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This is like the Paul Harvey thing.....the rest of the story......continued from the official fishing report...... :wallbash:
Personally, my part of the trip had it's "moments".
Supposed to leave at 3am Saturday 10/3 but I come home Friday evening from getting last minute things done and $ spent, and notice my voltmeter in the truck isn't reading where it should
. Check battery with multi meter and reads 11.98v .........start truck up and reads 11.86v ........turn on lights and it reads 11.46v :wallbash:.......'Course this is 9:05pm now and nothing open to buy a new alternator. Call all my "people" and nobody as one that will work.
So.....it's finally 8am next morning sitting in front of Advance Auto, banging on the door, $120 later 'fore I get a new unit. Go home and put that on, finish loading up and I'm on my way at 11:55am. Things go swimmingly all the way down. Jump off I24 onto Tn 55 at Manchester and get fuel in the boat before dark, get a license, and 8 pack of Heineken :cheers:. Stop couple mile down the road at liquor store for a bottle of Crown Royal :drunk:. Arrive at Tims Ford at 9:05pm.....So much for getting a crack at it yet on Saturday. Shoot the bull with the guys and kill 2 Heinekens before hittin' the sack - been a long day.
Sunday morning up at 5:45am. Knock down couple pots of coffee to get my motor firing on all 8 while the other guys headed to the ramp. I get down there after they're gone and dump in. Reasonably nice ramp with a perfect grade and pretty darn level - conditions often lacking. Come back from parking, cast and push off from the dock. Hit the starter. It spins but doesn't engage. Hit again and some more.....just spins - no engage . I figure must be sticking on the shaft. Look around in the boat and closest thing I find to lubricant is a bottle of line conditioner - what the hell. Spray it down with that and work it by hand - doesn't seem to be sticking. Hit the key some more and its still not engaging. Dial into my depthfinder diagnostics based on a suspicion and, yep - low voltage . :icon_wtf: I had the thing plugged in at home and everything was green and hot when I left???
Said fudge it, threw the TM out and proceeded to fish from there.
Back in at noon. My onboard crankin bank is only 3 amps so after checking the cells, I borrowed buddy's 10 amp manual charger to see if the battery would "come back" or if I was on my way to buy a new crankin batt. The 10 amp setting was showing 15 amps going to it on the meter. The afternoon was looking to be a soaker so I let 'er charge while I knocked off a few more Heinekens and opened up the CR :drunk:. While out checking the charge rate late in the afternoon, I flagged down a park ranger to get some directions on where I could hook up with a cranker if needed. Rate was closer to 10 amp than 15 now. Left 'er hooked up all night after checking water levels - figured :icon_wtf:
Monday morning had charge rate down to 2 amps so time for verdict. Went to ramp and left it on the trailer while I checked if it would fire up. If not, was heading to town for a batt. It did fire up so stayed close to ramp just in case I had to limp back on TM. As the day went on, the voltage alarm went off on my depthfinders but motor continued to fire right up . Kept me in a state of low panic all week while it continued in same fashion. Thought any time I might be stuck but trying to hold out on buying a new batt at the end of the season.
Being the tough going it was, I called OutdoorFrontiers about Wednesday for, as they call it on the TV show, a life line - on some different ideas. Like I told him, wasn't much good to compare notes with the other guys in the crew since they weren't much better off than I was!. Between his suggestions and pre-trip ideas from Lilmule, I didn't get skunked! Thanks guys.
:You_Rock_Emoticon:
Was supposed to sashee past Kentucky Lake to arm wrestle Lilmule and have a dual with OF but with the various issues, determined it just might become financially disadvantageous to do so. So re-plotted my gps laptop program and headed straight towards home on Saturday morning at 9:05am.
For some reason, my program wanted to run me into Louisville to the inner beltway (I264 I believe) rather than the outer one so I said okay to myself as I pass by the exit for the outer beltway. Good Friggin Move! I go about another 1/2 mile when 4 lanes of northbound I65 comes to a screeching halt. Outstanding! KDOT is putting in overtime repaving highway and I meander another 2 miles in 28 minutes to find out my exit is completely closed due to the road work.....sweet . So now I have to get wandered on thru to where the highway opened back up and truck on up to I64 just shy of the Ohio River to reroute onto I71....and we're off again!
