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Posts: 283
| I bought a 2000 johnson 70 with VRO this spring. I got a really good deal on it, got to drive the guys boat around and then the marina took it off and loaded it in my vehicle for me. I watched the mechanic take it off the boat so I would have a better idea of how everything went together.
While shooting the breeze with the mechanic, he said if it was his motor that he would disconnect and pre-mix the gas. He stated that since the pump is external (on a the oil tank in the boat) they have a much higher chance at failing than the Merc pumps (on the motor and driven by the motor).
I got the motor all set up on my boat in the following week or two, just in time for an overnight, 4 lake trip. I took it for a test run at the lake down the road from my house- worked great. That weekend we started our trip and on the first lake the oil alarm went off. The light on the tach that came with the motor came on and displayed "no oil". We did a little troubleshooting on the water, from what we could tell the motor should have still been getting oil. Luckily it was a really small lake and I used the bow mount to go back to the launch.
We stopped at my house and disconnected the oil pump and mixed the gas. I hadn't researched te VRO disconnect yet so I didn't know how to unplug the alarm. The rest of the trip went smooth (we skipped one lake in place of mechanic time). Once I got home I looked up how to do the whole disconnect. It literally takes 5 minutes and there is no more worries in the back of my mind.
I don't use my boat enough for me to really worry about mixing gas, any time I do get to go I look at it as a treat so mixing gas is no different than tying leaders or any other prep. I just know that I would rather be safe than sorry, heaven forbid you are miles from the launch at the end of the day and it blows up on you and you don't have the juice to make it back with a trolling motor, plus you're out a motor which aren't exactly cheap. Best of luck! | |
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