I am looking at a TR-176 its a 2001 with a 2002 Mercury 125 on it. got some questions.

The current owner says the minn kota TM (its a basic 65lb) will not run on 24volt only in 12volt. said its something in the switch. I didn't know they had a switch and didn't know they could or would do this.

if I have to replace which I would if it will not work what LB would be best for tis size boat?

If its a wiring issue then what should I look for when I look at the battery?

The 125 HP should be good for this size boat but have been told that they can be hard to pull out of the hole. The owner says never had a problem, Anyone here feel the 125 is to small? its only rated for a 130hp right?

What would be the best set-up for tis boat? oh yah it has no jack plate. does it need a jack plate to make it run better or faster? he says the prop is a 24p laser

thank you!

Let Steve put a 6" plate and cup the prop and you'll be surprised at that setup....55-57 doable

24 is too much prop, I'll bet it needs a 21 and a 6 in. Jack won't hurt the trolling motor is most likely a blown fuse or tripped circuit breaker on one leg

I run a worked on 24 .... Same motor 97 model.....turns it 5200....red line is 5250 on these

My boat is admittedly lighter than his though

Check the prop yourself. You'd be surprised how many people really don't know what they have. Mine is an 18 foot and Mercury suggests a 20-21 pitch laser 2. Also that is plenty of power for that boat. Should be a fun ride.

after looking at the boat yesterday I noticed two things. the prop is a 24p and that it has a Triton Dual Pro X on board charger. it did not hit me until tonight that its a dual and of course it has three battery's so now I wonder if thats not the overall problem. if that third one is dead then 24v will not work. the young man who owns it never thought to find out why he just ran it in 12v and said it would run all day on 12v. However I am one that will ask a million questions and find out how to fix it. so new questions.

can you wire up three battery's to charge from a dual pro x? or will I have to buy a new 3 bank charger?

how should it be wired?

anything else I should know or consider? I like the boat even though its only 17' with a 125. if I can get 52-55mph I will be happy.

If your motor is an Optimax it's all together different than his motor I believe..... His should be an elpto 2+2 motor...... Thus, different prop required

His should be an elpto 2+2 motor......

yes this is the 125 ELPTO motor also it still has the oil tank hooked up. I keep hearing that I should get that changed over and mix.

I have heard that I should change the water pump and put in new gaskets somewhere. head gaskets maybe. but I do not think those are jobs I can do in the home garage.

I ran into this with my Skeeter. Here's the cost effective solution if the two bank charger works fine. Leave it on the two trolling motor batteries and put a Battery Tender Jr on the cranking battery. Your cranking battery gets charged while the boat is running, so I just wanted a cost effective maintenance solution.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021...ttery+tender+jr

$27, add a harness to the cranking battery, and you are done. You'll have two plug-in's to deal with, but that's the price of making it a simple fix.

I had my oil injection removed and some carb work done.....I premix..... You definitely want to get the water impeller changed and the lower unit gear oil.....

thank you joe. very good info and I will do that for sure. at least to start out and until I get ready to make bigger changes. So is it hard to take the oil tank off? is it as simple as just removing and start mixing? or is there more in depth things I need to do.

Also how hard is it to change this impeller? the lower unit oil is not a big deal I have done this before.

Did one on my Yamaha, and it wasn't bad. Search YouTube, and you can probably find an example video for the merc. I would drain the lower unit and remove the prop before you remove the lower unit. It's not much weight, but it will help as you will have some wrestling to do to getting the lower unit off once unbolted.

I am boat shopping myself currently and have owned a 2+2 Merc 125. There are two Rangers here that both are 2002's with that motor. I am not sure I would own one again. They are fine, but just fine. I left the oil hooked up and it worked every time. I only had a two bank charger and it was hooked only to the two trolling motor batteries, the engine will charge the starting battery just fine.

I am having a hard time deciding if I will own another ELPTO 125 even though the boats they are hooked too look pretty dang good.

So SNMCC.... why would you not get another? because they are to slow? what would be your hold back?

As for me I have made the owner of the boat an offer and he has accepted. This will be my first glass boat and motor above a 40hp so I am pretty excited. I was kind of hoping to find a 18ft with a 150hp but after searching for months this has been the best boat for the price range I have. I almost bought a Stratos 282 but once I saw it had so many gel coat cracks I walked away. this boat is in awesome shape for a 2001 and it should be fast enough for me. I get it friday.

Oh... on the trolling motor, it is probably just the circuit breaker on the 24v side. I just ran into this. Check the batteries to see if there is a little box on the positive terminal on both batteries. They will likely have a small switch that you just have to push in on one of them to reset it.