Moving to staggared #6's on my 47 Fountain?? Need some help!! (transom work + drives)
 

Hello everyone - I have a 47 Fountain project that needs some attention. At this point, I have:

- One basically brand new #6 plug on gimbal
- One used #6 drive line gimbal
- Pair of #6 wet drives (still need a prop shaft for one of them)

The boat began as a triple motor boat... but the middle hole has been filled. The transom is actually in great shape, so there is no need to cut it up... BUT... I have a TON of room in the engine compartment.. so staggared may be an option?

Couple of questions here:

• Do you guys know of anyone in Florida that can do a good quality transom job without breaking the bank??
• I have one plug-in and one drive-line gimbal... Can this be used as a good staggared set up??
• If I need two plug on's instead, then can the drive-line gimbal be converted to plug-on?

I have enclosed some pictures of everything... the plurple color is currently being changed to Merc black...

Thanks guys for the help and let me know....:ernaehrung004:

here is the plug on pic...

It's not only the transom, most lilkely you will have to move some stringers too. I plug in & 1 drive line is a typical stagger set up, but given the amount of room you have I would go for 2 drive lines.

Legacy (Steve Lopez) is right next door to us and he is doing exactly that to a 47 Apache.

Sounds great and thank you for the info!!! Do you have any pics of the 47 Apache set up? Thanks!

here is a pic of the engine compartment. Check out the stringers and let me know what you think. Thanks

TeamPSI, I think you have a pretty involved project going. I think the stringers need to be reconfigured. Typically you have a taller center stringer. The biggest concern I have looking at the picture is the fuel tanks. They appear too wide.
I would think you would be shooting for something like a 20" centerline. It appears the outer stringers should run approx where the edge of the tank is.
I may be able to dig up some pics with a fountain race set up.
Jim

Thank you for the info Jim and I am looking forward to the pictures? Also, how hard are the tanks to remove?? Probably like opening up Pandoras box I'm sure...

I don't know anything really about staggered drives except for what I've seen in pics, but I've got a couple questions: If you're going frpm a triple setup to a twin, couldn't you just set your twins in where the original outside motors went, and if you were going to use the original outside motor stringers, why would you want to stagger the position of them? I would think that would throw the balance of the boat off. If you really wanted to go staggered twins for the advantage of (I'm guessing) the lower CG and more linear weight distribution, wouldn't you really need to fill the other transom holes and recut new holes for the drives, as well as take out the original stringers and put in new stringers to accomodate the motors being much closer together and overlapping each other by "x" amount? Just curious.

You are correct. My guess is the existing centerline is about 38" a typical staggered is about 20". Its a matter of how far he wants to go with it. This is the only picture I could easily share. I didn't measure for this response but it is @ 30 " from center to side stinger and @ 16" from outside stringer to hullside. I remember the engine box length to be 110". I will have to dig and scan for more. Some else will probably share too.
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Sounds good guys and keep the info coming!!! I'd like to stagger due to the performance benifit. With both drives working together I will be able to gain some mph....

You are right, however, it would be a lot easier if I just dropped motors in the two outside holes. That may be my only option if the staggered set up is too much hassel.