Arneson Top Gun
 

Who can I talk to about real world experience with Arnesons on a Straight Bottom (Non-stepped) Top Gun???

Please no philosophers, someone who owns, or has owned one before. Would appreciate it.

Kvogt Has A Flat Deck With Arneson drives

The Gun in the classifieds with surface drives is owned by a member on here..Urban Disturbance, I think was his name...maybe he'll chime in...

There is a guy that comes to KI with one, 1000's and 100 mph... loves it.... bad ass boat.... I will try to get his number when I see him next..

Yeah Frick, Timmy is right. He is speaking of Tim from the Harbor.

Sweet, just pondering at this point, but I figure if I'm going to miss another season, might as well consider. Especially while the Konrads are new and unused in a box, best time to sell.

Tim, please do. "Only" 100mph with 1000s? Heard of a guy with 1000s & Konrads running 99mph. Not sure the $35k difference plus rigging is worth 1 mph...... Might as well save for a T/S, or something else....

Just want some real world feedback with someone who has made the conversion......

Jack, I'll catch up on the phone here in the next week.

1000's and konrads will get you 100mph. Arnesons will do you alot better if set up correctly. I say at this point in the season go for it!!!

Check your bottom. SD's all need rocker or anything that gets you 0 trim with the running surface and nose up.
Thumbs up for the project.

Justin, I know he went 100 but maybe more, I wil ask when I see him again and get better info....I am normally hammered when we are hangin out haha

It is my boat that is for sale in the classified that has the Arneson conversion. It had bravo 1 drives on it. Call me this afternoon if you want more information. My number is in the classified. My 1994 Cigarette Top Gun has a notched transom. So it is not a true flat bottom. I will answer the main question that everyone wants to know......YES....you do gain speed at WOT. I gained 6-7 mph with too small of pitch props and same HP. I need to go up 3 or 4 pitches. Should gain 12+ mph at WOT with higher pitch props. I'm not in the market for buying props, as the boat runs fine being under pitched and I don't have to worry about my drives breaking. Speaking of that, I was watching a large boat cruise across the river Sunday and his prop shaft broke. I heard his engines rev up and then he was dead in the water. Lucky he had two engines to putt back to the boat launch. He was only going about 35 mph in smooth water when the drive broke. I don't know.......maybe I should keep the boat. We have only used the boat 3 times this year and it will be at least another 3 weeks before we have a chance to use it again. That is the main reason it is for sale. We don't use it.

I have a customer in NJ with a pair of 840 hp engines that runs 105.. Kurts marine did some of the work.

So I guess the question is who wants 2 pair brand new Konrads w/ 2x 1300 Huber trans, brand new.....?

f it, they are going in the boat, I've about had it with this project anyways, what a joke. I hate this thing.

dont give up now... just think after the boat is done you can build one of these
[ATTACH=CONFIG]526904[/ATTACH]

C'mon man, that;s a bit of overkill.

You get the tattoo yet?

not yet lol. i saw that at a pool party at put in bay on saturday. my buddies saw a pretty new top gun there that they say was pretty amazing. id bet it was his

Yes, I have seen that there before. There are some nice boats up there, fo sho.

Don't quit now! Every build has it's issues, time spent and money spent on them. To close to the end!

You don't understand, this one is beyond anyone's expectations, and not in a good way....
I'm convinced that it is cursed, this isn't normal.....

LOl Rob Judges golf cart.... we know Rob...haha

Robs gun is deep blue sies, silver deck, very nice boat...

Dude, stop in one night, lets chat and get ya up and going!!

I am convinced I owned a cursed boat, I always said "that boat hates me" Problems before, with, and after me....major problems for a 4 year old boat.


On a side note I have a friend with a straight bottom TG with ASD7 conversions here local, I am sure he would talk if you had some questions. He is running 800HP, but never really uses the boat lately. If you would like his number PM me.

Oh yeah, I get it 100%

The 38 that comes over to KI is Tim. I have his contact info I will talk to him and see if he minds if I give t to you. He has had that boat all over. They have done the Bahamas, Key West and run's it every weekend around the islands.

I feel your pain.. I hate boats.. i love boats.. its a love/hate relationship. only wish I knew what it was going to take I would have just jumped off a bridge, much less painful

yes, sweet boat!!

Ditto on Tim's boat. It's a cool rig.

RAF

I have been thinking about doing this conversion with my top gun.My xrs are new as are the gimbles. I dont abuse my stuff so I might just wait til winter or after key west anyway. My 382 Formula weighed more than the Gun and I only blew one drive in 3 yrs, loaded with fuel and people hammer down finally it popped it also had 150hrs on it.
I would love to hammer it without worrying and have that rooster tail too!!

