We had the opportunity to ride to Preeceville, Saskatchewan with brother in law Bernie and his wife. Bernie has a new Harley Davidson and was going to Preeceville for a meet with other bikers who were part of an online group called Canadian X Riders. These people all own or have owned Honda VTX motorcycles. We were asked if we wanted to come along and drive Bernie’s VTX. Naturally, we said yes. Here is the story and accompanying pics….
Aug 5 we packed up and headed out early in the morning with plans to ride all the way to Cereal, Alberta. We have relatives there and it was a good halfway point on our journey to Saskatchewan. The weather was beautiful - sunny and hot.
We headed up Crowsnest Pass and out into the prairies. At Fort Macleod we got off the main highway and used backroads all the way across Alberta and up to Cereal. We went through towns like Picture Butte, Brooks, and Pollockville. It was very pretty and the roads were mostly decent. We had lunch in Picture Butte. The scenery was great.
We met our friends in Cereal and got a tour of the small town (pop 200). We headed for the local bar for a few cool ones before heading back for a steak BBQ. Dinner was awesome! Thanks Chris and Trish for your wonderful hospitality!!
Alberta beef at its best!
The next day we loaded up and headed out into Saskatchewan. Shortly after leaving Cereal we crested a small rise and the world suddenly opened up in front of us. I swear I could see all the way to Ontario!! What a view. Sorry - no pics - we were riding along, so enjoying the view and the cool breeze that we didn’t think to stop for a picture. Our first stop was in Kindersley, Sask. A busy Saskatchewan community with a pretty downtown area. We rode into town looking for a post office so that Val could mail a postcard off to her niece. We couldn’t find any postcards so we headed on out. Next stop - Rosetown. We fueled up in Rosetown and headed south a bit to find another backroad that would take us east and south of Saskatoon.
Hwy 15 was in good shape all the way across to hwy 11. We crossed the busy hiway 11 and continued east. Suddenly we hit gravel. The sign said “Loose Stones”. Never seen that before. We stopped and debated whether to continue - it is very difficult to drive a fully loaded hiway cruiser bike with two people on board across miles of gravel road. We decided to turn around and go back to hiway 11 and up to Saskatoon. This added another 100 km or so onto the day’s ride. Just into Saskatoon we caught hiway 16 east - the Yellowhead - and were back on track to Preeceville. We stopped for lunch in Clavet at a small diner. The burgers were great.
Bug splats....so much for a clean bike.
We continued east on hwy 16 through towns with names like Plunkett, Lanigan, Kandahar, Mozart, Elfros….. The scenery changed a bit - more trees and some big lakes, but very flat. We turned off of 16 at Elfros and went north to Wadena, then east again to Buchanan then north again to Preeceville.
The next couple of days were spent in Preeceville and surrounding areas. We even rode into Manitoba with the group on a 5 hour circle tour on Saturday. When we got back, there was a wonderful feast awaiting us at a local resident’s home. Ukranian food at its best….perogies, sausage, cabbage rolls, salads, and a specialty that I can’t even spell - lamb that had been marinating for 3 days in a secret sauce then cooked on the BBQ. It was the most wonderful tasting lamb I have ever experienced.
We met some wonderful people from all over Canada who took the time to ride to Saskatchewan on their bikes. Here are some of the many pics we took.
Well, we loaded up the boat early Saturday morning and headed for Creston and Kootenay Lake. We purchased a ladder for boarding from the lake the day before, along with a new fish finder. I installed them Friday evening. We found an inexpensive fish finder on sale at Canadian Tire. It is an Eagle 245ds. Reg $189.00 for $145.00. A few lures, some new line for Lyliane’s new salmon rod and we were ready to fish.
I bought some Gunk oil treatment - I was hoping it would help seal up the rings a bit so we didn’t use so much oil. We fuelled up at the Wyndell Store - a great place for lures, tackle, beer, whatever you need for a day on the lake…..they have marked premium for boats at a decent price as well.
We dropped into the lake at the Kuskanook Harbour located on the south end of Kootenay Lake. It was a beautiful clear, calm day. We headed down the lake for about a mile or two, then dropped the trolling plate and put out some gear. This was the first time using the trolling plate. It worked better than expected. Using my GPS, we adjusted the speed of the boat to 2.8 MPH. Engine RPM was 1000 exactly. We trolled around for a bit, but there was lots of debris on the water and it was difficult to keep our lines clean of weeds and twigs, so we pulled up and headed down the lake a few more miles to find some clear water.
