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Hey Ryoken, when you got a minute.......Update, boat gone for now.

Fordum

Fordum

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I've got a pontoon boat parked in my yard with a 90hp Merc. on the back. Maybe saltwater series, not sure right now.

It belongs to Baitfish1, and we take it out into the river from time to time with some friends fishing.
I usually run it, since I'm the only one I trust.

Its got a remote throttle and trim/tilt, safte steering. The only gauge or indicator is a tach.
Oil injected, uses the built in tank that fills from the top. Carbed, not FI.

I have been getting more and more nervous about this motor. I never hear any alarms when I turn it on.
The wiring on the boat is a nightmare. I have been working on it slowly, but the engine harness is separate and seems OK.

I don't have a lot of experience with the more advanced motors. I could keep my old 6hp Johnson, and other motors going, but I take my 250s and other big motors to a shop.

We are headed out on a 3 day expedition come August, and I would like to check to see if the overheat and oil alarms are working or what it will take to fix them.

I figure I can pull the wires off the oil tank and see if the low alarm will sound, but I don't know about the oil pump alarm.

I also don't know if its an overheat switch, a temp sender for a gauge, or both.

I'm in the office, but I'm headed to the farm in a little while. I can take pictures, get serial numbers, model numbers, whatever you need.

Probably everything is there, and may be working. I mainly just need some ideas of what to look for.

If there is something wrong besides a wire off or bypassed, I'll probably just take it to a shop.

Not too urgent, I'm going to be looking at it in my spare time. I think its headed back to its home next week for a week or so anyway so I won't be able to work on it until it gets back.

He wants to take his family out on it I think.
 
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yeah, get the serial #.. i'll look it up in the software in the morn and give ya some specifics.... I'm not huge on the OB's.. but if it's front of me I can do most jobs on em...

most of the alarm systems are obviously grounded units... usually you can just test them with a jumper wire to grd..
 
Well, it was 96 degrees and I was standing out in the full sun. So I didn't look too long.
Found a stick-on tag on one of the heads with a model and serial number. Not sure its the right one.
I keep thinking there is a metal tag somewhere. But here is what I got so far.

mercserial.JPG
 
yeah, there's usually a metal tag, but i'll put that in and see what comes up.. it's probably it.. get back to ya this time tomorrow..
 
That looks right. I took a pic of the emissions label while I was there and it says its 2004. I also checked and the correct plate should be on the transom mount.
I looked there when I first got there but did not see one.

I will either wander out there after it cools off, or in the morning.

mercemiss.JPG
 
yeah, i'll see about printing out some stuff in the morning for ya... I should have it covered in service manuals too, unless Sandy ate em.. but I think the OB books survived...
 
hey Jay.. haven't forgotten ya... sorry, i'm taking so long... we're still stupid busy... but i did look the motor up today in the software.. just didn't have any time to print some stuff out.. i'll do that tomorrow and scan em in for ya tomorrow night...
 
Not a problem. Its too hot to work on it much right now anyway. He may come get it this week, if he does, I'll work on it when he brings it back.

Its running fine right now, and we got until August before we go out into the bay.
 
how do you get a pontoon boat out past the surf...seams like that would be brutal...waves would toss it around
 
most boating doesn't take place in surf...

tho the Fire Island Inlet in L.I can have ya seeing 8' breakers... Hull check!!! :woot: :popcorn: ask me how I know... :doah: :haha:
 
oh, and tho I'm no marine engineer, I'll elaborate a bit on seaworthyness...

the twin hull, ala cat design of a pontoon boat isn't what would make it "unseaworthy"... cat hulls tend to be quite seaworthy, it's it's lack of freeboard... which is the hull "height" from the waterline up to the rubrail...

thus, why lakeboats, like a Bluewater, aren't the most ocean-worthy vessels.. lack of freeboard...


59ft_Bluewater_Yachts_5900_Platinum_Series.jpg



obviously hull depth and style, beam, displacement, etc all play a role, but freeboard is probably the biggest concern with pontoons...
 
No, few boats launch in the surf. This boat is mostly for river and smaller lake work.
The adventure we are planning is a trip to Homosassa springs. They have booked a house down there.
The plan is to haul the pontoon boat down, launch it in one of the rivers and run out into the edge of Homosassa bay to do some scalloping and salt water fishing.
Heck, I might even catch a Snook. We don't have them in N.Florida, and I never caught one.
For some darn reason, everybody loves to catch them.

Problem is, that whole area is part of the Florida shelf. Water is in the 10 foot or less range for miles out into the gulf.
Which is one of the reasons I want to run the boat and make darn sure that the motor is in good condition.

That shallow water can brew up some big waves pretty quick, and the guys I have with me are not as cautious as I am.
I have been some fairly gnarly situations, and I will head for cover before these guys would.
They don't know it yet, but I am going to add some equipment before the trip.
A sea anchor and a EPRIB for starters.

