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We have a warm enough day that I should be on the boat with a wetsuit. But, with a serious cold snap predicted, winterizing has been my lot today. This is my fourth winterization, and my second draining the engine and pouring pink in from the top. I'm a serious convert to this practice, and...

Experienced my first blow out on the way home today. The joys of a tandem axle trailer were apparent, all are safe, we had the proper spare and equipment, and short of being dirty and hot, the experience was a chance to show the kids how to be prepared. Tires are 8 years old, but low mileage...

Hope you are all having a good holiday weekend and thank you to our veterans! I'm making the transition from my 2002 Durango to my 2012 F150. When I bought my sport boat three seasons ago, I had a ball mount that I had been using with rental moving trailers. My dealer said it was fine for my...

The brain trust here brings a lot of experience.....:smt038 Well, I bought an extended auto warranty (really a service plan per the contract). The plan is "The Mechanic" administrated by Automotive Warranty Services, Inc. out of Chicago. The conglomerate that cares, I'm quite certain...

I've heard there are a few truck owners on this forum. I'm adding some bed accessories to an F150 Supercrew. I've decided on a tonneau cover as in many ways I'll be using it as a 5 passenger sedan. The question is bed liners.... Initially I thought I would go with a spray in bed liner from...

Over the years I've had several simple tire gages, tried a few cheap car tire pumps, etc. With 15 tires to care for, soon to be 20, I broke down last year and went shopping for something nice. For a simple use environment, the dollars invested here get you beyond the basics. Rugged tire gage...

I know, you get what you pay for. I think I can just squeeze a double jetski trailer behind my boat in the garage. And nature abhors a vacuum. This pair of '96 and '97 Ski Doos popped up locally, if they work, they may be a great starter package. Any thoughts on keeping a pair this old running...

I enjoy my 21' boat, but at times wish it were a bit bigger to make it easier to entertain. But, our entertainment is active water sports - name a tube, board, ski, etc., we do it. I've been on a few inboard ski boats, so I know what that feels like, and my boat is already big enough that it...

I've see the IAC topic come up numerous times. I tried to search it with both the basic and advance, and cannot get a single pull.....even with a fresh post on it in the last day or so. Anyway, I've had a couple of recent episodes of near total power loss while at speed - but I don't stall...

I know this ranks right in there with newbie questions. My kids have been wanting to beach at one of our favorite lakes. There are a couple of beaches where I've seen other boats about my size (21') that have done this. It is a mud bottom lake, and the beaches have sand. One beach is probably...

After removing my prop with a crescent wrench for maintenance, I put it back on the other day with my nifty new Lowe's Kobalt 1/2 inch drive torque wrench with a 27mm deep socket. Reaches in there perfectly. The Mercury manual recommends 55 pounds torque. At that setting, it seemed like I was...

I took my prop off for serivce. Using my mercruiser diagram, its basically shaft, thrust hub, Flo-Torq II drive hub, prop, drive sleeve, locking washer, prop nut. Questions: * The Flo Torq drive hub and the drive sleeve are both still in the prop. I can't find an obvious way to remove them...

My boat is rated to 8 people, or 1,120 lbs max person / weight. Since my family has five people, inviting another family tends to put us at 9 people. Five are usually kids, but two are in high school. Tubes and coolers add some weight as well. To be practical, I know we are over the weight...

I dinged my 3 blade stainless prop on rocks. Scratches, some rough edges, some slight out of true on the blades. In the process, broke off about an inch of the back of the skeg on a verticle line. I got an estimate of about $250 on the prop, and another $250 - $300 or so on the skeg. I...

Did my t-stat open? I flushed my system using a Camco gravity tank with Mercruiser -50 Propylene Glycol yesterday. (Worked pretty slick!) The Camco folks repeated several times that removing the t-stat for extra assurance is good. But, there wasn't time for the scope creep and another trip...

If you have the easy oil drain (oil drain hose through the bilge plug) have you noticed the hose wearing early compared to your other hoses (and belt)? Doing maintenance on my low hour boat 5 yr. old boat for the first time, it seems that the quick drain hose feels hard and a bit scaly. Not...

I finally read my Mercruiser manual in detail on winterizing. I think I may tackle this myself. I apologize if there is a good thread on the 5.0 - at least I did a little looking. I've got the 5.0 with the carb. It appears I have the 3 point manual drain system, and I'll be draining it on my...

I got to thinking about how time on this forum is a bit like being in a Chevy showroom in 1980. 305's, 350s, 454's, it's the late '70s all over again. The 4.3 is a lopped off 350 from 1988. My understanding is Brunswick owns Mercury and Sea Ray. Any ideas out there on why our boats don't...

This may be sort of specific to 205 Sports from 2006 and 2007, and I bet 200 Sports from 2005 and back. I tried to post a pic, but it won't upload. I made sure it was small, and it was photo I've loaded before. Ideas? Anyway, there are walls in my engine compartment that have the sunpad...

I swear I saw somewhere that my 3 step Windline standard ladder has a 300 lb. capacity, but I can't find that factoid again. The ladder does have a sticker saying not to use it when out of the water. I noticed that after 3 months of using it to board after putting it on the trailer. Heck...