Re: boats
I've been in your "Frustrated Boater Shoes" before and I did NOT like the fit, lol. It's very frustrating when you're relying on other people, not even mentioning very expensive. Do yourself a huge favor and buy a Service Manual for your motor. Then, spend some time right here in iboats reading other threads from other frustrated owners and try and narrow down where the problem actually lies. It was an absolute eye-opener to me when I finally admitted that there was no way that some guy working at a boat dealership was that much smarter than me. Once I understood the basic engineering behind it, the terminology no longer sounded Greek. Then, once I logged into iboats and found out that it was full of people a lot like me, just more experienced in fixing these things, it was a God send. An example: just last month I bought a new-to-me boat because I'd sold the old one. The model I decided on I found locally at a small "mom-n-pop" dealer. Make the deal knowing it had a stuck steering cable. The dealer offered to fix it for $600.00. I bought the part for $100 and changed it myself having never done that before. Oh, I hit some frustrating moments, but a lot of guys around here helped me through it. While I was servicing it, I pulled the shift shaft out. Decided, "hey, maybe it's better to let a pro work on it", so I started calling around. 3 dealers each told me I'd need to buy a lower unit with the cheapest used one being $800.00. Well, two hours of "fishing around" and the shift shaft is back in place and the LU works like a charm. These are just two RECENT examples that had I not been involved with fixing it myself, I would've been both out a lot of money and very frustrated.
Boats are a lot like new babies: they don't have any other way to communicate what's wrong outside of "acting up". So, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, you have to gain intuition and knowledge to determine what this week's particular issue is. And more importantly than anything else, stop worrying about "when" it hits the water, because that naturally forces us to "rush" things and we all know how that usually plays out.
Plus, if you're working on it yourself, think of all the money you'll have saved to spend on other things like, beer!
