I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[BWR1953]

Thanks for the update and I'm happy to know you're too tough to go down without a fight! Doctors, I guess that's why they get to "practice" medicine and the rest of us have to know our jobs or get fired.

Thank you, sir.

My problem is being "too tough" to recognize when I'm in health danger! Hence my sig line.

Sort of like this.

 

[Watermann]

Thank you, sir.

My problem is being "too tough" to recognize when I'm in health danger! Hence my sig line.

Sort of like this.

yeah I can see that as being a problem

 

[BWR1953]

Well, I almost sold the KF yesterday!

Almost.

I had a contractor come over about my home project and he really liked the boat. I showed him some of the restoration pix and the splash video.

Then he suddenly offered me $6,000!

But, my wife and the boy made it absolutely clear in no uncertain terms that we have to keep the boat!

 

[Watermann]

Oh man 6k! I can see that being very tempting.

 

[DLNorth]

You are stronger then I am, I'd of said "sold" and bought another.

 

[BWR1953]

Oh man 6k! I can see that being very tempting.

It was indeed. And it might not be over yet.

You are stronger then I am, I'd of said "sold" and bought another.

I dunno, maybe I wasn't strong enough to resist my family's wishes to keep the KF.

I'm not sure that my health is good enough to own a boat, much less two.

I spent the entire 4th of July in the ER. Again.

Might be time to let the boats go. Maybe. That'd be really tough because fishing is our family "thing" and there's not much that can replace that experience.

 

[DLNorth]

Sorry to hear of the medical issues, hopefully it works out.

As for the boat, even though I/we have had a number of larger boats, my favorite is still an old Blue Fin 14' fishing boat w/15 hp OMC. Plain, simple, easy to use, always started well.

 

[BWR1953]

Hi guys. I hope all are well. Doing fair to middlin' here.

We have to replace the tail lights on the KF trailer. I'm not happy about it at all. We only used the boat maybe a dozen times.

Last week we all wanted to go fishing. It was a spur of the moment thing and we got the KF loaded and realized that we couldn't use my new Trucklet because it doesn't have a hitch yet. (Backordered.)

So we hooked the KF up to my wife's F-150, only to discover that the trailer safety chains were too short for that big truck. We started messing with that and then paused to verify that the trailer lights worked. They didn't! The boy and I started messing with the lights and my wife called a halt to our efforts and said that we should we just go fishing without the boat. So we did.

The KF trailer lights were installed brand new at the end of March last year. They're submersible LED lights but I'm going "old school" and will be replacing them with conventional incandescent units.

The existing light on the starboard side had water in it and part of the LED section failed. Not repairable and that means that I have to replace both lights! Argh!!

I've already ordered replacement lights and some waterproof connectors so that we won't have to re-solder everything if we run into this situation in the future. At least with the old type bulbs, if one fails, it only takes a few minutes to replace. Much cheaper that way too.

The LED light engine seems to be well potted, so I don't know why it failed.

 

[BWR1953]

Oh yeah, we also installed new chains which fit the KF trailer to the F-150.

 

[Watermann]

Yeah typical of what you get now, I've been having an issue with one of the Shanghai LED lights on my SS trailer, it's not leaking but it works when it wants to.

 

[BWR1953]

...works when it wants to.

Sounds like my stepson!!

(j/k)

 

[BWR1953]

We got the new trailer lights installed a week ago. Found 4 bad grounds in the process and I'm happy to say that everything is working correctly now.

We did a test drive a couple days ago to get some sunset pix with my new trucklet and the trailer lit up nicely. Didn't launch the boat, but at least the trailer is roadworthy and legit now.

I also ordered spare bulbs for the new trailer lights and will split the order and keep some in the boat, some in the new trucklet, some in my wife's F-150 and some in the garage.

Light test.

 

[classiccat]

Trucklet . On my phone I was thinking…”wow, Honda finally figured out how to make the ridgeline look cool!” …then realized it wasn’t a RL. That’s a sweet rig…the Hyundai isn’t too shabby either! I hope the TFL guys get their hands on one to put it through the gauntlet!

 

[Watermann]

Very nice!

 

[BWR1953]

We went fishing with the KF on 21 Feb 22, President's Day; so my wife was off work and the boy wasn't in school. It was a nice trip. First in a very long time for us as a family.

https://forums.iboats.com/threads/nobody-fishing.731114/post-5740211

Sadly, the trailer lights didn't work again, so we stuck a set of magnetic lights on there and went fishing anyway. The lights had been working fine when we parked the boat in the garage last fall. I have no idea why they stopped working. We'll get back to troubleshooting the lights sometime in the not too distant future. Ugh.

Last week we did some more KF work. I purchased a fresh new fire extinguisher and we mounted it up under the console to replace the old one.

We used the new mounting bracket on the outside of the console as a drill template.


And got it mounted in place.



On our way back to the dock from the fishing hole, I noticed that the 50HP Mercury engine was surging at mid-range speed. I had the boy verify that the fuel tank vent was fully open and it was. I had him pump the fuel bulb a few times and the engine picked up RPM. Last fall I replaced all four coils, the spark plugs and the coil wires with all new parts.

I suspect that the Fuel/Water separator filter might be the problem with the surging. So, when we got home, we bypassed it and connected the fuel line directly to the engine. We'll see how it performs when we take the boat out again next time.

 

[BWR1953]

We also installed a bow style cover elevation setup. Old school.

I mounted four brackets for the 2 bows, a pair up front and another set amidships near the steering wheel.





Someday I'll get a custom cover made, but for now it's a Harbor Freight 12.5' by 20' silver tarp.


After the tarp went on, the KF went outside. Had to get the garage cleaned and ready for the next project.

 

[jbcurt00]

Nice update AND ya caught some fish

 

[Moserkr]

Awesome! Glad you had a good time out there. Thanks for the idea about bypassing the fuel/water separator, was having issues with surging as well. Why didnt i think (of that)???

 

[Watermann]

Very nice to see some boating and fishing action from the mob, it's been since September for me.

 

[renns]

That's awesome! Now I know what those rectangular 'sockets' on the side of the gunnels are for!