CaptSpike

I made a bracket for my main engine and use the Panther connection rod as well. Works great and I'm sure much cheaper. Spike

Nice!

And here I was getting psyched that the lake was accessable...Who looks at dates anyway...I guess I will look closer now..... So the wait continues........ Spike

I used both last yr for core topshots and full color core set ups. I loved them both. Only down side to one of the was it would bleed out the color and then the leader would get colored up. i think it was the suffix that bled though I'm not 100% sure. Guess I should have paid better attention to what went on what reel. I used cheap magda 45's and got 12-13 with backing on them. Top shots went on smaller reels only using one or two color topshots. I didn't use them on Lake O only local fishing here in NH. Which means they worked great on small fish lol. Oh yeah definitely ran deeper by about what they claimed in my experience. Spike

That was back in 2001, I have no idea. If I looked in my expenses I could probably find it but not worth the effort. I do remember I bought more than I needed and have had the extra for yrs now. Nobody was interested in buying it cheap. I can't remember if it is still out in the shed or if I dumped it due to lack of being able to sell it.

They recommended spray on contact cement. I pre cut all my pieces and then sprayed the inside of the engine cover. Wait a few moment and install. Dress up the seams with Aluminum tape and wala a professional looking job. My cover was wood so I did use some screws to "help" keeping the stuff in place. honestly i don't think it was needed. The contact cement worked great. The other method using standoff's and caps looks good as well. If you had the extra cash go that route. not worse than a butched up looking job. BTW if your looking for cheap don't do it. I ran my boat for 2 yrs before upgrading my builders soundproofing to Sound down. I had significant hearing loss in my left ear due to the engine noise from just those two yrs of use.Spend the $$ get the good stuff. Spike

I used Sounddown on my ocean boat. I still have a bunch left over. Too bad you weren't close you could have it. I have the 2x2 grade. It is 2" thick and has 2lb's of lead per sq.ft if insulation. Google Sounddown and you'll see the various options. Good stuff. Not cheap, but good. Spike

My buddy has a very lightly used FL-18 Ultra pack with dual beam transducer (9 & 19). Charger and soft pack included $350. I think he could count the number of times he used it on both hands, lol. PM me if you want his contact info. Spike

I'm assuming it is a NEMA 2000 network and all devices are NEMA 2000 compatable (most newer units are). If this is the case you need power T and enough cable and T's to connect all your devices. Depending on how much you want to add to the network it can get pretty complicated, but basically the end goal is to have all your units talking to each other. This webiste gives a good layout of some typical networks and what you need to get it done. Also highl;ights some potential issues and how to avoid them: http://www.nmea.org/Assets/2012%20ibex%20full%20%20nmea%20installation.pdf My Garmin G10 came with the NEMA 2000 network pieces unfortunately my FF was only NEMA 0183 comaptable. I installed the network anyway for when the FF gets updated. Good luck. Spike

I use Orpine when I'm don't want the wax removed. For tough cleaning I don't know of any cleaner that cleans tough stuff that doesn't remove wax. Invent it and get rich! Spike

I think the problem is the long shaft. Most are looking for the extra long shaft or the short shaft. I also had to wait to sell my Long shaft 5hp due to the shaft length. Which wasn't something I considered when I bought it (I should have gotten the short shaft). Good luck someone will find you and it will fit what they need, it just may take a while. I have the 9.9 extra long shaft motor and these engines run great. Spike

Result from yr one are in. I used a double uni to tie leader to core and backing to core and never had a knot fail. I didn't get to use the full core set ups enough to know if there was a difference in sink rate vs standard cores. I also used one and two color in line setups that worked great. Not sure if they worked better due to more sink rate or that they were just where the fish were, lol. Anyway I was pleased with the performance of both brands on that level. I was able to fish the inlines on much lighter rods (kokanee) with little to no adverse effects. I did experience some line bleed on one brand and unfortunately I didn't mark which brand went on which reel so I'm not sure if it was tuffline or the suffix that bled onto my leader (mono). The bleeding didn't seem to effect the catch rate as my floro leader was kept up on each trip and didn't suffer any line bleed. The only other negative was that the lead would break and push thru the outter sheath easily. And again I don't know which brand that was on (though I believe it was the tuff line). So after the first yr I would definitely reccomend these lines to anyone looking to go lighter.I was also able to fit 12-13 colors on a reel that previously only held 10 (same lb rated core). If I figure out for sure which was the bleeder and which the core seemed to stick out on I'll update. I should be breaking the rods and reels down in the next few weeks which might help me determine that. Spike

