My new 2001 and my first!

You could do a cameo appearance at Green Lake

We would all enjoy meeting the makeover artist.

Joey,
You amaze me nothing seems to slow you down or be something you won't jump right in and conquer you are sure a inspiration to this site and to boat owners around the world. I followed your post as well as others for sometime now. Keep it going.... Monty

Got a little more done. I decided while I wait for the correct color match vinyl for my current interior I would make some temporary seats using some vinyl I found at a local shop. Here are my first attempts at upholstery. After doing these I feel pretty confident that the final seats with the matching vinyl will come out pretty good.

I also started making an ICE chest that will fit under the rear seat. It just needs some glass. I am going to add a drain so as the ice melts it will drain into the bigle.





Here are the shots of the ice cooler I am making! Had a little bit of foam left. Just enough to fill this area:

Outer shell:


Inner Shell


Both shells ready for the foam to be poured:


Here is the foam shell after removing the mold. Just needs a little glass:

Exhaust is under water bubbling away. No redneck truck exhaust stacks if that's what you mean.

My truck is in almost to it's front wheels when we lanuch at the lake.!!!

not so bad when we go to the river as the ramp is steeper.

Narrowing the guide posts won't help you.

That's got to be the number 1 best reason against power loading & unloading your boat. In reverse, you will always pull to the side.

If you float on & off you will never have this problem, and you also won't scratch up you hull anywhere near as badly.

Hey guys, I went out tonight with the smaller 3 blade. What a dog it is! I think it is out of alignment a little after hitting the prop guard. I took the coupling off and noticed it is slightly off center. I spun the shaft and put a center on it and it doesn't seem bent. Maybe the strut got moved a little or bent? My question is....

The engine is as far left as possible and can't go anymore. If I loosen up the four bolts holding the strut will it move a little side to side to get the shaft more center in the log? Right now the shaft is more left in the log than it is center.

Thanks!

Thats correct! Thanks for the correction.

That was critters suggestion. I am going to take them off and have a welder cut some of the width of them out. They are about a foot out right now.

Well I had my first real mishap tonight. I tried out a different ramp. The ramp was more shallow and the water was very rough. As I backed the boat off the trailer a wave came by and pushed the boat to the left and the prop hit the prop guard. Pretty ironic that the very thing to protect it, messed it up! Bent the tips on all four blades on my Acme 422. Guess it is off to the delta prop place to be fixed!

Good news is I have two other props the guy gave me when I bought the boat. One is a very nice OJ 13x13 3 blade. The bad news is the OJ is a LH prop and my engine is a RH rotation! Pretty funny. I have had this prop for 6 months and didn't even realize it was the wrong rotation until today!

I put the other 3 blade on there that is a RH but it is very old and I can barely make out the letters. It looks a little smaller than the OJ but will get me through the next week while I wait for my 422 to be repaired.

Guess the OJ LH is going up on ebay! Any takers, it looks brandnew!?!?

Good to know, thanks much! I'm debating 2 or 4 lb, but I think they used 2 lb from the factory and it seemed plenty strong. Sounds like I might as well order the 80 lb kit. I might end up with extra, but four 16 lb kits seems to be about the same price.

I used the 2lb foam: FOAM-0216

I originally bought 3 kits of the FOAM-0216 which was 24 cubic feet and ended up having to buy 2 more of them.

Next time I do it I will put down boards covered in plastic with holes. Then pour the foam in the holes and fill up the cavitives. Then remove the boards and cover in glass. I wasted a lot of foam just free pouring it. If you put down some boards then the foam will fill up the floor more evenly and you will waste less.

Well I found exactly what I was looking for. It is a GPS sender to replace your paddle wheel. It works with all electrical type speedo devices. The paddle wheel was $112 and this device is $210 after converting it from Australian currency.   So for a little more than $100 over the paddle wheel I will have GPS and get to use my matching speedo and don't have to cut a hole in my boat! Perfect pass will have to wait till next summer. Here is a link if anyone is interested:

http://www.hummingbirdelectronics.com.au/senders.html

Once I get it installed I will let you know how it works!

That is good to know because that has started to become my process. Wasn't sure if it was a good thing to do but it seems to work! Glad I am not alone. Thanks for the tips!

I am trying to recall my electrical engineering classes from school because I want to get a GPS receiver and program it to work with my speedo. It will be a temporary solution until I get the perfect pass. I could install a paddle wheel that works with my speedo but I really don't feel like cutting a large 2" hole in the bottom for something I won't be using in a few months once the pp is installed. I found a gps receiver that puts out speedo for less than $100. Then I should be able to translate that to the correct voltage to feed the speedo.

If I figure it out I will post some specs and wiring diagrams.

Later

I generally stop about an inch shy of the pad. Hook it good pull it out. Find flat ground then brake hard. The boat moves foreward and the bow rises that last little bit. Then I tighten the bow and strap the stern. Easy and I like how it rides on the trailer after brake-checking her.

I am not coming in below the crash pads. The issue is that it hits about 1 foot below where it rests on the crash pad when it is out of the water. So I drive it to the pad, we need to loosen the connection on the bow a fair amount for it to reach. Then when pulling it out of the water the bow rises on the crash pad and puts a lot of strain on the rub rail. The rub rail looks like it is going to be pulled off the edge.

I think your right. We will just keep on playing with locations and figure out what works best.

I have been out 4 times this week boarding and I am LOVING it!