things we are doing to our boats for this years fishing season

[lowe1648mt]

Are you covering the buss bar? I don't think you would like to have a short across those terminals. be sure to put a lock washer on each terminal and I always cover with liquid rubber to keep down corrosion. Overkill is a good thing. Too much is never enough.

 

[dragonfly]

thanx lowe I don't know if you can see in the picture but there is a seperation bar between the pos. and neg. bars plus there will be a cover that will keep anything from touching any of the wires, I don't use lock washers on electrical but use ss serated star washers for a better bite and contac. I like the spray on plastic, but not on places I will be working in because if I need to add or remove its a pain to clean up insted I use a clear silicone dielectric grease to seal up the termanials and keep the moisture out.it will make more sence once I get it mounted and the wires installed. dfly

 

[Scrminbanshee]

scriminbanshee where did you end up mounting your downriggers and did you make something or did scotty have something ? maybe post some pictures, thanx for sharing. dfly

Scotty had what i needed just had to reenforce the wood but pics and a walk through to come.

 

[dragonfly]

started on my battery box and electrical this is where I started
starboard

and port

pulled everything out and cleaned up the area then on the starboard side I mounted my battery box

installed the batts and secured them with the strap

other than making the batt cables that side is done and now has 2 group 27s
the port side I moved the tr-1 to the right installed the new batt hold down and started to install the bus panel but ran out of ss screws so this is where I stopped tonight

tomorrow will be making batt cables and running wires. dfly

 

[Trackerg]

nice job Dfly..I did something similar on my boat. I added another deep cycle for the bow mount trolling motor using a battery selector switch. I like knowing when one battery is getting low and being able to switch to auxiliary battery. I located my second battery in the front port compartment in order to transfer a little weight to the front of the boat.

 

[dragonfly]

thanx trackerg, I have a spot infront of the front step foward to the anchor box that will hold up to 3 group 27s nicely and thinking that might be next years project to install them and an I-pilot trolling motor mainly for the on anchor feature that my tr-1 dosn't have. does yours have that feature and how well do they work I don't think I would need much over 60 lbs thrust being I will be using it to hold position only and the tr-1 for trolling. dfly

 

[Trackerg]

I don't have the Ipilot. I have heard good things about them though. Looks like you have a fairly large boat. I think you are right on the 60 for an anchor. I have 17 and a half foot Tracker and my 46 pound Motorguide will pull it along at 2.5 mph in calm conditions. It seems like it weighed in at around 2400 pounds but id have to find the weight slip to verify that.

 

[dragonfly]

got all my wires gathered up and rather than just zip locking and bundle them together we have these wire trays that come in 4' lengths and different heights and widths

and when installed has a top that snaps on and keeps them all secure

here is what they look like with wire in them.

and here is my mess I am working on

hopefully I remembered every thing and will be putting on ends and installing the start batt.
now I know some of you are thinking those things would make great dodger organizers, well this is what they look like. dfly

 

[dragonfly]

In the process of servicing the boat I noticed the oil in the tr-1 reservoir looked like used crankcase oil and thought while servicing the rest of the boat I would change and flushing this oil, I never liked the slow reaction time with the rubber hoses having to inflate and deflate 'so to speak' the hose humps up and moved around when turning left to right and the constant overcorrecting because of it, so I pulled the cyl

to clean it up , pressure test, polish up and mount the quick connect fittings

the hose is a nylon braid, flexible with a 800lb burst strength so there is no stretch and reaction time is almost instant now and stops dead and no over swing. this is the same hose I use on low pressure pilot controls and thought it would be ideal for this application.
here is the control unit

the push in fittings make it fast and easy

dfly

 

[dragonfly]

after changing over the hyd lines adding another transducer, battery cables, fuel hose, tr-1 control wires the panther wires and vent, the air intake and duct hose was pretty well blocked off

so for ventilation and fire safety I decided to redo the vent system and moved them to the starboard side

the starboard side is facing forward and is ducted to the bottom of the sump area on the starboard side. the port side is ducted on the port side of the eng. in the sump area and is power suction that blows it out and rearward through the port vent and the far port vent is just for hyd. and electrical and what ever air circulates through it. dfly