I say it all the time. One of the best forums ever! Thanks to all the members. Spike

With my kicker I just stabalize fuel and change filters, change oil and filter (both engine and lower unit) and check the prop, re-grease. Since I keep my motor in my basement I don't bother oiling the cylinders. Also a good time to grease all fittings clean up any crud and regrease pivot tubes ect. It stays toasty warm all winter. The main engine gets the oil in the cylinders. Spike

The lowest of the low. If caught they should have there hands cut off. There is nothing to describe how I would feel in the same situation. I hope I never have to go thru it. If I ever caught someone I would likely go to jail for murder. Spike

On my ocean boat I had several RAymarine products. The repair facility is within a half hour from me. When ever I had a problem it was always fixed within a day or two at the most. I did let them know I was a charter captain and need my stuff fixed asap but I'm not sure that made a difference. Once I got a call as I was driving home that my unit was repaired! Don't get me wrong I never had a bunch of problems with any Raymarine products, but when I did (3 maybe 4 times, GPS and RAdar) they were taken care of quickly and fairly. Spike

Is it a dual cone ducer? Amybe the cone between the back up and the one that isn't working are different. Try it on the narrowest cone if it is a dual ducer and see if that fixes it. I'd play with the setting first to make sure it isn't something simple like that. A buddy of mine had a ducer connected to his FF but had the FF set to a different ducer. Needless to say the results were not good. All the settings should be matched so you get a good reading. Easy for someone to get into a menu and mess stuff up fast, lol. Spike

Was the FF added after the purchase? I ask because if you ran the ducer cable next to the kicker power cable you are likely picking up that as interference (or any power cable for that matter). They recommend running those apart. Not knowing exactly how the boat is set up I would look there first, unless the ducer is on the same side of the boat as the kicker then it could just be turbulance from the kicker and the ducer should be moved to some clean water (that was my problem with my x4 at first). Or it could be the angle of the ducer is too far back. Bring it down so it doesn't pick up the kicker turbulance. Those are starting points anyway. Spike

Windows movie maker is a decent basic software package, plus it was free. Spike

I lost a black bag yrs ago after a cod trip on my buddies boat. I sure wish someone had posted up on the local fishing forum about finding it. Alas it never happened and it still hurts to this day the amount of gear I lost in that bag. You're doing a good thing. Kudo's to you. Spike

I do not have experience with the two units you mention but I did hok my FF/GPS up to my AP using NEMA input. It is likely you need to set your AP to use the NEMA input instead of a defualt network. To be honest unless your using the AP steering routes at cruising speed you really don't need the speed input from your FF/GPS ( I assume that is what info you were looking to get from the FF/GPS unit). At trolling speed your not going to throw someone out of the boat if the AP turned 90 degrees. Most only use the AP for trolling to keep the boat straight. Again no fear of tossing someone overboard. If you use your AP as a a ful blown unit then by all means hook it up to the FF/GPS to obtain your speed. If you have a new FF/GPS then your best to create and hook it up via netwrk cables not the NEMA output. My FF/GPS didn't come with the latest netwrk so I had to use the NEMA output. I did check and if I upgraded the FF/GPS it would come with the correct network for hooking up to the AP and no new transducer would be needed. But I am from the if it ain't broke don't fix it. So I am waiting beofre upgrading this unit. Again this is assuming your AP is a stand alone unit (mine is). If your AP needs a GPS fix to hold course you probably should have spent a little extra money for a better AP (JMHO). Spike

I'm assuming you have forward but no reverse. I also assume you can take it out of gear. If you can't manually shift into reverse then it's not a good sign. Try to disconnect the linkage under the cowling and manually put it in reverse. If it goes in you just need to readjust the cable. Could be the cable has streatched just enuf to keep you from getting in gear???? Spike

This is exactly why I got Autopilot, lol. Of course my auto pilot can't keep the speed right, lol. Definitely not worth losing your temper over. Just have to realize limitations of your crew. Before Autopilot I never got to fight a fish going into big waves, lol. I took my turns going with the wind. Spike