If you have a good voltmeter, you can see if the charger is putting out sufficient voltage to charge the battery. When charging, you should see 13.75 to 15 volts at the battery terminals. If you see 12 volts at the battery terminals with the charger running, you may have a bad charger. If you see a lower voltage; you may have a bad cell in the battery; swapping the charger leads to another battery would isolate this condition to the charger or battery and is the first thing you should try. A bad battery may also show 12 volts with no load on it but drop dramatically when loaded – this could also fool the charger. You can measure the current that the charger is putting out but that is a little more involved; if you are interested, contact me at:[email protected]
Jimmy:
Please post here how you turn out with the prop selection. I am an old guy (61) and do not enjoy wrestling the steering wheel of my P4. Like the old bull and the young bull on the hill—
thanks
jwt
D:
Thanks for the comments. i am currently running a 25 P Trophy. Tommy lowered it last week and the torque is much better to tolerable. I think my problem may be now is the tendency I have always had to trim all the way out which in this case creates a bucking bronko. Previous boats did not have the fire breather on the transom that I now have. I may have to live with more torque and raise the engine back up some because i am not making enough RPMs (about 5300) and my water pressure gage is pegged at 30 psi. I have talked Tommy into driving it and setting it up and I will try again.any inputs are humbly solicited.
jwt
I asked Mercury the same question about Ethanol usage in my 06 200 opti –below is their response. I am adding a Racor water seperator filter with 10 micron element.
Based on their reply; i can only assume that the warranty is not an issue.
jwt
“The fuel should not affect the engine. If the Ethanol content is higher than 10% you may consider an in-line fuel/water separator. You do have a water separator on your OptiMax which can be checked periodically for water. Anther way to prevent Ethanol from causing any averse affects is to not leave the fuel sit for long periods of time. If you are, please use fuel stabilizer or quickleen, which are both sold at your local Mercury dealers. The 87 octane is the minimum octane rating Mercury recommends.”
Just so you know how confising it is to be a consumer: I wrote Mercury back and specifically asked if the added filter would affect the engine warranty. BTW: the filter I am adding is listed for sale on their parts website. While I was writing this, mercury called me and explained that the main concern is if the filter restricts fuel flow and starves the engine then the issue would not be their responsibility. She said that as long as I immediately corrected the condition; I would not hurt the engine. I think they are saying as long as the external filter does not starve the engine; you are good to go.
“The added filter may restrict fuel flow and cause running issues.
Warranty covers manufacturing defects. Warranty can be voided if a failure occurs due to modification or addition of an after-market part”
All I really want to do is the best job I can to hold up my end of the bargain and protect the engine so it would never need warranty service.
jwt
D-man: I believe that both livewells are on my left toward the center of the boat, at 6 pounds per gallon, that is a balancing weight that might work to my advantage when I am just running around seeing if there is any fish out there that can catch me. Dont have saddle tanks.jwt
Thank you for the comments; if possible, I would still like to know the working capacity of the livewell. I guess too much information can cause confusion. A lot of these boards speaking to driving techniques state that boat balance is an important factor; guess I need to quit engineering the thing and get on with the rat killin. According to the tables: specific weight of water is 8.345 pounds/gal, gas is 5.87 #/gal.thanksjwt
Chris4pt3:Thanks for the help; got what I needjwt
Thanks Bob:I check Ebay every day. I think I want a 21 P. I have a PIV with a 25 P trophy. I am looking for a prop that I can pull tubes and skiers, so I need to be on the step and in the power band at about 20 mphjwt
Mine was the same way; easy to fix. Remove the black plastic winch cover (two pieces). Then the three bolts are easily accessible. There is plenty of adjustment space to get strap aligned.
jwt
Wimbleton White
Step and Grab Pole
Pivot tongue
here is a little trick that works quite will. Purchase a roll of shrink wrap at Home Depot (stuff they wrap around several boxes to hold them for shippment); go around the boat a couple of times; and you are good to go. Did this with my boat, took about 5 minutes and no damage at all from the flapping cover.jwt
I have an 07 PIV with 200 opti, 25 Trophy. I too am a porker (280) with great love handles. If I raise the motor to get light to heavy left torque, I can touch 70 and bump the rev limiter if I dont eat breakfast. If I lower the motor for light or balanced torque (my preference) I can get 68 consistently and stay off the rev limiter. I cant tell you where the motor is in relation to the pad; I set it so it is comfortable to drive. YOu will get 1 to 2 mph less in the summer, best speeds will be in the winter. Hope this helps somejwt
Place the foot switch in series with the negative lead. If you want a switch on either side of the deck; wire them in parallel and then in series with the negative lead. Make sure the switch has at least 30 or 40 A rating and you use good – low resistance connections
Just wondering: Is it possible to take a piece of hambys, cut a clearance hole for the bow eye, and run down to the existing hambys for continuous top to bottom protection? Where the two strips meet, there would have to be some overlap on the added one. this should eleminate any bow roller issues jwt
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