Maiden Nightmare Voyage of the Ranger RP 190

Got to lake at 6am Had wife back me down and off the trailer. Tried to start the motor .... nothing but turning over. Not firing. Checked kill Switch, it was good. Checked breakers they were good. Oh well I thought we will just drop the trolling motor and get back to the ramp..... Nothing New MotorGuide Xi5 would not turn the prop. Some nice guy towed me back to the ramp, tied it off and started going thru things on big motor. Yep dummy me didn't pump the bulb. Did that and the Yamaha 115 SHO came to life. Cruised around the lake a few minutes and went back to ramp... Couldn't fish so loaded up and went home. Got a hold of boat dealer and asked if everything worked right for them before I picked it up. Got the standard YEP! Hmmm. Called a trolling motor Guru and he said no way they ran that motor or trolling motor he bet. He said you need to sync the remote and foot pedal. Told me to look in owners manual and follow instructions. Did so and 30 seconds later trolling motor was working right. Yep dealer never ran either. I have never had to pump a bulb 50 times to get it tight but I bet I did on this Yamaha motor.

Now the nightmare continues: After dropping off the trailer in the lake and waiting on my wife to park the truck I cruised around in the no wake area. Saw her come to the ramp. Throttle was real touchy. She jumped in and boat swung hard right and was headed for guy with a fiberglass boat. I hit reverse which accelerated the spin towards the guys boat. I thought well lets hit forward to stop the spin.....wrong move. T-boned him and scratched his gelcoat and broke his windshield. The guy was a lot nicer than I probably would have been but I gave him my insurance policy number, he took pictures and we exchanged phone numbers. He was a really nice guy. I was so embarrassed. I have been driving fiberglass boats since I was 14 and I'll be 60 in August. I have never even bumped someone else's boat in my life. I found out tin boats are lighter and respond much quicker than glass boats.

Now we went and tested the MotorGuide Xi5 on a brushpile. Threw out a marker buoy and it seemed like it never moved on the anchor lock. The jog feature of 5' increments forward and backward and side to side was unbelievably awesome so i headed to the tress. Ran right up in the middle of the top of a BoisDArc tree and hit anchor. Not one tree limb touched my boat and it was windy too about 15 mph.

I can't wait to go above 3000 rpm's and see what it can do. It jumps right up on plane and feels like glass or better in that respect. Now running half throttle in whitecaps was no fun at all. Could not get on top of the waves and pad at half throttle.

I have a few things to fix. When I was bilge diving I noticed a drip from a screw the dealer put in for the transducer. Silicone was there but obviously not enough. The seat above the livewell needs adjusting for the pin to slide in and out easily. The door on the battery storage compartment needs adjusting to where you don't have to slam it shut.

No fish were taken home today and released. Next time they will be released to the grease.

At first I was thinking I should have worked today but now I think this was a valuable day to get the kinks out of the new boat and to meet an example of a man I need to be more like.

Dang Bobby, that's not what I have been waiting to hear. I figured you would have two limits by noon and a new personal best fish. Good thing is, you will get the kinks out and be posting pics of slabs just like the old days.

Thanks Joe. Sure wanted a big stiff drink when I got home but didn't... why I don't know.

Yowza. Sounds like a rough start, but I know you'll be on fish in no time. Glad you're back on the water, Bobby.

You are a hell of a man to tell us the real story thanks Bobby. Smooth sailing.

I think you loaded right before us today. Fishing buddy and I were talking about what a nice ride that Ranger was while we were easing up to the dock. We were in the G3 flat bottom behind a black Dodge. About 11:30 or so, had all the wind and wake we wanted by then.

Bobby, look at it this way, you got the worst day out of the way FIRST! Now, nothing but smooth sailing ahead!! You've still got a PRIMO CRAPPIE SLED!! And you & the Mrs. Will enjoy years of THUMP jerkin and other good times in it! Best of everything to you buddy!

Yep gotta make lemonade out of lemons for sure. Thanks Vern!

Yep that was me. I think I saw you again at the Valero when I went and picked up hamburgers. I had all I wanted by then too. Just had to go try and end on a good note. Hope y'all caught a few.

Doesnt sound like a boat dealer I would want my boat serviced at.

Wow man I hate that it went down like that! But like Vernon said, the worst is behind you. Many a slab to be landed

Dang it Bobby!

Did you have your goofy hat on? Grin.

Next time you will get um.

PS, you have an air leak in your fuel system!

