Great thread.

MJ, I am going to build me an oil catcher w hose like you made. Not only will it get all the oil\sludge\crap out, it will be cheaper than buying a pump!

For aligning up the trailer hitch to the trailer, I had bought alignment poles like these:

http://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpower...m_cr_pr_sims_t

I think I have also seen them at auto zone or walmart. Save's me getting in and out of the truck to see if its aligned, or even better yet: trying to understand directions from my wife.

Even without these, I would opt to do it by myself.

rkc

I had a par of them poles, I still didn't like them. But I have gotten pretty good at backing up so i don't have to much of a issue there.
I am thinking of getting a slip for this year?? We shall see

Well, that certainly falls into the "making life easier catagory"...except for maybe bottom paint.

Here's a small contribution to a great thread: Instead of buying one of those rubber doughnuts to set your trailer jack wheel in, I cut a 5 inch hole in a piece of a 2x10 with a jig saw. All my friends with boats see it and say they should have thought of it.

i made this to strip old line off reels, threaded bolt through an old water bottle cap and put in your cordless drill. works great and when full, get a new bottle, caps are pretty universal.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...6/DSCF0495.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...6/DSCF0496.jpg

Gunnel rod box fix...
 

Great thread. Plenty of brain work going on here. When I picked up the 180 the in-gunnel rod boxes were hanging on by a thread. All cracked and and in peices.
I removed all the peices. Put them together like a puzzle and held the peices in place with masking tape from behind. Then I took um to the local spray bedliner guy and told him to give the fronts a light blast. That was 5 yrs ago.
The pic shows the spray with no tint. You can have them done in the color of your choice. They are stronger than new. When I reinstalled them I ripped a couple of 1" strips of pressure treated from a 1/2 " board. I placed them behind the inner hull to frame the length of the cutout and screwed through the edge of the box, inner hull and into the wood. Now I have to put back the teak mouldings.
Says the new guy.

Great idea....can they tint white? What did they charge?

Thanks for posting!

Spray-on bed liner uses...
 

Hello Blue_Runner,
What a great place to trade ideas! - I went to the Rino-Liner franchise, but there are others. It was my first transaction I had done with the shop and the guy hit me for $75.00 to spray 2 boxes. You can also find it in auto parts stores to do it yourself.
It can be tinted White or any color for an exact match. It is also treated with UV additives to prevent fading.
I have seen it used to resurface decks and reinforce underdeck storage lockers/live wells. It also fills voids and cracks for a water tight fix. It can be laid-on flat or textured to act as non-skid. It will incapsilate anything it is applied to. The stuff is bullet proof and cleans right up. I also masked the chipped ares by the wheel wells on my truck and sprayed the body with it tinted to match the color. I even used it to seal the roof of my camper. Funny though, I never used it for my truck bed.
:haha:
My only advice would be to apply as thin a coat as needed, it is HeavY.
Oh yea, in case you were wondering . I do not have stock in the company. Good luck!

Cool, thanks very much for the info!

When I did the deck on the V20 I wanted to have the whole thing done in Rhino liner, but the guy here wanted mega bucks so I did not do it.
But i see all kinds of stuff being done with it and it seems like a great item!! I have even see cars painted with the stuff

I have never seen cars painted with rhino liner, but there is a guy who lives near me who is the "astroturf" man. He has a couple vans completely covered in it (one with a pretty cool design from the Pink Floyd dark side of the moon album). He even covered all of the trim and shutters of his house in astroturf (aka indoor/outdoor carpet)!

I saw a jeep that works for a oil co. all coverd with oil, so they had in painted to protected it

I trailer my V20 to the ramp in May and from the ramp in November. I removed the brake pads from the trailer and put a bolt with a locking nut through the actuator to stop it from clanging in/out when I stop & go. MADE MY LIFE EASIER!

Thanks for getting us back on topic, Skunk. Here is a making my life easier tip for trailer boaters. Whenever you park your rig until the next trip, undo the winch strap/line from the bow eye of the boat (or at least undo the winch pulley catch i.e. the clicker and loosen the strap/line). You should never have to replace a bow eye if you do this.

baitwell fill/drain
 

This is another one my father does if you have baitwells/livewells and the need to keep the water fresh and clean but don't want to use pumps.

Utilizing the existing fishbox drain tube, get a piece of flexible hose that will fit snugly inside it, add a piece of pipe with a cap and holes drilled (starting at the level you want to maintain the water height).
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...aitwell002.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...aitwell001.jpg
This works well with boxes that drain to the side or rear.
If draining to the rear, just add a 90 in order to reduce any engine exhaust problems.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...aitwell003.jpg
For real troublesome bait like pogies or shrimp the addition of an aerator or bubbler greatly extents their survivability.

