Man oh man, what a ride.

[wtenglish]

Nice job! You should be causing the fish to surrender with that battlewagon.......

[ggreeby]

Try different props, They are a lot less expensive than a gear change. What is your engines suggested max RPM? that is avery important factor.

[bigeasy1]

The prop I have on now,is right on,or at least as close as I can get.
I'm hitting my engines max rpms(around 4400 to 4600 rpms),at wide open,and cruising at approx 24-25 mph at 3400 to 3600 rpms.speed is on the Gps.

I'd lose rpms,if i step up to a steeper pitch.My Mechanic,who is a friend of mine,and who would do a gear change for very little money,tells me that 1.50 is the proper gear for that engine and drive,and that the rig would perform better,with a higher top end,and better cruise speed.
He works almost exclusively on I/O powered boats,and I trust him.
He has an upper unit that he would install and let me try out,to see if I like it,at N/C.
He rode on this boat years ago,before i bought it,when it had a 351 Ford in it with a 1.50 drive,and claims it was quite a bit quicker.
The current engine is a 350 with a Edelbrock 4bbl and is in extremely good condition,with perfect compression and very few hours.
It should be equal in hp to the 351 ford that was in it before.

I just think that I should be able to get a higher top end,and a faster cruise at less Rpms.I was wondering if anyone had the same setup.

Here's the pics I deleted by mistake

[riptide]

Hey John,
Boat looks sweet.Great pics.
I too am impressed with the ride on my Sceptre coming from a Mako 228.You are absolutely right about increasing speed in a chop to smooth out the ride.She also doesn't roll as much at drift like my Mako did.These 23 Seacrafts have that "big boat feel" to them.
Jerry

[1bayouboy]

That is such a great looking boat...I like the enclosure with arch...seems the perfect blend or protection, weight and function....

[McGillicuddy]

John,
You may want to reconsider Denny's suggestion re. the gear change, and experiment a little with props. Determine exactly what your prop is and what it is designed to do. I know you mentioned your mechanic's comment about the previous config being quicker and faster, but was it set up for hardcore fishing like your beauty? And was the prop the same. Any number of props can get you the right rpm range but they will all get different performance numbers.

You are running a heavy boat with a heavy fishing load, and a parachute of a top. Even so I can't help but think you can get more top end out of your power package. I really think the answer is in your propping.

I went to a Merc Black Max (for its stern lifting attributes) and was very pleased. Best 100 bucks I've spent so far.

Before testing I added 4-500 more lbs of gear, water, and gas than I ran on my last tests with the old MWC Vortex, and after changing props I gained 3mph and much better cruise performance in the 3000-4000 rpm range. I haven't done an economy test yet because my flow meter was on the blink.

Good luck achieving your target speed and have fun slamming the Salmonids.

[Fr. Frank]

Your gear ratio is fine. Your prop needs changing.

Allow me to use a pickup truck as an analogy. The differential gearing is analogous to the lower unit gearing, and the tire diameter is analogous to the propeller pitch.

If I want to apply torque to the pavement more quickly I can change out the gears in my differential from the current 3.73:1 to 4.10:1 gears. If I do this, I will have better acceleration under load, higher rpms at cruise, lower axle rotation for a given rpm, and better responsiveness to power inputs.

OR, I can change my tires on the rear to a smaller diameter tire, which changes my applied drive ratio just like changing the diff gearing. Dropping from my current 265x75-16 tires to 245x65-16 tires gives me almost the exact same effective results as changing to 4.10 gears.

On the other hand, if I want to have lower rpms at cruise and a higher top speed, I can change the diff gearing to the optional 3.45:1 gears. This will reduce my acceleration, but give me lower rpms at a given speed, and probably increase my top speed.

OR, I can change my tires on the rear to a larger diameter tire, which changes my applied drive ratio just like changing the diff gearing. Increasing from my current 265x75-16 tires to 285x70-16 tires gives me almost the exact same effective results as changing to 3.45 gears.

In both cases, changing the tire size when it comes time to replace the tires costs a lot less, and produces the same results.

If your current gearset is undamaged, you can more economically change your effective power to thrust ratio by just changing the prop size.

[Islandtrader]

OR, I can change my tires on the rear to a smaller diameter tire,

This is the best analogy I have seen on the prop discussion...I now understand.

Thanks,