A boat a motor and a trailer

Par
I checked the output from the transformer with a multi-meter as you suggested. It actually puts out 12.2 V AC even though its marked output 9V AC. I also checked the voltage from the wall socket and it reads 121 V AC. This transformer just has a wire with a small plug that plugs into the back of the sub woofer for the stereo that also says input 9V AC. The 12 V plug was on the inverter that converts the 12V DC from the battery to 120 V AC that burned up. I should have the new inverter tomorrow and I will check the output voltage from it and then the output from the transformer. From looking at the way the burned up inverter was made I'm guessing that they first convert the 12V DC from the battery to AC and then use a step up transformer to produce the 120 AC if so it may be possible to connect to the back side of the transformer in the inverter where there should be 12 V AC and eliminate the second transformer that steps down the voltage for the stereo. I'll try to get some pictures next week I left my camera at the campground in the camper. I'm going there tomorrow wish I could take the boat and get back on the river it's supposed to rain all weekend. Hope their wrong.

Dave T

 

Damn that's weird. I wonder why they did something like that. Sorry to bother you with the testing stuff, but it just seems quite odd for an AC step down, to power a commonly DC device.

 

Par
No bother at all doing the testing. In fact I learned some from it, after I found out the actual output voltage from the transformer was 12.2 volts AC I decided to get brave and do some more experimenting. I had a converter from a telephone that was 120 V AC input and 9V DC 200 MA output with the same plug as the stereo so I hooked it up and it worked. Apparently the stereo will work with either AC or DC. I then looked around some more and found a charger for an electric drill that was 120 AC input 12V DC 500MA output and tried it and it also worked. Ive had it running for about a half hour now and nothings burned up yet. So it looks like I can hook it direct to the boat battery I'll make sure I get the polarity the same as the converters just in case, it may not matter being it can run on either AC or DC. I'm not sure if the sound quality is quite as good on DC but that might just be my imagination I'll have to let somebody with younger ears listen to it I guess.

Thanks Par:
Dave T

 

I hooked up the stereo directly to the trolling motor batteries and let it play for a couple of hours while I completely cleaned the boat. It worked with no problems. I have to pick up an inline fuse holder and some one amp fuses just to be on the safe side. Now all I need is for the river to get down enough to get her in the water. I don't think we've had two days in a row without rain since it quit snowing.

Dave T

 

Mississippi Flooding again

Went to the campground last Friday I was planning to take the boat but it was raining all morning so I decided to take up a load of wood instead. It was a good thing I didn't take the boat. Saturday morning we got about 4" of rain. The creek that most of the docks are on turned into a river and most of the docks where my boat would have been ether got washed out or damaged by logs and trees that floated down. North of us they got up to 7". We had to pull out a lot of the campers from the lower end of the campground. My new camper had an electric awning that I had out and it collapsed from the weight and was severely damaged, my insurance is going to replace it. My camper is on the upper end so I didn't have to pull it out. The Mississippi is going down now but the boat ramp and parking lot are still under about 2 feet of water. I'm hoping the river will get down enough that I can get the boat in for the 4'th of July.

Dave T

 

Ol' Huckleberry never had it worse!

His experience has been compared to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2m0ROgy5WY

 

Fired up the Suzuki for the first time since last Fall. I put muffs on and hooked her to a garden hose. She smoked quite a bit to start with from all the fogging oil I put in it but then smoothed out and sounded OK. Doesn't look good for the 4'th of July the rivers only sposed to be down to 13 ft. It needs to be under 11 to use the ramp. I'm planning to take a weeks vacation starting on the 20'th hope by then it will be down enough, if not I'll have to go up river about 15 miles to Guttenberg and put her in there. Got an inline fuse holder and 1 amp fuse installed for the stereo and now all I need is for the river to get down and no more rain for awhile.

Dave T

 

Boat canopy

Finished making the canopy frame and ordered a cheap 7x10 white tarp, it should be here in a couple of days. The canopy frame is real simple to set up just 4 wing nuts and another four wing nuts to remove it from the boat. Looks like the river is finally down enough to get her in the water I'm taking a weeks vacation next week and plan to be on the river as much as possible. Here's a few pics of the canopy frame on the boat.

Dave T

 

Back on the Mississippi

Just got back from vacation. I rented a slip for the week and left the boat in the water with no problems other than we hit a deer on the way to the camp ground. It put a pretty good dent in the rear quarter panel of the Tahoe and also the left front of the boat, nothing serious just the aluminum skirt and a small crack in the epoxy. I should have that fixed tonight. Added another 10' to the deck for the camper and managed to do some fishing. The canopy worked great just have to come up with a quicker way to attach the tarp to the frame. I just got the tarp about an hour before we were ready to leave so didn't have much time work on it. Here are a few pics.

Dave T

 

You finally got some good weather, hurray!

 

Boat repair

Repaired most of the damage caused by collision with deer. Straightened the aluminum skirt and re-riveted it. Sanded out the crack in the epoxy and covered with another layer of epoxy and glass just have to wait till the epoxy cures to sand and touch up the paint. Removed the inspection cover on that compartment and it was dry. Don't know if the deer survived, it was dark and we had to go about a 1/4 mile to find a safe place to pull over to inspect the damage, one of its teeth was imbedded in the trim at the bottom of the skirt.

 

Well, most folks do not look kindly upon taking the deer home for bar-b-que like they used to ....

I am glad it did not do you more damage, I have known too many friends try to avoid the collision only to total their car.

And it was a good thing you started caught supper.

 

85 horse Evenrude

Got a 1976 85 horse Evenrude motor that appears to be in pretty good shape from the guy that was supposed to get me the 65 horse I guess it wasn't any good so he gave me the 85 instead. I'm not sure if I'll put it on the boat yet it's pretty heavy and more motor than I really wanted. I'm going to mount it on the front of the skid loader and get it running and see what kind of shape it's in first. Has anybody have any experience with these motors it's a V4?

Dave T

 

Here's a picture of the 85 horse Evinrude and some tarp fasteners that I got for the canopy it makes it much faster to install or remove the tarp.

Dave T

 

I decided the 85 horse Evinrude was too heavy for my boat at over 300# so I bought a 1978 70 horse Mercury that appears to be in good shape. It only weighs 190# which is only 60# more than my 30 horse Suzuki. I'm going to try to get it mounted and running tomorrow. If it runs ok I'll try it on the Mississippi the next weekend. I paid 500 bucks for it hope it's worth it.

Dave T