So how was the shakedown cruise?

To Fossil and all:
Ran the Lake Cumberland Poker Run. Have the getting on plane thing down pat now. Give it a lot of throttle to get the RPM's up to 3500-4000. Have to back off when the props start to break loose but then get back into it when they hook up again. Boat like to cruise about 50-55mph at 3500rpm. Still playing with the trim and tab levels. Easily makes 5-7 mph difference just trimming the drives up or down a little. Best top speed I was able to get was 86 with no tab and 4-5 on the drive trim indicator (pretty high trim level I thought). Had a pretty cool rooster tail though. Full fuel, full water and 4 people on board. Still think I can get a few more mph out of her playing with the drive trim position and some time behind the wheel.

When the boat is on the trailer put a straightedge on the bottom and trim the drives in and out until you are at neutral trim (not in or out) parallel with the bottom. Mark the trim indicators with a sharpie. Run up, get on plane, run to 4000, lift the tabs and set drives at the sharpie mark. Pin the throttle and go. I think you were trimmed out too far, was your limiter on the smartcraft screaming at you? If you do not do 95 set like that something is wrong. You should see 5200+

That boat only has the electronic display for tab and drive trim, no manual indicators. So would the same procedure work by just recording the numbers on the display at parallel?

Yes, you have to know where neutral is. Mine is 7.7 on the smartcraft display and I have the mechanical indicators marked.

Can't wait to see it out on the water (of course I have to be out there to do that). Maybe we can get the crew together and squeeze a fall run in this year.



RP

Thanks Fossil. Been out of town for a while but the weather is looking great here for the weekend. I will give your method a try and report back. I'll post some pics, too.