Thinking About a Boat

Dav8or said:
My point is, making the process easier, cheaper and more accessible to people. How many people would buy and start kit planes if they had to hire an IA to sign off on each stage of the work and keep logs about everything, buy only FAA certified parts, keep all the paperwork straight and no modifications not approved by the FAA allowed? I believe that if the project appealed to the hobbyist as more doable and less red tape, more people would go for it.

You personally could buy that neglected Mooney and put an IO-470 in it and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
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Well, when the Experimental/Non Commercial rules come into play, we'll have the opportunity to see how that pans out. Right now you could look to Canada to see what you can see since they already have that ability.
 
Does this mean a jet ski only gets you to first base?

---

WTB: broken 40 foot yacht.
Ted: can I still borrow your garage?

:D
 
Thinking about a boat?

tuuM0o5.gif
 
I love sailing! In some ways it's more demanding than flying a plane. It's tricky single hand sailing a 30' yacht and few friends make lighter work. In some ways I prefer a boat to a plane. You can eat, drink and sleep on a nice cruising yacht and bring more people as well as use a full size head and shower. If I had a family and had to choose between owning a small piston aircraft or 30' sailing yacht the boat wins hands down.
 
Regarding women, sex and boats, the cruising yacht scores more points than a plane UNLESS you have a private jet. Dogs and puppies drive women crazy even more than boats, planes and exotic cars.
 
skynewbie said:
Regarding women, sex and boats, the cruising yacht scores more points than a plane UNLESS you have a private jet. Dogs and puppies drive women crazy even more than boats, planes and exotic cars.
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Borrow a friend's baby sometimes, it's like puppy to the 20th power.:D
 
asechrest said:
WTB: broken 40 foot yacht.
Ted: can I still borrow your garage?

:D
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Sure, just don't expect to fit your 40 foot yacht, well, anywhere on my property. And our truck won't be able to pick it up for you. ;)
 
skynewbie said:
I love sailing! In some ways it's more demanding than flying a plane. It's tricky single hand sailing a 30' yacht and few friends make lighter work. In some ways I prefer a boat to a plane. You can eat, drink and sleep on a nice cruising yacht and bring more people as well as use a full size head and shower. If I had a family and had to choose between owning a small piston aircraft or 30' sailing yacht the boat wins hands down.
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I had a 30' sailboat for 5 years. Sold it.

Don't have time for that now. When I get to some point in life that I can take a month off and go somewhere in my sailboat, I'll buy another cruising sailboat.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dell30rb said:
I had a 30' sailboat for 5 years. Sold it.

Don't have time for that now. When I get to some point in life that I can take a month off and go somewhere in my sailboat, I'll buy another cruising sailboat.
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Why buy if you're only taking it a month? You can bareboat charter that stuff world wide.
 
Exactly Henning! I just charter a sailing cat or cruising yacht when I want a vacation. Cheaper and less hassle than boat ownership. Now if I was sailing every weekend with friends then ownership would make more sense.
 
Had the boat out again today. Need to figure out the button that's supposed to let me advance throttle without engaging the outdrive - the thing stalled when cold and then wouldn't restart, had to pop the engine cover off and then pull the throttle a bit manually to get it to start and clear out. I probably should also turn up the idle, the idle feels very low and it has stalled on us more than once there, but it's also always restarted.

The trailer needs a new jack, badly. I think the wheel will snap off the next time I hook/unhook the trailer. Because of where the trailer is located and where we want to tuck it away, something like this looks very useful:

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jac...tml?feed=npn&gclid=CNKAvN220MACFYk-Mgods2MAdA

Since it will allow me to move the trailer independently. However, the reviews of these sorts of jacks seem to be extremely mixed, so I'm wondering if it might not be better to just buy something like this:

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Fulton/F1413020134.html

Or a smaller, standard jack. The tongue weight of the trailer I don't think is very high, probably around 500 lbs.

Thoughts? I do need to find some way to tuck the boat into its corner for the winter, and it would be nice to be able to do that in the warmer months, too.
 
The dual wheel Fulton will do the job fine. You don't need to spend on that big jack.

