Jury is back. Shop said it needs new lifters and a new cam. 1400 bucks to get it all done. said he wouldn’t really know for sure until he gets in there.

anyone know of a good mechanic that works on the side out of his garage for cash? I would be interested in giving the business to a guy like that!

Thanks for the ideas. I am afraid it is bad. I will take it in tomorrow.

Tried that. Definitely in the engine somewhere. Wondering if I have an oil port plugged and no lubricating the top end correctly. Thanks though.

Thanks for all the replies. I missed the boat on the deal with the 8 speed tranny. Now the deal is on a 6 speed tranny. Any thoughts on how the 6 speed will do with 3.55 in the rear?

Thanks Trumar. Is that the one way up under the dash or one of the two lower by the floor???

I use WB elite for current conditions, but for radar and storm chasing I use Radarscope. Radarscope is one of the best I have found thus far.

John deere x2.

Single stage blower will walk circles around the new stuff. I use a single stage on a tractor for commercial use and has never let me down yet.

I just went through this last summer. He is right. Just go and pick out the trailer you want and buy it new. Once you get the boat swapped out to the new trailer, sell it on CL. Most dealers won’t touch a used trailer as they can be tough to sell. FYI. I went from rollers to bunk and can’t be happier!

I have have only used honda oil that is rated for this machine since day one. I was going to try an oil change this week to see if that takes care of anything. Although an oil change just for supplies is 50 bucks! almost 5 quarts!
I did check the oil thinking it was low until it warmed up and expanded and it looks normal.

Ok. New trailer it is. I have narrowed it down to shorelandr 2300 lb axle or an ez loader with 2450 axle. Both are very similar trailers. Any suggestions to lean on way or the other. Both are within a 100 bucks of each other.

Thoughts?

Yeah it is the Dom Sport. 1250 lbs dry weigth. The 2700 that I caculated is based off of all the weight including the trailer so yes GVW is at least 200 over. I tried leveling the bunks to the ground but then the boat goes on side ways as the fenders are not symetrical to the frame. Ugh.

I feel a bit easier that 320 lbs is going to the truck and off of the axle but I know I am flirting with disaster. Drives fine now. When I got it from the dealer the tongue weight was way north of 500lbs. I can move the axle forward another 5 inches but I think it would look funny with it that far forward.

Looks like every one suggests doing this on my own. I was leaning that way with 500 bucks in labor alone from a couple local shops. Do the local libraries have repair manuals to get my hands on? If so what do I ask for?

Thanks!!

Any Update???

Anyone have the real story on this? I have seen a couple of the news outlets in town touting this as a “shoot first” bill and the police are against it????????? Any updates?

Came across this site. Don’t know much about it but is a start.

http://biggameforever.org/

I had the same delema you did. I actually went with the old fashioned carb 2 stroke. I actually love it! My reasoning was performance, I can work on it myself, and money.

When I researched the e-tech, I hear both good and bad about them. Hard to beat when they are on thier game. When you reearch most of the 4 strokes, it is hard to find anything bad. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks again. Just got the job done. Changed the heater core and the thermostat. Thermostat was harder than the core as you need baby hands to get to the bolts. Anyway have very hot heat now!

One more question. Now I have coolant all over my tools and bucket that I was using. Any advice on how to get the tools clean from any residue? I tried spraying them with starting fluid and that did not do the trick.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for all the replys. Since I pretty much have everything taken appart, I am going to put in a new t-stat and heater core (parts are only 50.00) and flush with new coolant. I hope that will do the trick. Was going to try tonight, but it is alreay -2 and too cold! Should be fun with a non heated garage to work in!

as of tonight it is 76.31 in stillwater. normal is 75 ish. It is suposed to rise over a foot by 7PM tomorrow night to almost 78. that may not include the huricane we got last night though.

Rigging Guy,

One more question for you. Talked to the Dealer a bit today and they said I am likely over the power curve where I am at. He said that since I didn’t gain anything (speed or RPM’s) when going up one hole with the 15 pitch prop that I am just spinning more and burning more gas for nothing. Any truth to this. I have settled on the 15 pitch prop, but and debating if I should drop it back down one hole (2nd form top) if I really am over the power curve.

Thanks!

