We Bought Another Old Bass Boat, Did We Get Screwed? | Stratos 201 / Mercury Pros XS
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- With spring incoming quickly, this March we went in search of a ride for the 2023 bass season. We picked up this 1997 Stratos 201 Pro XL with a 2009 Mercury Optimax ProXS 250. We were hoping this was a turn-key, ready to fish package, but alas, it was not. We've encountered many issues with the motor (mainly the compressor!), which we will be going into more detail on in this new Stratos series of videos.
Thanks for watching as always, don't forget to like and subscribe!
Kyle
What is your opinion on the Mercury Optimax line of motors?
Junk, just like most mercs... Yamaha or Suzuki all day, every day.
@@c.shoefish Strongly agree after owning this Opti for a few months lol
@@FishingOntario I've had to repair too many of em, I would never own one.
This will likely be our first and last lol
kind of hard to get parts for or find someone to work on a SUZY... they are like the old mercury force motors,, a hodgpodge of leftover parts from different manufacturers... suzuki vehicles are the same way,., the older yammy 2 strokes are very powerful and reliable... I bought the last year of the 2 stroke 115 on 08 and its been bullet proof.. lots of torque and carries the mail... only drawback is its a gas hog, and a little hard to start in cold weather, ive burned up a chrysler in cold weather due to icing in the carburetor, so im always kind of leary abt running the yammy when its really cold.. @@c.shoefish
Where I live, we can do test runs year round. Seems there is an entire story behind the certified tech shake down.
Look forward to seeing the repairs. Good Luck!!
Love your videos! So in depth!
P.S. sorry about your new problems.
Thanks for watching! It’s what keeps me making them! And thanks for your condolences, but we always manage to get everything figured out lol
Have you looked into having the compressor rebuilt? If they aren’t to bad blown on the inside it is fairly easy to rebuild them.
We have a bit! Unfortunately, this one ended up being too far gone. Crank pin was very worn, cylinder was oval.
Where I live, we can do test runs year round. Seems there is an entire story behind the certified tech shake down.
Look forward to seeing the repair work. Good Luck!! Time will tell if you were screwed or not. I hope not
Unfortunately, up here in the Great White North we usually have ice until the late spring, so no ability to test run. We are up and running now, and I’m just uploading the progress videos retrospectively, but there was… a lot required to get it going unfortunately😂 Thanks for checking the video out! More drama to come soon lol
What is your opinion on the Mercury Optimax line of motors?. Love your videos! So in depth! P.S. sorry about your new problems..
Thanks for the support! 🙏
I'd say sell that POS for parts and swap to a Yamaha or Suzuki, even if used. They'll still cost you a pretty penny but you're not dealing with constant issues.
We’re fortunately not going to be in this boat for long. Once the Triton is done, we’re hoping to stick a SHO on the back of it.
@@FishingOntario There you go. Now you're talking. If you want to be the first one at the spot, buy a Merc. If you want to get back to the ramp, you buy a Yamaha.
You’ll see in an upcoming video how true that statement is lol
@@FishingOntario lol can't wait. I know how it is🤣
my 2007 115 hp optimax makes a knocking noise . previous owner bought it new, and said it sounded that way from day one.. Im going to take the belt off and investigate.. THANKS for the vid, if u need parts, maybe I can help you out,, im in TX
Thank you very much for the parts help offer we have it back together and have been using it for a couple months now and all is good .These motors do have a slight knocking noise to them when running especially with the cowl off it's more noticeable . What you are looking for is excessive play at bottom or top dead center and noise there when rocking the pulley back and forth
I checked my air pump and it seems very healthy. I also found the water strainer location and cleaned it out,, these are interesting motors, and I love mine so far.. very fuel economic.. starts easy in cold weather. just wish there was a cheaper aftermarket scan tool available for them.. it would be nice to check the particular data pids now and then . something I found out, if u dont have a strong battery these motors will crank over, but wont start and u thing you have a different issue,, they want 850 to 1000 ccas @@chrisholmes1666
Heyo, im pretty late on replying to your comment, and I see my old man already has, so just wanted to say thanks for watching!
sir, do you know if the cool fuel cell on the optimax has a removable back cover ? reason is I think something is lodged in the water circuit of the cell that is intermittently blocking the tell tale stream.
Not that I know of, but there is a strainer for the cooling water that may be plugged.
Omg got to pull power head to change
Yessir
shoutout to Anderson!!
LOVE Anderson, very fortunate that I live about 5 minutes from their brewery
@@FishingOntario same! I live in old north (and I play on their hockey team!) lol
@@tomasbouda4419 what a small world
Rebuild every 500 hours powerhead compressor 250 hours
Yeah, damn Mercs!
Why not just swap the Yamaha and the optimax for the season and fix up the opti for the Tritan.
Would have been a better idea for sure!