Rick Bits PickleFork

[Reeb]

Thinking of ways to try and make it lighter. 1996 18' and she's heavy. First off the seats come out, they must weight 400lbs each with all the water in them. Wanna gut the boat basically. Carpets getting replaced so while I got her apart I wanna try to do some things to make it a little lighter(heavy heavy boat compared to my dad's Cougar V-bottom tunnel.)

Gonna go with one battery, replace guages, carpet, seats, removing the control box and installing a foot throttle, proper size steering cable as well.(broke at about 60mph the other day - hairy ride)

THinking of moving the motor up a hole and have a new 3-blade stainless 27p that I think is gonna work just fine for our elevation and for the motor(which I wanna do a couple small things too) It's a 4 year old 200 Merc. It just needs a little bit more performance I think

Can't put in smaller tanks, she's a pig as she is when it comes to fuel. But that motor sure is quiet, I love it.

Anyone with experiences with these rafts?

 

[DaveB]

No...but I want to see some pics Reebster!

 

[BigTruck]

Where the hell are the pics?????

 

[Reeb]

Where the hell are the pics?????

hehe, they're on my phone, Actually I only have one, the other is a walk around video. I'll e-mail them to myself so I can show you guys.

 

[wickman]

Is there foam in the floor? If there is, you might want to cut the floor out and remove the foam. If the seats are that waterlogged the floor probably is too. The last boat I did I cut the hole in the floor using a sheet of plywood for a template. That way when I got the foam replaced, I just dropped the sheet of plywood in (marine grade) and glassed it up. I figure I pulled about 500 pounds of wet foam out of an 18' Bayliner.

 

[Reeb]

Here's the boat now.

 

[Mafesto]

Sharp boat

 

[HawkShot99]

Here's the boat now.

Looks fun. How fast should that sucker go?

 

[Interceptor]

Looks fun. How fast should that sucker go?

With Kris driving or someone else?

 

[Reeb]

Haha, about 150mph with me driving and only about 80mph or so if Marty was driving. LOL

With a few minor motor and lower unit mods, some weight I can take out, counting on some air under the boat(1-2ft of chop) at 2000ft(What's Kamloops Lake for Elevation?)

Hoping for about 80mph(expecting actually)

 

[Reeb]

Updtate.

Well I got 76mph out of it with a pair of seats removed. Motor placed and new prop on. Was ok, not much for a chop on the river though.

Fall project is taking the rest of the seats out, carpet(see what I can find with the carpet out) and start working on the dash. Foot throttle is in, wanna remove the remote box and install any other controls I need on the dash as well.

A good cut polish and this thing will be back to it's former glory.

 

[Bad Daddy]

Ahhh Bitz.....Memories...

The only guy who, if you paid him the extra $$$ he would make it lighter... by leaving glass and resin out.

I don't think you're gonna get it any lighter than it is. Just keep removing all the stuff you dont need. Foam shouldnt be in the hull... it should be under the deck... and really, you dont want any foam in it, it only adds weight.


Have you got a transom jack? That is good for about 8-10 mph right there.
PM me if you want one....

Nose cone on the engine?

Ridgid motor mounts?

Land and Sea make a lot of hp parts for those old mercs...

I had a 1989 Barefoot Sanger..., with a 200 EFI on it. Box Stock, no mods, ran an honest 76. After the transom jack, nose cone, and some other tinkering, (props, mainly) It would run in the mid 80's.
At 3200 ft, it would only get to about 62, when stock.
I usually propped it for barefooting, so that it would pull like a 200, and top out at about 50. Did it like the premium!!!!

May I suggest a gas turbine from www.nyethermodynamics.com

They have a 120 lb 400 HP unit that would make that boat go...

 

[Reeb]

Sweet, haha, that's almost the same line my dad used when describing the boat.

I went to Land & Sea almost immediately. Got a few good fast goodies, including the nose cone and rigid mounts. Yes it does have a transom jack but I may be interested in yours. I'll pm.

I can pull a 200lbs up on 2 skis. Haven't tried heavier. Got dad up on one but he's 150lbs soaking wet.

Holy man alive those turbines are awesome!

This is way too cool, I wish I had one when I was a kid. My dad had a wooden 10ftr with a 35hp on it. What a sweet boat. Just wish it was around when I got old enough to drive it.
http://www.nyethermodynamics.com/ntc-hydro/index.html

 

[SAWYER]

ever take it off any sweet jumps?

 

[Superjag]

proper size steering cable as well.(broke at about 60mph the other day - hairy ride)

Wow! Bet that raised the pucker factor just a bit.

 

[Reeb]

Wow! Bet that raised the pucker factor just a bit.

Yeah lemme tell you. had a buddy with me, first thing he did was launch out of his seat and bear hugged the motor. Pretty funny watching a dude try to wrestle a V6 Merc.
But we got it back to the big boat(48ft jet boat) and got towed home. Which was another hairy ride.
I was driving the big boat while my dad, brother, his friend and another guy all rode in the fork. Problem was, I couldn't quite get the big boat to plane with the fork behind us, so dad would start the fork and hit the throttle while I got the big boat up on plane. Then trim the motor and shut off, towed all the way up river like nothing.

Speaking of the steering cable, didn't help that the cable was 3ft too long for the boat in the first place. And I know who the idiot was that installed it too! If you're from Kamloops it would only take you about a guess and a half before naming the guy. Anyways......gonna try to clean her up a bit this weekend if I make it back down.

 

[wickman]

I would definately use a dual cable system on that. I prefer hydraulic steering. I know they say not for use at speeds greater than 60 but where I am from everybody uses it. Either that or dual Ride-Guide. Two cables so if one breaks you still have steering.

 

[Reeb]

I would definately use a dual cable system on that. I prefer hydraulic steering. I know they say not for use at speeds greater than 60 but where I am from everybody uses it. Either that or dual Ride-Guide. Two cables so if one breaks you still have steering.

I thought about hydralic but my dad talked me into a dual system. I'll have to find out exactly which he got me. The boat is at home in Kamloops and I'm not there all the time so the old guy was kind enough to install the steering and the foot throttle for me.

I ended up with a 27p Stainless 3 blade but was wondering how a chopper prop would work? IS the boat too heavy for a chopper to work properly? Dad used to have one on his Cougar, but the hull of the Cougar was something like 600lbs with fuel tanks installed so his boat is definately lighter than mine.....a lot lighter. I might have to ask him about it.

 

[wickman]

What brand prop you running? I had a buddy with a 19' Hydrostream. He tried a Lazer II but it burned holes in the water. He had I think a 31 chopper that worked well. Got about 90 out of that boat.

 

[Bad Daddy]

dual cable is for getting the slop out of the system...

I would definately use a dual cable system on that. I prefer hydraulic steering. I know they say not for use at speeds greater than 60 but where I am from everybody uses it. Either that or dual Ride-Guide. Two cables so if one breaks you still have steering.

Two cables are safer, but really what they are there for is you run them slightly out of phase, so that they almost work against each other, and then there's no play in the cable.

I used to work at a high performance shop many years ago, and the owner's father was watching me rig my Sanger. Those boats had flawless moldwork, and the running surfaces were second to none. Notched transom, delta pad, etc....

Anyhow, I had the engine jig dead center, and he walked up and gave it a tap to put it off center... I thought he was nuts, but after running that boat, at full throttle with only a finger on the wheel, he was right on!

I think you can get a hydraulic high performance system, but would rather have the dual cable system myself.

bd