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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Allow me to tell you a story and perhaps vent about this little project I committed to over the weekend. Subject project cost me dearly in time and frustration. Maybe others can learn from my folly?
Bought a new Fortrex TM to replace my MK Autopilot. Works better for how I fish, except for the footpedal height. Didn't like having to do the 'Captain Morgan' all the time. So, after trying-out a buddy's and liking it alot, decided to bite the bullet and install a recessed trolling motor foot pedal tray in my Ranger 621.
Sounds like a simple job right?? Wrong. This job was hell! Not due to the tray mind you, but due to Ranger Boats over-engineered construction (not a criticism btw). This particular boat was never designed to accomodate a recessed foot pedal. So, what we thought would be an hour job, turned into a five hour job! You may wonder how that is possible, particularly as I was working alongside two boat professionals at my local marina. We pulled the boat and had it in their shop. They had done this before, but never seen the guts of the bow of a Ranger 621 series boat - so we were all venturing into the unknown.
It took an hour - and total destruction of three blades of the jig saw - to cut out the decking in accordance with the tray template. I started out punching holes with the drill, testing for depth, and all seemed okay. Started cutting. Turns out there was the fiberglass decking that was about 1/2", attached to that was a layer of what we think was kevlar, attached to another layer of fiberglass of about 1/4", then a large, thick 1/2 PVC pipe which formed a support beam over the front deck for support. None of which we knew about - and all had to be cut through. No wonder the jig saw was smoking!
The cutting was super slow and very tedious. I was sweating profusely. When we finally got the decking off, the tray wouldn't fit. So, we spent more time trimming-up the cut-out using the jig saw. That took quite a while and was complicated by the rod tubes which didn't allow enough clearance on the top portion of the tray. We mashed them down after digging them out of the foam to allow compression.
Once the tray fit, there were other problems. There was foam completely encasing the front deck and surrounding the two layers of rod tubes which were directly under the tray hole we cut. The foam went all the way down to the keel/hull. We couldn't figure out how to address the tray drain hole through all that foam and rod tubes. We knew that there was a drain tube running from the very tip of the bow down into the hull, but didn't know how it was configured or where it ran. The hours melted away. We tried various ways to try to set-up the drain on the tray, none of which worked. We wound-up using a Saws-All to cut the two layers of the two center-most rod tubing out, chipping and scooping the foam all the way down to the keel hull, and found what we thought was the drain tube which, in Ranger style, was made of a large, thick fiberglass tube resting right in the crease of the boat keel.
Not completely sure if we were drilling into the hull or into the drain tube, we ran a bright light down the bow drain tube and could see that we had indeed found the drain channel. Satisfying that, we drilled a hole to accomodate the drain tube, siliconed it in, and connected the tubing to the tray and screwed the tray in place. Four of my rod tubes will need a new sleeve to make them usable, but all-in-all the tray is a very nice addition to my boat. Not sure I would do it again though if I knew then what I know now! Wow, was that a job.
Consider this words of caution for anyone considering installing a recessed footpedal tray on this particular boat.
Brian
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Location: Contrarian Island | wow, that sound like quite the project..  pics? |
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Posts: 437
| Sounds like a typical "home improvement" project. I probably would have cried cutting into that boat, but if thats what you want to get you to fish more comfortably have at it. |
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Posts: 403
Location: Lakeville, MN | i have a hard enough time drilling holes in my boat! cutting a hole that big would feel criminal haha! glad it all worked out in the end. I would like to see some pictures too |
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Posts: 548
Location: MN | How about a pic? |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Pics?? She is sitting on my boat lift up on Lake Vermilion, so haven't had access to her for a couple of weeks. I'll get a pic of the finished product up this weekend for those that are interested. The pics I wish could be posted would have been ones when I had her opened up and ripping out the guts of the front deck. It's all good now, but this project was probably ill-advised. Not unlike a lot of other things in life, I committed beyond the point-of-return before knowing what I was actually getting into.
Brian |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | And, for those who wonder why I would do such a foolish thing, there are reasons. First, I can now up-grade my electronics to Hummingbird and use the new 360 bow mount technology (next spring), which only operates on cable driven TMs . Second, the electric drive Minn Kotas were driving me batty trying to run the motor with my size 17 shoes/boots. I was constantly turning the motor inadvertantly as my giant feet pressed the left/right buttons as I meant only to press the 'on' button. I do alot of night fishing and trying to steer the electric motors with my giant feet in the darkness, even with glow tape, was very problematic. The cable driven motor is also more responsive and quieter when correcting course from left to right. No electric motor sound as the motor corrects course. I also like how much easier the Fortrex motor is to deploy and retract. There are other reasons, but these cover most of them. It's not for every musky guy, I get that, but for me and how I fish, I think this will work better.
Brian
Edited by BrianF. 8/27/2014 9:07 AM
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | It just got a lot tougher to catch fish from the back deck of Brian's boat.... but I accept the challenge!  |
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Location: Contrarian Island | last year running my buds Terrova on LOTW I was hitting the left / right too all the darn time cuz I'm a "pulser"...so I came up with an idea for him to put a riser on the section you pulse with....so this spring he got around to putting it on there...here is a pic... so now when you pulse it you don't hit the left/right... my idea was to extend the riser over about 30% of the left / right as well but he did this and it works pretty good I guess.. I am not sure what kind of wacky weed the engineers at Minn Kota are smoking to design such a clumsy and large foot pedal for the Terrova but I am convinced none of them musky fish!
