rainorshine

Rob, congrats on the upgrades. Now you need to blueprint the bottom, get a shorty outdrive w/ a nose cone and a scoop through the the sunpad!
Looks like I'm going to have to Buy that Skater to keep up with you and Wally.

RJBBC

Thanks Scotty. I am done with upgrades on the boat for some time. You may want to jump in that Skater soon or before you know it you'll have kids, 529 plans and soccer games to attend on the weekends.

laser Mark

If you don't mind me asking what was the cost of the package through Crockett I've been thinking about doing it.

RJBBC

My total bill from Crockett came to 8k. The pricing for the kit is on his website.

RJBBC

Well we are almost done spending money on the Checkmate this year. I would like to modify some of my earlier thoughts on the upgrades. To start I did add Imco dual ram hydraulic steering to the helm. The boat had it's last water test of the season yesterday and ran 72.1mph@5100rpms with just me in the boat. I had the boat WOT for some time to see if the boat varied it's top speed with water conditions etc. and the GPS was stuck at 72. The only changes made with the most recent water test were a different prop and the hydraulic steering. The new prop is a 26 4 blade Bravo 1 that was labbed by bblades. The bblades labbed prop had thinner blades and sharper edges than the Mercruiser labbed prop that was borrowed from a friend. The new prop appeared to add about 100rpm at WOT. The hydraulic steering had less play from side to side and it stays in postion when you release the wheel (that's cool) but did not provide much more of a stable feeling at WOT. In conclusion I spent more money than I expected, learned a few things and had alot fun with the whole experience.

Vinny P

Rob,

Glad it all worked out well. You did the right thing with the steering.
I had my last run today. I had a great season. Put about 80 hours on it, most of them tough ones. Last year I had a bunch of drive problems, and got tired of letting the local "experts" get their hands in it. Last winter, I rebuilt it myself. I set-up new gears, bearings, seals, etc. I am happy to say that I did nothing to the drive except change the gear lube every 20 hours. Not bad for a first time drive rebuilder. Spent some money on tools, had Mr Gadgets on the phone a few times for advice, but it all worked out well. I should have the drive apart by next weekend for inspection. Even if the internals are junk, I am ahead of the game as compared to last year.

Vinny

Magic Medicine

Man you guys went boating today. My boat is winterized and I rode my snowmobile in Northern Michigan today, they had 8" of wet snow.

Corbs

RJBBC, did you order direct from IMCO or go thru a dealer? If you don't mind me asking, what was the cost of the system? It is the complete system, correct? - full hydraulic from the helm to the dual rams at the drive? Did you install it? How long did it take to install? Thanks

Magic Medicine

You can buy the steering systems direct or through various distributors. I installed a dual ram add on system, it wasn't too difficult but it is nice to have a extra set of hands to help with the install. After I did it once it will be very easy if I ever do it again. I am thinking about installing a full hydraulic helm next spring.

RJBBC

I ordered the complete dual ram hydraulic steering to the helm from IMCO directly. The IMCO representative I talked to on the phone mentioned it should take about 10 hours to install. He mentioned that you should tie a rope around the cable steering you are taking out so you can feed the new hydraulic lines to the helm and that could save alot of time. The system cost $3700 complete including a new steering wheel. I had our local marina mechanic install the system and it took him 10 hours. He did a great job with the install, looks like it was installed from the factory.