165Striper

Dark green '74 Pinto with the "fix" for the gas tank (a couple of cedar strips between the tank straps and the tank to keep sparks at a minimum!). I truly am lucky to have survived!!!!

Love the boat, but wish it was a little bigger....I think that is they way a boat owner is supposed to say it, right? She is a great little boat. I haven't visited Classic Aquasport in years, my little girl wasn't anything like the older boats that most were discussing so I never really hung around.

Looks good, Wiley! It even plays nice on my old Mac running an older version of Firefox. The pages load extremely fast and the reply window works quickly and properly (it doesn't always on other boards). The only issues I have seen are the titles of the lists on the left of the forum index page do not format correctly for me (not a big deal), the pics in the "Customs Boat" thread are HUGE, and the poster's info on the left of the posts is cut off if the post isn't long enough (that shouldn't be a problem for me, I'm wordy). Those things display the same on my Vista machine running Firefox as well, so it must not be a Mac thing.

The first (and only) thing that comes to mind is the cam position sensor. A friend had a similar problem with his '01 and when it finally died that was the cause. Apparently not that expensive of a part and fairly easy to change.

Ya'll are welcome to come on down and get first hand experience. As an added bonus, there is bait everywhere and the mullet run is about to start. The Jupiter Inlet has been pretty calm most of the summer. But, as Boz suggested, it does have it's days. To add to the excitement, there is a shoal that moves around just outside the inlet and when the tide is right you can get some pretty ugly standing waves and rollers in the inlet. There was a picture floating around on the 'net a couple of years ago of a 20'-25' CC that was pointed at the sky with water crashing over the bow and around the sides with people hanging from the t-top in the Jupiter Inlet.

What about trimming the motor up until the prop is near the water surface and almost ventilating? That might change the angle of thrust enough to slow you down a bit. Just a guess since I've never had to deal with this. Oh, and by the way, welcome to Reel Boating!

Don't think that Ana and Bill are going to take the limelight. Invest 90 is following close behind I sure don't want a 1-2-3 punch, but it looks like somebody is gonna get one. Just about the time I get the kids back to school we will have a hurricane day Definitely time to start stocking up on beer and ice.....much better than vienna sausage, canned beans, and whatever freezer-burned crap defrosts after the power goes out.

I'm with you two on this one, but daddy ain't gonna be happy

I was clearing some brush in the corner of our property with my little loader when I felt something "slap" my hand pretty ###### the loader stick, then again. I looked up to see a cloud of yellow jackets. I jumped and ran, waited for them to calm down a bit, then removed the tractor and parked it for the day while my hand swole up. They had built a rather large nest in the ground. They all go back to the nest at night so I waited until after dark and went out there with some flying insect spray (not wasp killer) and gassed the hole. That took care of them. There was a pretty good pile of the little devils on the ground around the nest the next morning! I haven't had any insect sting that hurts as bad as a yellow jacket. I got lucky with only 2 stings that day, but it was more than a week before my hand was back to normal. I hope it doesn't take that long for you.

Here is one that my wife loves. It ain't meat, so I won't touch it with anything other than my grill tools! Slice an eggplant into 1/2" thick slices and marinate in Italian dressing while you are preparing the real stuff for the grill. Place on a medium grill for a couple of minutes on each side and serve like you would a burger. Don't over cook and definitely don't burn! The white part should be soft and creamy but not too limp. A vegetarian friend of ours from Indiana cooked it for her one time and she has loved it every since, as has most of our friends who have tried it. It has never roamed around under its own power, so I'm not really interested

Bone-in/skin on chicken breasts marinated in Mojo overnight, rubbed with olive oil just before the grill, and cooked with indirect heat for about an hour. I've also done them with an apple cider vinegrette and them rubbed with salt, pepper, and a mix of dried thyme and rosemary (freshly ground). Plain ol' Italian dressing works well also. A really nice London broil marinated in Vermouth overnight (or longer), no other seasonings needed. Grill on medium heat until it is the way you want it, but no more than cooked to medium (cause that's the way you want it, and medium rare is more like you want it). Let rest 10-15 min before slicing. Small whole mangrove snapper marinated for 30 min in Mojo. While marinating, very thinly slice onion, chop fresh cilantro, and slice a fresh lemon or lime. Rub outside with salt and pepper, stuff cavity with onion slices and cilantro. Grill with lemon or lime slices on top side, turning half way through. Whole, untrimmed beef brisket. Rub with Cajun seasoning or a special blend of salt, fresh cracked black pepper, cayenne pepper, and other secret spices that I cannot divulge (I'm from Texas and BBQ is a state secret!) Use more pepper and cayenne than you think is enough. Wrap and put in fridge for 1-2 days. Pull brisket out and set on counter to come to room temp. Put on smoker at 200 to 250 degrees for 1 to 1.5 hrs/pound with fat side up. Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing across the grain of the meat. I have done a trimmed brisket this way, but you have to use a mop sauce to keep it from drying out. Not sure if you could do this one on a grill, so it may not count.

