This boat is a piece of junk!

[new boat guy]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

jet skis don't have bilge pumps in them. you turn off the jetski to get on from the back as water from the pump comes out very fast and can hurt you.

 

[govols019]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

jet skis don't have bilge pumps in them. you turn off the jetski to get on from the back as water from the pump comes out very fast and can hurt you.

As evidenced by the warning stickers on them:

 

[skargo]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

Don't tell me nobody says prop on here either. As in propeller....

Wow, right over your head. Never mind, enjoy.

 

[Andy in NY]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

I sold a Chrysler 55hp and rigged it on a guy's boat in the mid 70's. The owner said that he knew how to operate the motor so I thought everything would be fine.

Two days later he was back with the boat and said that the motor ran great but he was disappointed with the speed and he could swim faster...

I went outside to take a look at the motor and noticed right off that the cold start lever on the control box was sticking straight up. After pushing it down and checking that the controls worked correctly I asked him to show me what he was doing to make the boat go.

He put the motor in gear and then raised the cold start to increase the rpm, no wonder that he could swim faster than the boat would go. I gave him a quick lesson and he took off to the boat ramp. Two hours later he was back but this time he had a big grin and proclaimed that the boat went so fast it was scary.

As he was getting back in his truck I reminded him that he didn't have to use all the throttle all the time just because it's there.
After all, who drives their car everywhere at wide open throttle?

Capt Ron

I TOTALLY did this my first time out with a new to me merc i bought from a guy. he told me it made his 15' tinny go like a bat out of hell. so i get it all bolted up to my boat and head to the lake. i think i hit 4 mph. boats were passing me in a no wake zone saying i was going to slow.


i was throttling with the warm up lever.

the guy i bought it from asked me if i knew how to operate it, and i didnt want to sound like a jackass so i said i did.

turns out i didnt.

 

[Trevornollmeyer]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

I bought my first boat earlier this year. The guy I bought it from had bought it new in '97, back when he was drinking A LOT. He told me that to start it, you had to squeeze the fuel bulb, then move the throttle about halfway forward and turn the key...
Well after about 3 seconds on the water our first time out, I realized the starter won't engage unless it's in neutral. I spent the next 20 minutes flooding the engine and wearing the battery down. The next several times we went out, I was lucky to get it started.
I finally figured out all I had to do was prime the bulb, choke start it once, then it starts up every time.

My lesson was to take some advice with a grain of salt... The trick is knowing which advice that is.

 

[Boss Hawg]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

I bought my first boat earlier this year. The guy I bought it from had bought it new in '97, back when he was drinking A LOT. He told me that to start it, you had to squeeze the fuel bulb, then move the throttle about halfway forward and turn the key...
Well after about 3 seconds on the water our first time out, I realized the starter won't engage unless it's in neutral. I spent the next 20 minutes flooding the engine and wearing the battery down. The next several times we went out, I was lucky to get it started.
I finally figured out all I had to do was prime the bulb, choke start it once, then it starts up every time.

My lesson was to take some advice with a grain of salt...

The trick is knowing which advice that is

.

You have learned well grasshopper

 

[david_r]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

PWC are jet boats and have an impeller inside, no prop like a normal boat. Also the bilge pump runs with the motor so when you turn it off, it can fill with water.

WOT is wide open throttle.

lol.......... i dont know a whole lot about pwc's but im pretty sure they dont have a bilge nor a bilge pump.... but i have been wrong before............ thats what skargo was gettin at, not the fact you said prop.

 

[sho3boater]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

lol.......... i dont know a whole lot about pwc's but im pretty sure they dont have a bilge nor a bilge pump.... but i have been wrong before............ thats what skargo was gettin at, not the fact you said prop.

At the time another guy that runs them a lot said they only pump when they are running so you never shut one off and try to get on it/sink it. All I could find on Kawasaki is an automatic system, that could well be just a siphon they don't say. In that case you have to be moving not just running. Or some come with an actual pump. I don't know, it was a brand new dealer's 1000cc Kaw and they sunk it after they shut it off. I stick to boats mostly and I've worked on PWC but not on or near a bilge pump mostly just the motors. I had a cocktail that day and a whole lot of laughs watching them sink it, tow it in, and then try to get it running. But, I was nice enough to get it started for them so they didn't trash it.

