fiznuka wrote:
Glad to see another '96 200. Welcome
Thanks all! It's been a great boat. Here are a few pics from when we first bought it:
http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/boat.htm
I bought it on a whim, after failing to get up on a deep water slalom start at Lake Pactola, SD, behind our former 17' Kona with a Merc 1350. I threw down the tow handle in disgust and vowed to get a V-8. It's my "Ebay special", drove thru 3 states to pick it up. It had been stored at a Michigan doctor's summer cabin near Wichita. It had 220 hrs and was/is in excellent condition. Shortly after bringing it home, it was getting full timing advance above 700 rpm. The ends of the springs in the distributor centrifugal advance had corroded and snapped off. I replaced them with stainless springs and all is good. The U-joints in the outdrive were knocking loudly under power in hard turns, so replaced them and inspected the transom boot. New Timken wheel bearings and Amsoil waterproof synthetic grease. Replaced all the fluids with Amsoil. Replaced the castrating bow cleats with Atwood pop-ups, added mini Atwood pop-ups mid-ship and aft for fender lines. Other than that, it's only the usual annual maintenance and winterizing and has been a great boat.
We've had it out on a dozen or so lakes thru-out the southwest: Jackson Lake in Glacier, Yellowstone Lake, Lake Sacajawea, ND, Angostura Lake near Hot Springs, SD, Mead, Havasu, just about every navigable lake in New Mexico. I get a kick out of the "Fenton Marina" decal on the transom (Michigan?). We have a Fenton Lake near Los Alamos, New Mexico, you can cross end-to-end and side-to-side in about 2 or 3 paddle strokes in a canoe.
We look forward to doing Powell next year. Some day we'll tow it out to Newport or San Pedro and make a run out to Catalina.
Normal season for us typically is thru the end of November, so won't be winterizing it yet.
