Duck Pond Redneckery

[Duck]

@Mike thinks a CB/Sirius antenna bracket made of 1/2" threaded pipe is redneck...

No. Here's redneck...

Friday in our search for dry land, Brian yelled at me to do a 315° left turn and backtrack to a spot on shore he thought was above the water line.

Having zero experience with controlling the 24 foot barge, I tried it. Could've made it with the 16 footer...

The current pushed us sideways and pinned us against a tree that had fallen over into the river. By the time we pried ourselves off of it, it had torn 2" deep grooves in the polystyrene on two rafts and a different, similar incident took out about a 2" by 6" x 3" chunk on the middle raft.


So here's how I fixed it today... Here's your redneckery Mike.

Great Stuff is orange... This is generic stuff that I won't have to spray paint..

Filled 'em in last night:



Today I shaved it flush with a hacksaw blade.

 

[Mike]

Look closely at the pic. He ran pipe, but tied the cables to the outside of the pipe.

 

[Duck]

Look closely at the pic. He ran pipe, but tied the cables to the outside of the pipe.

I'd have used it as conduit. Magnetic shielding.

OK now all the CB nerds will explain why not to do that, using nonsensical gibberish terms like "ground plane" and "wavelength"..

 

[Duck]

I remembered there's a US Geographical Service metering station on the Kankakee River in Momence.

USGS Current Conditions for USGS 05520500 KANKAKEE RIVER AT MOMENCE, IL

You can enter any date back to like 1987.

It gives flow rate (m³/sec) and gauge height in feet... Height above what, I don't know. The depth varies by location so if it says it's 2 feet it could be 6 feet deep only a foot away.

@Sinister knows exactly what I'm talking about.

But it's a reference I can definitely use.

So anyway I have all my raft trip pictures on a hard drive and a subfolder for each trip, with the date as the folder name.

So I compiled all the data like a fucking nerd..

August 19th, 2008 the gauge height was 6.2 feet. On that trip, we launched from a gravel road downstream of the bridge, and at our favorite sand bar, we were able to drive the raft as far into the forest as we wanted to, with the trolling motor down too.



The lowest I've seen it was July 15th of last year, it was 1.55 feet and we had plenty of beach, and had no trouble getting under State Line Bridge.



The trip when @Sinister went with us was May 31, 2014 and the gauge height was 2.57.

Our regular spot was occupied by squatters who didn't obey our telepathic orders to vacate the premises so none of the pictures show that beach. So I used this one that Sinister took of the bridge after we went under it. We barely cleared it. Keep in mind there are taut cables across the bottom of those I-beams.



Friday we assembled the raft and I walked it around the corner with the rope to feed it under the bridge. Brian got on it and laid down on his stomach and said he couldn't clear it. He's not fat either. The raft by itself, empty, cleared it by about 3 inches. We tied it up on the downstream side and handed everything over the railing to load up.

There's a house right there on the downstream side but he's one of those Deliverance types with "No trespassing" signs everywhere. Otherwise we could've used his back yard to assemble and launch from.




Anyway after we loaded up the raft, Brian and that drunk Sam Elliot lookalike guy climbed to the top of the ironwork on the bridge.

Brian jumped off into the river... Twice.


Anyway now that I found that current and historical float gauge data and compared it to dated photos, now I can estimate what the river is like without having to drive all the way to the river.

 

[Duck]

What I need to do now is drive to the state line and climb over the railing on the bridge with a tape measure to measure the clearance. Note the time, then go back home where the cellular service is 21st century, get the gauge height from that time & then I'll be able to make a chart using the numbers. Actual clearance compared to the numbers reported in Momence.

The gauge in Momence is 9 river miles downstream from the state line.

 

[Duck]

Posting this picture again.. I just remembered something funny.

This pic is from 2014 but right where those people are standing on the left (north) end is where the raft was tied up. River flows west towards the camera.

Brian jumped off the highest point on the ironwork, then swam to the raft. I asked him why he didn't just swim to the north Bank and walk back through that crazy guy's back yard. He said "I dunno"...

~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday at the boat ramp in Momence there was a guy there with his dog. He was throwing a ball into the river and his golden retriever would go in and get it.

He threw the ball straight out. The dog would run about 50 feet down the shore before turning into the water and paddling aiming to the perfect rendezvous point. The ball and the dog's mouth would meet up at that point at the same time. The dog would grab it and turn around and aim directly towards shore instead of back upstream to his master, allowing the current to drift him downstream, then get onto shore and run back to the guy and give him the ball. Rinse, repeat...

I pointed that out to Brian and had him watch.

Then I said "that dog has a better understanding of physics than you do"




I asked the dog's owner if the dog accounted for the flow of the water himself or if he had to teach him that and he said that he had to teach him.

 

[Duck]

I got a call today. Dude asked if I wanted an old go kart with a blown motor for parts.

So I went & got it.

"Engine seized, been sitting in the shed for about 20 years"

Took the head off.