The Captain
We found a nice area and the fish finder indicated there were lots of fish in the area so we slowed down again and started trolling. We tried many colour combinations of Bucktails and Hockey Sticks with no luck. We were told to troll our gear right on top and to maintain 2.8 MPH. We fished for several hours with not even a bite.
Heading up the Lake
At about 4:00 we pulled in our gear and decided to head for the far north arm of the lake - about 25 miles down the lake. I pulled up the leg to raise the trolling plate and lock it up and we then headed north. The boat ran great at about 3800 RPM. My GPS indicated we were travelling along at about 31-32 MPH. We got to about Boswell, just south of Crawford Bay and the ferry crossing when the engine sputtered and started losing power. I idled down and there was lots of smoke billowing out from the engine compartment. The engine was running really rough and it was hard to keep it going. I feared the worst, thinking we lost a piston. We turned around and headed back up the lake, giving up on fishing and just hoping we could make it back to the launch. I idled the motor for about 10 minutes and it suddenly smoothed out and started to pick up power. I think maybe a spark plug had fouled and we were running on three cylinders for a while. Anyway, it cleared up and the smoke died down and we were able to get back up to speed and head for home. I kept the RPM at 3000 with no further problems and we made it back to the dock and loaded up.
The next morning we headed back to Creston and Kootenay Lake for another try at those famous Gerrard Rainbows. They can regularly get up to over 20 lbs - the largest of the Rainbow family. I changed the spark plugs - they were in pretty bad shape. We topped up the oil - about 1 litre, so our consumption was definitely down from the previous weekend. Once out on the lake, we headed for the far side where we were told the fish were biting.
First Mate
It was quite windy on Sunday - whitecaps and 2-3ft rollers on the lake. The boat handled the chop nicely, tossing us about when we were crosswind, but quite smooth otherwise. The boat ran nicely across the lake - 3500RPM and 28-30 MPH on the rough water. We found the bay where the fishing was supposed to be good and dropped the trolling plate and put out our gear. We used many different types of lures - Hockey Sticks, Bucktails, Crocs, Kitimats, all without any luck. I got a couple good hits on a silver croc that had a red stripe down the side, but wasn’t able to keep anything hooked. Lyliane got fed up and after a few hours, tried a silly blue propeller shaped spinner. She didn’t have it out very long before she had a couple of bites. Then suddenly she had a nice hit and her line started peeling off her new reel. She finally had one hooked!! The fish played with her for a while and I was finally able to get the net out and scoop it up into the boat. About a 4 lb rainbow - nice fish!!
It was getting really windy out and the boat was running low on fuel so we decided to head back up the lake (into the wind) and cross over to the east side. The engine ran smooth all day till we got to the east side where all the debris was still on the water. We must have hit something because all of a sudden the motor started to over-rev and we lost a bit of power. When I tried to throttle back up, the engine revved up and we lost power. I limped the boat back to the dock at half throttle and we loaded up and headed for home.
Trolling for the big one!
When we got home, I pulled the prop off to find that the rubber core of the prop had sheared, indicating that we had probably hit something in the water. A new prop was in order. A minor detail, not overly expensive as I found out. I hope we can get back on the water again maybe next week.
Well, we loaded up the boat with fuel and headed out to Koocanusa Lake for a picnic cruise with Danielle and Kris and his parents. Weather was nice - sunny and warm with a few clouds floating around. The boat ran good all afternoon - a few small misfires, but generally good. We did use over 3 litres of oil though. Gonna have to pull the motor this winter and put in some new rings and maybe a piston.
We are going over to Kotenay Lake this coming weekend. Can’t wait to try catching some of those lunker Gerrard Rainbows that lake is famous for.
Hi everybody! After a short hiatus, I am back on the web. Thanks to James from ISPHOST.ORG for getting me back up and running. They have been my hosts for many years and I am glad to be back with them.
We have had some setbacks this year with the poor economy and all. Lyliane hasn’t been working too much - layoffs and such. We sold the RV and downgraded to an 8.5 ft camper for the pickup. Now we can go camping and tow the boat along with us with only the one vehicle. We found the camper on Craigslist and got a nice unit in Kalispel, Montana. After some overhauling and repairs, it is in great shape. Lyliane made all new curtains and re-papered the walls. All the woodwork has been re-finished with diamond coat Varathane. It looks really nice.