I'll check that and no the goofy hat has been replaced. grin

Dang that story was so bad I started drinking for you.Nowdays it seems no buissiness do what they say they will do.I hate to say Kirk is right buttttt air or fuel leak.You always hate your first scratch but you got that out of the way.ha Darrell

Bobby, tighten that little throttle handle tensioner screw on the control box. It keeps the handle from making the engine go from stop, to throw your buddy out of the boat in 1 second flat. Ask me how I know this. When I repowered, the control box screw came way too loose, once I tightened it I could control the beast.

As far as the priming situation, if you have a water/fuel seperator, and it wasnt primed, you may have had alot of air in the system initially, . Now that its primed, it shouldnt take 50 pumps, maybe 10 at the most. after the boat sets a bit, try pumping the ball, if it pumps up quick, your ok.

That's the exact boat I want. Please continue the reviews as you go.

Thanks Buddy, I'll check it out.

Going to check it now. Thanks!

Believe me last night it was just a foggy memory. And yes the first scratch is done but you know what you can cover it with a pencil eraser and it was part of the rhino liner like stuff. Super glued it back and good as new.

Bobby, I am sorry but I laughed until I hurt. Almost called Roger to see if he had heard the story. I am
glad you got all of the new "wore off" in one trip. The pumping the bulb seems to be a Yamaha thing. My fishing partner has a 250 Yamaha and I have to pump it every time we go. Anyway its a good looking and I hope you enjoy it for years to come.

Johnny

Thanks Johnny. I can laugh now. My wife said she wished she had it on video. I told her it would be even funnier if I baptized her about now.

I just tightened every hose clamp on it and still had to pump the bulb and it never got tight. Oh well. I'll give it a few pumps every time I take the boat buckles off and it should be okay. And yes Roger heard about it.

Funny story, Bobby. You'll be able to laugh about that one for some time. I especially liked the humility in the last sentence, we all need a little of that. Congrats on a super nice boat.

Thanks Larry. Yep that will be forever in the memory bank.

Stuff happens! Least you can laugh about it!!!

Now get out there and wreck some slabs!!

Now that you've gone through the embarrassing stuff along with the maintenance issues, the boat is officially yours'. Sounds like you kept a good attitude about the whole ordeal, which always helps.

If it makes you feel any better, I tried to launch my boat on Sunday with the boat straps still attached to the trailer. No matter how much throttle I gave, she still wouldn't come off the trailer. At least I had plenty of people around to watch me struggle . Oh well, nothing wrong with a warm slice of humble pie every now and then.

LOL! I did this on Sandlin and RR in the past two years. Man, that's a beating trying to get them off when there's a lot of weight on them.

Bobby, sorry to hear about the maiden voyage. Almost reminds me of the time the Jet Fleas almost ran into us! Yikes!

Yep I thought we bought the farm that day. At least T-Dub already had his life preserver blown up with that look on his face

My last two trips have been along those lines. Fri night headed to Lavon to fish for crappie. Tied up where other boats had killed them last weekend and had one bite but lost that fish. Went to move to the next spot but when my friend pulled up the trolling motor he popped the bow light out straight into the water. Gone instantly. I figure no issues, I have a camo G3 with Led lights. Hit the nav lights and blow the fuse right away. Use iPhone lights for the rest of the night. Make it to the next spot but trolling motor is moving real slow so can't stay on my spot. Eventually go home empty handed.

Saturday morning check trolling motor and it seems fine head to lake and launch. Wind is super bad but I know a few spots out of the wind to try. Make first spot and trolling motor dead again. No fish on the graph out of the wind and wind blowing too hard to stay in the wind so called it a frustrating day. Hit the boat ramp and that is where the real fun began. The wind had picked up so even though I hit my trailer and strapped on the wind would blow the boat off the trailer before I could get in the truck and pull forward. 30 min later I am still trying to get the boat on the ramp. Fortunately Tommy Erzell pulls up and helps me out by pulling my truck up while I hold the boat in place.

Oh well, light is ordered, fuse is fixed, trolling motor battery is fully charged and my buddy will be there this weekend to pull the truck up!

In the wind.... hit the trailer, keep the big motor in forward gear at idle speed or more... tie up the bow eye. crank it up... jump back into the boat and turn off the big motor, trim up and your ready to go

I could drive my bass boat up on the trailer far enough so I could reach over the bow and grab the winch line and hook it to the bow eye. Wind up the slack and shut it down.

Sorry no pics were taken except by the other guy. I want to forget it

Understand. I feel your pain!

That's exactly what I do. The trailer must have been an inch too deep though because the wind blew the boat off the trailer in 2 sec flat (and it took me six to get back to the car. Will keep it shallower the next time I am solo.