Ok. So just checked on alumacrafts web site. They are running a 90 4 stroke on my same rig with a 19 pitch prop. they get 39 MPH top end at 5900 RPM. Intersting that the 4 stoke seems to have more power to turn a 19 and get the RPMs up? I was always told that the 2 strokes have more low end torque to turn higher pitch props than 4 stokes?????

Steve,

I have a buddy that is running a 1700 angler (very close to the same weight as mine) tiller with a 70 2 stoke yamaha on it. with a 19 pitch prop, he runs 40 – 42 GPS no problems with 2 guys in the boat. Another reason I am confused as to why a 70 can push a boat faster than a 90 (even though I have more wind drag with the windshield).

Thoughts anyone?

Rigging Guy, That is interesting comment. Just got off the water. Put the motor up one hole last night and got all ready. I am now the third hole from the top on a 4 hole system. Put the 17 pitch on and hit it. Gained about 200 RPM, so now running 5400 just me in the boat. Topped out at 35 -36 depending on wind. Put the 15 pitch on and gained nothing it seemed like I almost lost a hair and running between 5700 and 5800RPM and nothing on the top end, still in that 35 – 36 MPH. Took a look at the back at WOT (I don’t reccomend doing that alone!!) and the cav plate is out of the water now. I think it is about right if not a tad high.

Weird thing I noticed. I was playing around with trim while running. This motor has a two stage trim, where the slow trim on the low end and it won’t let you go too high over a certain RPM. I can trim all the way up (to the point of a rooter tail) and I can’t get the prop to slip! I can even turn faily decent at high speed and trimed all the way up and still runs great! That is wierd to me since my last boat, I only had to trim just a hair to get up before the prop slipped.

I am not too worried about top speed at this point as 35 is faily good, however, I would like to be running closer to 6000 RPM for motor efficiency!

Any thoughts? Should I drop to a 13 or try a SS prop. Arrr I hate when things arn’t easy!

Thanks again for all the help.

Well did some looking and testing today. Went down to a 15 pitch prop and didn’t change anything else. Got up to about 5800 RPM and didn’t change the top end at all. Major hole shot though, I am on plane in under 2 seconds! Right now with the motor all the way down (not trimmed to cruzing speed) on the trailer, the cav plate is below the bottom of the boat. Watched on the water today. I can get the cav plate out of the water, but need to trim the motor all the way up. So now it is pushing the water more up in the air instead of straight out (ie roster tail) Does that sound normal? When I trim to where I think it should be the front of the cav plate is under that water and running water up the plate and out.

any advice? I think I am going to try rasing the motor one hole, But deathly scared of not getting enough water to the motor, especially on those 4 – 8 mile runs at WOT on the river!

I got this email. For all the “animal lovers” who say people never see wolves and never come into contact with them is wrong. I personally have seen this many times. these kind of encounters are NOT (I repeat) NOT rare. Happen all the time, they are just not reported! This story is directly from a DNR CO. Not some made up B as in B, S as in S.

The wolves appeared shortly after Scott Wundinich shot and gutted a deer, then climbed back into his stand.

“Four or five, including a pitch-black male, came running out of the woods together,” recalled Wundinich, 48, of Eveleth, Minn. “I looked to my left and saw three more. There were three or four more on my other side. I was stunned. I yelled and screamed, but they pretty much ignored me. They paced back and forth. They wanted my deer and the gut pile.”

Despite firing several shots to try to scare away the wolves, they lurked, sometimes howling and barking, about 50 yards from Wundinich’s stand for 45 minutes.

“I was scared,” he said. “I’ve been hunting since I was 12 and I’ve never seen anything like this. It was a real humbling, eerie feeling.”

Afraid to get down, Wundinich hunkered in his stand until darkness descended on the woods near Lake Vermilion in northeastern Minnesota.

Then, with his rifle still loaded, he cautiously climbed down.

“I could hear them,” he said.

With a small flashlight in his mouth, he scrambled to his ATV about 120 yards away. “I started it up and drove out of the woods as fast as I could go.”

Wildlife officials say the encounter with wolves was unusual. But Wundinich and others, including some northern Minnesota conservation officers, say such encounters and sightings there are becoming more common.

“I’d say almost 50 percent of the deer camps I’ve checked have said they’ve seen wolves,” said Dan Starr, Department of Natural Resources conservation officer in Tower. “That has increased. They [wolves] are getting pretty bold.”

Said Wundinich: “We have an unmanaged population of wolves in northern Minnesota. They are becoming a problem.”

