New Boat Delivered-Motor Height seems off. Need feedback

[Signal13]

[quote="BobL"]Are your power tilt/trim rods submerged? I looks like they may be in one of your photos. When I re-read your post and saw that you were slipping it in salt water then I had to do a double take. Personally (and I am OCD), I would not want any part of my motor sitting in salt water when trimmed up. I think you are looking at two issues:

1 - motor is too low and needs to be raised.

2 - speed is too slow (and this can be related to prop, motor height, or a combo of both)

You paid good money (beautiful boat and great engine) so I would not hesitate to tell the dealer to make you satisfied.

PS #1...it came with a 60 gallon tank and while that is a lot of weight, the motor should not be sitting in the water when trimmed all the way up...even with a full tank of gas.

PS #2 - If I am off base then I will stand corrected. None of my three toons ever had a any part of the motor sitting in the water when trimmed (this also applies to the two offshore boats I owned as well).[/quote]

Sorry, that photo is blurry. The trim rods are out of the water. I am OCD about the salt water too. Frankly, this is driving me nuts because I know how fast the barnacles grow down there. I had the dealer raise it up 1 notch against their recommendation. They also painted the bottom 8 inches of my lower unit with a special bottom paint designed for outboard motors. The color is a close match to the Yamaha so it doesn't look too bad. I'll see if raising it a bit helps performance when I take it out this weekend but it didn't help how low it sits in the water much.

Once I burn off some fuel, I'll looking into tweaking prop selection if necessary. I don't think you are off base on any of this. Despite what the dealer says, I'm not seeing other boats in the marina with the same issue. In fact, most of the engines on the other pontoons are sitting 6-8 inches above the water line, not 8" below. I will hold them accountable to make sure I am set up correctly. Thanks for the input.

[Signal13]

[quote="Bamaman"]Most comparable boats in your class with 150 hp will be equipped with a 15 pitch stainless propeller--either Reliance for Yamaha's or Enertias for Mercury.

The Yamaha's after being broken in a couple of hours should pull 6000 rpms with the engine trimmed out to about 3/4 level. The Mercury's pull a little less than 6000 rpms's but they have a slightly different lower unit gear ratio.

First of all, are you measuring mph by GPS? I would target 38 to 40 mph GPS with a quality tritoon with lifting strakes. The strakes are what gets the nosecones out of the water--and gives you almost 10 mph over a 2 toon displacement hulled boat. Make sure you've got the cones out of the water when you make your speed runs.

Until you get the engine broken in well, you cannot really tell how it'll perform. And I would be very hesitant to ever consider filling up a 60 gallon fuel tank--unless you're out on a river cruise.

My Bennie is good for 6000 rpm's and 40 mph--no more, no less. And it's seeing little prop slip and prop ventilation only comes when I take a tight turn with the motor above 3/4 on the gauge. My motor is mounted 1 notch or 3/4 inch above the transom. Every different brand and model might be different.[/quote]


-It came with a Yamaha Stainless prop originally (as pictured). I actually made the decision to downgrade to an aluminum prop. If anybody is familiar with the back bays behind Ocean City, MD, they can tell you how shallow the water is in many places. Much cheaper to replace aluminum prop if necessary and less potential damage to the motor if you do run aground.

-I did not measure with GPS, only the speedo gauge combined with a reading from fishfinder. I will check it again with GPS this weekend. Thanks for all of the info!!

[Bryden24shp]

I was looking at the pic of the transom again. Man, the top of it is really low. Any way you can measure from the bottom of the pontoon to the top of the transom? It just looks too short for the motor. A 20" shafted motor, is designed for a 20" transom. Your transom height sure looks shorter than 20". Only way to get that out of the water, may be a hydraulic jackplate. Unless you can rig up something with heavy duty ratchet straps to connect to the slip to raise the stern up a little. I'm thinking that's a design flaw...

[BobL]

Signal13....

Can you post a picture of the unit trimmed all the way down? Curious as to the distance between the water line and top of the cavitation plate (with a full tank of gas).

[Bryden24shp]

[quote="BobL"]Signal13....

Can you post a picture of the unit trimmed all the way down? Curious as to the distance between the water line and top of the cavitation plate (with a full tank of gas).[/quote]

Me too! I would like to see a picture of it out of the water, with it down, too. I have my idea.....

[ron nh]

[quote="Bryden24shp"]I was looking at the pic of the transom again. Man, the top of it is really low. Any way you can measure from the bottom of the pontoon to the top of the transom? It just looks too short for the motor. A 20" shafted motor, is designed for a 20" transom. Your transom height sure looks shorter than 20". Only way to get that out of the water, may be a hydraulic jackplate. Unless you can rig up something with heavy duty ratchet straps to connect to the slip to raise the stern up a little. I'm thinking that's a design flaw...[/quote]
That's what I was thinking, Maybe they put on there PR20 transom instead of the PR25 that he ordered. It wouldn't be the 1st time it's happened.

[BobL]

Bryan....

