-2 shorty
 

anybody run -2 shorty drives on a 280 sport. I have mine running 78 mph gps and what to break 80 mph. My boat is already a handful at that speed and wonder if shorty drives would make the handling worse. I did put 280 k-planes on the boat. thanks

Is your prop labbed?

no not labbed but if shorty drives would help I would get 4 blade props and have them labbed

put a straight edge on the last 4-5 feet of the hull and see how big the hook is first

I bought a brand new 280 Sport in 1990, it was a handful with stock 330's. It ran the best with the K-Planes level with the hull. It was very stern heavy for the length, I think shorties would hurt its ability to carry the bow.

What power and props do you have now? I have 454 mags in mine and run solid 67 mph and a best of 69.8 with lab 3 blades. I have a set of lab 4 blades that makes the boat ride alot better, but I can only spin them at about 4600 rpm.

Was that the newer hull. I heard they had some handling problems. I have never had any handling issues with mine and I have the mags. I have tabs but never use them as they don't do anything.

I bought 420 mercs. then rebuilt them with 10 to 1 comp. roller cams, victor intakes, cmi headers making around 530 horse. I am running my original 23 pitch mirage from the old 330's. They are running 74 mph. at close to 6000 rpm. I was waiting to buy props till I get shorty's or not. I borrowed some off brand 26 pitch 3 blades when I ran upper 70's at 5400 rpm

Do you have full hyd external steering ?

I am by far any expert (especially on that hull) but I have heard a lot that baja's needs to carry the bow to go faster. I have a 272 and was considering a shorty but was told that I need the prop where it is rather than higher so that I can carry the bow more.

yes

thanks, I think I will forget shorty's and try props and lab work this summer

Fleg raised his x 3" on his 320 got pretty good gains doing it.

Labbing is by far the cheapest way to get mph. if you run 78 now with non labbed props, M+ props labbed by Bblades should have no problem putting you over 80. Also B1s labbed for bow lift and so on works well. Not as fast, but better all around prop. If it's speed you are looking for, labbed M+s all the way. In terms of non labbed 4 blades, you want to run Rev4s because of the needed bowlift mentioned earlier in the thread.

update: found used imco -2 lowers went from 77 mph to 82 mph and handling is much better at all rpm ranges. Time to get hook out of bottom and have bblades set me up with props

did you use the 23mirage props ??? and did your rpms go up???

used 4 blade 26 pitch bravo ones, 5500 - 5600 rpm

Had you used those props before without shorties? If so what kind of numbers did you see?

yes, the 26 bravos went 77 mph. The only differance was the shorty drives

Nice, can't complain about 5 mph, i've been thinking of putting a shorty on, but i may just use the 25 OL one more summer and look to upgrade to a fountain the following spring. Nice to see a post in the baja forum about speed though!!!!