259 Upgrades
 

I have put 10 hours on the motor since March 13th of this year.:evilb: The additional seat time since the upgrades has provided some valuable insight. I would like support some great information shared on this forum. Switching from a 3 to 4 blade prop made a world of difference on our Checkmate. I had the boat loaded up with 5 200lbs plus bodies and could control the porpoising no problem with the correct tab and drive positions at all speeds. Hydraulic steering does not get rid of WOT chine walking but sure makes the boat feel more stable at all speeds. Adding 90HP also makes the boat alot more to drive. I always liked our boat but now I really like it.:drink:

Damn, I have seen my boat once since I put it away last fall. What speeds you seeing since the upgrades.

72mph GPS last fall by myself with the current setup. This year I saw 65mph GPS with 4 200lbs plus bodies on the boat. The boat is very weight sensitive at WOT. Anyway it sounds great and is fast enough for me for now.

Rob,

Good to see that everything has worked out well. When I first upgraded the engine, I had a simliar problem with chine walking, at WOT. I tried to drive through it, but I chickened out. That may have been the wise thing to do. If I dropped the tabs a bit, the problem went away, but so did some speed. I thought about what I did that was different from the year before, as far as set up. The hull should handle the extra horsepower, so I wasnt looking there. The only things I changed was the drive and a switch to a Hydromotive P-5X. I originally had a standard Bravo 1 HP . I switched to an XR upper, Imco lower. The addition of the Imco lower, forced me to hang a speedo pitot off the transom. Due to my lack of experience with a pitot , I had set it deep in the water. That being the one of the changes, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I raised the tube up past the bottom of the transom. Went for a run, chine walk gone.. I lowered the pitot just enough to catch water, speedo works, no chine walk. Dont know if this is a common problem with those things, but it definetly was for me.
Be carfeul with the walking. Better to back off and come back tomorrow to figure it out.



Vinny

Vinny,
That is good advice. The chine walking only happens with light loads and genereally hard acceleration to WOT. If I have a few passengers in the boat it feels solid. I think with light loads the amount of wetted running surface at WOT w/ no tab input is very little. If the boat is not balanced (1 driver) and light (little fuel) it likes to chine walk. I know tab input would get rid of the problem but also shave off speed. I do not have enough power to comfortably shave off speed so I will keep safely enhancing my WOT driving skills until more power is acquired.:eek:

[QUOTE I will keep safely enhancing my WOT driving skills until more power is acquired.:eek:[/QUOTE]


Oh no... :eek:

Speed is the worst drug on the planet. Thankfully, it is the only one I have ever been addicted to.:D

[/QUOTE]Speed is the worst drug on the planet. Thankfully, it is the only one I have ever been addicted to.:D[/QUOTE]

Let me know when you get some...
Speed that is.:D

Speed is the worst drug on the planet. Thankfully, it is the only one I have ever been addicted to.:D[/QUOTE]

Let me know when you get some...
Speed that is.:D[/QUOTE]


OUCH...:eek:
At least I was running all year last year. :D

Ouch again..

Rob's boat is a blast to drive since the upgrade. Mid-range punch is incredible! She sounds mean idling in the slip at the dock! Just the right amount of lope to her!! :drink:

Thanks Beadman. I went out this afternoon and noticed the only closed cooling boat on our dock is still nowhere to be found. You're more than welcome to bum a ride this Friday if the weather still scares you.:D

It is not an issue of weather, it is an issue of me needing to get the boat in my driveway for a day's worth of cleaning and some minor maintenance items that I cannot do on the lift before I set her down there for the season. Right now, I'm getting a new roof put on my house so there is a big dumpster setting in my driveway where I normally would set the boat. I'm hoping to set her on the lift this coming Tuesday evening. I will be down at LOTO this weekend so I cannot mess with it until Monday. We'll celebrate everyone's arrival on the dock with shots of Cabo Uno! :drink:

Sounds good.

I am thinking about adding some performance tabs to the 259. Any suggestions on what brand and models? What will this cost with mechanical indicators?

Rob,

I think you know, but I will mention it again. I used a set of Dana Marine HP-1000 tabs. They work great. I also used Livorsis' thin line indicators which just fit where I installed it. You wont beleive the difference from those p.o.s. Insta-Trim tabs the boat came with.