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Fulton/F1413020134.html

Now, on to the throttle advance without the drive in gear. This is often a problem and needs to be fixed so it works right. If it's the way I think, that 'button' is actually an engagement pin. It's silver and has a recess behind it. So, try this. lower the trim down some, then grab the throttle and while you are wiggling it back and forth, pull OUT on that silver button and you will likely feel it pop out about 15mm. If this is the case, then you have just disconnected the gear selector, and you still have full throttle control.

So, your drive will be in neutral, and the prop will spin free, but you have throttle authority to advance the throttle plate, and the choke plate without moving the boat. Once you get the engine running smooth, and the throttle is responding right, put it back in the neutral position, and push the silver button in then you can advance the throttle and gear together.

As for increasing the idle speed, you want to be careful with this because a high idle speed means a high speed when putting on the trailer. You don't want it to be too high because then it gets hard to maneuver at low speeds. The idle speed out of gear should be about 650RPM and no higher than 800.


If this is not the case, you may have a different setup which requires that you pop that button in to disconnect the gears, but that would be unusual.
 
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Henning said:
The Bilsteins are good, if you need ride height help, look at the air bags. The problem I always saw with air shocks is that shock absorber mounts aren't made to take weight.
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Ditto on Blisteins on a Chevy. Not bad on the Dodge either, and I was kinda surprised when our Dodge diesel specialist mechanic recommended them for towing on the one- ton.

On a Chevy half-ton, I wouldn't bother with the yellow ones. Not heavy enough, even with the trailer. I'd save the money for the inevitable transmission rebuild. :)

Stock Blisteins rode well when they were new as OEM on the Avalanche and Silverados and Yukons..., no really good reason to change a working thing.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Had the boat out again today. Need to figure out the button that's supposed to let me advance throttle without engaging the outdrive - the thing stalled when cold and then wouldn't restart, had to pop the engine cover off and then pull the throttle a bit manually to get it to start and clear out. I probably should also turn up the idle, the idle feels very low and it has stalled on us more than once there, but it's also always restarted.

The trailer needs a new jack, badly. I think the wheel will snap off the next time I hook/unhook the trailer. Because of where the trailer is located and where we want to tuck it away, something like this looks very useful:

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jac...tml?feed=npn&gclid=CNKAvN220MACFYk-Mgods2MAdA

Since it will allow me to move the trailer independently. However, the reviews of these sorts of jacks seem to be extremely mixed, so I'm wondering if it might not be better to just buy something like this:

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Fulton/F1413020134.html

Or a smaller, standard jack. The tongue weight of the trailer I don't think is very high, probably around 500 lbs.

Thoughts? I do need to find some way to tuck the boat into its corner for the winter, and it would be nice to be able to do that in the warmer months, too.
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Not a fan of moving trailers on jack wheels. Jacks are for jacking. Hitched to something is for moving.
 
The truck had yellow Bilsteins before, so I decided to go with them again. Still waiting on the rears, but did the fronts and made a big difference, so I doubt if I'll need the air springs. We'll see, I tend to like suspensions that are overly capable, especially when towing.
 
denverpilot said:
Not a fan of moving trailers on jack wheels. Jacks are for jacking. Hitched to something is for moving.
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On a perfectly level paved surface it's possible although tandem axles usually means you can't turn by hand. But on anything else you either won't be able to budge it or it will head downhill uncontrollably and this usually doesn't end well.
 
I read the reviews and decided to give the moving trailer jack a shot. It would do exactly what I need it do if it works as advertised, and the reviews seem to indicate the newer versions are better, so we'll see how it works. I'll mess with the brakes next year.

Used the 5200 on the window. Says a 7 day cure time, so I did it yesterday when we got home. We'll see how it does. I suspect it will work fine.

We'll probably get one or two more uses out of it before winterization. I feel like we've gotten all the initial issues figured, other than the neutral pin, I'll play with that more and see what it needs. Good points regarding not wanting idle too high, so I'll play with that some more.

So far, this seems to have met the the goals we've stated. While a fridge would be nice, we're not out long enough for it to be better than a $2 bag of ice at the convenience store. I think next year will be even better.
 
asechrest said:
A hitch is a hitch, right? Looking at these for the Corolla:

Thanks.
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Just remember that in many countries, hitches on small cars are not intended to pull anything. They are ostensibly a "hitch" in order to be legally installed, but their actual purpuse is as a bumper for intentional contact during close quarter parking.

