Eagle xp 250 questions
 

Anyone have one, how do they handle rough water, 2-4ft, what kind of room, what speeds with 502efi and 26p prop

I have one & my buddy has one. They handle the river just fine as far as rough water they handle boat wakes fine but I don't know if I would want to be bouncing around in 4 ft waters all day. Mine is whippled with hyd steering, =2 shorty & 30 pitch labbed bravo 1 & it is stupid fast. It accelerates so fast it will ripple your face, above 85mph it chine walks real bad. Needs tabs so Im told. My buddies is stock with headers, not sure about prop runs 80+ & he loves it. I talked to the factory & they told me about putting tabs on it the hull was designed for 80-90 mph & will do about 80 stock. Not a lot of room but comfortable cuddy is just 2 small couch seats & a bed plenty of room. I like mine but with the power it needs help to be safe IMO. I have never been beat when out playing around but I have to back off before I get to full throttle so I don't know how fast the boat really is. Hope that helps ya out. Randy

I owned a 97 Eliminator Eagle 250 XP (two step hull) for 12 years (sold it in 99). It was great up to about 2' waves, anymore than that and it starts to get too rough for the sit down seats. The hull is really more of a fast river and lake boat, as it has a shallower (relative to larger offshore boats) V entry and a delta pad keel. It was fastest in about 1' of chop. The most passengers I ever had on board was 5 (+me = 6 total), but that was a bit crowded. If you're just marina hopping then a total of 5 or 6 is fine, if you're hanging out on the boat all day, its really best for a couple or maybe two couples. With my high speed prop, I had trouble getting on plane with 4 big guys on board (had to have the fat guy stand front center or go in the cabin to get on plane without blowing out the prop--we were all 200+ lb guys)! I did not have trim tabs though. My boat had the 502 MPI (415 hp at prop) and std 1.5 ratio Bravo I. Fastest was 80 mph with a Hydromotive 29 pitch 4-blade Quad IV. Yes, 29 pitch. With the hydro, the engine turned about 4,900 rpm at 80 mph. I tried the Bravo I prop 26 pitch which topped out at about 75mph. I also had the Mach Sterndriver 26 pitch prop, which was a little faster at about 77 mph. The boat seemed to like stern lifting props the best. With the Hydromotive Quad IV 29 pitch, I could cruise at 3,600 rpm at about 55 mph. For heavy loads, I used the Mach to help get on plane a little easier. Note all speeds are true GPS two-way average speeds. Overall I loved it, and was faster than most boats on the rivers/lakes. Of course there will ALWAYS be someone with a faster boat out there! ;-) Good luck!

Also, I bought the boat with std rack/pinion push/pull cable steering. IMO, an 80 mph boat is too fast for std steering, and I upgraded to IMCO dual ram full hydraulic steering the first year. With the full hyd steering and a competent driver, it is fine and safe up to 80 mph (as fast as I ever went with the stock 502). I agree that much faster than that and you may have some instability and chine walk. Cruising at 55 mph is great, as most other regular boats on the water (sea rays, bayliners, etc. not other offshore or go-fast boats) are cruising only 30 to 40 mph. LOTS of times, guys with decent fast boats would think I was close to topped out at 55, and they would want to race a bit. I'd play along for a while at maybe 65, then put the throttle down and wave bye bye! Boat was lots of fun for 12 years, but I sold it to buy a 39 foot twin engine classic flat deck boat.

I agree with LVSeng cruising at 55-60 & someone comes up to play they are in for a shock cause these boats are FAST out of the box & the midrange punch will set you back pretty good stock, built like mine it's a guided missle. Randy

Not trying to hi-jack your thread but what do you guys think a twin stepped 28 Eagle mid-cabin with a carbed HP500 would run at WOT and cruise?

I bought my 99 25 Eagle XP last spring and put alot of hours on it this past summer. Couldnt agree more with LVSeng's opinions.

Mine has a 502 EFI Mag, K planes, IMCO lower and IMCO dual ram external steering. With just me, the wife and two sons on board and the 100 pounds my wife always stashes in carry on's (750 ish pounds) it runs 72 ish MPH. It hits the rev limiter as soon as it's trimmed. The prop is a 26P BRavo 1, not sure if it's labbed. It will blow out the prop getting on plane if I keep it pinned. I have had 9 people on board and it consistantly blew out the prop getting on plane even with the tabs down. It was sluggish once on plane. Combined weight of passengers was around 1350 pounds.

Mine doesnt do well docking in wind, not enough depth to the V. We boat on Lake Washington, it's a decent sized lake with a lot of larger boats. Hitting 3' - 5' rollers is not fun in this boat. It is not made for this and mine has several stress cracks at the mid cuddy pass through to prove it. They were there when I bought it, bought at one time in it's life was in Minnesota.

Mid range punch is fantastic, feels alot like a low 12 second street car nailing it from 40 MPH and dead hooking.

They are fun boats, but not a true deep V. Stay in the rivers and medium sized lakes and you will be happy.
Hers a pic of the business end of my boat http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...EagleXP024.jpg
I doubt anyone one is running near 80 with stock 502 power....

Bought a 260 Velocity instead

I agree with IROC dave, they are not doing 80 MPH with a stock 502 at 415 HP. I did 81.4 with 660 HP custom 498 and that was with a 3 blade 25 pitch prop. Tried a 26 pitch Bravo 1 and it slowed me down to 73 and had me chine walking all over the place at 70 MPH. The motor would only spin the 26 at 4900 rpm. I am at a loss on how to get faster. Any tips?