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 foot pedal.jpg (103KB - 854 downloads)
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | Motorguide makes a rope-stow/deploy auto motor with heel-toe control with a low-profile pedal. with the quick connect you can use both cable and electric interchangeably and have the best of both worlds depending on how you want to fish. i know this doesn't apply to your situation but having the ability to use cable or electric is a good way to go and provides a spare on a fishing trip too. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | haven't your last 2 or 3 motorguides gone kaput Sled?
Edited by BNelson 8/27/2014 9:54 AM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | i've broken a cable but that's something i'd done on maxims too, it happens to all of them from wear and use. the auto, i broke by doing something stupid so not the motor's fault, my other MG is just fine too. having both cable and auto is nice … plain and simple. it's a 15 minute changeout only because you have to replace the transducer … hummingbirds couple the transducer, otherwise it would be a 5 minute or less swap out.
also, check out the Xi5 and compare to the terrova, if you don't have brand loyalty it shows well and less money.
MG makes good products from my experience.
Bottom-Line is that there is a rope stow-and-deploy automatic product on the market if you are looking at the whole market and not just one maker.
Edited by jonnysled 8/27/2014 11:31 AM
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Jason, you are funny, my friend. That giant fish in your avatar, along with many other 40lb+ giants caught at a ratio of something like 8:1 out of the back of my boat, tells me you don't need any help or prayers whatsoever! ha
Brad, I like the idea of building-up the momentary on-switch in the MK footpedals. That would have solved some problems for me for sure. I might sand down that block into something a little lower and smoother, maybe a little more egonomic, but that looks good as a quick fix to a very maddening problem! And, gotta believe you are right about the engineers. Are they even fishing with these footpedals??
Sled, I looked long and hard into the Xi5 and, after reading everything I could get my hands on via internet, ultimately decided to go with the Fortrex. Like riding a bicycle, I like having the ability to know exactly where I'm steering without any thought and without looking at the motor...and now with my size 17 Sorrel boots flat on the deck thanks to the footpedal tray I mounted. My fishing experience since the installation have been very positive, but time will tell. Btw, I kept my old AP to have as a spare, just in case. I don't have it on a quick release mount, but at least it's there if my Fortrex should ever konk out in the middle of a week long trip. I wouldn't expect that to happen too often given the reputation of the Fortrex.
Brian
Edited by BrianF. 8/27/2014 11:51 AM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | i totally smell you on the rope stow and deploy ... the pulling and bending thing is just a bad design IMO. the Fortrex have a lift-assist too? |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Yep, Fortrex has the lift assist. I can pull it out of the water with two fingers on the rope. I cringed watching the guests in my boat over the years - good fishermen - struggle to deploy or retract my AP trolling motor. I could do it more easily cause I learned it's idiosycrocies, but it still sucked everytime. Yes, a horrible design in that regard.
Brian |
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Posts: 716
| Brian the heavy material in the Rangers is the Pultruded fiberglass. The guys at Frankies use diamond sawzall blades to cut the holes in dash for electronics etc...it is crazy tough stuff. The first time I tried to cut in a 10" in dash I used up 4 metal cutting blades.
You can take a guy out of a bass boat but you can't take the bass out of the guy.... |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Here it is...
Edited by BrianF. 9/2/2014 1:41 PM
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Posts: 1
| I like your install on the the fortex pedal pan. I have a newer ranger 619 with an utrex that I am looking at doing the same surgery to the front deck. I have a question about the support pvc you had to cut thru. Do you know about where that support member is you had to cut thru? Looks great by the way . |
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Posts: 457
| I like the mod. In your opinion, does it affect your ability to fish to the side of the front deck and figure eight? I've considered doing this, as the captain morgan in rough water sucks. Just worried about being tied down to one spot on the front of the deck.
I too am running the foretrex and love the motor. I'd recomend up grading the pull rope to a cable like the TH marine G handle, its a solid upgrade. |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Nightranger, what did you decide? Did you go for it?? If so, I’m curious how your project went.
Chasintails, this mod hasn’t effected my ability to fish off the side of the boat or figure 8. I’m still happy with the set-up after 5 years. Sometimes wish I had spot lock and follow the contour and all the other things the new motors will do. Someday... I did replace the original rope/handle with the one you suggested from TH. Those original ropes always break at the worst times, like in a big tournament.
As a side note, while the boat is the same, my bow ‘workstation’ keeps evolving. Interesting to see that five year old photo of my bow on this old thread. It’s changed quite a bit and continues to change with the introduction of newer/better technology. Now have my old Onix 10 dedicated to display mapping and a Helix 12 G3 dedicated to displaying the 360 image (soon to be Mega 360) or Mega SI/DI. I’ll also plan to incorporate my Livescope ice bundle somehow someway on the bow once the boat comes out of winter storage. It’s fun and challenging trying to figure out how to set up the bow with this new technology. I’ll need a mobile nuclear power plant in the stern of the boat to power it all eventually. |
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