It is spring time in the Rockies and that means camping and fishing season is here! The boat is almost ready after some winter repairs and a carb rebuild. Hope to have it on the lake this weekend….
Lyliane and I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and the best for the New Year!!
Well, August was a blast - went boating a few times, even made it out to Kootenay Lake for a day of fishing. Trolled around for over 9 hours, caught 1 lousy fish!!! But what a fish it was!!!
Kootenay Lake Rainbow!!
We had a great day on the lake with no problems. We dropped into Moyie Lake a couple more times and spent Labor Day on Premier Lake - windy, cold, no fish. All problems with the boat are now fixed and we have a great new toy to add to the collection. All that’s left to do is finish the floors with Duradeck coating, and finish up the gel coat repairs on the hull.
Today I climbed Fisher Peak, a 9200 ft peak, the highest in the Kootenays!! Here’s the pics.
It was a heck of a climb from the start. Very steep, rocky, challenging all the way!! Well worth the climb if you are in any kind of decent shape.
Well, more investigation into the hard starting issue turned up some stories about the timing being too far advanced. The voltage issue has been solved with the addition of an alternator to the system. I fabricated a mount at my brother in law’s shop and it works good. I had to re-locate the coil to a location behind the alternator and put on a longer coil wire, and the coolant recovery bottle is now located on the front of the heat exchanger. Everything fits under the cowling nicely.
New alternator mounted
I was able to borrow a timing light and found the timing to be way too far advanced - that would also explain the pinging in the engine at WOT. I set the timing back to 4 deg and the motor idled down too far to keep running - so I had to re-adjust the linkage and turned the idle back up to 500 rpm. After letting the engine idle for half an hour, I shut it off and let it sit for a minute or two and then hit the start key again - it fired right up!! I tried this several more times just to be sure and got an easy start each and every time!! Time to hit the lake again.
We loaded up on Saturday morning and headed down to Moyie Lake with some friends. We dropped the boat into the water and fired it up and idled out onto the lake. I stroked the motor up to 3500 rpm and it jumped up onto a plane and took off down the lake. Sweet!! No pinging from the motor, just a nice smooth ride. We played around a bit on the water then idled down to do some fishing. We trolled around for about an hour, no fish!! Time for lunch.
We picked a nice quiet bay to pull into out of the wind and other boating traffic and shut down. Lyliane packed a nice lunch - BBQ chicken, macaroni salad and cole slaw. Some cold ice tea finished things up and we were ready to go. The boat had no difficulty starting and I finally thought that all the major issues had been solved with the engine and drive in this boat. I felt relieved and happy that all was well.
We played around on the water for a few more hours and then headed back in to the launch. My friend Tom helped me make some adjustments to the trailer before we loaded the boat - the front rollers were too low and the boat sat poorly on the trailer so we raised the front swivel assembly a couple of inches then loaded the boat. It sat about three to four inches higher up front and now I was able to drain the bilge when the trailer sat on level ground. I drained about a gallon of water from the bilge - not bad for a small leak on the heat exchanger and 4 to 5 hours of run time. The boat sat better on the trailer and towed nicer - more weight was shifted to the rear making it trail smoother.
We had an enjoyable day on the water with no major issues. It was time for a run on a bigger lake a little further from home…..
Wide open down the lake...
Well, after the shakedown criuse, I did some investigating into what caused the boat to not want to start. The battery was drained because the voltage regulator wasn’t putting out enough voltage. I did some research online about the 470 Mercruiser with the 4 cylinder 140 engine and found lots of stories about faulty regulators and hard starting problems. Seems the easiest fix is to put an alternator on it driven off the front pulley to keep the battery charged. I found a 65 Amp Delco Alternator with a regulator built in that will do the job nicely. Now all I have to do is manufacture a mount for it. Online this alternator sells for about $125.00USD. I found it locally at Lordco Parts for $58.00 CDN. The kit to convert the motor over w/alternator and mounts, wiring harness was available on EBAY for $350.00. I think I will be able to manufacture my own mount for much less…..
On another note, while on the way home from the lake last week, a jerry can full of fuel spilled all over the interior of the floor and made a mess. Best way to clean that up was to remove the carpeting - we were gonna do that anyway. Well, we opened up a whole new can of worms there - rotten floorboards!!!! I peeled what was left of the plywood on the starboard side to find the floatation foam underneath totally waterlogged as well. That would explain the starboard list we experienced on the lake last week. I spent the weekend ripping out the plywood and styrofoam and inspecting the hull and transom for rot. The hull was fine, but the transom needs some work - some rot in the wood below the water line.