Vinny

Vinny,
Thanks for the info. I know this has been shared before but I am too lazy to search for it. Thanks for the reminder.
Rob

Vinny,
How tight was it getting your cables into the indicator ?

Is your indicator bottom fed ?

I am just finishing up my tab installation. Will post pictures soon. Pulled old insta-trims, plugged, resined, gel-coated old holes. Painted transom black and installed red Livorsi ( Dana/Eddie ) 24" tabs. Indicator installed in dash, waiting for cables to connect.
Tab response is super quick and the set-up looks awesome.

KellyO,

I have posted these pics before, but its no problem to post again. My cables come up under the gunnels, then swing around the front of the indicators and attach to the indicators from the front. Now, Livorsi makes those neat pop up indicators. They may fit as well as the thin line I used.

Vinny

Do you have part numbers on the order. What did cost, if you don't mind me asking?

How long are your cables?

Sorry, I dont remember. Before I ordered them, I just ran a tape measure along the expected routing, then ordered the next longer cable. Just make sure you get good quality cables that have alot of flex. The bend up front is tight for cheaper cables.

Vinny,
I noticed your tab adjustment levers are close to your gear shift/throttle levers. Do you have enough room to get to them when throttling in the rough? Do you adjust the tabs much in high speed rough water rides?
Rob

Thanks. My indicator is up at the top of that dash section where your accessory bracket is, so I am trying bottom-fed indicator. I really wanted the stick indicator but there were no mounting options to get it to work.

Got my stuff through Trick Marine. Think it was around $480 for cables, indicator, transom fittings, and actuators. Tabs I bought from here on the board after one of the previous discussions about this.
I got a 16 and 20 ft. cable for my ZT280. Those lengths leave a little extra for the cleanest install.

Rob,

I have no issues when using the tab butons. There is enough room. Yes, I do adjust quite a bit while running in the ocean. In the bays, I just leave them up.

Vinny

Bottom feeding the indicators would be easier if you have the room to move the indicators higher than I did.


Rob,

If you run them like I did, you need longer cables than KellyO used.

Thank you Vinny and KellyO for the info. Now I have a plan. To execute the plan I am going to have to convince my wife it will improve slow speed handling making the boat safer to drive with small children onboard. This could take a while.

It does improve low speed as well. Tabs are the only way to get rid of that porpoising this boats exhibit at low speeds.

Vinny,
I agree. It still will be difficult to convince the better half of the upgrade.

It would be easier to convince her if you installed a governor on your beer drinking hand and stayed out of the dog house! :evilb:

Good point.

Ha! Dorris has to be proud of you after the last couple of visits to the Country Store.

You gotta make this Saturday. Otherwise, it will be postponed again.

Saturday is on for 9:30AM. I have to be home before noon.

Yesterday I had the family aboard with water conditions that were choppy due to a 15mph wind and some boat traffic. In previous driving experiences I would of had the trim and tabs tucked in all the way and run the boat at a minimal planing speed. When I do this our boat has an aggressive lean with any steering input. Yesterday I brought the drive up to about
1/4 on the Checkmate gauge and ran at a minimal planing speed and the boat did not porpose and the steering input was much friendlier. Bringing the drive up and leaving the tabs down in rough water was actually Mentalpause's suggestion not my own idea. With 234 hours of seat time I feel like I am still learing to drive the boat. Maybe the tab upgrade can wait.

Blew another Insta-Trim tab hose today. I am tired of dumping tab fluid in the lake. Time to upgrade the trim tabs.:rolleyes:

I blew those piece of $hit hoses off a few times before I upgraded. You wont be sorry when you upgrade.

Here are some shots of my tab upgrade on the ZT.

Nice clean job. Very smiliar to how I did mine. :D

Very nice. How do you like them?

They work great. Only issue is that they are too fast adjusting.
Need to see if I can put a restrictor in the line to slow them down a little. Sometimes even just the lightest flick of the toggle switch moves them too much as I am looking for the sweet spot at speed.
Never thoght I would say too fast after how slow the Insta-trims were.

What oil are you using in them? Heavier weight oil will slow them down.