Running off plane on a single engine.
 

I've noticed a trend in boaters with twin engine boats (both performance and cruisers) running on a sinlge engine while off plane. One can assume individuals are doing this for fuel savings.

Anyone else seeing the same? What are the risk's?

Wouldnt fual saving be minimal at best?

I always shut all but one down.
Around Ft. Myers we have a number of slow zones.
One of the boats I sold had 50 hrs on it. When I pulled up the log on the Smartcraft, 27 hrs were between 500 and 1500 RPM.
Beside cutting down the hours there have been studies that show you do burn less fuel by running on one engine.
If you look at all of that it seems like there's no good reason to run more than one.
Of course if you have power steering on just one motor it gets a little trickier.

i usually shut down the one that's not running the power steering pump. Only do it in no wake zones, or marinas. saves fuel

I rarely shut one off. My power steering is on one engine and I have separate fuel tanks for each engine, so I leak to keep the fuel even. Running on one in a no wake would be way too slow.

-Save hours and wear on the motor.
-Run slower.
-Depending on the boat, might not wander at idle. (Or might wander moreso.)
-Save fuel.
-Being a 'greener' boater.
-Less opportunity to suck something up or strike something when in shallow water.

or

-Already broke a motor/drivetrain, and are limping back in.


...all reason to be running on one motor.

The drawback, and hence why most fire up at least the two outermost motors when docking, is that you have next to no handling control with just one motor on a large boat. It's much easier and precise to dock/maneuver with both (outermost) motors around the docks/trailer/etc. A bowthruster also makes this process even easier.

I have a 42ft boat, 502 EFI's and a Floscan interfaced with GPS. My fuel economy will almost double by cruising on one engine at no wake speeds.

Steve

Honestly I've never ran on just one motor before, but I would consider shutting one off now. Occasionally I do have to put one motor in neutral to slow the boat down at idle when going through canals and whatnot with people in front of me. Why not just shut it off? Makes sense to me....

I hear some people's motors "load up" or build fuel up when they idle for too long. They have to rev the motor to clear it out when it starts sputtering... seems to me the better solution would be to just shut that engine off.

In some no-wake zones I HAD to run on one only...but would often leave the other one running anyway. I guess it was because the engine/props on that boat I would idle at 9 mph and put out a 1ft wake. I was yelled at or stopped numerous times because of the wake I was putting out. Dropping one out of gear would slow me to 6-6.5 and virtually no wake.

Interesting thread........If I idle for longer than a mile I would shut one off (usually the one that has more hours, so I could even up the hour meters if they are off by a bit).

However the savings could really kick in if you had big power. Merc. gets 50K+ to refresh a pair of 1075s so they "cost" $500 an hour to operate (just in maintenance). So if you had a 30 minute idle each way to get out to open water you could theoretically "save" $500 in just one outing by shutting one motor down each way. This number doesn't even add in the fuel savings....... Of course there is a value in warming up a cold motor before going WFO too....

I started doing it last year in some of the long no-wake zones at LOTO. Not sure I'm really saving that much fuel, but figure I'm in no hurry anyway. Alternate the motors to keep the hourmeters relatively close...

Screw that! i'm afraid i wont get it started again. ;) i always run on 2, need as much help as i can get.

When we first got the boat we were idling thru the GG no wake section. Next thing i know one engine dies. So i try to get it started again, then the other one dies & we come to a drift. Neither one would refire. I then realized that they werent even getting power. i open the cabin door & see that both the engine switches are in the down position. apparantly my 5 yr old when attempting to close the door ended up hitting the switches & killing the engines. talk about going from dead panic to relief.

I run on one in gear, one in neutral just to kill the wake. If I put both in gear it will carry a wake at idle.

I always try to idle on one engine, smaller wake, save fuel, quieter, ect.

It really depends on where I'm idling whether or not I shut one down...when it's really hot out i usually run on one and then switch to the other when coming back through the other direction...

WOW!!! I'll feel better the next time I blow something up!! I'm saving fuel when I coming in on one motor!!:drink::drink:

Been there, done that! However I have found that the gas would have been far cheaper than the fix. Odd how running on 16 can end up being cheaper than running on 8 while dragging the other 8!

what happens if you try this and you only have one motor????:party-smiley-004::picard1:

Some good points made here. If youre going to try it, I would think that keeping the run time equal on both blocks is important (longrun).

I'm pushing a 1,000 hours on the clocks, so a few hours here or there don't matter too much to me.

Me too. I don't like for mine to idle in gear at less than 1000-1100 RPM's. So I always keep one at idle so they are both at 1000+. I tend to shut one off after midnight. Its always fun to see other boaters admirring the sound only to be suprised by another popping off.

I don't care about saving fuel. If I wanted to do that I wouldn't have bought a boat I would have bought a Prius.
Like many others, my boat will make wake at idle on 2 screws. I kick one in neutral & ease on down the way.

what causes it to create wake at idle? the size of the prop, drive height, etc? i cant see our rpm's being too far off, but i know your drive is shorter than mine, & your props are definately bigger.

The propeller size seems to be my biggest issue. When I put the 30's on it is really fast on 2 for an idle.

sometimes it not the wake but its traffic congestion and slow cruisers that have me run on one motor

I was stopped by the WI DNR last summer on the St. Croix River when I was idling 5 MPH on both engines. The guy told me to shut one engine down. Apparently no-wake doesn't mean you're not making a wake because I wasn't. To the DNR, it means you're going as slow as physically possible while maintaining steerage.

I run on one because of noise restrictions in Mi. My boat isnt even loud but still gets pulled over when I run both in a no wake.