Good luck with the boat. You may want to go with a 22p Laser II or a 20p and have Steve do his magic on it.

I have a 1997 TR-17 with a 115 Evinrude Intruder on it. I'd be shocked if you could get 55 out of that setup. I've gotten 52 out of mine once, but 50 is typical with just me in the boat, and it drops to 48 with a bunch of gear and another person. And that's with a Raker 19 that Steve has worked.

They're good boats though. I've got no plans to get rid of mine anytime soon. Caught tons of good fish out of it. Sips on the gas. And it's easy to pull around.

As for the trolling motor, mine has a switch underneath that goes from 12V to 24V. If he's saying that switch is bad, then you probably just need to replace the switch to get it to run on 24V. But he might just be saying that because it sounds like a cheap fix when something else more expensive could be the problem. You just don't know.

I am pretty sure my 125 had a 24P on it? What I did not like about it is the 2+2. This does not run as smooth or as quite as several other motors in the same category. While I had it I like it a lot, because I did not know better. It was a good dependable motor for alittle over 2 years and then served another forum member for a couple of years after that. For a great price I would purchase a boat with one on it, but it would have to be a great price. The two different Rangers I am looking at with this motor are not priced great, I would jump all over either one of them if they had a different outboard at asking price. So do I think its a bad motor... No I don't, I just really don't like the 2 cylinder converting to 4 cylinder at just under 2k rpm and how it started and idled compared to other motors.

Not to argue with anyone.... But that motor has a redline of 5250.....if you prop it wrong (too little pitch), you will blow it up....just saying

Only if he disconnects the rev limiter...

that motor has more gear reduction than others so the 24p prop may very well put it right on the money for 5250 rpm.

I have a 2000 Skeeter sx166 with a 115 Yamaha V4. 5.5" CMC jackplate and a prop that has been reworked. I highly recommend a small jackplate and then a prop mod.

Sorry so late to get back to everyone. Not trying to bring everyone down here but I have had a very hard last couple weeks with the lose of my father / best friend.

So I bought the boat (Me dad didn't even get to see it) It does have a 24p Laser prop with no jack plate.

The motor checked out very well and I plan to change the water pump impeller very soon. The trolling motor had some cracks in the housing (that I was able to easily repair) and after doing a lot of research it turned out to just be wired up wrong. After changing the wiring at the battery's and a flip of the wires at the switch it now runs on both 12v and 24v just fine.

I bought a HDS-7 and put it at the console and moved the HDI-7 to the bow. I have them wired now and added a master "cut off' switch at the cranking battery. So now I am down to just doing some basic prep/service as well as consider a change in Prop and jack plate. I have been told so many different things here I do not know which way to go.

1) would you do a carbon blowout of the crabs? I read somewhere about how each year you should do a carbon blowout. I am sure the young man who owned this never did this.

2) Anything else I should do before I start to use this on a regular basis?

3) How can i make sure that the rev limiter has not been removed? or do i just make sure it never gets above 5200 rpm?

thanks everyone!! I am pretty happy with it so far. The noise and that change of the 2+2 is not a big deal to me. So I like the motor. empty boat with just me (big guy) I got it to 51-52 on a smooth day.

Well you've done quit a bit so far. As far as a de-carb instead of a radical one just run a 16 oz can of Seafoam through it with a half of a tank of gas in it unless it's heavily carboned up should be enough, do that a couple of times and then just one can for the full tank drive it like you stole it at first. I run a can of Seafoam in mine every time I fuel mine up and it stays clean, of course I use sta-bil also, you will hear all sorts of opinions but this has always worked well for me. Other than the water pump get the whole kit too also the thermostat and poppet since you probably don't know if it's ever been changed after-all the engine is 12-13 years old, and lower unit oil, fuel filter. I wouldn't worry about the rev limiter just keep and eye on the tach and an ear on the motor. Hopefully you have some water to put it in. Good luck.

Thank you 97fordnut..! BTW yours and mine look alot alike. Mine is a DC but it has the strip like yours. I had to look twice when I saw the picture.

I have always ran a can of seafoam with each fill up in my old 40hp evinrude so i was planning to do the same here too. Just didn't think it would do a Carbon Clean too. It has a good 1/2 tank in it now so I will just add a full can and take her out maybe this Sunday. I might do this twice just to be sure.. I am having trouble finding the COMPLETE water impeller KIT around here. the local places just either have the impeller or the impeller and the gasket. Do anyone know where I can order the complete kit? Would like to order it in the next 24hours.

Also is the thermostat and Poppet hard to replace? what is the Poppet?

Mine is a 2001 TR-186 dual console with the Merc XR6. Yea I'm kinda partial to it too especially paid for! Yea mine was carbon'd up but not bad so I did as described about ten years ago with the two half tanks and 16oz Seafoam and have stuck with dosing it every tank full since and the sooty black exhaust build up on the prop is looooooonnnnnngggg gone, nice and clean. The last time (one and a half years ago) I bought the pump kit and thermostats and poppet kit from Tommy at Rockwall Marine. So you may try there and if your not close enough to pick them up I'm sure he will ship them to you. The poppet is a rubber diaphragm and spring that is more or less like a back pressure control that's why the tell tale stream looks like it's sputtering at idle and no it's not hard to replace along with the stats. I bought the tech manual from Mercury back when I bought the boat new and try and do most of the work on it myself but as I get older and can't stoop and bend over a lot with the back issues I have will prolly be taking it to Rockwall in the future to get worked on. You can order the tech service manual from Mercury and it is the best $100 I ever spent. The one for your 125 shows to be $85 good buy right there. Another FYI when you go to replace the spark plugs stay with the NGK's that come with it and you can get them at NAPA for about half the price as a Marine store. Good luck.

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