This is a long post, I 've had several problems this Memorial Day Weekend and need some help.I have a 2000 Triton SF18 Fish & Ski with a 2000 Mercury 150 carb engine. In the past I've had some minor problems like solenoid and reverse throttle cables coming undone and I would like to keep them all minor. Saturday my son and I went to Lake Jordan north of Montgomery Alabama to fish. My onboard battery charge had died so I had charged my fairly new deep cycle batteries with my portable charger, to make a long story short I did not check the water level in the batteries the night before. We got to our 1st fishing hole and the batteries lasted 2 minutes.After we got home I checked the water level and they were bone dry. The only thing that could have happened was my onboard charger fried them.I filled them up with water and charged them again.We went out Sunday and the batteries seemed to work ok. The onboard charger is a Dual Pro XL which is a standard on Tritons. What can I do to prevent this again. I am scared to put $200 to $300 in another charger just to have this happen again and I don't have very much confidence in my batteries now. Like I said this is a long post.We were coming down river from Mitchell Dam crusing about 45mph when the engine flew up, after I turned off the engine I inspected it to find a plastic jug stuck between the engine and transon. I had run over someones traut line hope spelled it right, apparentley they did not anchor it well. We started back down the lake and it seemed fine. Later on at home I removed the prop and removed a wad of fishing line and inspected the seal which was not leaking thank God. It was the first time I had removed the prop so I hope I put it back on correctly. While we were up at the lake Sunday my overheat alarm went off. The lake was very rough from boat traffic and I had 4 adults total. We had been riding for about 20 minutes. I cut off the engine and raised it and inspected the intakes but nothing there. So I took off the engine cowling and inspected the engine. In the past I have had spark plugs wires come loose while reinstalling the cover and make the overheat alarm go off. I pressed on all the spark plug wires to make sure this was not the case. I cranked the engine and the alarm came back on. So I put down the trolling motors and trolled close to shore,about 5 minutes. I cranked the engine again and No Alarm!. We idle for a few minutes and started back down the lake. The alarm never came on again. We pulled both of our sons for miles on the tube without anymore overheating problems. However when I went to ski my youngest the engine would not go any faster than a 5 MPH. The remote control lever fills very loose and goes forward more than it used to. It sounds like a linkage problem. How do I fix this if it is the linkage or is there another problem. By the way, my wife steered the boat while I held the throttle open to get back to the boat landing. Boy I must really love this boat.
