F it, I'm just going to rent a front seat in your boat. WILL BRING COLD BEER!

One More of Key West!!



http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3785/1...8ed6f93c_o.jpg

MMB,

Do your Konrads act as a surface drive? If I remember, you have the SSM3 replacement? What props are you running? Prop Slip at 5500? Speed at 5500 RPM? Top speed / RPM?

Thanks!

That picture is great! Boat looks sweet!

Thanks!!

My Konrads are 2" below they do not act like a surface drive at all, I get a tiny rooster trimed out to the max. Yes they are the 3A Replacement drive. As far as I understand about Konrads these are the absolute stongest verion of the 540 drive you can buy. I was running Hydromotive 5 blades but it was pure hell getting on plane with them. I switched to a Bravo 1 32P and it jumps right up on plane now! The speed is the same as the Hydro's

The Boat will run 90mph at 5000-5200 rpms depending on fuel level. I have not ran it to top speed yet, but these are the props that came with the boat and they would go 6,000 rpm no problems with the old power. I am guessing I could turn them to right at 6500 with the new power if I wanted to.

My prop slip according to the online calcs is 12-14%

I have to say everyone doubted these Konrads (including me lol) but they are holding up just fine so far!!

Gotcha, thanks for the info. Any intentions of moving to a 34 pitch prop or would you think that's a little too hard on those drives? You are making about 850 ft lbs of torque, correct?

Anyone know what props Hot for Teacher is running?

-Thought I'd jump in here since I had installed the Konrads on your boat when Robert owned it. It was the very first SSMIII conversion we had done and all work/testing was done with Mack Morris at Doller Offshore. At the time, the boat had 600hp 540's in it. The standard length 540 lowers raised the propshaft height 1.78: over the SSM III for a height of 3.5" below the bottom. As a result of the increased height, it gained about 2 mph. (got notes on my old pc) We then installed shorty Konrad X-Factor lowers wich raised the propshaft height another 1.78" The boat did not like the shafts that high at all, slip went though the roof, 40% or so. It was horrible. I then installed 1" spacers and slip dropped to 25%.. still rediculous and speeds were not there. Installed 2" spacers and slip went back down to 12%.

Wat we learned during this excersise was straight bottom 'Guns do not like shaft heights above 3.5", all testing at heights above this yielded negative results. The increase over the SSMIII was a benefit Of a couple mph and the ability to run readily available Bravo style props..

-Glad you have enjoyed great sucess with the drives, it clear you know how to drive the boat but keep in mind, max rated power level is 800hp.

Thanks Biggus! One thing though this boat was rigged with the 3A's set up at 3.5" Below. (Very High for a 3A) & confirmed it with Barry the owner before Robert. I measured the Konrads with the help from Jamie (Lil Red) and they are at 2" below right now, maybe a hair less. I was thinking about switching to a Number 5 but we figgured out that I would need to lower the engines to make the number 5 work.


Frick - I have not palyed with props yet, I like the way the boat runs right now and we built the engines to run to 6,000 rpm.

Cool, great info guys.

I will be happy when mine idles, just dreaming for now, long winter ahead.....

Just keep at it brother!! You are going to have one of the nicest classic guns on the planet when it's done!! Plus you will forget about all the headaches on the first boat ride I promise!!

"there can only be ONE (project boat)"