Kentucky must have $ to burn 'cause they were paying more OT to shut down lanes on I71 so they could spread gravel on the berm of the hammer lane. That wasn't so bad but they'd have a couple miles barreled off and then a couple miles opened up, then repeat. That wasn't so bad except for some non-brain functioning people up ahead in the pack that had to slow, not just to the posted 45 mph construction zone speed, but down to 15 mph when getting to where work was actually being done. Gotta watch for those sudden slow-downs, they're killer.....
:shotgunn6kb:
Not to be outdone for the whole trip, I'm driving up I71 about 50 miles from Cincinnati when a pick-up with a couple guys passes me and I notice the passenger is kinda directing his attention behind them....All of a sudden, I'm passing them (in the right lane) and then they're pulling back up along side me? Passenger is like hangin' half out the window a waving his arms and hollering something. I roll down the window and try to make out what he's yelling.....I get some sort of impression that it's something about the trailer so I look back in the sideview and see something inboard of the driver side trailer tire, between the axle and road....:icon_wtf:
I noticed the carpeted "inner fender" on that side was loose when I got ready to leave TF (no tools to speak of with me) and suspected it had come rest of the way off but how it came to be in that position, puzzled me. Gave those guys a thumbs up thank you and pulled well off on the break-down strip. Walked back and sure 'nuff, it came loose and rotated around the front of the axle when dropping. It was now wedged upside down between the axle, the tire, and the road! Got down and had to kick the thing loose finally to get it out. Coulda backed the whole rig up but didn't really want to go there along side the interstate....people might get strange perceptions they see back-up lights on the truck and do weird things.....people will do things like that - been there seen it. Anyhow, got it unwedged and found about 2 1/2" ground off against the road and about a 1/4" burned into the wood from the inner sidewall of the tire. Inside of the tire felt a little different than the outside but seemed to be holding air. I figured I could run and find out if the tire were going to fail and then swap it out if it did, or, run and get home. Either way, I had daylight to work with so figured :icon_wtf: - get 'er done! Off I go again.
Got home and parked in the drive at 6:02pm.
Figured it had to be good for a laugh to somebody!
Personally, my part of the trip had it's "moments".
Supposed to leave at 3am Saturday 10/3 but I come home Friday evening from getting last minute things done and $ spent, and notice my voltmeter in the truck isn't reading where it should
. Check battery with multi meter and reads 11.98v .........start truck up and reads 11.86v ........turn on lights and it reads 11.46v :wallbash:.......'Course this is 9:05pm now and nothing open to buy a new alternator. Call all my "people" and nobody as one that will work. So.....it's finally 8am next morning sitting in front of Advance Auto, banging on the door, $120 later 'fore I get a new unit. Go home and put that on, finish loading up and I'm on my way at 11:55am. Things go swimmingly all the way down. Jump off I24 onto Tn 55 at Manchester and get fuel in the boat before dark, get a license, and 8 pack of Heineken :cheers:. Stop couple mile down the road at liquor store for a bottle of Crown Royal :drunk:. Arrive at Tims Ford at 9:05pm.....So much for getting a crack at it yet on Saturday. Shoot the bull with the guys and kill 2 Heinekens before hittin' the sack - been a long day.
Sunday morning up at 5:45am. Knock down couple pots of coffee to get my motor firing on all 8 while the other guys headed to the ramp. I get down there after they're gone and dump in. Reasonably nice ramp with a perfect grade and pretty darn level - conditions often lacking. Come back from parking, cast and push off from the dock. Hit the starter. It spins but doesn't engage
. Hit again and some more.....just spins - no engage . I figure must be sticking on the shaft. Look around in the boat and closest thing I find to lubricant is a bottle of line conditioner - what the hell. Spray it down with that and work it by hand - doesn't seem to be sticking. Hit the key some more and its still not engaging. Dial into my depthfinder diagnostics based on a suspicion and, yep - low voltage . :icon_wtf: I had the thing plugged in at home and everything was green and hot when I left???Said fudge it, threw the TM out and proceeded to fish from there.
