As I mentioned in my previous post, we purchased a newer boat. I was very curious about how this thing would perform, especially since it basically had a new motor on it.
This time I was taking the whole family for the shakedown. It ran great at the seller’s house on the “ears”, and it did the same at home. It should be a good time.
We picked the next sunny weekend to go to the lake.
There are a few things about this boat that I didn’t mention in the previous post. It has a 24-volt MotorGuide trolling motor, a brand-new starting battery, and something I’ve never used before, a HotFoot throttle pedal. It also has a 4-bladed propeller, which looks really cool.
The HotFoot is the one thing that will take some time to get used to. This is a foot throttle, but only when in forward gear. You place the boat into forward, like any other boat, then the shift/throttle handle does nothing. It is all in the foot pedal, like driving a car. A little more info at the T-H Marine site.
There are a few things which do not work. The speedometer and tachometer are non-functional. The seller had mentioned there was an issue getting them hooked back up with the motor swap. They also intentionally bypassed the oil injection, which is what caused the problem with the original power head. Basically, it stopped injecting oil and overheated and seized up. This boat is tank mix only. I’m ok with that, even if it is a bit of a pain to get oil into the tank filler.
The family had been on the old boat a couple of times, so they were comfortable with what we had to do to get the boat in the water, the truck in to parking, and the everyone on the boat. We still did the safety discussion.
I had gotten the boat in the water myself, with the family sitting on a picnic table. They had not heard what the V6 sounded like up close. It was a bit of a shock for my 6-year old son and he was a little scared of the louder exhaust and rumble through the boat. It took a moment to settle him down to it and we were ready to go.
A quick untie from the load/unload dock and we were headed out of the marina and towards the unrestricted water. I couldn’t wait to see what this thing would do!
As we headed to the no-wake buoys, I noticed we were throwing a little wake at idle. It was moving a little faster than the old boat, and I filed that away as something to check later. Perhaps the idle needs to be adjusted down a bit.
I also noticed it was smoking a whole lot. Blue smoke, which means oil. The previous owner did mention he was running double oil during break-in on the new power head, so it makes sense. I had topped off the fuel and had added a little extra oil as well.
We passed the buoys, and I started to roll some power on. The motor responded instantly and we were on plane in no time. We were planing and not even at full throttle. I opened it up a bit more and then finally wide-open-throttle. I ran out of lake before I could get it trimmed.
When we slowed down, my daughter was elated with the speed and thrill of it. My son was insisting we go back to the marina, as he was done. The noise and vibration scared him and he didn’t want to do any more. “No more go fast, Daddy”.
Ok. Then let’s find a spot to go fishing. I idled the boat into one of the many offshoots from the main channel and plopped the trolling motor into the water. I hooked up the control pedal for it and pushed the go button. Nothing. That’s strange, as I had charged the batteries the day before. Nothing?
We glided in uncontrolled and I dropped anchor. It would be fine until I could figure out what was going on. I opened the back hatch to look at the trolling batteries. Yes, batteries. It’s a 24-volt trolling motor, so two 12-volt batteries in series.
Aha! There it is. One of the battery leads between the batteries is not connected. I reached in and hooked the wire to the terminal and tightened down the wingnut. I remembered that I had disconnected the two batteries when I charged them. I don’t know if it was necessary, but it felt like a wise thing to do.
I closed the hatch and went back up to the trolling motor. It was now running, but it just didn’t seem to have any oomph to it. It felt like it was connected to a dead battery. It was enough to get us a little further off the main lake so we could get a little fishing in.
The kids got a couple of nibbles, but nothing hooked. I mentioned to them that I was betting it was small fish and maybe we should go to another part of the lake. They readily agreed, so I pulled up anchor, stowed the trolling motor and fired up the main. We idled right out to the main channel.
The next spot was at the very “top” of the lake, so I told them it was going to be a while. I had to idle back through the marina area, which is a huge no-wake zone, then under a bridge. My son said we should stop in the marina, as he was really still done with the whole thing. We were still smoking quite a bit from the extra oil.
I was able to open it up a couple more times to get us to the fishing spot. The motor responded like I expected it to. It was eager to push the boat and it felt like it wanted me to give it more throttle. It just wants to GO.
My son did catch his very first fish on this trip. His was also the first fish of the day.
Fishing was so so the rest of the day. I spent much of the time getting people re-rigged and set up again. Bobbers were lost. Some fish were caught, and overall, people had fun.
The only thing that I really had trouble with was getting the boat on the trailer. I didn’t have the trailer in the water far enough, so it took some work to get it right. The boat was back about two inches from the forward stop when I pulled it out. I thought about it and originally considered that it was “good enough”. I was tired and didn’t want to mess with it. It was nagging me though. Finally, I said to the family that I needed to set the boat back in the water to get it up on the trailer better. Momma agreed and quelled any further argument from the under 4-foot crowd.
A quick trip through the load/unload line and I backed down the ramp. I got the boat just floating and cranked the winch to bring it up to the forward stop. That’s better. I felt safer and the boat fit on the trailer better. It is a learning experience.
When we got home, I put my meter on the trolling batteries. It showed 20-volts on my 24-volts worth of batteries. I check each battery individually. One showed 12-volts, the other was 8ish volts. Something was definitely wrong with that one.
I checked electrolyte levels and they were fine. Corrosion or something has shorted two of the cells together. I don’t have a charger with enough amps to get these batteries to boil, so it is replacement time.
Good news is Costco had group 24 size batteries for about $70ish each, with core trade. All three batteries are now new.
We did two other fishing trips with the new boat, and the trolling motor ran much much better with two good batteries.
Then….the end of the season. I fogged and winterized the boat and she sits until spring 2021. We can hardly wait.