Not my season...

Today the wife and I wanted to go out together on the boat just the two of us for a change. We headed out and launched the boat at Linden ave ramp here in Philly and as we motored away from the ramp barely across the river that familiar sound of high motor revs and no torque fills the air... Oh no not again. I quickly throw the anchor to get my head cleared as the tide is in a full outward pull. Thankfully we headed up river against the current, but sadly I didn't hook up the Trolling Motor (something told me I should before I left but I didn't listen). Well only thing left to do is row row row your boat furiously across the channel... We made it to about 100' of the launch and I am realizing there is no way we are gonna make it into the littl launch cove against the tide so I toss my man pride in the river and ask the *cough* #-o jetskiers #-o *cough* to help us the rest of the way in. We trailer the boat and in the parking lot I take the prop off and it looks as brand new as it should for being a week old. On the way home I stop at a local boat shop and the guy looks it over real fast in the parking lot and tell me it is probably something in the lower unit.

When we finally do get home I am welcomed once again to the car acting like it probably has a blown head gasket. Anyway i guess I just had to get out a quick rant. If anyone is interested in the boat in the Philly area I am seriously looking to list it for sale as I am prolly gonna have to look for some wheels.

Wow Backpain,
Sorry to hear about the bad streak of luck. It will turn around! [-o<

The boat motor problem sounds like a spun hub in the prop. Fairly cheap fix. Sorry about the car though.

Dude - i would be glad to take a look at the boat for you - I have spun my share of hubs!

Thanks for the thought, but I am pretty sure the hub if fine. I will take pics of the prop later on and post them for you to see. It is a brand new prop that when I took it off it looks like it did when I took it out of the box. With the car the way it is there is no way for me to travel any distance at this point in time either. My priorities at this moment are car first, boat second. I mean if the car is an easier fix than I anticipate than I can keep the boat and use it in the lakes at least then fix the motor when I can find a lower unit.

I am just super bummed honestly. I was totally pumped about catching some stripers this spring, and I have ended up with the big zero. Not to mention the car and the boat going out on me at the same time. This was honestly the fishing season that I looked forward to and prepared for the most, now i just wanna have a big lawn sale and offload the stuff and forget about it.

I am going to leave the Mercury joke out of this post....

Anyway, it does seem as if you have a bigger problem than just the prop.

As far as getting some new wheels, can you still tow the boat with another tow vehicle, or is that the only one you have? If you have access to another, you could always go electric motor only. I tell ya, doing that is probably the absolute best way to become a better fisherman. You are suddenly required to analyze the section of lake that you got, and not run and gun to another section. Instead of changing locations, you change depth, lure, retrieve etc. You will become much more versatile.

Also, do you have any friends with outboards that you could borrow? Maybe take them fishing with their motor, on your boat, as yours is probably decked out better, as I haven't seen their project posted on this site, so they should be more than willing to come. Or, if you have a friend who is looking to buy a boat but doesn't have the money right off, maybe they go ahead and buy an outboard, and both of y'all use it on your boat, till he has the money for a new boat, and you have the ability to fix your motor or replace it with an Evinrude. Many possibilities here.

Thats a bummer man. I feel your pain... For real. Hope everything works out for you.

To bassboy ty for leaving out Merc jokes

As far as the rest of the suggestions as good as they are they might not be possible. I say might only because it depends greatly on what turns out to be the problem with my car. I have elliminated almost all but the head gasket which is a roughly 1800$ job. If that is the case I will have to sell the boat because I will need that money just to figure something out for transportation. If the one or two things that are left that could possibly be the problem withuot costing mucho denero I will keep the boat and use it on Electric only lakes. We basicly live week to week (who doesn't these days) and this might just be a sign that I really can't afford the luxury of a boat.

the two happiest days of a mans life is one when he gets his first boat 2nd the day he sells it

Well, there is an old saying "All is well that ends well". After much dilligent search, and no small help from the good Lord, it appears that the car is fixed! Turns out that a whole string of small things went bad, one of which was the bulb for the check engine light that kept me from looking into the problem earlier #-o.

But praise God the car is running again and no signs of problems or a bad head gasket which was my biggest fear. So with the car fixed (for under $100 no less) I am moving on to fixing/replacing the motor and keeping the boat. I am looking at a used 1982 Johnson 25HP as a replacement motor, there is a guy selling one for $350 and I am going to look at it today after work. Anyone know anything about these engines?

Last season he replaced the water pump, and had it fogged before storing it indoors. He is not using it anymore because he is getting up in years and bought an electric start. Compression is good, what else should I look for?

bAcKpAiN said:

Well, there is an old saying "All is well that ends well". After much dilligent search, and no small help from the good Lord, it appears that the car is fixed! Turns out that a whole string of small things went bad, one of which was the bulb for the check engine light that kept me from looking into the problem earlier #-o.

But praise God the car is running again and no signs of problems or a bad head gasket which was my biggest fear. So with the car fixed (for under $100 no less) I am moving on to fixing/replacing the motor and keeping the boat. I am looking at a used 1982 Johnson 25HP as a replacement motor, there is a guy selling one for $350 and I am going to look at it today after work. Anyone know anything about these engines?

Last season he replaced the water pump, and had it fogged before storing it indoors. He is not using it anymore because he is getting up in years and bought an electric start. Compression is good, what else should I look for?

Click to expand...

Happy to hear everything went well. As for the motor, I see alot of older Johnson motors on older boats, especially at Lake Ontario and Kawartha region. If they were so bad, I don't think people would keep them on their old boats.

bAcKpAiN said:

Compression is good, what else should I look for?

Click to expand...

Look for it to start. Seriously, ask to hear it run. If it won't start, that's a good time to keep looking.