But, even so, I don't want to be out there in that boat in bad weather.

Now my boat...........That is a different story.

I don't go out in small craft warnings like some of my idiot friends, but if I had to, I would feel pretty darn secure in my 25ft Ranger 250C center console with twin 250s.

That boat is built like a tank, and has more and better designed flotation than a Whaler.

This is the pontoon boat in my backyard with the sun/rain cover on it.

coverboat.jpg

This is not that boat. I was driving over to a friend's house and saw this thing.
I had to go back and take a picture of it.
I don't know how they get it under traffic lights when hauling it, and I would hate to be on it in a blow.

My understanding is, the family goes out overnight in it. They let the kids sleep on top in good weather, and the parents roll the sides down and sleep on the bottom.
Or so they say.

wierd.jpg

coverboat.jpg

wierd.jpg
 
And BTW, I think I may have posted this before, but its a twofer.
First, Ryoken will get a kick out of it, plus its a Chevy truck.

Ever wonder what would happen if.........?

Only good news is, its a Bayliner, so no great loss......

crunch.jpg
 
man.. i have a story for that one... it was back in the day of that "amazing video" show. i coulda won 10 g's if i had a camera.. :doah:


did a full hull wax on a 36' Hustler incuding the bottom at one marina... in a travel-lift.. got done.. dump it back on his trailer... guy goes to leave..

me - "umm, hey, aren't ya gonna hook that up, strap it down?"

him - "nah, no big, I live right down the street"

pulls out of the marina, accelerates, boat slides off, catches the skegs, slides like 50' down the street... :eek1: :doah: :eek1: :haha:

spent the next 3 weeks glassing and regeling the bottom... :pimp:
 
I had one close to that.
My father had a 20ft Ranger bass boat with a 200hp merc. I had a 17ft with a 150.
Both for sale, by the way, pm me.........

Anyway, we were going fishing early one morning. My friend and I hooked up my boat, his friend and he hooked up his.
It was one of those really foggy mornings we get here in the spring. I started out first, lost my father in the fog almost instantly.

Suddenly my father comes over the CB, telling me to look out, there was a boat coming at me.
That did not make a lot of sense. I was on a paved road. The fog was thick, but not thick enough to float a boat.
Plus, I was in the lead. A boat would have to be coming up behind me for him to see it.
I could not ask, he kept saying look out and get out of the way.

So, I sped up a little. Not too much, the fog was too thick. Then he said never mind, come back and give him a hand.

I went down to a big service station and turned around. He was parked on the side of the road.
The boat trailer was lengthwise in a ditch, and the big Ranger was sitting on the grass in front of it.

It seems that with two people hooking things up, each one thought the other one had tightened the hitch.
It had a breakaway brake, but that was not hooked up either. So, they were just driving along, and looked over to the left and the boat was passing them.

The trailer jack had a wheel on it, and did not swing up like some. He said that the boat and trailer was just going down the road perfectly level. I have never known if the tongue weight was too low, or if it was running on the front wheel, and it looked level.

After it passed him, it pulled over into the lane in front of him just like someone was driving it.
It was a heavy boat, so it just kept going, and he kept following it afraid it was going to run up behind me any second.
Finally it eased off into a ditch lengthwise. Slid along to the end. Then the hitch hit the end of the ditch, and the boat snapped the strap and launched out onto the grass.
It clipped a wooden power pole, move it over a little and caved in part of the rub rail.

Trailer was fine. I called a wrecker friend of mine. He picked up the front end of the boat by the eye, and I backed the trailer under it.
Then he let it down, I tied the strap to that eye, and he picked up the stern by the two eyes and eased backward as I winched it up.

We hauled it back to the storage place and all of us went fishing on my boat.

I met the insurance guy a couple of days later. I knew the visible damage could be fixed, but I was worried about internal cracks that could not be seen.
Figured I would have an argument, but the old insurance guy told me to not even start.
He said he was going to total it out and let the company buy my father a new hull.
I thanked him, he said don't mention it. Said that this was his last ever insurance claim.
Said that not only was he supposed to retire, but he had just been diagnosed with end stage lung cancer.
Said he just felt like giving somebody a break.

I told him that every time we went out on it, we would think of him.

The place that did our boat work bought the hull from the company, had it fixed up and resold it.
The only problems I ever heard about it was that the idiot who bought it put an old 150 on it and it just could not perform.

Ranger are very very tough, but they are heavy!
Finally they put on a new 200 and it came alive.

To this day, the guy who was with my father talks about that boat passing them and pulling back into the correct lane.
 
:haha: :popcorn: :haha:






More dollars than sense.
Click to expand...


no doubt... pretty big dollar offshore boat.. couple nasty BB's, big $$ drives...

it was funny watching it slide back till it hit that "balance, point of no return" point and start tipping.. once the drive skegs caught the pavement, it was over...

me and the kid working with me just looked at each other with that "I can't believe I just saw that" look... :eek1: :haha:
 
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