New to Boating; First V20

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XXL

Member
I just brought my second "real" boat and first V20 home last week. Picked it up in Nampa Id. after looking for a long time. It has a 235hp Johnson on the back that ran fine with the muffs on, good compression in all cylinders. It has many little condition issues from not having the love. The canvas top is gnarly and the bows to support it look home made. So, my first request- can someone give me a resource for new bows to go with a new top? I can get a top made somewhere close-by from the pattern of the existing top, but the bows I'm not sure of. Any help appreciated. Once I get the picture orientation thing figured out I'll post pics.



Norm
aka XXL
 
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Welcome to the site - you’ll find a bunch of very good guys here and a lot of good advice. That boat should fly with that sized motor. They’re great boats - you should have lots of fun with it.

I’m out in Oregon, so not much help with your immediate problem. I need a top too and I seem to recall a local top guy I met at a sportsman show did the complete job, both frame and canvas - a little sniffing around your area should give you an idea.
 
scook said:
Welcome to the site - you’ll find a bunch of very good guys here and a lot of good advice. That boat should fly with that sized motor. They’re great boats - you should have lots of fun with it.

I’m out in Oregon, so not much help with your immediate problem. I need a top too and I seem to recall a local top guy I met at a sportsman show did the complete job, both frame and canvas - a little sniffing around your area should give you an idea.
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Hey Scott, Thanks for the reply. Obviously I need to flesh out my profile soon...I'm in La Grande, so not too far from you. I'm looking forward to learning more about the boat I just got. Hoping to do Buoy 10, Columbia and Snake next year.

I looked on iFish today and got a good lead on a top-maker named Jerry in Boring. We'll see where that goes. Good to meet you, thanks for the welcome.
Norm
 
Congrats on buying the V. She should fly with a 235. As for the top I don’t know about the west coast but here in Va I frequently see them on Craigslist cheap. Might keep an eye out on there. Other than that any good canvas guy should be able to handle it or know someone who can.
 
If its just the bimini you want, they are pretty generic. Taylor Made makes frames and canvas in various sizes. You just need the width of the windshield and decide how tall and how many cross bars you want. You can get it thru West Marine and other places.

If you also want a clear vinyl enclosure you probably need a canvas shop.
 
My first V20

Sounds like I'm headed to the canvas shop and can let them provide the bows from whatever source they use when making a top. I'm still trying to figure out the picture posting process as the pics I uploaded originally have displayed with the wrong orientation...will keep trying.
XXL
 
Ah, NAPA Idaho - I misread that as Indiana. Nice to have another west coast guy here. I’m just moving my boat paperwork and when I put it back on the shelves, I’ll look for the info on that top guy.

Hopefully next year will be a lot better fishing. I think there was only about a week on the Columbia when a few fish were caught this season. I was too busy to go at all but my usual fishing buddy (who usually kills them) caught one and his other partner caught two or three. My son-in-law, who’s a maniac fisherman only caught a few on the Columbia as well.

My V is an I/O, so I don’t know much about outboards but one caution - I fished a little with a guy from Camas in his outboard V and he had a horror story. He let a relative drive the boat picking up the anchor, using an anchor lift and he didn’t steer off to the side far enough and got the anchor line in the prop. The current was pretty strong and when the line came taught wrapped around the prop, with the low transom, it started swamping the boat in a hurry. He dove in and cut the line, lost the anchor but saved his boat -he drives the boat when he’s pulling the anchor now and keeps a sharp serrated knife at the stern where he can grab it too.
 
scook said:
Ah, NAPA Idaho - I misread that as Indiana. Nice to have another west coast guy here. I’m just moving my boat paperwork and when I put it back on the shelves, I’ll look for the info on that top guy.

Hopefully next year will be a lot better fishing. I think there was only about a week on the Columbia when a few fish were caught this season. I was too busy to go at all but my usual fishing buddy (who usually kills them) caught one and his other partner caught two or three. My son-in-law, who’s a maniac fisherman only caught a few on the Columbia as well.

My V is an I/O, so I don’t know much about outboards but one caution - I fished a little with a guy from Camas in his outboard V and he had a horror story. He let a relative drive the boat picking up the anchor, using an anchor lift and he didn’t steer off to the side far enough and got the anchor line in the prop. The current was pretty strong and when the line came taught wrapped around the prop, with the low transom, it started swamping the boat in a hurry. He dove in and cut the line, lost the anchor but saved his boat -he drives the boat when he’s pulling the anchor now and keeps a sharp serrated knife at the stern where he can grab it too.
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We had something similar happen on the Columbia fishing for shad on my buddy's boat. He had just bought a Bolton 21 with an offshore bracket and his anchor wouldn't hold the boat; got the rope wrapped around the prop as we're dragging the anchor and floating into a bunch of other boats....fortunately we were able to lift the outboard and get untangled while everybody scrambled to get out of our way. Lesson learned- bigger CR anchor that afternoon. We fished Astoria for 3 days, 3 guys, 3 fish- not a good year for salmon. Hoping to go to Troy soon for Steelies on the Grande Ronde.
 