Signal 13's second post in this thread (I think overall post #4) shows a pic on dry land but the unit is not trimmed all the way down. Due to camera angles, I cant form an opinion but it sure looks like (to me) that the cav plate will be way too low. I am coming up with my wild ass guess based on looking at the water line on the pontoons (first post) and attempting to reference that with other items in the dry land picture. Mature eyes and camera angles tend to screw with my brain....

[Bryden24shp]

[quote="BobL"]Bryan....

Signal 13's second post in this thread (I think overall post #4) shows a pic on dry land but the unit is not trimmed all the way down. Due to camera angles, I cant form an opinion but it sure looks like (to me) that the cav plate will be way too low. I am coming up with my wild ass guess based on looking at the water line on the pontoons (first post) and attempting to reference that with other items in the dry land picture. Mature eyes and camera angles tend to screw with my brain.... [/quote]

Ya, that pic doesn't help us a whole lot. I'm with you, I wanna see a low shot, with the LU down, but not tucked in. Straight down. I really think that transom/motor shaft length is f'ed up.

[Signal13]

I can take a picture of it trimmed all the way down in the water this weekend. Unfortunately no more dry land pictures until the boat gets yanked for service or to correct this situation. I didn't buy a trailer because the dealer delivers and stores free for first three years.

[wwind3]

Engine should be mounted so that the cavitation plate should be same height as the bottom of the engine mounting pod--the water flow should be smooth from the bottom of the pod past the lower unit--if motor is too low lower unit will throw a spray that will be obvious when under way.

I helped a friend who is unfamiliar with boats shakedown his boat he bought--2008 Lowe tri toon ,lifting strakes with 135 Merc-22 ft. With 6 onboard, ice chest, 3/4 tank of gas. Boat ran 33mph gps but rpm was only 4900-5000. If instruments are correct boat should have better performance. I'll check prop and motor position etc this weekend.

Good luck...

[Bamaman]

Good luck with your weekend trip.

I certainly understand why owners cannot shell out $500 a propeller trying to dial in the correct propeller and pitch. It ought to be on the dealer's back to get the prop and engine level right. And any dealer worth his weight in customer service should do everything possible to get the boat at 100% of the boats' capability.

When I owned Inboard Outboard boats with aluminum propellers, I was going through a propeller a year. Fortunately, I have a cousin that owns a prop shop and would rework my props cheap.

The last I/O boat had a stainless propeller, and I went 12 years without a dent or having to get it reworked. I find them more durable, and every 150 hp motor is worthy of a stainless prop.

I ran aluminum props on my old 115 hp pontoon boat--and never had to get one reworked. But there again, we're on a deep rock bottom lake and I stay away from weed beds and tight places with the bigger boats.

I too agree with what everyone's saying about your boat and the setup. My dealer delivered my boat with a 14M Yamaha stainless prop, and it was 4 mph short and 300 rpm's too high (hitting the rev limitier.) I requested the Reliance 15 pitch prop, and my boat's now perfectly setup.

Hang in there, and you'll get your boat dialed in.

[wwind3]

Props are amazingly important. For instance I'm running a 16 in pitch stainless on my pontoon--I could hit my redline rpm's with it-so I had the pitch increased tp 17 in and lost 400 rpm at wide open throttle and 1-2 mph speed---go figger. So I dropped pitch back to 16 in.

But what really floors me is I have a 16 in pitch aluminum prop that is 1-2 mph faster than the SS prop--cant figger that one out either.....

btw--does your boat have underskinning? Even with the lifting strakes the crossmembers underneath might affect you when they get hit with waves--plus the underskinning acts as an airfoil and can actually provide a little bow lift. I can sometimes go faster into the wind than downwind because of this.

[Bryden24shp]

Engine should be mounted so that the cavitation plate should be same height as the bottom of the engine mounting pod--the water flow should be smooth from the bottom of the pod past the lower unit--if motor is too low lower unit will throw a spray that will be obvious when under way.

You can go by this to get a starting point, but don't go by it alone. To get the optimal height, you have to actually see the cavitation plate, skimming on the waters surface, at WOT-normal load-and trimmed in the sweet spot. This may work well on a twin tubed boat, but a tritoon that has a planning hull, needs to be dialed in correctly. Bad part is, now you are water bound. The longer it goes on, the more likely the dealer will shrug it off.

[Bryden24shp]

[quote="wwind3"]Props are amazingly important. For instance I'm running a 16 in pitch stainless on my pontoon--I could hit my redline rpm's with it-so I had the pitch increased tp 17 in and lost 400 rpm at wide open throttle and 1-2 mph speed---go figger. So I dropped pitch back to 16 in.[/quote]

You reduced slip to the point where it was hooking up like dragster! That's awesome!!! Props are fun to dial in. Two identical props, never act the same either. Kinda like kids that are twins!

[Bamaman]

But Bryan, you're very learned on propellers and testing them. With a handful of propellers, you'e have Signal operating at his optimal level in an hour.

Many say when cruising, you should be able to look down and see the top of the anticavitation plate. With my 3/4th length toon, that doesn't work as all I see is rushing water. And my boat's set up as good as possible--with 6% slip.

Tritoons put out some strange water and wake out the back end. And sometimes setup is trial and error.