Just picked up a 2008 fountain 35 lightning it has 30 pitch maximus props. I'm not sure what the gear ratio is was wondering if there was a dramatic difference between 1.35 and 1.50? And what speeds I should be seeing with my setup?

I assume you have staggered 525s with sportmaster shorties. My Fountain came with 32 pitch Herings and the performance report gave a top speed of 102mph. If you contact Fountain you should be able to get a copy or your performance report from them. Your boat should easily run in the 90s.

Thanks,
do you know what drive ratio you have?

My performance report says 1.35, but I confirmed over last winter when my drives were at All American Drive Service for rebuilding that they are 1.5 ratio. I think most 525 boats came with a 1.5.

Yes, do not go by the factory performance report for the gear ratio. Our boat was listed as 1:50 and turned out being 1:35 after tear down inspection, also a friend of mine has the same exact boat as ours and his report said 1.65 and the ratio is really 1:35.
And to answer your question about if you notice the ratio difference, yes. The idea is when running big hp to go to a lower ratio to run a smaller prop, there is a balance that makes sense. Also the lower gear is easier on wear and tear of components and it has been discussed that running the largest props on Bravo style drives are not as efficient as running the mid-size props. There have been some Executioners that had 1.65 drives with very large props and they went a few ticks faster than with a 1:50 set-up and a mid size prop so the theories can be tested, what actually works is just that, what works. If I remember right those Executioners were 496 HO boats.

There were some of the Executioner models, 496 Mag Ho boats, that were built with the 1.65 ratio Bravos and larger 32" Bravo 4 blades. These boats often did see a few better on the top end vs the 1.50 boats. Need to remember here that the 496;s were not real high rev motors, the gear deal played into their low rev, low rev torgue profile. Was all in what you wanted. Years back a friend had such a set up and I was impressed with the top end the boat would run, given some space to get there.