What did you do to your boat today

captkevin

Congrats on the sale & good luck looking for the new boat

LaRea

I think the congratulations should go to the lucky buyer!

SimcoeRinker400

The boat went to Lake St. Clair. Buddy is docking it at his house.

RiverRunnerNB

Is he sailing it there or transporting over land? Looks like it would be fun going by water.

PickleRick

rasbury said:

Yes @Dream_Inn, if you would. I'm fresh water with a rare dip in the salt.  I'm also 5 miles from the ramp 
I will check out the site - I did do it before, lord only knows if I did it right. I sure remember it was a mess. As of the lugs, or most of them, were spinning so I was cutting off luggage nuts. How I made it from the Pensacola area to central Florida I have no idea...but I rebuilt  the brake cylinders (had no brakes on that trip) and replaced all the wiring (had no lights on that trip), looking back that was not a good move on my part. I've kept up with replacing tires and checking break operation since.

Trailer bearing install/final torque isn't specific to just boat trailers.  Nearly any YouTube trailer bearing replacement how to will cover you. 

Plenty off gloves, rags, paper towels, brake cleaner and plastic bags.  

Clean off all the old grease, closely inspect the spindle to verify no damage or wear.

Get good name brand bearings and seals.  Drive the old out bearing races with a brass drift like you would a 1986 Toyota land cruiser and install the new races with the same drift. Don't use a steel punch or screwdriver as it may damage the bearing mating surfaces.  Pack the new bearings with grease, install both races and install the rear, then the seal. 



To prevent dropping the front bearing on the ground I always install it after sliding the hub on. 

Install the fresh lightly greased washer and castle nut, torque to about 50 ft lbs while spinning.   Loosen and repeat about 4 times spinning in the opposite direction each time. 

Loosen fully, hand tighten the castle nut, I give a little final turn with a small pair of channel locks, not even a 1/4 turn, on new bearins.  If just repacking old bearings even less.  Grease if you have a grease port in the spindle 

You want it just tight enough so there's no side to side play on on the hub.

Now grease your bearings buddy's but don't over grease and blow grease out everywhere...or your rear seal.  

Rich_

Found some idiot tied to my mooring so left them a note on the tiller. Really hope it is gone by the weekend for both our sakes. 

LaRea

Sweet, somebody gave you a free boat.  As if you need more boats!

earl1z19

Rich_ said:

Found some idiot tied to my mooring so left them a note on the tiller. Really hope it is gone by the weekend for both our sakes. 

This could lead to a new thread titled "what did you do with someone else's boat"

Rich_

Just happened to be going by the beach to see it untying at the right time. Drove home and got the Grady a little later and waited at the mooring to see if they would return but it went into a nearby creek. Can take the Whaler tomorrow and see where it wound up but at least it was not on my mooring

Rich_

LaRea said:

Sweet, somebody gave you a free boat.  As if you need more boats!

I looked into the Hobie 17 sport a bit. Would be fun in steady wind but seem to have their issues as well. I’ll stick with engines over sails

Rich_

This could lead to a new thread titled "what did you do with someone else's boat"

Need to maintain plausible deniability

aero3113

How did they get out to the mooring to get back on the Hobie?

PickleRick

Rich_ said:

LaRea said:

Sweet, somebody gave you a free boat.  As if you need more boats!

I looked into the Hobie 17 sport a bit. Would be fun in steady wind but seem to have their issues as well. I’ll stick with engines over sails

Like flipping it upright after a knock down??

Rich_

aero3113 said:

How did they get out to the mooring to get back on the Hobie?

My guess is swim, did not see that part

Rich_

PickleRick said:

Rich_ said:

LaRea said:

Sweet, somebody gave you a free boat.  As if you need more boats!

I looked into the Hobie 17 sport a bit. Would be fun in steady wind but seem to have their issues as well. I’ll stick with engines over sails

Like flipping it upright after a knock down??

That is tricky, but doable. More having to do with the tubes in each hull where the cross beams go getting water in them and freezing/cracking over winters as well as thin hulls and being beached. Also corrosion on the cross bars and replacements are no longer available 

grouch0jr

Today we hung our front isinglass and put all the snaps in. We had it brand new on the boat just waiting to be set up. About a week ago we got caught in a storm without it, wasn't exactly fun.

rasbury

@grouch0jr those are worth their weight in gold. That being said,  storage can be an issue. I took them out of the mid berth area (270 mind you ) and hung them in the my shed. They were getting moldy and kids were on them ... they make the boat really feel like a little condo-

grouch0jr

I don't plan on leaving them up all the time, so I'm constantly brainstorming how to store them. I think someone on here said they roll them around a pool noodle.

goalie59

What did I do to my boat yesterday?  Overheated my port inboard transmission ! It got so hot that it melted the dipstick into the gearbox. No warning no reason. Oil is good (other than being burnt) , transmission cooler  is good and no obstructions or internal leaks , cables looked good. Had the boat pulled and nothing on the shafts or props. Really sucks and is a mystery as to why this happened. 

LaRea

Yikes.  No alarms as it heated up?  Seems like it would have to be some sort of obstruction in the cooling system.

goalie59

No the transmission  is a zf80 with no heat sensors. It is basic. I checked the flow through the cooler and it is good. No trans fluid leaking into the cooler either. New raw water pump impeller this year and the discharge is good. Waiting to get the trans pulled to see if there is any indication of damage. At this point maybe disc failure? 

PickleRick

I found out my fuel gauge sensor stops reading at a half tank, approximately 108 ohms.   So the fuel gauge won't drop below half a tank.  Anyone want to guess how i found this out?

grouch0jr

Lol, run out?

Ian

Need a new sender? I have one of those vertical uniits, 17” if I recall

PickleRick

grouch0jr said:

Lol, run out?

Sure did. Right as i was approaching the boat ramp. 

Ian said:

Need a new sender? I have one of those vertical uniits, 17” if I recall

Thank you for the offer however mine is 11" and i got the new one installed last night.   

captkevin

At least you ran out coming back to boat ramp & not leaving 

PickleRick

It was the morning after we attended a gathering at a friend's place on the lake, by far the longest cruise we've taken in several years on the boat.   It could have been much worse had we lost power in the main channel with the Saturday afternoon boat traffuc. captkevin said:

At least you ran out coming back to boat ramp & not leaving 

aero3113

My gas gauge is off on the FJ40
One day I was warming it up to go for a drive. It ran out of gas as soon as I was about to leave. Best place for it to happen. Put in a couple of gallons I had in the garage and off we went. Now, I stay on top of the fuel level.

captkevin

I was concerned about the gas gauge on our boat. When it was kept on the trailer in the barn it always showed full. Now that is has been living on the lift in the marina have seen it having lower readings. 

PickleRick

aero3113 said:

My gas gauge is off on the FJ40
One day I was warming it up to go for a drive. It ran out of gas as soon as I was about to leave. Best place for it to happen. Put in a couple of gallons I had in the garage and off we went. Now, I stay on top of the fuel level.

You haven't really experienced an fj40 until you've ran out of fuel. 

Replacing the fuel gauge lever is simple but repairing a faulty gauge,  not so much.  I ended up installing an aftermarket lever and gauge after running out a half dozen times.    Its was a daily driver for years,  it always seemed to run out in rush hour traffic