Whole lot of money to spend if you don't beat on it!! I would keep what ya got..... but would be cool rooster haha...!

I talked with Rik about converting a 42 step tiger,there were a bunch for sale forever,now they have sold. The cockpit is smaller and it didnt make sense to spend the money on purchase price plus conversion. The thought was sell everything on the back while in good shape and offset the conversion price. Im happy w the Gun and when I want more there is always sixes. Of course now there a top gun for sale already done with arnesons LOL !! Always happens..........

I don't think I want to "start over" at this point (a lot of work for the conversion) versus just putting together what I have. The only reason I would do it is for reliability and peace of mind. We could tune the engines down, but why? That's no fun. I don't want to be the guy that always says "xxx horsepower, BUT, de-tuned to XXX" it gets annoying. It's like the guy with the cousin who has a 300 mph Camaro (IROC Z), who cares.

I was also told the 6's are the best way to go for these boats. I could not stomach the $50K+ for the equipment, plus labor. At that point, you have to start looking into a newer boat that's more efficient. I just don;t want to be stuck with this thing for another 5+years, I already hate it, can't imagine how I'm going to feel when I have to start fixing stuff. Almost every single part on this boat is brand new, and a few people here can imagine what that costs. I've dumped too much into an old slow boat, shame on me.

ICED - misery loves company.

I feel your pain, I did the same thing with my 91 Topgun. Now I'm in over my head, but everything is new in the engine compartment plus Kondrads on transom .

Think everyone who has done a true rebuild of a older boat knows what your talking about. Spent double or more what the boat is worth. In the end you have a new boat. Lots of people say "you could
have bought this" but let's be honest how many newer boats have been bought and 10k+ has been dropped in them from motors drives and what ever else? The late model boats is all we really have unless you have a big budget to buy one of the new newer boats out there.

I'll be upside down in the end with redone TRS wishing I had bravos or Konrads with shortys. But can't swing the extra after all the unseen problems. Live and Learn, but I'll be driving the hell out of the old/new boat knowing what's been done to it and how it was build.

I think you are making the right move with the conrads at this point . Before I rigged my flat deck i considered a set of arnesons ( not the bravo conversion) for my boat.
I had a long chat with KVOGT ( great guy) and he educated me that although the end result would be fantastic the pain to get there could be huge. So I stuck with completeing the notch instalation in my boat and then rigged with NO. 5 drives . I am now a year and a half latter running it and begining the dialing in process. Stay with it the gain is worth the pain. The fact is it was never about the money , if it was you wouldnt have the boat in the first place, none of us would have .
RG.

Funny you made a notch in your flat deck and the other guy filled his notch to fit arnesons.

I am receptive to buying an old boat with tons of money dropped into it for a discount :D

Hogie I think when we buy these boats our intelligence factor gets reduced some how. I thought it would be easier to put a notch in my boat than pay for standoff boxes. It was alot of work but i am pleased with the result so far and the fact that I didn't spend 10 grand on the boxes and related parts helped ease the pain. The proof now will be to see it the efforts were worth it . The learning experience ceratinly was . Also the pride of a job well done. Frick hang in there buddy , that first blast on the water will earase al the pain .
RG.

Who filled the notch? With the #7M's there is no need to fill the notch.

Rik I was thinking the same thing . Is the #7 the only asd drive that will work with a notch ?
RG.

Just because its Newer- doesn't mean you wont need to drop a Chit load of $$ into it. Buy me a Beer and I will tell you a LONG and $$$$ Story lol

No, the ASD8's will also on a normal side by side.

Chris Voght did an amazing job on his boat but he did it the harder way. He purchased an old set of 1600's off a cat in FL and then began the process of putting things together in his boat. Would the #7M's been easier and less complicated, of course, but Chris did what he had the budget for and his boat looks amazing.

If he had to do it all over again he would even admit the #7M's are what he'd do too.

Mike Burt in NJ has the 38' Cig with the Kurt's Marine 840 hp that runs over 100. Kolor Craft did a 38' Cig that runs over 100 as well. The handling is better, the docking is easier and the boat is plane an simple faster than an I/O. I know there are people out there that won't believe it but everyone who has done it agree's.

The notch is only a concern for a stagger application and even then the entire notch is not of concern, rather only the are where the drives are mounted is of concern and typically this is only 2-3" of height by the width of the standoff box.