You might try some of the paint strippers at the hardware store. I've used a couple for furniture refinishing that have worked very well. There is a citrus-based one that might not hurt the gel coat, but I would definitely test it first and use plastic scrapers. I would guess that he trailer is not going to be worth the effort to strip.

Personally, I prefer an open bed because it is just much more flexible (and it requires you to keep it cleaned out!) Because of my wife's fear of people stealing her stuff, my last two trucks have had "caps" (I prefer to call them camper shells, but that won't help you here ). I realized very quickly when shopping for caps that the high-top versions are much easier to get stuff in and out of. They also won't fit in your garage if that is an issue. Tonneau covers are nice, but they always seemed like they would be in my way and they are just heavy enough that you really need 2 strong people to remove them. As was said before, you are dealing with someone who has some sort of issue. It may not be because of you, but it is directed at you now. Most likely, his SUV is titled as a truck, which would make him and everyone in the neighborhood with a similar vehicle in violation. It is at least worth a little legwork to find out if it is a "truck".

I've seen plenty of relatively minor follies. At least relative to that poor guy's boo-boo. I usually help people when I can, but they have usually figured out they've make a mistake before I can help. I helped a guy trying to launch a jet ski with an S-10 at a very easy ramp. He had water in the bed of his truck by the time I got there and the ski was still attached to the trailer! I helped a couple pull a 22 footer with a minivan. They were the last car in the parking lot on a Sunday night! I did not help the group of 4 adults trying to launch a brand new 20' Seado. They had many inches of the rear hatch of their SUV back tires were under water!) in the intracoastal and the boat in gear trying to back off the trailer before they decided to give up. Turned out they didn't undo the transom straps. It took them 20 min to launch on a single lane ramp and I was lucky enough to get behind them when I was trying to load up at the end of the day, as well. I did have to help that time because she almost hit my truck trying to back out of the parking spot like she didn't have a trailer. I don't have a choice but to use the ramps if I want to take the boat out so I go at it with a since of humor and a good deal of patience. Then, once loaded and secured, I usually walk down to the courtesy docks and watch for a while. It is even better entertainment when your boat isn't in the water.

Not that familiar with the Expys, and know nothing of the GM products. I am totally confused by the GM trim levels! I have the 5.4 in a '06 F-150 crew cab 4X4. I don't know where people decided that there wasn't enough power to tow things with this setup because I don't have any problems. I regularly pull a small Kubota on a utility trailer (almost 5k# total) around town and can still beat the other cars off the line at the light. Ok, they may not know it's a race We have hauled our 3500# popup and all of the family's junk to TX and back grossing about 11,500# and averaged 12.5 mpg for the trip and had one tank that was 14.5 mpg running 70 the whole way. It isn't a big diesel, but it is powerful enough to do the job. At about 300 hp and about 360 ft-lb torque, all is good. I think that the Expys are about the same, but the '03s may only be 290 hp and the tow rating is likely a bit lower than mine (9700#). I just looked it up and Ford says 8900# for the Expy! I'm guessing that is the 5.4 with the 3.73 rear. A WDH is going to be in your future, though. A couple of things to look for would be rear axle seals and pinion seal on the rear end and rear end noise. Rebuilding a 9.75" rear end seems to run about $1200-1500 and goes up quite a bit from there. Now that I think about it, the Expys have an independant rear end, so that may not be an issue. I've heard of issues with running the K&N-type filters causing problems with the MAF sensor, but I'm guessing it is from people using too much oil on the filter. A couple of the 5.4L years had an issue with a broken spark plug on the #7 or #8 cylinder, but I don't remember the years or details. I don't know of any other issues. Good luck on the new grocery-getter!