With that in mind, pay attention to the places that whatever hitch you buy are attached, and you may want to use bigger washers to sandwhich whatever piece of sheet metal it attaches to.

BTW the hitch on my wife's corolla seca looks very much like what you posted, and it seems like it would be plenty sturdy to pull a jet ski. And it makes a fine bumper.
 
docmirror said:
I noticed that hitch does not include the ball mount. This slides into the receiver and the ball mounts on it.

Here's a cheap one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Reese-Towing-Class-II-Standard-Ball-Mount-2.5-Drop-2-Rise/23382010
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Thanks, Doc. I think it might include it, though. Says this in the description:

Old-Style ball mount, Pin and Clip included; Hitch Ball sold separately​

I have no idea what "old style" means, though. Originally I had this one picked out as the cheaper option. But I don't think it includes the ball mount.

Related question: these ball mounts should work with a 1 7/8" or a 2", right? I haven't towed anything as an adult so this is new to me. Last I dealt with trailers was as a teenager with my Dad.
 
asechrest said:
Thanks, Doc. I think it might include it, though. Says this in the description:

Old-Style ball mount, Pin and Clip included; Hitch Ball sold separately​

I have no idea what "old style" means, though. Originally I had this one picked out as the cheaper option. But I don't think it includes the ball mount.

Related question: these ball mounts should work with a 1 7/8" or a 2", right? I haven't towed anything as an adult so this is new to me. Last I dealt with trailers was as a teenager with my Dad.
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Yeah, I think you're right. I would buy the cheap one and get the ball mount through walmart. The ball size refers to the diameter of the ball, not the shaft. The shaft is almost always 3/4", although I've seen 5/8" shaft before. If you get the ball mount with a 3/4" hole, don't get a 5/8" ball shaft and insert sleeve. The sleeves are dangerous as they allow some slop in the ball shaft and it can work loose.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I read the reviews and decided to give the moving trailer jack a shot. It would do exactly what I need it do if it works as advertised, and the reviews seem to indicate the newer versions are better, so we'll see how it works. I'll mess with the brakes next year.

Used the 5200 on the window. Says a 7 day cure time, so I did it yesterday when we got home. We'll see how it does. I suspect it will work fine.

We'll probably get one or two more uses out of it before winterization. I feel like we've gotten all the initial issues figured, other than the neutral pin, I'll play with that more and see what it needs. Good points regarding not wanting idle too high, so I'll play with that some more.

So far, this seems to have met the the goals we've stated. While a fridge would be nice, we're not out long enough for it to be better than a $2 bag of ice at the convenience store. I think next year will be even better.
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They make 12v coolers as well, the ones I've had onboard have all worked pretty well.
 
asechrest said:
This looks promising: http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/boa/4660504616.html

[EDIT] - Will sleep on it and contact him in the morning with some additional questions.
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Just assume the engine and drive are seized up and you'll be ok. That looks like Travis's old one which he traded a POS Jeep for, found it locked up and traded it off for some other crap. There are quite a few that make the rounds like that. At $500 with the trailer looking for an educational project, it'll be ok. If you're looking to make or save money with it, not likely going to happen.
 
Henning said:
Just assume the engine and drive are seized up and you'll be ok. That looks like Travis's old one which he traded a POS Jeep for, found it locked up and traded it off for some other crap. There are quite a few that make the rounds like that. At $500 with the trailer looking for an educational project, it'll be ok. If you're looking to make or save money with it, not likely going to happen.
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I'd love to get a bit luckier than Jesse did on his. I'd hope the engine isn't completely destroyed so that I'm replacing nearly all of it with SBT parts. But, I'm prepared for that as a possibility and it would at least still fulfill my primary goal.

Given that I may be unable to start or crank this thing when I go look at it, is there anything I can do to, for example, determine if 1+ cylinders are seized? For $500 including the trailer I can't expect or ask for much, but what if any major issues can I spot check when I'm standing there beside it?
 
You might get lucky, but I'd just offer $400 or so and buy it as-is.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I read the reviews and decided to give the moving trailer jack a shot. It would do exactly what I need it do if it works as advertised, and the reviews seem to indicate the newer versions are better, so we'll see how it works. I'll mess with the brakes next year.

Used the 5200 on the window. Says a 7 day cure time, so I did it yesterday when we got home. We'll see how it does. I suspect it will work fine.

