Hahahahaha thanks man! I wish I had your skills with the 351.
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Hahahahaha thanks man! I wish I had your skills with the 351.
Okay as of today the stereo install is completly done! Only thing left to do is wetsand, buff, wax, then put in boatlift. Should hopefully be in next weekend or maybe two. Teak needs a few more coats of sealant.
I am making plans to improve ballast system. First adding overflows, then adding a second pump. Hopefully this will allow me to remove some of the hand valves and make it much more automatic.
Mikey sounds awesome.... I was just in the water up in Northern MI and damn it's cold......Had the wadder's on and got the dock in, but called it quits before the hoist. Too damn cold!!!
I'm going to have to change the bunks on the hoist as it used to carry an I/O.... wondering if you've got any pic's of your set up on your hoist, height of bunk's, etc.......
Mikey
Irish is right you are the king of modification. You have done more in 1 year than I have
done in 20. Congrats on all your work, good luck on the wet sand and buff its a lot of work
but well worth the effort.
Haha thanks a lot guys that is very nice to say!! :) The boat is a joy and all of these upgrades were thought out as much as possible to be functional and quality, but budget.
Maple - I was really unsure what to do about a boat lift too. Turns out the one we used for the I/O worked just fine for the inboard. Some lifts have a large cut-out in the rear underwater cross beam. Most do not.
The secret here is simple - just don't pull the boat in too far. :) If you do, the strut (prop shaft support) will DING against the support which will tell you to back it off. My lift is made to hold 3500lbs and the SunSport is only 2400.
Our boat lift DID have flat bunks - not full length bunks, but a pair of short bunks in front and a pair in back. We put rollers on the rear bunks to keep the prop up out of the dirt. However, we found they were unneeded. We will remove them and go back to bunks. Our river is frequently running low in late summer so we have issues with too shallow of a spot to get the boat off of the lift. This should help. We also have a wheel kit on the lift to help maneuver it. The wheels stay on and can be raised/lowered.
I do have pics of the lift but they aren't great. Here ya are!
More new pics to come everything looks so slick now..
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...Mikey-FAE7.jpg
Michael Hunter - Thanks bro that means a lot coming from you! Your boat is a work of art. :) I will have to try and get some nice high res shots after she is all cleaned up, out on the glassy river, with racks full of boards, bimini up and all loaded down with ballast hehe!
We have been pretty lucky in that our boat and motor are in great condition. We have not had to do any major repairs yet, just tuning the motor up. So that has allowed me to get her just the way I would like.
I am somewhat concerned that my ballast system will be leaving me wanting more this year. It is very manual right now. The pump and all sacs are linked, but each sac has it's own valve and I have to fill one sac at a time. There are no overflow lines so when each sac gets full it must be watched and the water stopped, or else it gets real full quick!! All sacs are different sizes so they fill at different rates. Overflows will really help here.
One issue with my overflows is that some sacs are different heights. Some are on the floor, and one is in my ski locker, about 1.5feet off the floor. If it is linked with a sac on the floor, it will fill the floor sac almost to bursting (pops the seats up on rear bench hehe). I will try this year to see if I can leave it open with a different sac, like a bow sac. Maybe that would work better.
Since my sacs are different heights, and some sacs cannot get all the way full, the spot I drill through the hull for the overflow is very important. The locker sac thru hull would need to be higher than the others! That would look pretty odd. Still researching..
To help speed it up I would add a 2nd pump. This would also let me to leave more valves open all the time. I may just have one valve to turn regularly, the bow starboard (drivers) sac (400lbs). When I wakeboard, we want this sac full. When we surf on port wave, we want it empty. Lots to think about!
Wet sanding should be fun. Did some last year but need to do a better job and then wax and buff so it is a longer lasting shine. Can I get away with just one grit or do I need to use multiple grits and really take my time???
Enough talk time for pics!
Here is the finished tower wire quick connect. Again, for other users I would skip this kit and just run wire the whole way.
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3519/Picture_005.jpg
Looks slick though. :)
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3519/Picture_004.jpg
Tower speakers, nav light! So clean! So loud and clear it's gonna be greattttt! Note how little wire is exposed near the speakers. Lovin it~!
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...cture_0121.jpg
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...cture_0111.jpg
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...cture_0103.jpg
Why didn't I move the plywood sheesh!
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...cture_0081.jpg
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...icture_009.jpg
Here's a shot of the FAE all hooked up. The downpipe is backwards, we have since corrected it. Matches the tower, especially when it's underwater. ;)
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3...cture_0031.jpg
That's all for today! Sorry I couldn't get shots of the bimini or the stereo yesterday. Will get them asap! It's clean as can be.
The tower looks great.... love that nav light, don't see them up there too often....Wiring's pretty clean...I hope I can get mine that nice!!!!
With regards to the hoist, I too have a slight shallow watewr issue and I was thinking adjustable height full length bunks, if I setém too low I'll just lift them til I get it right. Your hoist looks better than mine does now....I've got an old HarborMaster set up with floopy bunks front and rear, they gotta go. I also don't have the cut out on the rear frame. Hence the lifting of the bunks...
The cables are good and the awning's in great shape so I should be good to go when the bunks are in the right spot, I'm going to somewhat copy the layout on my trailer I think??
The plywood's cool, makes it a more real, your boat still looks amazing.....