kchace

I've noticed that on mine too. Fresh fuel seems to have a lot less 'color'. After sitting for a while in the Racor it gets a bit of a brown tint. Don't know if its good or bad, but I've been noticing this for 2 years and so far it doesn't seem to hurt anything. Ken

A high quality battery charger that goes into "float" mode when the batteries are fully charged will not harm your batteries if left on. Ken

Its funny you should mention that. We were doing flare 'tests' and those pocket flares even "just" expired had like a 90-95% failure rate! Just like you said, either the 'pull chain' broke or they just didn't go off at all. I was actually surprised when one worked! We had at least a dozen and only one of them worked at all. Keep away from those things. We had only a little trouble with 5 year expired flares. And EVERY 12ga and 25mm meteor flare we fired worked fine - even 10 year old ones! Ken

Believe me, I hear you about the expense. It bugs the heck out of me, too. If you really want to, the SOS light and the flag are all you need to satisfy your day/night emergency signaling requirements. (This assumes you're in a motor boat over 16 feet and its not a sailboat under 26 feet, completely open and without a motor). Just keep in mind their limitations. Ken

No, the only distress "light" that meets requirements is a special one which flashes SOS automatically when turned on. The only company I know of that still makes one is ACR. The problem with the light is that it just may not get that much attention. http://www.shipstore.com/SS/HTML/ACR/ACR1842.html The flag DOES meet the daytime requirement, but in my opinion is a joke. How much attention do you think that will get? Most boaters probably wouldn't even know what it signified. If you're REALLY in trouble, you'll *want* flares, rockets, grenades and whatever else. So choose wisely. I went through a similar thought as you about these - except in my case I didn't like having the highly flammable and potentially dangerous flares on board. However, after watching these videos, I changed my mind. I decided to go with orange smoke for daytime and meteor flares for at night. Yeah, like flares they still expire 42 months from manufacture, but they WILL get attention and at least they seem a lot less hazardous to use than flares. http://www.boatus.com/foundation/Findings/...ngs45/page1.asp The Personal Marker Lights are not a requirement for non-commercial boating - though very much recommended that you have one on your lifejacket. Ken

That setup is pretty simple. There are only 2 wires to the trim motor. It is connected to power one way to spin for up, and the other way to spin for down. There are 2 relays - one is for up, one is for down. Considering that at first it wouldn't go down at all and then it was stuck going down I'd check the switches and their wiring first. You may have a stuck/broken switch. The relays are identical and just plug in, so you could swap them to see if the problem moves. If the problem does move, its the relay, if it doesn't, its likely in a switch or wiring. Ken

An easy way to check to see if this is a problem is to place the compass on the dash where you want to mount it. Once the dial settles, note the compass heading. Then one at a time, turn on other electrical items. After each one, watch the compass to see if the heading changes. If it doesn't, you're good to go. To test for deflection caused by the tach, start the engine and check before/after compass headings. If it DOES change after you turn on an item, you can try either moving the compass a bit or see if you can re-route the wiring under the dash further away from the compass. FWIW - My tach is just over 12" from my compass and it has no impact at all. In addition, I have a 10" plotter and a 5" FF immediately to either side of the compass - also with no impact to the compass heading. While your mileage may vary, it shows that it CAN be done. Ken

Hatters Point is pretty nice and that's a great price. Its a ways up the river, but I like the ride and its not so far up the river that water depth is an issue. I also like the way the docks are oriented - it makes it easier to pull in/out than some configurations. Ken

The DF140 tends to run with high 14's for charging voltage. This is the normal range for that motor. The engine's computer also monitors this voltage and would throw an error if it *actually* went to high. Considering that the other instruments show what amounts to a normal voltage, it seems the radio has a low set point for over voltage. Check the radio's manual to see if there is a way to raise it or at least shut it off. You may also find that a noise filter placed on the radio's power wires could fix this too. That said, there is a slight possibility that you *do* have a problem. Poor connections between the battery and the engine can sometimes cause higher than normal voltages - since the battery tends to load the alternator down a bit. So you may also want to make sure you have CLEAN and tight connections on ALL battery connections in your boat. Ken