Fish Finder Follies

 Sunday morning I awoke at a bit after 2 am and remembered my fish finder/sonar battery was completely dead as it had left it on at Albion over night. We were to fish at Tomales and I wasn't about to go out there with gps. Yeah, I have done it before with just a compass but...why take chances.

Raced to the shop and plugged the battery onto the charger. Knowing I would only have about a two hour charge I decided to change to an older black and white unit as opposed to my color Dragonfly. Swapped out transducers and loaded the kayaks in prep for HT's arrival.

At Tomales while gearing up I noticed I forgot the little coupler that links the FF to the 1 inch ramp ball. No problem...nothing a little hvac tape wouldn't fix. In my rush to attach the wires to the battery I snapped off one of the battery post flush with the top. No problem, borrowed a screwdriver from PSherman and sank a screw into the battery right alongside the broken post. Then stripped out the FF wire and taped it to the screw. Everything worked like a charm all day.

The battery is repairable ...I'll just insert a short flat head screw and wrap a wire around it then liquid tape the whole mess. It'll last a few more years...haha

Well done!

That reminds me of a story where an Inuit man self rescued by using seaweed to replace a faulty fuel line gasket.

"OtobeMacGyver"   

P.S.  I'll fix the picture when I get home.

would expect nothing less from you 

would expect nothing less from you 

Cameron, You have No Idea. First I tried to "couple" the 2 one inch ram balls together with a hollowed out zucchini. It's a shame that didn't work out too well or we would have another use for the abundance of them...

At Tomales while gearing up I noticed I forgot the little coupler that links the FF to the 1 inch ramp ball. No problem...nothing a little hvac tape wouldn't fix. In my rush to attach the wires to the battery I snapped off one of the battery post flush with the top. No problem, borrowed a screwdriver from PSherman and sank a screw into the battery right alongside the broken post. Then stripped out the FF wire and taped it to the screw. Everything worked like a charm all day.

The battery is repairable ...I'll just insert a short flat head screw and wrap a wire around it then liquid tape the whole mess. It'll last a few more years...haha
[/quote]Yep. same battery I have. Same break but I was home so re soldered the tang and it worked fine. I did buy a lithium to replace. One pound guy so can't anchor the yak in a pinch anymore with the old heavy as hell battery.

Sunday morning I awoke at a bit after 2 am and remembered my fish finder/sonar battery was completely dead as it had left it on at Albion over night. We were to fish at Tomales and I wasn't about to go out there with gps. Yeah, I have done it before with just a compass but...why take chances.

Raced to the shop and plugged the battery onto the charger. Knowing I would only have about a two hour charge I decided to change to an older black and white unit as opposed to my color Dragonfly. Swapped out transducers and loaded the kayaks in prep for HT's arrival.

At Tomales while gearing up I noticed I forgot the little coupler that links the FF to the 1 inch ramp ball. No problem...nothing a little hvac tape wouldn't fix. In my rush to attach the wires to the battery I snapped off one of the battery post flush with the top. No problem, borrowed a screwdriver from PSherman and sank a screw into the battery right alongside the broken post. Then stripped out the FF wire and taped it to the screw. Everything worked like a charm all day.

The battery is repairable ...I'll just insert a short flat head screw and wrap a wire around it then liquid tape the whole mess. It'll last a few more years...haha

Seems like you could do a decent job as an electrician - have you ever thought about going into that field?

Sunday morning I awoke at a bit after 2 am and remembered my fish finder/sonar battery was completely dead as it had left it on at Albion over night. We were to fish at Tomales and I wasn't about to go out there with gps. Yeah, I have done it before with just a compass but...why take chances.

Raced to the shop and plugged the battery onto the charger. Knowing I would only have about a two hour charge I decided to change to an older black and white unit as opposed to my color Dragonfly. Swapped out transducers and loaded the kayaks in prep for HT's arrival.

At Tomales while gearing up I noticed I forgot the little coupler that links the FF to the 1 inch ramp ball. No problem...nothing a little hvac tape wouldn't fix. In my rush to attach the wires to the battery I snapped off one of the battery post flush with the top. No problem, borrowed a screwdriver from PSherman and sank a screw into the battery right alongside the broken post. Then stripped out the FF wire and taped it to the screw. Everything worked like a charm all day.

The battery is repairable ...I'll just insert a short flat head screw and wrap a wire around it then liquid tape the whole mess. It'll last a few more years...haha

Seems like you could do a decent job as an electrician - have you ever thought about going into that field?

I tried to lend him a RAM mount but he didn't want to mess with the tape around the FF.  I like people who are resourceful cuz they're survivalists.

If I recall, O2BE told me he does electrical work for a living. LOL!

The battery is repairable ...I'll just insert a short flat head screw and wrap a wire around it then liquid tape the whole mess. It'll last a few more years...haha

Seems like you could do a decent job as an electrician - have you ever thought about going into that field?

I tried to lend him a RAM mount but he didn't want to mess with the tape around the FF.  I like people who are resourceful cuz they're survivalists.

If I recall, O2BE told me he does electrical work for a living. LOL!

I always figured he was a professional frog gigger since he always brings "frog legs" to the Albion potluck 

I have to use a quote from Becky.
"You're an electrician and that's the best you can do?"   

Still laugh about that one.

So did ya get any fish?
And way to think outside the box.

Now a hollowed out zucchini coupler would've been really impressive. 

Now a hollowed out zucchini coupler would've been really impressive. 

He did try that! 

Okie from Muskogee

Hollowed out zucchini 

Way to improvise,  adapt, and over come.