fauxmeister
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Messages
- 100
So I finally got my Rinker out on the water this weekend! As some of you have read my previous thread I started with a 75 arrowglass tri-hull I purchased last fall with a Chrysler Charger 115hp and a trailer I really liked. I stored it all winter and this spring found this site and started looking into all the work involved to revive it and then came across this 15' Rinker w/o a motor for $275 and was able to talk the owner into helping me install the motor onto my boat and even thow in an old homemade trailer for my tri-hull. Anyway I got it home and made a list of all updates to get it ready. The wiring was a rats nest as every single accessory was wired direct to the battery in back instead of thru a fuse box or buss bar. There was no bilge pump. The original motor holes didn't line up with where the Chrysler needed to be drilled. The trailer lites were shot. etc., etc., etc......
So I have wired in a new marine fuse box, tore out all the old trailer lites/wiring and wired in a sealed LED set, installed a battery isolator switch, working on cleaning up all the wiring, installed a new bilge pump and outlet with lighted rocker switch, filled in the old motor mount holes and epoxied, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned...
Last weekend I finally went out with a friend to try it out. We fired it up in the driveway with a set of muffs and seemed to start well...fingers crossed...unloaded and started at the dock. Ran pretty well but I had topped off a half tank of gas that came with the boat and it really was cutting out as we sped across the lake. Decided to try switching to the other tank of all new gas and seemed to run quite a bit better. Felt pretty good about everything...
So this Wed. took a couple days off to take the fam out for the first time. Since the motor had been cutting out(some of which was due to not having been ran in the last 1 1/2 years) I decided to replace the plugs and add some Seafoam to the fuel). As I am a newbie with all this I was very careful in the rigging area ( made sure to put the drain plug in!) and got everything set up. Unloaded pretty quickly and put the jeep/trailer in proper parking space so could get back down to the boat. Got the boat started quickly and was letting it warm up when my daughter commented that it seemed awfully loud. I looked back and realized I hadn't trimmed the motor down into the water! Ha! So pulled away from the dock and took off across the lake to a pretty quiet cove to try out the new tube we had purchased. All went well and the girls had a blast! Motor ran decent although still cut out a fair amount trying to accelerate. Ran ok at WOT but had to be finessed to keep from bogging out. Went thru the first tank of gas and on to the second tank which was the tank I had used the first time out so was only partially full. After few more minutes of tubing went back across the lake to fill up at the marina. Came into the marina from the wrong side and didn't see where to fill up - just the yacht storage and tooled around that whole end before going around to the other end and seeing where to fill up and as we were getting close to the dock with one of the marina managers guiding me to the proper place - the engine died - I had run out of gas! 20 ft from the dock. Luckily I was able to coast close enough to throw a line to him and he pulled us up to the pump. After filling up we went back out for another hour of fun before loading back up...all went well - First official run on my own a success!
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So I have wired in a new marine fuse box, tore out all the old trailer lites/wiring and wired in a sealed LED set, installed a battery isolator switch, working on cleaning up all the wiring, installed a new bilge pump and outlet with lighted rocker switch, filled in the old motor mount holes and epoxied, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned...
Last weekend I finally went out with a friend to try it out. We fired it up in the driveway with a set of muffs and seemed to start well...fingers crossed...unloaded and started at the dock. Ran pretty well but I had topped off a half tank of gas that came with the boat and it really was cutting out as we sped across the lake. Decided to try switching to the other tank of all new gas and seemed to run quite a bit better. Felt pretty good about everything...
So this Wed. took a couple days off to take the fam out for the first time. Since the motor had been cutting out(some of which was due to not having been ran in the last 1 1/2 years) I decided to replace the plugs and add some Seafoam to the fuel). As I am a newbie with all this I was very careful in the rigging area ( made sure to put the drain plug in!) and got everything set up. Unloaded pretty quickly and put the jeep/trailer in proper parking space so could get back down to the boat. Got the boat started quickly and was letting it warm up when my daughter commented that it seemed awfully loud. I looked back and realized I hadn't trimmed the motor down into the water! Ha! So pulled away from the dock and took off across the lake to a pretty quiet cove to try out the new tube we had purchased. All went well and the girls had a blast! Motor ran decent although still cut out a fair amount trying to accelerate. Ran ok at WOT but had to be finessed to keep from bogging out. Went thru the first tank of gas and on to the second tank which was the tank I had used the first time out so was only partially full. After few more minutes of tubing went back across the lake to fill up at the marina. Came into the marina from the wrong side and didn't see where to fill up - just the yacht storage and tooled around that whole end before going around to the other end and seeing where to fill up and as we were getting close to the dock with one of the marina managers guiding me to the proper place - the engine died - I had run out of gas! 20 ft from the dock. Luckily I was able to coast close enough to throw a line to him and he pulled us up to the pump. After filling up we went back out for another hour of fun before loading back up...all went well - First official run on my own a success!
