29' outlaw questions
 

I have a 1998 29 outlaw and have a few questions.......

1st. When driving the boat I have noticed that I have to give the boat Starboard tab to keep the boat level from port to starboard, with both tabs up the boat seems to lean to one side as if both props were turning the same direction (they are not, they spin outward). What would cause this issue?

2nd. The boat rides great at cruise rpm (3500-3800) with both drives down and on flat water you can trim her up and it still seems ok, but when you run over a wake, or anything upsets the boat in the least little bit, she will porpoise until you trim the drives full down, or add tab. adding tab does not seem to help as much as the drives and with the problem stated above it becomes a point that you have to give it ALOT of tab to correct this problem. The porpoise will go away if you increase throttle to 4100rpm of better, but you will have to trim the drives down a little to stop her from banging the nose.

The boat has twin 7.4 lx mercs and bravo drives spinning out with 23p 3 blade mirage plus props.

Any help would be great

Justin

That seems like common driveability issues with the older 29's. My friend has a 97 (I think-maybe 98) and had similar problems. Switched to 24p 4 blades and the boat handled much better. Planed quicker and didn't need nearly as much tab to stop porpoising. Hope this helps a little.

My suggestion is to ditch the 3 blade propellers & run your tabs level with the bottom of the boat or a little negative for the best ride.
The 29 doesn't take much trim to run good. I think you are just over-trimming the boat & that is adding to the ride quality problem.
I will assume you don't have k-planes, rather you have the Lenco "tabs" & probably no mechanical indicators. That makes it hard to see where things really are. We can work around that with a level & some electrical tape.
Also, in 98 I think that was the year that Baja added the hook to the outer portion of the hull between the outer & 1st strake. If you have this I'm thinking there is a balance issue with the boat that needs to be corrected. If you don't have this hook, that is the majority of the problem.

Relatively short boat with a lot of weight in the stern, they don't need much positive trim at all. On my dad's old '97 with 3 blades you could only give it one little tap up on the drives. On mine with the 4 blades I trim it a little more but it'll porpose easily in glassy water. Likes running in a small chop much better.

Forgot to add, if it starts porposing just trim the drives all the way in to get it to stop then ease them back out a hair.

jason,

What do you mean by hook?

If I was to go to 4 blade props, would I go down in pitch due to the extra blade? I spin the 23 mirages at 4500-4600....

Yes, the boat does have K-planes and mech indicators for both planes and drives.

Take a 4' level or straight edge & place it on the bottom of your boat on the angled part of the outermost part of the "V". There will be a downward angled portion of the hull that is about 8" long. That is the hook. It is about 6-7" wide.
Use the straight edge to find neutral on your drive & tabs. Mark that on neutral setting on your indicator window.
For propellers, give Brett @ Bblades a call. He has a loaner program & is by far the best at getting your boat dialed in with propellers.

My 29 always leaned to starbord too. Think it might of had something to do with my 250lbs v the wifes 110lbs MAYBE?!! Maybe not

23" Mirage plus 3 blade = 22" Bravo 1 4 blade = 24" Bravo 1 labbed 4 blade - in theoretical rpm.

Could be engine torque rolling the boat some. Even tho the drives counter-rotate, I wouldn't be surprised if the motors weren't rolling it some.

My 97' didn't have the wedge Jason mentioned,
and it would porpoise....never "leaned" though.

My 98' however, did have the wedge....it didn't
porpoise...but, it also had 4 blades.

The wedge is between the chine and outer strake,
it's pretty easy to see it if it's there.


What # ( on the indicators) are you trimming the drives out to when this problem happens ?

Anything over 9 on the indicators and it will bang the nose until you reach 4000+ rpm. I have been working the past few days, but I'm going to check the boat for a hook. Boat does have a notch cut into the hull side the last few feet of hull though. I really thought that maybe the boat was not balanced properly, but I'm probably wrong. Anyone have a good idea why the boat lists to starboard without tabs?? If it's propeller torque, how do I correct for it??? I'm sure it's not normal to have this, I usually have to drop the tab quite a bit to level the boat out. Could the port engine not be turning same RPM as the starboard??? It is the same on the tachs and the motors sound balanced.......

I think 9 on mechanical indicators is way too much. JMO, on the 30 Outlaw I had even at WOT I never trimed above 6.5-7. I realize it's a differnt hull, but comparable.

Those must be a different type of indicator.

On my 29, and on my 33, full "in" is 0 full "out"
is 8.....normal cruise, I didn't run much past 3

Something else to check is the rear anchor pin
spacer ( item # 30) in picture is installed on the
front side of the pin on both drives

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_...LINE+ENGINE%29

on my indicators, 0 is trimmed all the way up, 10 is all the way down....................

I have the same boat
 

I have a 29 baja outlaw sst that acts in the same manner , leaning to the starboard side. The boat came factory with 25 p mirage props so I decided to change to 24 p 4 blades , the end result was I lost 3-4 mph ( one two many blades and not enough torque for the stock 7.4 mpi's ) so I changed them back to the 25 pitch . I have had the boat 2 seasons and have never seen over 4000 rpm on the tach's so I sent the 25 props out to be scoped and found they were actually reading 25.980 , just under 26 pitch . they put them back to 25 even and now I see 4400 rpm's . the problem now is the boat still leans and I am being told that their must be a bad hook in the hull so thats my next move .

What brand indicator do you have? Are they mechanical? If I trimmed mine to 9 I'd be pushing trailer button to over ride trim limit switch. Even if not I'd almost be trimmed so far I'd be slowing down. I run mine at 3-4 depending on conditions.

Interesting mine are on the side towards prop.

I would agree with the 4 blade change. Talk to BBLADES

I too agree 4 blades will help. Mine ('99 with 7.4 MPIs) doesn't lean. Like others have mentioned you do not need a ton of trim on this boat.

I had a 302 with the same power and it listed to STB. I always trimmed each drive a little as needed rather than trimmiing from the throttle or dropping the tabs. That will level her out.

I almost always keep the tabs at neutral.