 

[skargo]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

They don't sink if they aren't running.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

Most of these posts show why the most important piece of equipment to take on your first trip is an experienced boater.

 

[sho3boater]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

They don't sink if they aren't running.

How is that?
That is what the guy told me, and he had owned a few of them. He said if you can't get on it quickly then you better have it running to keep the water out. I don't know if that applies to certain models or the guy was lying...but he was a pretty smart guy. Either way, it was great entertainment for the few hours this went on. I could not let him rust the crank in a brand new 60mph ski though.

 

[skargo]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

How is that?
That is what the guy told me, and he had owned a few of them. He said if you can't get on it quickly then you better have it running to keep the water out. I don't know if that applies to certain models or the guy was lying...but he was a pretty smart guy. Either way, it was great entertainment for the few hours this went on. I could not let him rust the crank in a brand new 60mph ski though.

How is what?????? PWC do NOT sink if they aren't running! What is so hard to understand about that? Hell, most have a lanyard and a kill switch attached.

They also do NOT have props, they have impellers.

Rust the crank? I am lost.

Who knows, maybe I am just misunderstanding what you are saying here?

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

The jet skis I have been on and around have a plug, and they operate like a boat. Don't put plug in: it fills up with water. Put plug in: keeps water out. I took my jet ski to the island many times (as well as dozens of other people) and left it sitting for many hours on end, not once did it ever sink from not running.

It did sink, I was out of state at the time, and a family member decided to take it out. They flipped it upside down, and were more worried about drowning in four feet of water than flipping the jet ski back over. Some nice guy offered to help them out, he towed them and the jet ski to the boat ramp, and must have hit every stump or rock in the bay on the way back. I got back the next day and tried to revive it, but the engine had already seized. There's $12k down the drain, a brand new Kawasaki 1200STX-R. The worst part of all was that I cancelled insurance the week before, saying "what could possibly go wrong." Famous last words. . .

 

[redfury]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

How is that?
That is what the guy told me, and he had owned a few of them. He said if you can't get on it quickly then you better have it running to keep the water out. I don't know if that applies to certain models or the guy was lying...but he was a pretty smart guy. Either way, it was great entertainment for the few hours this went on. I could not let him rust the crank in a brand new 60mph ski though.

The jet skis I have been on and around have a plug, and they operate like a boat. Don't put plug in: it fills up with water. Put plug in: keeps water out. I took my jet ski to the island many times (as well as dozens of other people) and left it sitting for many hours on end, not once did it ever sink from not running.

It did sink, I was out of state at the time, and a family member decided to take it out. They flipped it upside down, and were more worried about drowning in four feet of water than flipping the jet ski back over. Some nice guy offered to help them out, he towed them and the jet ski to the boat ramp, and must have hit every stump or rock in the bay on the way back. I got back the next day and tried to revive it, but the engine had already seized. There's $12k down the drain, a brand new Kawasaki 1200STX-R. The worst part of all was that I cancelled insurance the week before, saying "what could possibly go wrong." Famous last words. . .

Why do I get the feeling that the guy never put the drain plug in the back, or didn't know he had a drain plug and because when it was moving, it sucked the water out of it, he didn't have any problems as long as the jet was pushing water away from the boat, sucking out the water from the hull

 

[64osby]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

Man this thread took a wide turn somewhere. Great stories about not being the brightest blub, I've been there:redface:, to pissing over PWC.

 

[joblo33]

Re: This boat is a piece of junk!

I used to work as a mechanic at a J/E dealership. One day a guy in his 20's showed up with a beautiful Grady White with twin 150 Johnsons and complained that both engines were hard to start. I put a test tank under the port engine and jumped in the boat to see what the issue was, with the owner looking over my shoulder. The first thing I did was press the "Prime Port" button on the dash, since this boat had electric fuel pumps instead of primer balls. I then clicked the key a couple of times to prime the engine and then started it up with a quick turn of the key. Immediately after I started it the owner asked what the button was that I hit on the dash and what I did with the key before turning it. This guy had owned the boat over a year and had never primed the fuel line or the carbs. He had just been cranking the engines until they pulled in the fuel. I can almost forgive him for not knowing how to prime the carbs with the key switch, that's a common one, but not knowing what the two big push bottons on his dash labelled "PRIME PORT" and "PRIME STBD" do is just ridiculous. I can't believe his starters hadn't burnt up.

EDIT: 500th post, nice