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Post by spainy79 on Feb 20, 2011 21:26:32 GMT -5
So there were a few things I didn't get to do last year after purchasing my boat. One of the major items on the list was not traveling to other lakes or going to the Ohio to fish. All of this was a result of little things I noticed with the boat/trailer combo and what needed to be changed or fixed to make traveling and fishing better. So, this will be a thread I will update on occassion when parts come in and I actually have time to work on it. I'll start the thread off with a mod I installed today. Last year I noticed how bad the lighting was around the boat ramps when trying to take the boat out of the water after the sun had went down. So the first thing to go on was a 55w utility light. It's pretty well set up it just needs a few more things buttoned down (I ran out of day light, hmm, irony?). I've installed a lot of fog lights on my vehicles over the years and part of my "OCD" is hiding wires and making it look nice. There's only a small 2-3 inch section of wire that is exposed; it was just easier this way rather than drilling holes. My main concern will be sealing the light and coating the connections inside it with some dielectric grease. I'll do the same with the inline fuse. Here's some pics to get this started. The switch I bought for the light fit perfectly in place where there was an empty fuse holder. Concealing the wires in behind the panel was a bit of a chore. I had to straighten out a wire coat hanger, wrap the wire around it and feed it up to the opening. The throttle wiring was really in the way when I did this along with several other wires. The next part of this thread will be installing an auxillary power source and fixing the plug in connectors on the truck and trailer. Now is the time I really wish I had a garage. If I did I'd still be out there and not starting this thread at 9:30pm.
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Post by Greenedog on Feb 21, 2011 14:46:19 GMT -5
Looking good Lee! That's a great idea with the light. Definitely keep us updated, I might want to steal some of your ideas.
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Post by spainy79 on Feb 22, 2011 3:58:57 GMT -5
Go right ahead Troy. The only reason I want to install that auxiliary plug is so I can charge my cell phone if need be when out on the water. Of course I could take my spotlight with me too.
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Post by FatBoy Dan on Feb 22, 2011 7:43:01 GMT -5
Its a good thing to have a BIG spot light on your boat,never know when you just may need it i use a hand held light to see my way up creeks @ night ior just to have fun like in this video. I all so now got a 800watts Power Inverter to go on my boat to run just about any thing that i may need while out fishing & good to have to charge my video camera back up. I dont know how many times ive had to fix my plug or lights on my boat. Video does have a few bad words in it, WARNING ADULT LANGUAGE
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Post by spainy79 on Feb 26, 2011 4:24:30 GMT -5
I got new guide ons ordered for the trailer. The guide on the passenger side finally fell off. The earliest they'll be here is Friday. If they don't show up then it will be Monday.
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Post by spainy79 on Mar 4, 2011 3:32:45 GMT -5
OK so the guide ons showed up Wednesday. Attachments:
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Post by FatBoy Dan on Mar 4, 2011 7:14:11 GMT -5
OK so the guide ons showed up Wednesday. what this set u back, i need to get a left one my self
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Post by spainy79 on Mar 4, 2011 13:47:43 GMT -5
I ordered them through Overtons. They are currently $99.99 ($20 off). I also had a code for checkout that knocked $10 off. After shipping and tax was figured in I paid $115. Freight charge is a killer.
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Post by spainy79 on Mar 13, 2011 2:28:54 GMT -5
Well I decided that Friday was a good day to burn a vacation day. Got kind of a late start but still made some progress up through Saturday evening. I held off on the aux power source and the truck/trailer wiring. My main focus was the guide ons. I started off by priming and painting the posts. I thought about painting the brackets as well but didn't fell like getting too fancy with it. First are the pics of the old guide ons or what's left of them. The end pics are the newly installed guides. Primed Painted I started to get a little aggravated with the guides on Friday so I took a break and decided to fire up the 50hp. It took about an hour of charging before the motor would even think about starting. There was enough juice still in it to turn the nav lights on, operate the tilt and crank the 9.9hp (surprised on that one) but the 50 no cranky...clicky...it didn't do anything. Once the battery had enough charge and the 50 started cranking it still put up a fight on starting. I was about to give up on it for the night when she finally fired. I let it run a good 15 minutes to burn the fogging oil out of it and I'm sure my water bill is going to be a little higher next month. Once it quit blowing smoke it smoothed out and idled fine. Happy camper. Today after the guides were put on I finished up the wiring for the light I installed. It went pretty smooth and turned on with no problems. I'll have to try and get a good night pic of it with the light going. I did seal the light up and put the dielectric grease on the connections as well. Tomorrow it just might hit the water.
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Post by spainy79 on May 9, 2011 20:22:59 GMT -5
Can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted in this but at the same time I haven't really done anything else up until today. Over the weekend I let go of my beloved S&W 500 magnum and used/using this money to buy a fish finder and new tires for the trailer. The fish finder is marked off the list. Humminbird 586C HD Color screen! It's awesome! It's rather plain jane but it's exactly what I wanted. Color screen, temp and it shows me the fishes. I did get the aux plug installed but not wired up.
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