Refresh - 2010 Ranger Z521

[jid2]

Picked up my first bass boat. Was looking for a decent used 21' boat with a 4 stroke up in the northwest. I'd about given up hope when I found this listed in Idaho. I'm up in Seattle, but my parents moved to Idaho recently and this boat was listed at a place just a few miles from their house. So I had them go check it out for me, and they gave it the thumbs up. Grabbed my boys off the school bus on Friday and drove into the night so we could go check the boat out on a Saturday morning.

Boat is in great general health, but certainly well used. Only 50 hours on the new Yamaha powerhead from the recall, Power Poles are only 5 months old. The carpet is hammered and the seats have some tears from what looks like a cat.

3 Generations approved.



Out in front of my parents house getting all cleaned up.



Wasn't so clean after 2 mountain passes and a good bit of snow and the drive home.



The boat came with some older Lowrance HDS stuff, a 7 at the bow and a 10 at the console. Not knowing Lowrance, and having a new setup on my Jon boat I decided to move the good stuff from the Jon over to the Ranger.

The Jon boat can now be a full time duck-getter. But we will take the Livescope and Helix. I had just bought a lithium battery for the Jon boat as well, so that got the wheels turning...



Started to get to know the new boat





Got all the old electronics out and started planning for how to get all this in properly.



Ran some new 8 gauge wire to the bow to power the livescope, Mega 360, and two graphs. Went up the port side which only had the trolling motor wiring in it, so I was just able to push the wire up without issue.





Added some bus bars from the new wire run at the bow to tie everything into. With the Livescope box up there it's a tight fit. Lots of coiled wire.





Here was the battery and charger setup when I got it. But already having one lithium battery that was basically going to go unused I bit the bullet and grabbed two more and a new charger. Running 3 100ah Ionic batteries and the Ionic charger.







All wrapped up for now. Waiting on the Mega 360 to figure out what to do with the Helix up front. For now I put all the graphs on the same RAM mounts that came with the boat. I added a kindle to the console to run active captain.





Still looking at replacing carpet and seat at some point. Likely all grey. And also thinking about doing some blackout vinyl. Little photoshop job to see if I like it.

[Bassin Bob71]

Great lookin' boat and some nice upgrades

[jc2bg]

That’s a lot of work and a lot of dinero, but you have a solid rig now for sure!

[bigboyztoyz]

Good looking rig, nice write up as well! I'd look into a BassBoatTechnologies dual stack bow mount (or other brands make similar) It would allow you to fit both of those graphs on one solid mount.

[jid2]

Good looking rig, nice write up as well! I'd look into a BassBoatTechnologies dual stack bow mount (or other brands make similar) It would allow you to fit both of those graphs on one solid mount.

For sure, been looking at those. I think I also need something for the console with the 10" graph, the RAM mount isn't as stable at speed. You have to really crank it down to keep it from flopping down when running.

[Rangerdawg]

[Super 91]

Wow, you really are turning that super nice rig into a really updated and upgraded super nice rig!! That is a lot of work. I know most of the guys that do their own work know exactly how much time and effort you have in what you have done. You are going to really enjoy that boat. And anyone can see you take pride in your work. Super clean and neat. Thanks for the story and the pics! I can see a lot of fun days on the water with the boys in your near future. Excellent job so far. Post pics of the carpet and other upgrades too!

[jid2]

First fish caught on the boat is of course a trout. Seems like all I catch this winter, those trout love a finesse bait!



For those wondering I was able to run new network wires up the starboard conduit, even though it was pretty full already. First I tried to use the existing Lowrance network cable as the pull cable - but it kept getting stuck. So I cut off the connectors and just pulled the old cable out completely. Then I used a proper wire snake which I feed down from the bow. I then connected the new cable to it and pulled it back and that worked without issue.

Starting to get to know the boat now and have a coupe questions for the group.

