new set up

[Threec's]

As far as setting up a new fiberglass boat. What should I pay close attention to in regards to isolating the gurdy system?

[carojae]

Power troller? Hydraulic hoses.
Make sure you insert a section of insolator pressure hose before connecting to your gurdies. If you are running something else off your hydraulics after the gurdies, put a insolator there too so there is no electrical connection that can connect your ground to your gurdies.
Most return line has no wire in it so you can get away with just the return hose if the return hose goes directly to your hydraulic tank from your last gurdy.
The good news is fiberglass boats have the least amount of risk involved if you are worried about grounding out your gurdies.

[Lulu]

That's correct, non-conductive hose about a foot long on at least the high pressure side isolates current from the pump to the gurdies. Most boat will put a segment on the high and low pressure side on both gurdies. Its cheap insurance.

Second gotcha will be stray current from the deck. Salt water is a great conductor. You want to isolate the gurdies from the deck. Use a piece of /starboard between the gurdies and your mounting base. I cut 1.5" blocks and drill out a 3/8 hole instead of using a big piece, which gets expensive. Along with securing the gurdies, use either a nylon or fiberglass bolts and nuts.

Third, you need to make the bolts water tight with SikaFlex. Smear the stuff all over the bolt heads until you can't see the bolt and around the gurdie base where the bolts thread through. Don't use a silicon based sealant like 5200, it won't last a month in the sun. Wear gloves because it is tough to get SikaFlex off your hands and it gets everywhere regardless of how hard you try to be careful.

Those three items are the most important. Other sources of stray current are from the tag lines, troll wire touching the tee on the davit in a turn, green stuff building up under the gurdies (these are filings from the gurdies brakes, need to keep them cleaned off), and last but not least salt water on the gurdies (wash with fresh water as often as possible).

[carojae]

Question to Lulu or anyone: Like a lot of trollers I have my gurdies mounted on their sides hanging on the aluminum hayrack/house to gain deck room. Are these nylon bolts strong enough to hold a 3 spool easthope gurdy in this position?
My fear would be I hung up with all 4 lines and my gurdy tears off. I mean, I am not the worst driver but I've had my moments.
Are fiberglass bolts better?

[DWL]

I actually just discussed this with a gentleman that run a fiberglass business I picked my fiberglass bolts from. Apparently the fiber glass bolts have much more structural integrity when the gurdies are mounted on a vertical surface than horizontally since it is very hard to sheer through the bolts than to strip the threads. Ideally you would have a double sheer set up in which the vertical mounting bracket went around both sides of the bolt passing through gurdies so that pressure could not torque the bolts at an angle. Not sure about nylon. You got remember the force exerted by a whale caught in the wires is MUCH more than the weight of the gurdies being suspended from the bolts. My gurdies are mounted horizontal, does anyone have experience with using fiberglass bolts in this set-up with the threads being the only retaining factor.

[Lulu]

Nylon will work. Remember, at least on Hasbra gurdies, there are 8 bolts per gurdie. That's a lot of securing power. The reason I went to fiberglass was 3 fold, 1.) I found the fiberglass had a harder Rockwell hardness than SS (which means they're strong), 2.) they are UV stable (won't get brittle over the course of a season), and 3) they are non-conductive. I used nylon for years before finding fiberglass and never had a problem, but I did change them every season because I didn't trust they'd survive another season. I had bad dreams of something pulling the gurdies completely off the deck. Don't have those dreams anymore.

One more advantage to the fiberglass bolts is they have a molded flange, so you don't need a washer. And the flanged nuts are double thick giving twice as many threads to hold the gurdies down.