Either someone is pulling your leg on the horsepower big time, or your X-dimension is pretty low. My engine dynoed at 465hp and i'm spinning a BBlades labbed 28pitch 4-blade Bravo at 5,100 between 78-80mph gps depending on conditions. I will say, that the dyno operator said that HP500's dyno about the same as what my modded 502 made, but there is absolutely no reason why 625hp should only be spinning a 25p to 4,900! Those numbers just don't make sense.

Eliminator told me that my x dimension is "seven to six" inches. Not sure why I couldn't get an exact number from the guy but that's what they told me. My engine was dynoed before install and I have the sheet so unless the dyno sheet is fraudulent, those are my numbers. Again, I'm at a loss.

cuzinnote, I agree with cloudmaster 450hp will push one of these boats to 80mph. My boat had an estimated 650hp with a whipple side mount supercharger & dart pro 1 heads with emi thunder exhaust with a -2 inch shorty turning a 30p labbed bravo 1 & was clocked at 96mph in a shootout here just before I bought it. The driver was not even full throttle because it chine walked so bad. I am rebuilding this boat with more power, full hydraulic steering & K planes to make it safer. I expect easily over 100mph if it handles correctly. I did a quick measurement just to see & a stock length drive would be 6 inches for the propshaft depth 4 inches with my shorty so you must have an issue somewhere. Being that my boat had the hp you have now if there is any measurements or anything I can help with please feel free to contact me. Randy

Thank you both. I will most likely need to take you up on that Randy. I realize the numbers don't make sense, that's what makes it so frustrating. First thing I'm going to do is swap out my tach so I know it 100% accurate then start working from there.

:eekdrop:[ATTACH=CONFIG]502190[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]502191[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]502192[/ATTACH]With mine being gutted right now it should be easy for me to get any measurements you might need

X dimension would be taken from the bottom of the rear most pad to center line of out drive lower shaft at the prop. IIRC, mine is about 6 5/8". Make sure the shaft is somewhat level as the drive can be tucked under a 90 degree plane of the rear pad.

I measured from the pivot point on the drive to the bottom of the hull under the drain plug, then measured the drive from the pivot point to the prop shaft & did the math. IROCDave our X dimensions very close if your lower is stock length. I would think cuzinotes boat should be able to spin at least a 28p 4blade to the rev limiter if not a 30p. My boat would blow the prop out really bad if there was any obstruction like a stick to interfere with the flow to the prop. If this boat won't rev there has to be an issue with the engine IMO. Cuzinote can you give the build specs on the engine? Randy

If his boat is making the HP he has said it's making then yes, it should spin a 30p prop. My boat with as far as I know stock 415HP Merc 502 EFI Mag hit's the rev limiter with almost zero trim. That would be with 2 - 4 people and several hundred pounds of " other stuff" in it. The prop is a 26P Bravo 1. I don't know if it's been worked over. With this prop and 2 people (almost zero trim) it hit's a consistent 72 mph. A 28p prop should give a couple of MPH but who knows.

How can you tell if the lower is a shorty? There are no casting or part numbers in the IMCO lower unit.

Holy lot of work dude!! I always wondered if the gas tank went under the front seats at all. Looks like it stays right inboard of the seat screws then? Roughly 1/3rd of my front seat screws are stripped out in the floor. And people have just put longer and bigger screws in, now those are stripped too. I always wondered if they were going into the gas tank......... :whistle: I need to pull the carpet up and fill those holes and redrill. I have a whole roll of the teal carpet, and it looks like the carpet job in this boat is a cinch since most all the edges are covered by upholstery.

IROCDave, I will measure 1 of my stock lowers & 1 of my shortys & post. Cloudmaster, the screws for the seat bases are on the outer side of the stringers & as far as I can tell just go into the fiberglass floor. I am going to pull the whole floor up & I will post pics on my thread hopefully this week the weather looks like it is going to cooperate a little. Randy

IROCDave, my stock lower is 10" from center of prop shaft to where it mounts to upper. Shorty is 8". Cuzinote do you have any updates? New tach? Check timing? Randy

Dug up my sticky note with pertinent info. CL of prop shaft is 10" below mounting flange of lower unit to upper unit. IIUC, this would be a stock length IMCO lower unit?

You are correct, the shorty does not have the ear in the back under the cavitation plate I think that is why they include a SS bolt on plate. I had to cut my spacers off about 6" in the back so they wouldn't stick out on my Kachina. Randy

I am back at it Randy as the season is upon us. I can email you my build sheet if you want to take a peek. I figured out I was running too rich & fouling plugs so I dropped the jet size on the primaries and corrected the problem. Last time out on labor day it ran 81.7 mph at about 5100 rpm before it started walking violently. Couldn't get it trimmed all the way up before that happened. I am currently searching for the best K Plane trim tabs to combat the chine walk I am experiencing. From what I can tell, something like the 380 series is what I need. Any thoughts?

Hi cuzinnote, everyone I talked to about my boat said 280s would be big enough. I bought a set of Dana HP1000s for mine. Placement is another question, I will be mounting mine parallel with the hull as I was told that is the safest way to go and seems extend the running surface as compared to mounting horizontal to the water line. If you want to you can give me a call @ 402-960-5268 as it is easier for me to talk than type. Randy

There is a nice looking 250 in the classifieds, how much room is there from the bench seat to the back of the front seats. Is there enough room for an adult to sit and not hit their knees. Thanks

Barely, if your short. Randy

This boat drove Like a dream