We'll probably get one or two more uses out of it before winterization. I feel like we've gotten all the initial issues figured, other than the neutral pin, I'll play with that more and see what it needs. Good points regarding not wanting idle too high, so I'll play with that some more.

So far, this seems to have met the the goals we've stated. While a fridge would be nice, we're not out long enough for it to be better than a $2 bag of ice at the convenience store. I think next year will be even better.
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Post a picture of the remote (throttle/shifter) and I can tell you how the neutral throttle release should work. Some have a button you pull out, some you pull out the whole throttle handle at the base, and some have a button you press in.
 
lowtimer said:
Post a picture of the remote (throttle/shifter) and I can tell you how the neutral throttle release should work. Some have a button you pull out, some you pull out the whole throttle handle at the base, and some have a button you press in.
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Ok, thanks. I'll post a picture tonight or tomorrow. The seller showed it working, so I'm likely just doing it wrong.
 
asechrest said:
Given that I may be unable to start or crank this thing when I go look at it, is there anything I can do to, for example, determine if 1+ cylinders are seized? For $500 including the trailer I can't expect or ask for much, but what if any major issues can I spot check when I'm standing there beside it?
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Take a wood dowel and a spark plug socket and ratchet. Remove all three plugs, put the dowel in one or more of the plug holes and push down. See if the piston will move on any of the three cylinders. You may have to exert a fair amount of force depending on where the crank/rod is in it's throw. If it moves, listen for clunking. Turning forward or backward won't matter to the 2 stroke engine.
 
asechrest said:
I'd love to get a bit luckier than Jesse did on his. I'd hope the engine isn't completely destroyed so that I'm replacing nearly all of it with SBT parts. But, I'm prepared for that as a possibility and it would at least still fulfill my primary goal.

Given that I may be unable to start or crank this thing when I go look at it, is there anything I can do to, for example, determine if 1+ cylinders are seized? For $500 including the trailer I can't expect or ask for much, but what if any major issues can I spot check when I'm standing there beside it?
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Bring your own battery and blip the starter. Otherwise you can likely remove some access covers and turn the jet pump drive by hand but you may need a vice grips to put enough force on it. Much easier to just bring a small 12 v battery.

Knowing what I know now I would bring a battery and compression test each cylinder and negotiate off that

If they won't let you crank it then tell them you must assume it's locked up. Assuming the electrical system is like my Kawi you can just short two posts on the electrical box to engage the starter and bypass the relay.

All else failing, remove the cover on the bottom which covers the shaft drive, put a towel on the drive to protect it, then try and turn it with a pair of vice grips. If you can't turn it then either the engine or jet pump is locked up, in my case both were. The bolts for that access cover are hex.
 
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Guy called me back and I'm going to see it after work today. If I purchase, will borrow a buddy's truck 'cause my hitch isn't in yet. Seemed like a decent guy, but who can tell. He says he hasn't ridden it in a couple of years. Prior to that, his jet ski mechanic was a local shop nearby (I know the name from a few years ago). Says at that time the guy diagnosed his problem first as a battery, then as the relay and was supposed to order the part, then got involved in repairing four-wheelers, and the next thing he knew, he was out of business. Soon after he hurt has back and hasn't addressed it since. (Cool story, bro.)

Could all be BS, but he said we could turn the engine to confirm it's not seized up. He's got title, bill of sale, old repair receipts (some repair involving a carb and a steering cable), a vest, and the trailer. We'll see.
 
asechrest said:
Guy called me back and I'm going to see it after work today. If I purchase, will borrow a buddy's truck 'cause my hitch isn't in yet. Seemed like a decent guy, but who can tell. He says he hasn't ridden it in a couple of years. Prior to that, his jet ski mechanic was a local shop nearby (I know the name from a few years ago). Says at that time the guy diagnosed his problem first as a battery, then as the relay and was supposed to order the part, then got involved in repairing four-wheelers, and the next thing he knew, he was out of business. Soon after he hurt has back and hasn't addressed it since. (Cool story, bro.)

Could all be BS, but he said we could turn the engine to confirm it's not seized up. He's got title, bill of sale, old repair receipts (some repair involving a carb and a steering cable), a vest, and the trailer. We'll see.
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Sounds like it could be a decent deal. You will likely end up wanting something faster though after you get some hours on it.
 
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