One little trick is when running wire fore & aft where there is seemingly nothing to hang the wire from (port side for instance)...the cap and rub-rail screws coming thru to the inside work great...place a cable clamp on the screws and permanently attach by screwing a wire-nut onto the screw over the cable clamp...works like a charm and I've never had one come loose...

this is a trick a local marine electronics installer taught me 20 years ago. instead of putting the little screws and cable ties in the transom. put a "Hersey Kiss" of 5200 on the transom and lay the cable in it. then tape it so it won't move and let it cure. no holes to seal or ties to replace. this one has been on this transom since '89.(hard to see but below the drain hole on the starboard side)

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...6/DSCF0508.jpg

Cooler divider
 

Been doing this for about 3 years. Got tired of trying everything to reduce food from getting soggy by comming in contact with the ice and then the bag or container sweats on the inside.
Made out of PVC pegboard, cut to fit snugly, finger holes are a must.
This application will work excellent when using dry ice too, no worry about freeze burning. Also keeps the ice a little more protected to last longer.
Usually I freeze 6x6x6 plastic tubs filled with water, put the whole thing in the bottom, this also keeps the pegboard level.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...erdivider2.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...erdivider1.jpg

Tsub that would make a good bait tray too for ballyhoo which doesn't hold up well when directly on the ice.

(RW, Willy, CaptP and Lumber, this is a great one for the Shrewsbury River)

Sorry, no pics of this, but something I do for bait for the spring Flounder run is make my own chum logs. Before you could buy package goods in bars in NJ you had to buy beer in a take out container. The container was a round can made of white cardboard with a lid that fit over the top and was one quart size. A lot of food places still use the half quart size for hot take out soup. Most bars still have them available, as well as chinese food places (rice) and lots of other places (soup). The trick is to find a source for them. (There's a place not far from me in my town that actually makes them, so that's where I get mine.) Once you do you can make your own chum logs. I cook rice, mix it with mackrel or blue fish ground up in my Grandmothers old hand meat grinder, add some cat food and niblets corn. Mix the whole mess up and pack it into those paper cans and put them in the freezer over the winter.

Come springtime, the water warms a little and the flounder wake up and come up out of the mud in the rivers where they were burried during the winter. You take one of those chum logs, peel the paper off the hard frozen log and put it in a chum pot you hang over the side of your boat. The beauty is that the chum log is exactly the same size as your standard chum pot, so it just fits in nicely while frozen without a lot of mess getting all over your hands or the boat. It will take several hours for the really cold river water to thaw out the log, and while it's doing that the natural rocking of the boat on the water is shaking tiny little pieces off the main frozen body and making a beautiful chum slick that the flounder follow right up to your baited hook(s). It's just a little thing, but it saves tons of time and cleanup and gives you more time for fishing. :beer:

reels engine support for trailering.
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ad.php?t=17155

Stinks destinker, I mean bidet.
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ad.php?t=17199

Glad you can use this, tsubaki...hope it works for lotta folks...PVC was mentioned for this, but I doubt it'll last long...

Easy to make and install...you know what they say...from simple minds come simple products!!...:head:

a few
 

this one isn't new but it's worth a repost.when i perch fish on Lake Erie,I sometimes have to try several spots before we get onto the fish which means setting and retreiving the anchor each time(too poor for a windlass!!!)Since it seems like I'm always the only one on board who is willing or able to crawl up onto the bow,this ladder setup makes doing it very easy.

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ad.php?t=15367

Another thing that helps with anchoring and knowing how much rope I have out is simply marking the anchor rope.from the end of the rope at the anchor chain i used a big black permanant marker and made a wide mark on the rope every 10 feet and put a red one at the 50 foot mark.

Hull cleaning after the boat has been docked for a couple of weeks on Erie use to be a very tough job until a friend who has been fishing Erie for many years gave me this tip.mix up a solution of "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner and Hydrogen Peroxide at a 50/50 mixture and put it in a spray bottle.spray it on the scumline,then use a heavy towel to scrub the scum off.it makes the job VERY easy.I was told by my friend to try it on a spot that isn't very visible just to make sure that it wouldn't react with the finish first.I did and have had no problems at all.this really does make the job very easy.this year was the first i fished in the water where the green algae bloom was thick and that stuff covered my hull but this solution took it right off!

My anchor rope storage container is simply a cleaned out 6 gallon plastic syrup bucket that i drilled holes in the bottom of to allow the water to drain out of. the rope coils up into it very easily and dries fairly fast in it.

phat's portable trailer rinse