Location: 31 | kid coulson - 7/30/2012 6:49 PM
After some great tips I went to Lowes(a block from my house) and got some clear plastic/vinyl tubing. I took the bottom part of the clamp with me and found the closest size tube that would lay in there. I also bought some grade 8 bolts(may not have been necessary, but they worked great). Cut the tube to size, slit it, and wrapped it around the rail. I tightened the bolts pretty darn tight and BINGO!! I trolled Magnum dipsy divers Sunday without any issues. If anything they might be a bit to hard to move now but Im good with that. Thanks again guys for the ideas.
That's good to hear man! Absolutely the best way to move the DEs is with the rod in the holder for leverage. I can pretty much tell when the tension is correct for my muskie purposes if I can only move them that way.
My exception to this is the two down rods, which I like a touch looser because I'm always pivoting those in and out of the water. On my boat the correct trolling position for those down rods is always tight against the boats rubber rub rails... being able to pivot those DEs so I'm not fighting 5' of submerged rod in and out of the water every time saves a lot of wear and tear on my body by the end of the day.
Another thing I've learned is to be sure to compress the tubing evenly between the 2 screws, if you are only tightening the easy to get at screw the pressure on the rail becomes lopsided. A trick I use to keep them even without having to remove the outside part of the DE is grinding down the tip of a beater screwdriver so the screwdriver can be used at a 90° angle to the head of the screw.
Good luck! |
