mike82

If the solenoid is working ie, making the starter turn then you probably have other issues. The wires on the solenoid should be your positive battery cable to one side of the contacts and the battery lead to the starter on the other side of the contacts (the large posts). The switch wires (smaller posts) in most cases it will not matter witch way you put them. Check that you have the leads on the battery the correct way. If you have the pos to neg and neg to pos on the battery, the solenoid will still work but make the starter turn the opposite direction and therefore not engage the drive pinion. The other thing to check would be that the shaft the pinion slides on is free from obstruction ie, heavy grit or grease and moves upward to the flywheel smoothly. Hope this helps somewhat.

Look forward to them! Hope it will serve you well.

Can you provide some more info on motor eg. brand, year and hp? How long did the charge rate stay high? How old is your battery? A couple of basic things to check are: the state of charge of the battery (was it low or fully charged before going for a run?) Also check connections on the battery and inside of the battery terminals. Some Yamaha engines are known to do this.

Very Nice multi purpose boat! Hope she serves you well.

If you are unsure about the live bait tank or it won't get much use. Why not run a portable aerator? Just take a small bucket and swap some water out every 1/2hr or so. They work surprisingly well if you change the water regularly. Like this: Or I had one of these set up in my esky for a while pre bait tank. Just an Idea.

There is a boat ramp at Windsor (off george st) Would be a bit of a trek up the river to North Richmond. I launch my canoe from the back of the skate park near the North Richmond bridge. Bit of a hike down from the car park though. Plenty of bass around the bridge and down stream toward Windsor in summer. Don't know how it fishes in winter or up stream of the bridge as I have never tried. Fishing off the bank can be restrictive due to the massive amount of weed in the area. Wouldn't eat anything from there due to the "runoff" from the many turf farms that line the banks.

If you haven't already connected them, think about putting some heat shrink tube over the wires all the way up to the back of the light. It will help protect the sheathing on the cables where it passes through the aluminium. Just a thought.

Fantastic read! Only a small part of the Blue Mountains is seen by many due to the massive amount of tourists that have popularised Leura and Katoomba. Once you get away from the "tourist attractions" you get an insight into the beauty of the "real" Blue mountains. You have captured this very well in your photos! Thanks for taking the time to write the story and post the pictures.

Great read! Must have been an exhilarating experience for both of you! Unlucky with your fish, hopefully you get payback soon! Good luck!

G'day Squidboy. I've got a manual XT (2.5L turbo) Forrester and tow a 4.6m Quintrex on an over-rider braked trailer. With all gear fuel etc. probably pushes the 1000kg mark. The Subi tows it absolutely no problems at all. Braking is not an issue in the slightest. (It would outbreak my previous Holden crewman hands down!) Excellent fuel economy with and without the boat on. (I get about !0.5L freeway with no boat or 12.5L per 100kms towing) No problems at the ramp either being AWD. No need to ride the clutch or anything like that, just pops it straight out. Only modification I have is an aftermarket exhaust which "frees" the engine up a bit. Overall (in my opinion) it's a fantastic tow vehicle for my application. Beats the V6 auto crewman I had in all areas.

Hi. Whilst specific jigging rods are great to use and less demanding on the angler, there is no reason why you cant jig with the stick that you have got. I used to jig with a 15kg crystal blue and had no dramas at all! Often quite the opposite, jigging beside guys with thousands of dollars worth of gear and cleaning up on a modest setup is a great look! In saying that I do now enjoy using a dedicated jig stick as it is a bit nicer to jig with and a more forgiving fight due to their 'parabolic' action. If you are not going out that often, try it out first before spending big dollars. I wouldn't recommend an el cheepo jigging rod as it probably wont be as good as what you've got. Just my two cents.

Nice work! Looking good!

I agree. I wouldn't use fireline on a bait caster. I've always used tuffline in 20lb on my bait casters for bass and salmon. No dramas at all with it.

Hi mate. Can be found Here.

I have done work for the guy's that design and build these weed harvesters. They use a mould to produce the sealed plastic flotation pods, then create an aluminium deck. They might be able to build one from scratch as a custom order for you, as they are very cluey buggers!

