The official "What did you do to your jet boat today" thread.

[Gunner]

I'm so happy I drank excessive amounts of alcohol as a young en instead of being a mindless slave to a device like I am now,.

 

[Theryan]

I'm so happy I drank excessive amounts of alcohol as a young en instead of being a mindless slave to a device like I am now,.

... Huh? You okay over there, Gunner?

 

[Theryan]

I can tell you this - that black Ark is gonna be around $300. The silver version is $50 or so bucks less, but I was of the mind that another few bucks thrown at the thing was a drop in the bucket at that point. I've had a former boat salesman (neighbor's son) compliment me on it, and tell me "that thing looks bombproof!", and mentioned that the original jack on my trailer was one of the things they would ALWAYS replace on the boat/trailer combo's they sold - he didn't sell Yamaha's, but they sold Supra's and Moomba's, as well as some other pontoon and fishing boats. He said he just shook his head at what some of the manufacturers would spec on these trailers, and said it's ridiculous that they'd put a $30-40 jack on a trailer that's gonna be holding a $70-80k boat. They always swapped in Fulton's, and he said the difference another hundred-plus dollars would make on those jacks was huge. I have had several people with new $80k+ boats notice my jack after using theirs a few times, and ask me where I got it from, and I know of 2 that have swapped out - one with the black XO to match their trailer (really, that's the only reason I got the black one), and another got the next size down in silver that Ark sells. Both of them thanked me for the info, and are amazed at the difference in quality.

What is the installation like on these? Are they simply bolt-on, or does it require drilling new holes, etc.?

 

[Theryan]

Nobody give him any info until he posts pics of what he claims he did in the post above! You know the saying, pics, or it didn't happen!

That's an XO jack from Ark. There's a few threads about it around here, @swatski has one, I have one...WITH PICS!

Here you go!

I swapped out the inline fuses on the ACR for some better ones (didn't take a photo of those), but I built a carpeted tray/holder for the batteries, ACR and switch and cleaned up the cables. I might build an angled and carpeted piece to mount the new fuse holders to, but haven't decided. They're very secure now, at least.

I need to finish cleaning up the cables for the new amp and audio, and then I'll share a picture of those.

Otherwise, here are the new speakers, remote, etc. prior to going through and cleaning everything.

 

[drewkaree]

What is the installation like on these? Are they simply bolt-on, or does it require drilling new holes, etc.?

You should be able to bolt it straight on. Install is really easy, but that's with some caveats.

In my case, I removed the old jack because I was installing it on the same side. I'm not saying you have to do that, I just don't see a reason to keep it on there. Another thing is that if your trailer frame is wider than the bolts they include, you will need to get longer bolts (I recommend Grade 8 bolts). I see that you have a 19' so the provided bolts might be fine, my trailer measures 3" across on the bow stop part of the frame, if you're narrower than mine, you should be good to go

I also didn't have to move my bow stop, you may need to do that with the 19' trailer. That's a simple matter of loosening 3 bolts and sliding it into a better place, but you may want to check your tongue weight. Lastly, after having mine installed for a while now, I would recommend installing the jack on the driver's side - it's getting to be a gigantic PITA to have to hop over the trailer every dang time. I WILL be moving mine to the other side soon, and I'm contemplating putting it on the frame where it spreads out into a "Y" so I can raise the ass end of the boat even higher to drain it. That part of the frame measures 2" across, I believe the original bolts would work, but I cannot verify that, as I no longer have the OEM bolts.

If you have a helper to hold the jack, actually installing the jack should take less than 5 minutes. If you don't have a helper, 10 minutes.

 

[drewkaree]

Here you go!

I swapped out the inline fuses on the ACR for some better ones (didn't take a photo of those), but I built a carpeted tray/holder for the batteries, ACR and switch and cleaned up the cables. I might build an angled and carpeted piece to mount the new fuse holders to, but haven't decided. They're very secure now, at least.

I need to finish cleaning up the cables for the new amp and audio, and then I'll share a picture of those.

Otherwise, here are the new speakers, remote, etc. prior to going through and cleaning everything.

Here you go!

I swapped out the inline fuses on the ACR for some better ones (didn't take a photo of those), but I built a carpeted tray/holder for the batteries, ACR and switch and cleaned up the cables. I might build an angled and carpeted piece to mount the new fuse holders to, but haven't decided. They're very secure now, at least.

I need to finish cleaning up the cables for the new amp and audio, and then I'll share a picture of those.

Otherwise, here are the new speakers, remote, etc. prior to going through and cleaning everything.
View attachment 130157View attachment 130158View attachment 130159View attachment 130160View attachment 130161

That’s a nice job you did there! I'm interested in the carpeted battery tray, your setup is different than mine - I've only got a single battery, and it's buried in a sunken area that I think is molded for that purpose (and might hold 2 batteries, not sure, atm). I've thought about adding a second battery, and doing a slide out tray to bury them closer to the stern so I can use a little more of the space under that seat

Did you relocate the batteries, or is that the stock location?

 

[tdonoughue]

Yesterday: Finally changed the oil for the beginning of the season. Er...

In the process, found out that my K&N filters I had planned to use were the wrong ones. And consequently I had been spreading misinformation that they fit my type of boat (I think I corrected it everywhere now...). Oops. So put the Fram one back on and put in fresh oil (I was on the water). That will do for now.