 

[dragonfly]

http://www.endroad.com/ here is a site to get some interesting tie downs. I used the original one to replace the old one on my anchor

now I wont have to worry about it bouncing up. then I mounted a pair of downrigger weights on each side of the pole holders on the dog house

so they are handy and not rolling around. any way they have a lot of different hold downs that will fit just about any thing from fishing rods, nets, fire extinguisher, etc I got mine from GK machine. dfly

 

[SuperD]

I like the clamps for the downrigger weights. One thing I noticed with the bar weights is that I can't hang them on the boom when I run from spot to spot like I could with the other style of weights. I might be able to mount a couple clamps on the offshore bracket side of the transom to hold weights while they are still connected to the cable.

 

[dragonfly]

Dave when I am moving around the lake I just put them in the rocket launchers on the down riggers or in the ones on the rails I just put them on the dog house when I am not using the downriggers. these are my 1 1/2 SS lead filled ones that I made for a guy and liked them so well I made 4 for my self and they fit into the rocket launchers. dfly

 

[SuperD]

Since I have the "old style" 1 15/16" dia., that isn't an option and I really hate bringing them into the boat and laying them on the floor everytime we make a run. I think one of those quickfist clamps on the transom and on the gunnel would hold them real well.

 

[dragonfly]

that should work, each one of those clamps are good for up to 2 1/4'' and 22 lbs. dfly

 

[dragonfly]

I thought the original thunderjet letters were dated and needed a change so used the same fonts I had on the back and layed them out for the new 'thunderjet' and vectorized my dragon and went down to the print shop to lay out how I wanted them layered and colors. they did a great job. picked them up Friday and I put them on this morning. here's some pics. dfly

 

[dragonfly]

finally got caught up at work and got the boat out on greenpeter for a shake down before next weekend and fished from 6 to 12 worked out some bugs, forgot stuff, but all in all the boat worked perfect. one great improvement was the tr-1 hose replacement with plastic. NO more annoying swinging back and forth noise even in the wind in fact I had to look to make sure it was working because it wasn't swinging back and forth over correcting all morning. the new digi troll 10s with the scotty masts were great almost has me thinking of replacing the other two 2106s. the fishing was hot ( thanx to fishwithgary products ) and didn't need or get to try the bottom trac or the jigging feature's but I will have all of next week end for that. I don't know what my Australian shepherd was thinking but he was on the anchor nest and lost his balance and fell off when I was in back setting up the downriggers and heard my wife yell ''max fell off and went under the boat'' by then he popped out the back and I grabbed him and drug his hairy butt from the rear deck back on the boat (just another reason I am glad I have a jet ) note to self, next dog will have a tail. but with all that we still got our limits and I cleaned fish on the way in. dfly

 

[Mike]

Love the panduit for storing dodgers Idea ... I can't believe I never thought of that , I work for a automation company and we have our own panel shop there's ton's of scrap laying around. I think I'll have to snatch some up and play around with it. The boat looks awesome some really nice work being done there!

 

[Kokaholic]

Well, yes it's the end of the season, however laker fishing and cutts at bear lake are just getting started so my new boat item was just added and finished up tonight. I just mounted a Minnkota Terrova 80 with I-pilot Us2. Way excited to get out soon and give it a whirl. Brand new. I am happy happy happy.

 

[mrmike]

Well I also added a new Minnkota Terrova 101 with I-pipot Us2 the Salt water model I had it on for part of the season and it does take some time to get use to. If you were to see me and my boat you would swear I was drunk it was a windy day I was all over the place but I'm sure enjoying it, The unit does have a lot of power and opens up some different avenues of fishing for me,and I'm getting use to it the boat really responds extremely quickly with the bow mount.