
Well, after inadvertently leaving the gas tank lid open overnight in the pouring rain, I figured it was time to install a proper filter system in the boat! It was one of those things where I was doing one thing and started another, forgot I left the lid open and then of course it had to pour all night and I had the making of a disaster. While carbureted motors can sometimes get away with having water pass through them, these new fuel injected ones can wind up with some expensive repairs if water goes through the injectors.
The first thing I tried to do was to determine not if water
went into the tank but rather how much went in. This is pretty tough on
any gas tank that's mounted right in the hull and under the floorboards, short
of tearing everything apart. The fact that water is heavier than gas and
separates from it can help when looking for the stuff, which is what I did
first. On my boat the pickup tube is right at the rear of the gas tank
(stern of the boat) so by taking that out I could have a peek inside the tank to
look for the water. With my gas tank only half full I "should" be able to
see the water if in fact there was any large amount in there. I even
raised the bow of the boat and extra couple feet in the air to get any water in
the tank to "roll" down to the stern area. This might sound goofy but put
a bit of gas in a clear jar and then put some water into it, you'll see how it
can easily move around in the gas! I couldn't see any water at all in the
gas, so that was actually disheartening! I was hoping to see a big glob of
it, because I could then just siphon it out, but, not that easy. My next
task was to actually put the boat in the water and run it. Now, I could do
this because the motor has a built in water/fuel separator on it, albeit a
pretty Mickey mouse one for the cost of the motor! I headed out on the
lake, stopping every 5 minutes or so and checked the separator on the motor (its
clear so you can see if there's water in it), still nothing. Oh, I should
mention that I put in some gasline antifreeze in the gas before I headed out. It
will actually mix with water and allow it to pass through your system and "burn"
it up.
After over an hour of dicking around hoping for water in the gas, nothing! So, back to the launch and plan C, install a proper fuel/water separator filter, something I've been meaning to do for a couple years now. These come in different sizes and hookups but, the basics of it is simple, a filter to clean your gas and a lower portion of the filter that collects water or, a special kind of media (paper) in the filter that absorbs and holds the water. Sameo system as what was already on the big motor but, the aftermarket setup has a way bigger filter and larger area to hold water. Now, this filter isn't clear to see if there's water in it but, all I have to do is take the filter off and pour the contents into a clear container and I'll be able to see if there's any water in it, this applying to the filter that actually "collects" the water. I also put a bottle of what's called "fuel drier" into a full tank of gas, does the same trick as the gas line antifreeze. Total cost of the setup? About 70 bucks, which included the heavy walled marine gas hose and all the fittings. Another "near disaster" averted by the Captain!