1997 42 fountain, will boxes help????
 

Im looking at installing stelling boxes on my 42 with twin staggered 950's, does anybody have any insight on what type of gains or +'s I will get? Is it worth the purchase? Thanks for any feed back!

Joe

I have'nt seen many 42's w/ext. boxes, which would lead me to believe they would'nt be much benefit. You will likely need -2 lower to keep the x up. I noticed you have a 31 AO. I just moved up from a 31 Awesome, what a change in ride style

Yea, the 3100 was too scary for me. she did 138 on GPS which for me was way to fast on Teague extreme xr drives. I was always so nervous driving that boat because of the drives plus the 31 sucked in rough water. I got soaked all of the time :)

You'll have a little more leverage and ride better + faster in some rougher seas. But like Ran-Dom said, you will have to go with -2 lowers to gain back the speed it will loose.
Dont like the Stelling boxes.
IMHO, Testing a few different style props would net you better gains.

before my current 2009 35, we had a 42 with 600 Innovations, tried boxes and the boat lost a couple of miles an hour across the board but ran better in rough water, took the boxes off. Hope that helps.

Hey Single w/ Twins, what year 42 was that?

1999, a friend of mine built it new and it was called ZULU, went to another guy for a couple of seasons and then I bought it and totally re-did the boat. Sold it last year to a gentleman not for a way and boat on Georgian Bay as well.

Jay

better results/ cheaper
 

Raise the drives much cheaper.

I'd look into re-rigging the boat and putting some SSM style drives on it while its apart! I can get you a pair of SSM III drives for a good price! The SSM drives will put the props back further in the water than the bravo's, and will hold up better than the bravo style drive on a 42 driven on Lake michigan. Stronger drive, stronger gimbal, etc.

You'll need trannies, but a Brian Miller sr. has a pair of fresh huber's sitting in his garage.

There's a guy on here, who has a late 90's 35 Fountain who had his boat converted from bravo's to ssm III by jerry Stark at oasis marine on the south side. He runs Keith Eickert 800's. No drive issues whatsover. I'd bet you can sell off your current stuff to offset the cost of the conversion.

Are you starting with bravo's, or do you have a pr. of SSM's ?? Good luck with bravo's holding up to 950 hp, they'll break like old candy. :eek:

He has bravos now. I think they may be upgraded like Teague or bmax or something.

Frank, have you ever broke your ssm iv drives due to your power?

Better yet....Arneson's

Joe, LMFAO :evilb: I wanna say "no" but I don't want to jinx myself. Now watch, I'll break one first time out this season. :angry-smiley-038:

The boat has Imco Extreme SC drives, from what I have been told they should hold up. The boat alreay has 2in. shorties on her. I have a problem with getting on plane. Props blow out as soon as she's about to fall over. Correct me if Im wrong but I should see about an 7-8 MPH gain with the 2in shorties and boxes set in the neutral position?

Are you running 4 or 5 blades?

I think stellings boxes are adjustable, where as the merc's are not. Could be wrong.

How far below the bottom are your propshafts now? Your boat is staggard, but my side by side 38 shafts are 1.5" below the running surface. No boxes. Boat was rigged this way at the Factory when they installed the SSM IV drives. Props blowout coming up on plane, whether i have the 3 or 4 blades on. The 4 blades just recover and grab faster. Normally for me, its tabs down, drives tucked, bring rpm to 3800, have a beer, then she lays over.

Alot of what you do is gonna be based on your current x dimension. If the setup is too high, planes like crap, and you have high slip numbers, you might want to try spacers, or different props before going to boxes. Adding the boxes to your current setup, might lower your prop slip, and help planing. But I doubt add 7-8mph over your existing setup, unless your slip numbers are thru the roof. All the boxes are gonna do is put your props deeper in the water than they are now, which normally, would equate to a speed loss on most setups. Keep in mind you already have a extension box built into the hull. (notched transom)

So, with that being said, i'd run the boat, trying a couple different styles of props. Record your top speed and calculate your slip. Then try some spacers, BZ has a pair. Run it again, see how that works for you. :coolcowboy:

I have the Merc boxes on mine, and they do have three sets of holes to mount them in. The boxes will put the prop about a foot farther back and will let it grab more cleaner water. Kinda like putting the prop in deeper without putting it in any deeper.
You might want to try to run a prop with more foil on the front cutting edge, this helps alot in planning the boat. If your props have already been polished to death, then there's no bringing them back. You can't "add" foil to a prop, but you can remove it with someone that does'nt know what he's doing when he's polishing it for you.

I've got props that have very little "foil" on them, the boat will run it's fastest speeds with em, but with full tanks and 4 people in the boat, I can't even get it to plane unless I'm going with the wind and with the current of the water. Total PITA !!! 2 people, light on fuel, and it's doable, but still a project with getting the props to bite just at the right rpm.
If you got the coin, the boxes will probably help the planning problem, but not completely. You just might need to use a different prop. If you want to look into reworking your existing props, (if they can be done), I've got a real great prop guy that I've used for many years, and everyone that's went to him was 100% satisfied with his quality of work.

Hey that 35 fountain with the SSMIII is me! Boat runs great after 8 years! You get so much more with speedmasters...real props, boat runs like its on rails...much better in rough water.

I agree. I tried a set of four blade props last summer. Had ran 3 blades, and figured slapping on a set of like pitch 4 blades could only improve Planing? Nope. Could not get the boat on plane whatsoever. Tried everything. They just dug holes and never grabbed. Turned out a lot of the cupping was gone. Put the 3 blades back on and went boating that day. Tried a different set of 4 blades a few weeks later, boat planed off great.

How's everything else coming along Joe?

4 Blade Bravo I's.

Hi Joe! Good to see you out here.

Its the driver !!!!!! :evilb:

42 with high ssm6
 

My 42 flatbottom planed and ran awsome with drives even with the bottom and the drives stretched out the back. Tabs were all it needed to plane.
This was the most aggressive rough water boat. Did scrub 2-3mph speed on top running 17 1/4 diameter 4 blades on 18" centers.
Running on Lake Erie I would prefer rough water setup anytime.
My 47 would be no match in 4-6 footers since there is less leverage on the nose to let it carry more evenly than tabbing it down into a wave.
I am looking to put boxes on the 47 for sure.
Ken

The speedmasters have always held up well for me with 800-900 hp . The 3's , 4's ,and 5's work well . Complete gimble and drive packages can be had reasonable . Now that repacement parts are available again , might be worth checking out . Rebuilds are probably no worse than a high performance bravo . I have had them last for years with few problems .

I even know where to get a deal on a complete set up , if anyone is interested PM me .

I have stelling boxes on my 35, they have 5 different mounting holes, mounted as high as they can go. the boat gets on plane like no other, I do think they took away a couple mph on top, like everyone said you sould use 2 inch shorties , they will get the mph back and some but I will bet it will get on plane slower. I really like them on this 35. they work great to get in the boat when in the water, puts the drives back far enough to use the drive as a ladder. multi purpose add on.