Got to spend the whole day on the boat, so also: cleaned out the head compartment, 303'd the seats, put a rubber band around the paper towels, added a tie to the table leg holders so they stop falling out, fixed a speaker wire, sat, drank a beer and a billion waters. Pic, so you can see it happened:

 

[bjasinski11]

After our trp to the Michigan sand dunes...

Frankfort - Sleeping Bear Dunes 07.jpg

• Nexus
• Jul 14, 2020

... We decided that it would be a good idea to add tower speakers so we could more enjoy the tunes from the shore. Scarab's cost for the upgrade was $780. The identical speakers/enclosures on Kicker's web site were around $550. Amazon had the combo for $440! Amazon it is!

With a bit of help from this forum, I was able to install them.

20200811_162711.jpg

• Nexus
• Aug 11, 2020

Scarab 195 tower speakers.

Haven't tried the blue lights at night... Yet!


Now, I gotta get some speaker covers. Any suggestions?

Just got my speaker sox today. speakersox.com

 

[Nexus]

Just got my speaker sox today. speakersox.com

Which ones did you get? I only see ones for Kicker's kmt6 which is a dual enclosure. I've got the 8" singles.

 

[drewkaree]

Finished one of the test pieces of SeaDek I've been working on, considering DIY for the whole boat, since it would be a custom job for this color, and not eligible for the group buy discount. If this color isn't blistering my feet, I'm going to go with it throughout.



This was the smallest EASY piece that I wanted done. I will also be doing the missing seat cushion spot, and the step in the bow between the two cup holders. If the temperature sucks, I won't even be attempting the other two pieces, I'll be removing it and going with the typical grey.

I have a local place that handles SeaDek, and I'll see what they would charge me for the full boat, but installing it seems to be super easy, as long as you pay attention to your cleaning job prior to installation. I wouldn't hesitate to do a DIY install from Will.

Cutting the pieces from sheets you can buy, like I did above? I don't recommend it if you want a color that Will has in stock. The templating is all kinds of putzy. You need a Dremel to clean up the edges (I would go as far as to say don't do this if you don't have a steady hand and some Dremel experience), and you NEED some sort of sheet goods cutting optimization program.

I want this color because it hides dirt better, and the color goes with the blue on the interior. The wife vetoed the snow camo, but she actually brought up the aqua camo out of all the sample pieces that I got, and I like the uniqueness of the color. I will be fine with a typical grey, but I'm really hoping the temperature is good with this test piece so I can proceed with the other two and decide what to do - DIY or throw money at a finished product

 

[adrianp89]

My local SeaDek dealer. was almost $1,000 cheaper for custom SeaDek installed than JBP shipped to my door.

 

[drewkaree]

My local SeaDek dealer. was almost $1,000 cheaper for custom SeaDek installed than JBP shipped to my door.

Any pics of your installation?

I might have someone who can help me with a deal from my local place, so I'm still gonna price it out to see if it's worth my time to DIY, but cutting the larger pieces looks to be a lot easier than these small putzy pieces.

 

[GTBRMC]

My local SeaDek dealer. was almost $1,000 cheaper for custom SeaDek installed than JBP shipped to my door.

Can you provide details on what all you covered with SeaDek? My full boat SeaDek kit from JBP including swimdeck and the phone booth floor was approx $1250 (going from memory, don't recall exact amount). Plus I did it at beginning of season as I did not want to wait for the end-of-season group buy.

 

[Soonerlt]

Technically not today, but just now getting around to posting. While she was in for 20-hour service recently, had an on-board charger (MK-210D) installed. They cleverly hid the plug extension in an easily accessible spot. Then got her back to her new home at the marina. Love the HH lifts. Have two of them and they work great.

 

[jEt_jAk]

Pulled this out of the impeller

 

[drewkaree]

Pulled this out of the impeller

Why? It seems like it was perfectly content where it was LOL

Did that bring a halt to all operations of the impeller?

 

[drewkaree]

I swapped all 4 OEM speakers for the Polk DB651s that I've had for a while. In that process, I also stubbed my toe and gashed the crap out of it, on one of the useless (to me) carpet snaps that I don't need, so those little bastards had to come out of the boat. Soon, gelcoat repair where all the snaps were.

 

[jEt_jAk]

Why? It seems like it was perfectly content where it was LOL

Did that bring a halt to all operations of the impeller?

was running rough when I went to put back on trailer. So checked and found this stuck on a blade.

 

[AEmedic]

Installed the Ve Ve trailer "Guide-Ons". It will be nice to keep the stern from floating all over the place during launch or load and reduce my wife's stress!

 

[AZMark]

No lake today so I got a little minor work done:
Replaced my connext alarm with a quieter intermittent beeper. Much improved!

My steering got extremely stiff last time out & I finally think I tracked it down to some hard water & rust type buildup on the end of the steering cable where it slides in/out. Cleaned it up with some emery cloth & sprayed with silicone and it seems good now. If it’s not this I’m worried it’s something in the helm steering box.

Replaced my swim deck boarding handle. It made it a whole 2 years, what a joke. Has anyone found a better option like a heavy rubber strap or something?