Blue Heron

I am certainly not interested in turning this into a p***ing contest. Your experiences lead you to a certain opinion and you are welcome to that - the same holds true for me and everyone else on this board. Thats great you have never had an issue - I hope your run continues. As I recall his boat used the 6 gal tanks, he filled a tank on way to launch - apparently got some junk fuel (??) - filter ended up getting plugged & main OB stalled on way in and would not restart/run- we ran in on the kicker using another tank. Could his overall boat maint been a contributing cause - maybe. Would we have gotten in running kicker on same tank - maybe but .... Did we get home safe running the kicker off the other tank - definately Funny things happen when you spend time running boats and any time you have a single point of failure stuff can happen - safety should always be our first concern and my suggestion allows for redundancy in the fuel supply Those are my thoughts & experiences - take them for what they are - I am done

to each his own I have run kickers since the 70s and have had them both ways. I have only ever run in on a kicker once (not my boat), but if it had been a shared tank we would have needed a tow If you are careful with managing/treating your fuel a shared tank should be fine but I see it as another safety feature

I currently have a 6hp tohatsu (sail king) as a kicker on my 16'. I have it rigged with a quick disconnect steering rod and a controlking electronic throttle control. It is hooked to my main tank thru a canister fuel filter . I does a decent job but does have some vibration. My old 17' lund had a 8hp tohatsu with the same steering connection and controlking (different servo) run off a separate 3gal tank. it was definately smoother and had electric start Between the two I would go 8hp and if you have the space I agree with SK8Man that the separate tank is a safer option. I have never had any issues with either Living in NY online outboards was the way to go for purchasing , free shipping, no tax, quick delivery

I had the same issue when I installed a hook 7 on my little boat earlier this year - you need to push the transducer connection in harder, truthfully this is the worst connection I have ever seen on a lowrance unit It will recognize the transducer whether in or out of the water

had 2 of them and never saw any issues - you net at the corners and use a real net with an extendable handle

you can buy the wrap on amazon . Assuming you don't want to get fancy you can do it yourself, there are videos out there. I camo wrapped a duck boat a couple of years ago - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do it but a second set of hands helps a lot especially on a bigger boat The wrap on the duck boat has stood up well

Glue a piece of a rubber dish mat to both sides of clamp - will protect the boat and keep and vibrations from loosening the clamp

DownEast Rod Holders- either the S10 or S30 - used them for a lot of years on my 14' aluminum boat - great clamps, lots of adjustments, very strong

I have the same boat (a couple years newer w/ a 60 hp 4st merc) and have a 6hp tohatsu 4 stroke (sail-pro model from onlineoutboards.com) mounted directly on the transom . They are connected with a simple quick connect rod on the front - It works great and does not drag in the water when running with it raised on the bracket. The eye on the back of the boat is not an issue. I previously had a 16' lund that was very similar and had an 8hp tohatsu on it - the 8hp was a little smoother at trolling speed since it was 2 cylinder and it had elec start Either will work with out any fancy stuff needed on the transom and neither seemed to create any issue due to their weight I used a control-king speed controller on both

Have you tried using a bungie cord to help hold the wheel straight??

If you are going all the way across the stern with a raised track make sure it is high enough that your OB doesn't hit it when tilted

On my crestliner sabre with a main OB and kicker on an SST transom I mounted the 3rd rigger directly in front of the main OB with a 5ft boom that reached out over the OB. Ran this setup for years and never had any sort of issue. You will need a weight retriever on that rigger but with that inclusion it was simple to set and retrieve by turning the rigger 45 degrees away from this kicker during the rigging process and then turning it straight out the stern while running it. I generally ran it as my deep rigger with my corner riggers at a 45 degree angle away from the boat, this set up easily support at typical 'V' downrigger set. I was also an aesthetically pleasing set up . IMO 2 riggers on one side increases your changes of cable tangles and complicates the set up of your diver and 'junk' rods. Don't over think it, it appears the back of your boat is similar to the way mine was and a 3rd rigger install looks pretty easy (you might need a 6" pedestal since your OB looks a little higher than mine) Sorry I don't have any pictures handy

I have Costas(glass lens), Oakleys, Onos and the Costas are by far the finest of the bunch. I also agree with Vince that Blue Mirror is the way to go

with pretty much any 4 stroke OB you will need to go to an 8hp to get a 2 cylinder engine - if you opt for a 5 or 6 hp you will get a single cyl - it will run much 'rougher' - the difference is very noticable. I started with a6hp tohatsu on my 16' lund and after a year upgraded to an 8hp - major difference - also it is much easier to get Elec start when you move up to 8hp

I dont believe it hurt the paint - I think that the amount of damage you can do is directly related to how much pressure you apply with the drill