Dan Stark, a DNR wolf specialist, said he hasn’t received more calls about human-wolf encounters. Surveys done in 2007-2008 estimate the state’s wolf population at about 3,000. It’s unknown if that number has increased since then.

He said Wundinich’s experience is unusual because wolves generally don’t stand their ground, even with food present.

“I’ve walked in on wolves feeding, and they scattered,” he said. But a downed deer could affect their behavior.

“I’ve had them bark and howl at me, but they seem to keep a certain distance. I probably wouldn’t get down from a stand and try to drag the deer off.”

Wolf attacks in North America on humans are extremely rare. But that didn’t ease Wundinich’s mind when he was in his stand with a pack of wolves below Nov. 8. Here’s what Wundinich said happened:

With his dad and nephew hunting elsewhere, he shot a small buck about 3:50 p.m. He climbed down and gutted the deer. Because he couldn’t legally operate his ATV until after shooting hours (a half-hour after sunset), he went back into his stand. That’s when the wolves showed up.

He stood up and made noise. “They scampered off a bit, but it didn’t scare them,” he said. He shot his 30.06 rifle twice in the air. “They ran about 45 yards away on top of a hill and started howling.” Unsure what to do, he used his cell phone to call his dad at the cabin, who told him to call Starr, the local conservation officer, whom Wundinich knows.

“He [Starr] said fire some shots to scare them. I told him I had done that,” Wundinich said. “He said to leave the deer.”

After a while, he fired two more shots, then reloaded his rifle. “I told him if I was attacked, I would shoot,” Wundinich said. Wolves are protected and managed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but people can kill them to defend themselves.

Sometime after 5 p.m. Wundinich finally climbed down, got to his four-wheeler in the dark and sped to his cabin, less than a mile away. Armed with his rifle, he and his nephew each drove four-wheelers back to retrieve his deer.

“The gut pile was mostly gone and they bit into the hindquarters and neck and chewed on an ear,” he said.

Wundinich said he was reluctant to tell anyone about the experience because he feared no one would believe him. Starr, however, mentioned the incident in his weekly report, which is distributed to news media. He said he has no reason to doubt Wundinich’s story.

“He was legitimately shook up,” Starr said.

Other conservation officers have received complaints from hunters, saying there are too many wolves and too few deer. DNR officials say deer numbers are down because of recent tough winters and liberal hunting regulations. Stark, the wolf biologist, said a lengthy DNR deer study in the Grand Rapids area showed that wolves kill about 5 to 10 percent of does yearly. Other studies estimate wolves kill 45,000 to 60,000 deer yearly. In recent years, hunters have harvested 220,000 to 250,000 deer.

As for Wundinich, he planned to be back in his stand this weekend, the last of the regular firearms season, with his wolf encounter fresh on his mind.

“I’ll never forget it as long as I live,” he said.

Same situation for us. We had over 700 man hours combined this season. Saw a total of 7 deer over 1000 acres. Saw way more wolves than deer. Wolves are a problem in this state. In WI lots of dogs were lost during the fall bear hunt. If you have the dogs carcus and can prove a wolf kill, the government will write you a $2500 check for your dog loss!

There was an interesting article in the outdoor news a couple of weeks ago on the MN moose population. Global warming was rulled out, and wolf population was one of the major contributors.

Wolves are fine to have in MN, BUT thier population needs to be kept in balance. Right now IMO there are WAY too many, and the number the DNR published for the “true popluation” is not even close.

it is crashed toys. they moved down there from their stillwater location. Ran out of room up there from all the volume they do!

I really liked the wheeler. It is not for the hard core trail rider that wants to go fast and have a sporty machine though. It is tough as nails and is bullet proof. Never had a problem with it. I will be looking to replace it with the exact same machine, but probably older and much worse condition than mine was. I am sure you know how insurance companies work.

the other thing is that the oil is not injected into the cyl not the carb so if you take care of your gas, you should have less carb gum ups?

Great conversation. I don’t know how to do a poll but I will if someone explains it to me. That would be interesting.

To answer Gary’s Question. From a standard carb 2 stroke to the 4 stroke yamaha is about 1500 and another 1500 or so to get up to the e-tec. that is why the decision is a little hard since that is a bunch of money that I don’t have to burn or I can put it into trolling motor, etc.

any thoughts on the smokercraft brand name? I found a used one that fits my needs very well but am worried about the quality and re-sale ability.