Destroyer said:
Why waste your money. If all you want is a Bimini top then go to these guys on eBay.

http://www.ebaystores.com/marineandrvdirect/bimini-tops-/_i.html?_fsub=3674056013&_sid=60202083&

Great prices, 5 year warranty and their frames are made from 1" heavy wall aluminum tubing, unlike others that make theirs from 3/4".

I've had mine for 4 years now and it's still good. Several others on this site have also used them. It's worth a look/see.

Welcome to the site. :beer::beer::beer:
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Destroyer;
Thanks for the link, I've made a folder to put links in and this one will go in too- I'm looking for bows for a top that snaps to the windshield. Since I'm a newbie at this I don't know my :cen: from a hole in the ground. Sounds like the top maker can provide the bows when you have a top made. My top is crap, but if I can find bows to fit, I'll make it work for a year or so.
Norm
 
My first V20. A pic

Let's see if this picture works....
 

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3 Squids said:
Congrats on buying the V. She should fly with a 235. As for the top I don’t know about the west coast but here in Va I frequently see them on Craigslist cheap. Might keep an eye out on there. Other than that any good canvas guy should be able to handle it or know someone who can.
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Not really. That was a 235hp flywheel rated engine, and they were STRETCHING it to call it a 235. It was later changed to the EVINRUDE XP which was a 175HP rated engine. Problem was, it EARNED the nickname 2 thirsty 5. It was a crossflow engine and only 2.6L to crank out that power. It NEEDED 2 fuel pumps to keep up.
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Not really. That was a 235hp flywheel rated engine, and they were STRETCHING it to call it a 235. It was later changed to the EVINRUDE XP which was a 175HP rated engine. Problem was, it EARNED the nickname 2 thirsty 5. It was a crossflow engine and only 2.6L to crank out that power. It NEEDED 2 fuel pumps to keep up.
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Don't even have it in the water yet and it sounds like it's time for a repower. Good thing I'm old and slow too.
:happy:
 
XXL,
Congrats on your new V 20.

If your looking for a replacement style top like Scook has on his boat that's going to be tough to find unless you buy it off an older V20. You could have a local canvas company make new supports and top but that's probably going to be more $$$ then just replacing with a newer style top like the link Destroyer posted. Can't beat the labor cost over seas.

With the newer style bimini you'll more then likely get more headroom but you'll need a local canvas person to make you a windscreen and side curtains providing they are willing to work with what you have installed for a bimini top.
 
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XXL said:
Don't even have it in the water yet and it sounds like it's time for a repower. Good thing I'm old and slow too.
:happy:
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Naaa Nothing wrong with your engine? If it ain't broke don't fix it. Almost all 2 strokes are more thirsty than the new 4 strokes. So unless there's something real wrong, what's a few more gallons of gas? :head:
 
:clap:
Destroyer said:
Naaa Nothing wrong with your engine? If it ain't broke don't fix it. Almost all 2 strokes are more thirsty than the new 4 strokes. So unless there's something real wrong, what's a few more gallons of gas? :head:
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Unless you you're traveling a far distances the older 2 stroke technology could possibly make sense.

We are pondering this thought on our V20.
We have an older 2 strokes that needs attention.
 
inaforty said:
XXL,
Congrats on your new V 20.

If your looking for a replacement style top like Scook has on his boat that's going to be tough to find unless you buy it off an older V20. You could have a local canvas company make new supports and top but that's probably going to be more $$$ then just replacing with a newer style top like the link Destroyer posted. Can't beat the labor cost over seas.

With the newer style bimini you'll more then likely get more headroom but you'll need a local canvas person to make you a windscreen and side curtains providing they are willing to work with what you have installed for a bimini top.
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Thanks for the ideas; I have a top very similar to scook's which is not usable and don't know enough about any of this to know how not to spend too much money. A bimini with windscreen and side curtains is a good idea. Also, I think my side curtains might be usable with a new top and bows. Another problem is that winter is real close and that heated shop large enough to pull my boat in.....yeah, I don't have that! Plenty of cold weather gear though and where there's a will, there's a way.
Norm
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Not really. That was a 235hp flywheel rated engine, and they were STRETCHING it to call it a 235. It was later changed to the EVINRUDE XP which was a 175HP rated engine. Problem was, it EARNED the nickname 2 thirsty 5. It was a crossflow engine and only 2.6L to crank out that power. It NEEDED 2 fuel pumps to keep up.
Click to expand...

By the way Mr. Fermanator :beer: :birthday: :beer:
 
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