- What is the typical idle speed for these boats? I have done a ton of wakeboard boat driving in my life, but this is first bass boat. The minimum speed is kinda fast, it makes approaching docks and the trailer a bit harder. In the wakeboard boats I could always leave it at idle and still steer and correct while approaching slowly. In this boat the idle is too fast and I really have to coast in which makes it impossible to make small steering corrections without popping the throttle on and adding more speed. I've looked at the hot foot and it seems to be letting the throttle fully close. Maybe it's just the deal?

- My center coinbox console hatch lid has some really janky latch. At about 50 mph the thing come flying open. Can someone put photo of what it is supposed to be?



- The cat seat. Given the center console lid deal it seems like the best option is to get the whole new two seat plus coinbox option directly from Ranger for $1200. The seat covers are between $400-500 and it will be over $600 to have the covers installed from a few local quotes I received.

[Richie B]

Stupid cat. What a shame man, those seats dont look to be in bad shape otherwise.

[JACQUART21]

Hard to compare apples to apples on the idle speed with all the variables. But mine seems just fine at idle as far as approaching the dock or trailer, in comparison different motor and prop are bid differences. I know exactly all the things you have gone through, lots of work and lost of $$$$. Watch out for interference on you bow setup, usually not advised to run wiring for graphs along with your trolling motor wiring. Also, I've seen on this generation of 521 you can mount your PP pump assemblies behind the charger underneath the splash well. This gains you room for another battery, prop storage, etc. Nice looking boat, love the colors!

[Hunna]

Good job, keep up the good work.

[BassCPT]

This is the latch that my 11 Z521 has for the center storage box.

It appears to be made by southco and my amazon search did turn something up.

https://www.amazon.com/Southco-Thermoplastic-Elastomer-Flexible-Concealed/dp/B00GM5F962

Hope this helps

[jid2]

Thanks for the latch photo and idea about the PP pump location!

Mega 360 arrived. Couldn't figure out what to do for mounting and didnt want to starting drilling a bunch of holes in the boat. So I made some mounting bars and put the Gamin and the Humminbird on the existing Ram mount. Gonna tighten it down real good and see how it does.

[dean c]

Impressive work...congrats on a great rig.

[Ranger391v]

3 things come to mind:

1. Every time you bring this thread back up, I'm constantly reminded of how hard I searched for a 208/520 in this color scheme .... THANKS a lot! LOL

2. You've really put a lot of great work in this boat to fix her little blemishes ...... and it's looking GREAT!!! Those aluminum mounting brackets look great! I have access to my dad's milling machine and we've made some stuff similar before ....... but just hours later cranking handles instead of minutes on that CNC machine. LOL!!!

3. John Jones Trolling Motors ...... he can get you a replacement side cover for your Ultrex. Usually ships same day if he has it in-stock ..... and seldom does he every not have things in-stock. You'll also need to tell him that you need a new Ultrex decal for the new side plate as well.

[jid2]

^^^ Thanks for the info on the trolling motor part - it's on the list of things to fix for sure. I do like the color, just really want to see if I can do the black-out version with some vinyl.

[trashmanssd]

Amazing work on that boat it is coming out fantastic. I love the color scheme and I love tan carpets they just seem much more luxurious.

[IFish4Bass]

Great work! I love seeing how people come up with Great Creative ideas to make things work. Be proud!!!

[Ranger391v]

^^^ Thanks for the info on the trolling motor part ...

You're welcome. Oh, and if you're missing any of the stainless screws that hold that side plate on (looks like it might be 1, but I can't tell for sure) ...... he can get you those too.

He's a good dude that really knows his stuff when it comes to TM's.

Good Luck!!! ..... and keep the updates coming!
-391v

[jid2]

Took the boat out to test the M360. Everything works, but I did find a bit of interference. It took me some testing to isolate the source, between the trolling motor, the livescope or other things. It looks like the interference is from the rotation of the trolling motor. The drive of the motor has no effect, but turning does. With spot lock on you get a lot of noise. Driving around with the foot pedal is typically less. I know someone mentioned having run the power lines for the graph adjacent to the power for the trolling motor, so maybe that is it and I need to shield that cable. I'll have to dig around some other threads.

Beautiful day, with fishing banned we just were out cruising around.



Good image, no use of ultrex.



Some turning of motor.



Spot Lock.