A couple of weeks ago In middle harbour I was getting lectured by Maritime about proper usage safety gear that I had on board and stated that I knew the new life jacket rules and that she was quite close to my boat. She was checking something in her vessel when I then had to inform her that she was about to run into my boat whilst not looking. She then promptly hit a throttle (the wrong one) and ran straight over the mooring buoy and rope that I was moored on narrowly missing my bow. Its the second time I have had an incident with a Maritime vessel with the first one hitting the wrong motor and bumping into mine. Im glad they are doing their job though. I can only imagine the amount of people they pull up with no idea and no safety gear at all.

Yea mate. wash the pump inside and out, all the hoses etc thoroughly every time. It has had a lot of use though. probably about 100 hrs. they are only cheap pumps at about $25. 1 has failed due to a mechanical failure of one of the impeller blades braking, ! due to a noisy bearing internally in the motor and one bitten off by a shark. Good advice though, Thanks!

No probs, It's just the standard johnson pump that came with the kit. Think I PM you the link to them? Its 450GPH (U.S gallons per hour). Its more than enough. I have been through 3 pumps in about 3 or 4 years, 1 failed under warranty, 1 broke the impeller (might have sucked up something) and last weekend a mako took a liking to it and broke the mount. They are cheap though. They used to have a 3yr warrenty, not sure now though? Happy to help if you have any other questions.

Yea I just tie it off to either rear corner to suit the drift that the wind/current is pushing the boat along at. It doesn't stop the boat from drifting, just helps to slow it down a bit. Depending on the drift and which corner it is tied off to it can be useful to straighten the boat slightly to allow better line angle from the rod holders. It wont make a huge difference just slow you down a bit. It's not so much "catching the current" its more in the act of the boat dragging it through the water that slows the drift down.

Its just like chucking a bucket out the back on a bit of rope really (which you could do). Your boat will move faster with the current due to having a larger surface area and "drag" the bucket behind slowing you down a bit.

PE stands for Polyethylene. Just the material it is constructed from. Any of the big brands will be fine for quality. In general the more it costs the better the quality of line (more strands in the weave to construct the line the more expensive and better the quality). If you liked the way your mates line performed why not try the same brand? I'd probably go for a 6 or 8lb for a 2500 size reel. Just my two cents.

They look like a parachute in under the water, they create extra drag to slow your drift down. You need to match the size of the sea anchor to the size of your boat. Cost about $25 for a basic one to suit boats up to 6m. You can spend up to $300 for a big "parachute" para anchor. They look like this: Basic one: Large one: Hope this helps.

Here is what I have done. It has treated me well over the last few years. I mounted the motor on a piece of aluminium angle off the transducer bracket. I used a double ended barbed through hull fitting to run the supply line in. This is a s low as I could get the outlet due to bracing inside the hull. I used a much larger skin fitting lower than the original with an 'anti squid wire' glued in, i filled the original with silicone and pointed the tail toward the inside of the tank. I added some foam hatch sealing strip to the inside of the lid and put a rubber bung in the hole as it leaks underway. I used clear pipe for the inlet as its easier to disconnect from the tap. It is going a bit hard now after 3yrs.

Everyone has made some very good points to take on board. I have the same tank in my boat. It works very well now that I have set it up with a much larger drain outlet, that is now mounted lower than where they are standard. I filled the standard skin fitting with silicone and put the tail toward the inside of the tank to seal the hole. Then I used a much larger skin fitting in the tank with a short length of hose to a reducer to the next size down pipe to a skin fitting exiting the rear of the boat. This helps with the air lock problem I had running the same size hose all the way through as I couldn't get enough fall to the outlet fitting through the hull. As mentioned it fills up alot quicker whilst underway so I installed a plastic shut off tap in the supply line to turn it down a little if need be. It also allows an easy point to disconnect the hose from the tap and the reducer to take the tank out for cleaning and can be shut off if I want to run without the tank. I also glued a wire across the skin fitting in the tank to stop small squid and yakkas trying to exit the tank and getting stuck in the hose which happened more than once! I ran a seal of thin hatch foam around the lid and put a rubber bung in the hole in the lid. Now when it closes it seals as when underway water sloshes around quite a bit and it use to spill everywhere. It works a treat after some minor modifications through trial and error. Now I am in need a new pump after a mako bit mine off on the weekend! Good luck hope some of this helped! Ill try put some pics up tomorrow if you like? Mick.

Well done on finding them guys! Must have been mayhem when they all hit! Shame about loosing the others.