Noticed I could push down on the piston and it would move a little bit, but the shroud would move too.

So I looked in there:



Mouse nest.

Pulled the shroud off and 3 of these little guys ran out (one right into the shop )
and a 4th one refused to leave.

 

[Duck]

So I cleaned out the nest and put it back together. Temporarily hooked up a deep cycle to test the starter. Nothing, but when I connected a cable from + directly to the starter it cranked.

So I removed the air cleaner and hit the starter while spraying starting fluid into the intake and it started.



Carb is junk though. Float is seized... Probably need a new carb if I can't find a rebuild kit.

Geezer is googling the numbers stamped on the shroud. All I know is that it's a Tecumseh, guessing 8 hp.

 

[Duck]

It's a two seater and awkward... I think I'll move the steering to the middle, the gas pedal to the right, and call it a one seater. If it's too small for me to play with ill probably give it to my friend because he has a 12 year old.

 

[Duck]

But then there's this:



Some dumbass torched out the hubs on riding lawnmower wheels and drilled holes to put them on this thing.

 

[Duck]

I rewired the raft generator. Added a digital voltmeter and,100 amp digital shunt type ammeter.

It can be wired on the + side or the - side.
Can wire it to monitor a load, a charge, or both.

So I wired it for both,by putting it between the battery and everything else. It'll only tell me what's going in or out of the battery but that's fine because I can shut off the generator and see my loads, then with the generator running, turn off the loads and see what's going into the battery. Then knowing what the loads are, I can add it to the flow into the battery and know what total alternator load is.

What I'm most curious about is how many amps it feeds into a partially discharged battery.

 

[Duck]

Damn thing is starting to look like a science fair project.



This piece of heavy angle-iron hangs from a little stud when not in use, but will set on the raft floor when it's running and hold the gauges tilted upwards so I can read them. The reason for not attaching it to the board is vibration. The ammeter is a sensitive instrument. No idea if it's fragile. All I know is it's waterproof.

 

[Rigjockey]

Maybe you could give three hour tours, Three hour tours, on you raft as an independent.
You may need some DOT numbers and bidnass schooling

 

[Duck]

Stupid $60 wait a week for it to fucking get here piece of shit ammeter doesn't fucking work.

I have power at the wires on the back and verified polarity on the + & - and continuity on the metering wires to the shunt. All my wiring is good. This piece of shit ammeter simply doesn't work. At all. Not even reading zero. Just nothing.



This is why I hate ordering shit online. But all of the auto parts or marine stores around here are too stupid to stock gauges people might actually need.

The Mercury Marine dealer here has one analog voltmeter, 5 speedometer and like ten trim gauges. That's it.

 

[Duck]

I had this mounted on the wall in my camper. I didn't want to use it on the raft but I'm gonna have to. Powerwerx in Yorba Linda, CA won't even ship out a replacement for the defective "Blue Sea Systems 1732 Mini OLED Panel DC ammeter" until they receive and inspect the one I return. At least they're paying for the shipping.

With the shunt between the battery negative and everything else, thus Trimetric thing shows amp draw/charge, volts, and logs amp hours of draw, amp hours of charge, etc. Cool as hell and very nice for the application but not waterproof. So if it rains, I gotta cover it up. And it won't simultaneously show system volts and amp flow. And you have to program the damn thing every time it's been disconnected from power.

Gotta set the voltage the "batt lo" and "batt full" thresholds or it'll keep flashing "batt lo".

It came with the best written, detailed, scientific and in plain English manual I've ever seen though.... Another thing to protect from rain.



I made little sheet metal clips to hang it on the stereo. I ain't gonna attach it to the generator because of vibrations.

 

[Duck]

This one actually works.



In case you've ever wondered, those Barjam or Roadpro fans, whether the clip-on or screw mount type, draw 1.5 amps on high.

All buttoned up and ready to test on the raft. Maybe tomorrow.



This one has a 500 amp shunt and reads up to 999 amps.

It's for off-grid systems with lots of solar panels, gas powered alternators like mine, wind generators, etc. and large banks of batteries that power big inverters.

 

[Duck]

Engine running on a fully charged deep cycle, feeds it 14.9 volts and started at 3.2 amps and quickly tapered off to 1.6 before I turned it off.



Engine off, trolling motor draws 4.3 amps with no load. Not in water.



Minn Kota says it draws 42 amps under full load. We'll see about that.

I want to write down the amp draw for all 5 of it's speeds.

 

[Rigjockey]

Bogart Engineering. Ya' figure they got a patent on that machine?

 

[Duck]

Bogart Engineering. Ya' figure they got a patent on that machine?

It's gotta be someone's name.

How would you like growing up with a name like that?

No wonder he grew up & started a factory that makes toys for nerds. They were his only friends.

 

[Rigjockey]

It's gotta be someone's name.

How would you like growing up with a name like that?

No wonder he grew up & started a factory that makes toys for nerds. They were his only friends.

It was Humphrey Bogart's name and that is where the term Bogart came from.