Back in at noon. My onboard crankin bank is only 3 amps so after checking the cells, I borrowed buddy's 10 amp manual charger to see if the battery would "come back" or if I was on my way to buy a new crankin batt. The 10 amp setting was showing 15 amps going to it on the meter. The afternoon was looking to be a soaker so I let 'er charge while I knocked off a few more Heinekens and opened up the CR :drunk:. While out checking the charge rate late in the afternoon, I flagged down a park ranger to get some directions on where I could hook up with a cranker if needed. Rate was closer to 10 amp than 15 now. Left 'er hooked up all night after checking water levels - figured :icon_wtf:
Monday morning had charge rate down to 2 amps so time for verdict. Went to ramp and left it on the trailer while I checked if it would fire up. If not, was heading to town for a batt. It did fire up
so stayed close to ramp just in case I had to limp back on TM. As the day went on, the voltage alarm went off on my depthfinders but motor continued to fire right up . Kept me in a state of low panic all week while it continued in same fashion. Thought any time I might be stuck but trying to hold out on buying a new batt at the end of the season. Being the tough going it was, I called OutdoorFrontiers about Wednesday for, as they call it on the TV show, a life line - on some different ideas. Like I told him, wasn't much good to compare notes with the other guys in the crew since they weren't much better off than I was!. Between his suggestions and pre-trip ideas from Lilmule, I didn't get skunked! Thanks guys.
:You_Rock_Emoticon:
Was supposed to sashee past Kentucky Lake to arm wrestle Lilmule and have a dual with OF but with the various issues, determined it just might become financially disadvantageous to do so. So re-plotted my gps laptop program and headed straight towards home on Saturday morning at 9:05am.
For some reason, my program wanted to run me into Louisville to the inner beltway (I264 I believe) rather than the outer one so I said okay to myself as I pass by the exit for the outer beltway. Good Friggin Move! I go about another 1/2 mile when 4 lanes of northbound I65 comes to a screeching halt
. Outstanding! KDOT is putting in overtime repaving highway and I meander another 2 miles in 28 minutes to find out my exit is completely closed due to the road work.....sweet . So now I have to get wandered on thru to where the highway opened back up and truck on up to I64 just shy of the Ohio River to reroute onto I71....and we're off again!Kentucky must have $ to burn 'cause they were paying more OT to shut down lanes on I71 so they could spread gravel on the berm of the hammer lane. That wasn't so bad but they'd have a couple miles barreled off and then a couple miles opened up, then repeat. That wasn't so bad except for some non-brain functioning people up ahead in the pack that had to slow, not just to the posted 45 mph construction zone speed, but down to 15 mph when getting to where work was actually being done. Gotta watch for those sudden slow-downs, they're killer.....
:shotgunn6kb:
Not to be outdone for the whole trip, I'm driving up I71 about 50 miles from Cincinnati when a pick-up with a couple guys passes me and I notice the passenger is kinda directing his attention behind them....All of a sudden, I'm passing them (in the right lane) and then they're pulling back up along side me? Passenger is like hangin' half out the window a waving his arms and hollering something. I roll down the window and try to make out what he's yelling.....I get some sort of impression that it's something about the trailer so I look back in the sideview and see something inboard of the driver side trailer tire, between the axle and road....:icon_wtf:
I noticed the carpeted "inner fender" on that side was loose when I got ready to leave TF (no tools to speak of with me) and suspected it had come rest of the way off but how it came to be in that position, puzzled me. Gave those guys a thumbs up thank you and pulled well off on the break-down strip. Walked back and sure 'nuff, it came loose and rotated around the front of the axle when dropping. It was now wedged upside down between the axle, the tire, and the road! Got down and had to kick the thing loose finally to get it out. Coulda backed the whole rig up but didn't really want to go there along side the interstate....people might get strange perceptions they see back-up lights on the truck and do weird things..
...people will do things like that - been there seen it. Anyhow, got it unwedged and found about 2 1/2" ground off against the road and about a 1/4" burned into the wood from the inner sidewall of the tire. Inside of the tire felt a little different than the outside but seemed to be holding air. I figured I could run and find out if the tire were going to fail and then swap it out if it did, or, run and get home. Either way, I had daylight to work with so figured :icon_wtf: - get 'er done! Off I go again. Got home and parked in the drive at 6:02pm.
Figured it had to be good for a laugh to somebody!