I think really hard about buying some 17-20 bow riders to rent out here. Boat rental is a severely underserved market here. You can rent one of several pontoon boats that will top out at about 17 mph and one fishing boat, and that's it. Nobody is even doing p2p rental on websites like boatsetter and getmyboat. I may try one later this year or next. Buy something with 10-15 years old, with a nice interior and a 4.3 v6. Just to see what revenue it can do.
Anyone know what a “smart” alternator is? I’m investigating doing a high amp dc-to-dc charging setup for my RV from my Ram 3500 high output alternator, and everything I read references needing a “smart” alternator, but I can’t find any details around what makes it smart, never mind if I have one. The dealership is beyond useless and won’t give me info for fear of being held liable for something.
Pretty excited. The initial solar and battery system that came with the Tin Can sucks. Full stop. AGM batteries, shit solar controller, etc. I really wish I knew more about it when I initially ordered it. Definitely get the sense they blew out old inventory on me when I bought. Oh well. Fuck them. Currently upgrading to a new 500ah LIPO battery upgrade that includes 60amp direct charging from the idling truck engine, controlled by the aux switch in the cab. Way better than lugging around a generator. Next step is a PTO driven generator to provide live shore power, at 50amps, at idle. (my RAM has a PTO option that I obviously went for). But that’s next year. Hard part is finding a shop willing to do the work. Nobody wants to. So it’s all on me. Weeee.
I should also mention that it’s all based on Victron controls and gear. Definitely the gold standard in DC power control, and used a ton in marine applications.
Hope you have a good insurance policy haha In CA, the made it mandatory to have a boating license under the age of 40. They just changed that to >50 by 2025 and all boaters by 2030(?IIRC) Not sure what that'll do to the rental marker around here. What's the jet-ski world like where you're at?
Jetski rentals? Nonexistent on this lake. They have boater's safety course requirements in Virginia, too. I forget what they actually are, I got mine long ago, before it was mandatory that I have one. I'd require completion of a safety course for any operator. There are some free courses out there, BoatUS offers one. Virginia has guidelines and resources for safety briefing when renters take delivery of the boat. There's some good insurance policies that have come out of the rise of P2P boat rentals. I definitely wouldn't consider doing anything without insurance. This lake is big, 800 some miles of shoreline. It only gets really crowded on the 4th, Labor Day and a festival weekend in late July. The rest of the time, it isn't overwhelming for a rookie boat driver to stay out of trouble.
@Fiveslide That's cool. Could be a way to make some nice side money. I know the boats at Lake Tahoe cost an arm and a leg to rent. Jet-skis are a nightmare up here. They're like cockroaches.
RANT: Machine shop prices have gone up a bunch since I last remember. I've got an engine at a local shop, and SO FAR my bill is $686*; with the other work I'm planning to do, I know that it's going to go over $1K easy. I know this isn't the rant and rave thread, but I thought you guys would appreciate it more. *What I've had done so far: Sonic clean the block, pressure test it, bore .030", deck the bank surfaces .020", and mic and polish the crankshaft. After this, I was planning on balancing the reciprocating assembly, and refreshing the cylinder heads. Ask questions if you've got any.
That sucks, dude... EVERYTHING is getting more expensive it seems. In other news, I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but Steve Morris makes drag race engines... and he has a YouTube channel that he's been investing in a bit lately and showing a bunch of pretty interesting content. A lot of it is stuff that I know goes on, but the dude is really getting into some details and it's pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/@stevemorrisracing/featured
I guess that depends on what you mean by normal. It's a cammed, high compression Ford 5.4 for my/ my dad's '07 Grand Marquis. This is the engine I hydrolocked around Christmas last year. It bent two connecting rods and spread antifreeze all through the engine, ruining the finish on the cylinder bores. Compression will be in the low 10s, cams are Comp XE268s. I've ported the PI heads, and I modified a set of cheap Mustang longtubes*. I'll post some pictures here soon. *There is only ONE company who makes longtube headers for Ford Panthers: Stainless Works. They cost $1,200, and they are designed for the factory 4.6; the 5.4 has larger external dimensions which means that they will STILL have to be modified. I'm not cutting up a $1,200 set of headers, so I took my chances with a $200 Ebay set.
The cruise control quit working on my 35 year old truck, actually lasted much longer than I expected.
Ouch... My ass hurts... I just paid $700 at the machine shop today: Also, according to the tag on the crankshaft, it is bent by .002", which, while not "good," is within service limits (.005" max). For the record, when I was tearing the engine down, the crank spun freely with two fingers, with all of the main caps torqued. I'm going to run it. I still have probably another $500 worth of work to do (balance the reciprocating assembly, refresh the cylinder heads), but I'm going to wait for my bank account to recharge first. Like I've mentioned before, back when I was actively building engines (about ten years ago), the work I've had done would have been under $500.
Last night, my brother told me he's looking at buying a newer car (his current car is 12yrs old) and asked if there were any he should avoid. Today he bought a 2020 Subaru Impreza hatch. I have no idea what they are like as far as maintenance and long term ownership.