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OK, the thread you've all been waiting on.
Funny thing is, I really have very few shots that are all that good and really no shots of the finished product. But, I've still got more misc stuff to do and I'll build on it as I go. The pump seal deal for one and my rod carrying rack for another. I'm just giving Maj a shot at catching up is all. :)
And away we go.
Wannabe...
As with any project, it's important to remember where you started.
Here's what was left over from the G-3 and from when I pulled the Champ out from the shed for the first time.
Sucker was nasty too. 3 years of sitting without being moved will do that to a boat. What I really need to do is get Is to classify it as part of the house. That way, she'd insist that it be spick and span at all times.
Wannabe...
First things first. Before I plopped any money into rigging, I wanted to make sure the motor checked all out. That's where Jerry came in.
Not many pics to show here, but he did a full test and found a couple of things that needed doing and discovered the brakes were crap as well.
First was draining the fuel. A main tank and a reserve. The main tank was fine, or at least he said that all 40 gallons ran through his truck with no problem. :D The auxillary tank was nasty stuff though. Off color and didn't smell right. Past that, it was blowing out all lines and checking stuff like plugs, wires, filters etc. He also was kind enough to take it out for a day and run the snot out of it for me to make sure it was all OK.
Now, I'm poking a bit here at Jerry. He runs a 19' Stratos and is a dang good driver so I wanted him to shake it out for me and to see if he could find anything else that needed to be done or should be done. On the fuel, I told him I didn't want it back in the boat as I didn't trust it having set that long.
That said, he's got a buddy that checks in here from time to time and it just wouldn't be right not to give him a little something to report back to him. :)
Wannabe...
Next it was out with the old.
First thing to go was the stinking Land and Sea hotfoot. It's a dual action one meaning the hand throttle and the foot throttle both still work. It was crap to me and hard to operate. Pretty popular with the cruiser folks that make long runs and that get foot fatique.
Next was the TM. Worked fine, but I had other plans
Last was the Fish Finders. Back in the day, an X85 and an X65 was top of the line believe it or not. This boat even had 3 transducers and a speed wheel. One on the transom, another glassed in on the running pad and a third glassed in directly under the pestal. Pretty sweet set up actually. Again, I had other plans.
Wannabe...
Next up was the TM and front FF.
Y'all've seen the plate, but I did such a good job on it (OK, I'll admit that I designed it and Jerry did most all of it), I'm showing it again. Thanks to EZ Holder for hooking me up with the plate. You got any idea how hard it is to come up with 1/2 aluminum plate that is 6.5" by 20" in Grenada? Really hard, let me tell ya.
Was thinking about having it powder coated or anodized just for looks, but I think it blends in pretty well with the silver flake top cap.
At the last minute, I decided to mount the front GPS puck to the top of the plate to keep from drilling additional holes in the boat. Made the wiring a lot easier too.
Since the boat had a MG with 4 mounting holes that were 1/2 already, we were really stuck with using the MG isolater mounting system to place the TM on the boat. I'd never used them before and was pretty worried about how well they'd hold. We put it in place and it seemed fine, but for added security decided to take it off and put in 2 more. Now it's not going anywhere for sure. As an added benefit, the rubber bushings, for lack of a better word, really do isolate the TM. No hint of vibration or noise from the TM when it's on.
Wannabe...
Looking at the pic, it looks like it's right under the Tm when it's in the boat, not down trolling. If it is there, does it get in the way of picking up the satalites? Kinda looks like it's right under that sucker and may get in the way
Next, the rear FF. From an idea I'd seen posted here on C.C, I decided to try mounting the transducer to the sacrificial annode on the bottom of the motor mount. Used some 3/16" aluminum angle, pulled the annode and used it for a guide for drilling. Bolted the transducer to it and slapped it back on.
Now, with a hydralic jack plate, I was really worried bout pinching the cable some how, so Jerry took some fuel line, split it and we routed it up the jack plate and carefully placed it to make the jump to the rigging boot. Cycled it through it's entire range a few times and seems good to go. I think it's as close to bullet proof as can be considering the placement.
No worries about the lack of depth at speed as I have a flasher dash mounted with a glassed in transducer. Kind of funky going old school and booking it accross the lake though.
The flasher is a blue water pro 1240A and was a mainstay for a lot of years at Lowrance. Trouble is, it's got a 4" hole and is discontinued now and replaced by an LCD model that is something like 3". Was worried about what if it blows up or stops working, so I made a deal yesterday for a used one on the cheap as a spare.
Ya just can't ever have enough electronics and when you do, you can always horde spares.
Wannabe...
Yes DD, it's right under the shaft when the TM is stowed. No matter though, as the rear FF has it's own puck. Only worried about reception when the TM is down and I'm fishing.
Wannabe...
Dern, I skipped a step in the story. Before I pulled the Boat to Jerry's shop, I had to put a cranking battery in it. When I popped the rear compartment, this is what I saw.
FYI, If my brother, Ustabe, ever calls and says "Hey, want me to come over and help you run wires in your boat?" ..........HANG UP IMMEDIATELY AND DIAL 911!!!!!!!!!
Wannabe...
And now we come to the scary part of the story.
Sure, I've drilled bunches of holes in aluminum. Big 'uns, lil 'uns, all sorts. Even have drilled a bunch of holes in glass boats too.
But neva, eva eva a 2.25" monster right throught he front deck!!!!!!
I had Jerry and two consultants working on the job with me that day, but yep, Jerry refused to operate the drill for me. He wanted no part of that liability....Plus, he's kin to Ole Miss and thinks it's just plain foolishness to fish more than one pole a time besides he don't like folks enough to let anybody get that close to him to warrant needing more than one seat up front.
So, we discussed, debated, cussed, fought about it, measured, re-measured, debated measuring, cussed about measuring, called each other names, took a poll, held a primary, had an election and in the end, I won out with rock paper scissors on where it was going.
About the time I put that bit down perzacerly where it needed to be, one of the consultants said "you sure you're on the right side of the tape?". So, back to measuring for another 45 minutes with some extra good cussing this time around.
Only thing left to do was to put the full 18 Volts to it.
Way more scary than Nightmare on Elm Street.
As it turned out, I kind of they ended up about 1.5" further back, but at least this way I won't ever say "I wish my seats were a little bit closer".
Wannabe...