Rotten floorboards
Looking towards the transom..
I got it all cleaned up and it has been sunny and hot the last few days, so everything is dried out and ready to be rebuilt. I bought some 3/4″ fir plywood and have all the pieces cut out and ready to be installed. First they all need to be coated in fiberglass resin to seal out any moisture that may get back in there. Then I will screw the new pieces into place and fiberglass over it all to finish it. Then some holes will be drilled into the floor and new flotation foam will be sprayed into the voids. This not only helps to keep the boat afloat if there is a major hole in the hull, but also adds strength to the hull and quiets things down. We plan on glueing down some vinyl deck material over the entire back area of the floor of the boat so that this problem won’t happen again.
Clean and dry, ready for new wood
Tomorrow I resin the new pieces and fiberglass them into place…
Here is a small gallery of pics of the boat just after we totally cleaned it up….and then ripped it apart…
The boat needs a lot of work before I can trust it enough to take it out on a lake. It was filthy inside and out. Lyliane did the inside cleaning job while I worked on polishing up the exterior and getting the engine running. The motor was siezed and needed some persuasion with a big wrench on the flywheel to get it unstuck. I pulled the old plugs out - they were a gooey mess. New plugs and some fuel down the carb, still no start. No spark!!
I went over the ignition system and found the points were not working. Cleaned them up, turned her over, voila, ignition. Some fuel down the carb was all it needed to make it go for the first time in years. It would not stay running, so a carb kit was next on the plate…
Rebuilt the carb, put her back on, poured some fuel down the throat, turned her over and she started. I ran it a minute or so with fuel being pumped from a jerry can, till I smelled burning rubber. Shit, I forgot to turn on the water to the leg!!! So much for the impeller - probably needed replacing anyway. The next morning I went down to the local marine shop and got the impeller and some oil for the leg. Pulled it all apart and found everything to be in good shape. Replaced the impeller, bolted it back up and put new synthetic oil into it. Time for another test. Motor started fine but would not idle down. Cooling system was working, temp stayed below 160F. I had to undo all the linkage to the carb and re-set it all to get the idle down to 850RPM. Engine sounded very strong and smooth. Fuel gauge wasn’t working, and when I hooked the fuel line up to the main tank, it stalled. Next morning I pulled the sending unit for the gauge and found it to be totally corroded beyond use. The pickup tube for the fuel was also corroded and plugged. I purchased a new sending unit for the gauge and designed my own pickup tube using a weighted filter with a check valve in it at the end of the tube. It is an actual Bobcat fuel pickup I got from the local dealer. Hooked everything up and started the motor. Switched over to the fuel tank and it didn’t stall. It was burning the 15 year old stinky fuel that was in the tank!! I think it is ready for a test run on the lake.
Took the boat out to Moyie Lake Saturday afternoon for its first test run. Filled the tank with regular fuel - figured we got about a 50/50 mix of old and new fuel in it. Dropped it into the lake and turned the key, fired right up!! Backed out of the way of all the smaller boats, pulled her into the dock to pick up Lyliane and headed out. Ran smooth at idle till we opened her up a bit. Backfired a couple of times, almost stalled, then smoothed right out. Must have been a bit of old fuel still in the lines.
We got her up on a plane and she ran smooth all the way to the other end of the lake - about a fifteen minute run at 4000 RPM. Turned her around and headed back up the lake. Took it down to 2500 RPM, still planing!! We did notice it had a slight list to the starboard side. I figured that because we had a spare battery and a small jerry can on that side, it wasn’t anything serious. Dropped to an idle to see how it was for trolling speed. Seemed about right, then adjusted the trim a bit and she slowed down even more - perfect!! Then I gave her full throttle out of the hole to see how it would do…..stalled it. That was it for the day. Could not get it started again - starter decided it wasn’t going to turn over anymore. We sat in the middle of the lake for about 20 minutes, enjoying the view and the weather, hoping the starter would cool down and go one more time. No such luck. We flagged another boater down who was nice enough to give us a tow back into the dock where we were able to load it onto the trailer and take it back home. More work needed before we take it out for a fishing trip…..
