hvymtl939

So, I took off work at noon on Friday to get the boat down to a repair shop in Spring Hill, Kansas, which is about 40 minutes south of where I live. I got the boat down there at 1. When the guy quoted the job, he estimated it taking 4 hours at most. At $85 an hour, he estimated a bill of $340. I leave the boat with then, then got eat lunch with my lady and run some errands the rest of the afternoon. She looks pretty behind my Expedition!



I get a call from him saying that the boat should be ready for pick up around 6, so I start heading back that way around 4:30. I stop at Bass Pro on the way down to waste some time and look at new boat. They have pretty much the brand new equivalent of what we have right now. 18.5', 3.0 4 cylinder, 7 person capacity. All for the low, low price of $34,900. Or easy payments of $239 a month for 120 months!!! Ouch. Made me feel a lot better about the money we have in ours.

Here it is.


So I get down to the repair shop, and the drive still isn't on. Ends up taking them until damn near 8 pm. Luckily, the guy was super awesome, and only charged for the 4 hours he had quoted. It made me feel a lot better about taking it to them. If the pros had that much trouble with it, there was no way we would have been able to fix it ourselves. We park the boat at our condo rather than drive it all the way back to my buddy's house in Kansas City, Kansas, since we were going to be heading south to hit the lake first thing Saturday morning. HOA's be da***d!

hvymtl939

So Saturday morning, we get up early, and make it to Hillsdale lake by 9:30. We get the boat prepped, and back her down the ramp, giddy with anticipation. I hop aboard, and go to start her up. She cranks twice, then nothing. Ignition circuit is dead. F**K.

We pull off the ramp, and I crawl under the dash to see what's going on. Dash switches and trim switch are still working, so we know power is at least making it that far. I try to jump the starter with a screwdriver, but without the ignition switch sending an "on" signal, the starter would crank, but the distributor wouldn't fire. I spend almost 2 hours trying to find a short or a broken wire, but without a test light, we were pissing in the wind. We drive home, sad af. I joke to my buddy that $239 a month doesn't sound too bad right now. He jokes back that's only $120 a piece! We debate hitting bass pro right then and there.

Sunday morning, I head to my buddy's and we start busting a**. A test light, new ignition switch, 2 new relays, and 4 hours later, we have her running!!!!! We have another graduation party early afternoon. We hit that, then head to Wyandotte County lake around 5.

Man bun fleek af


Put the boat in the water, fire her up, and back her off the water. And she only goes in reverse. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

A nice boat tows us in, and we put her on the trailer. He helps us adjust the shift cable. The cable mounts at the transom linkage with a threaded shaft, and a locked wheel that allows for adjustment for forward and reverse gear. We back her down the ramp, and she shifts into forward just fine, but not reverse. At this point, it's almost 6, so we say f**k it. We pull her off the trailer using a rope, and get her facing forward....and then.....


My buddy Chad provided some much needed musical ambiance.

http://vid226.photobucket.com/albums/dd56/hvymtl939/Mobile%20Uploads/VID_20160522_183705_zpslcwjrut4.mp4 Sweet vindication

http://vid226.photobucket.com/albums/dd56/hvymtl939/Mobile%20Uploads/Snapchat-7422351470504789991_zps3mxafnoy.mp4 F**K YES. Running wide open, with 3 adults, a toddler, a bunch of tools, a full tank of gas, and a dinged up prop, we were able to hit 35 mph on GPS. She ran perfectly. No miss, good oil pressure, no overheating. I think with just me, half a tank, and a new prop, mid 40s would easily be doable. Plenty fast for small midewest lakes. We cruise around for almost an hour, than pull back into the marina.

Now, Wyandotte county lake is pretty small, and has a 20 mph speed limit, which we of course promptly disregarded. As we're putting her on the trailer, we see a Sheriff's deputy staring at us, scrambling to uncover and launch the patrol boat. Someone must have called us in for sure. By the time he launches, we're already on the trailer and off the ramp. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave. He isn't amused lololol.

We drop the boat off, and head home.

So as of now, tonight we're gonna adjust the shift cable a bit more to find that sweet spot between forward and reverse, permanently mount our bow seats, and make sure we have all equipment to hit the lake Thursday afternoon!!!! Have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend bros! If anyone wants to join, we'll be at the Blackjack camp loop of Eisenhower State Park! Everyone is welcome.

Dave M

Good for you! When I look back at the boats I've owned, each one costing 2X the previous one, I CAN'T say that I had more fun on the newer, nicer, more expensive boats than my first boat.

One suggestion I have for you, and I usually do this if I haven't used my boat in a weeks or two. Start the boat on the hose at home before heading down to the ramp. Make sure temps, are right, it shifts into F and R, etc.

hvymtl939

Great advice. This would have saved us a lot of wasted travel time and headaches.

hvymtl939

So, been a while since we updated this, but the boat died over Memorial day weekend. Turns out it's worth the extra $10 to get the impeller kit that comes with a new housing. Oh well, lesson learned. 2 weeks after memorial day weekend, we bought our first home, so with everything surrounding that, the boat sat for a while. Finally got it over to the new house a few weeks ago. Got the new impeller kit in, and she's been doing great since! Still have some things I want to do this winter, but until that comes, we're using it as much as we can.

I also picked up an Aluminum 14' with a 20 hp Johnson, so we've been using that a ton at the small local lakes within a few minutes of the new house.







The smile that makes all the headaches so worth it.

DTD

Glad to hear that you got the boat back on the water. I haven't read this thread in a while - I can relate to the shifting issues with the Cobra drive. I have had the cables replaced last year - one had stretched out. It's' better now but I still mess with every now and then. Watch out with collecting boats! I had four at one time - now down to two. Hopefully I will sell the rowboat soon and just have the Stingray. Looks like everyone is having fun and that's what it's all about!

hvymtl939

Haha! The misses tolerated the first, but wasn't super pleased when she lost her garage spot to the new one. I think we're gonna run the Manta ray for another year or so, get her fixed up as possible, then try to sell/trade our way into a pontoon. It's a fun little boat, but we just need more room.