new donzi classic 22 owner , same story
 

I took my new to me 2007 22 classic 496 Mag HO out to a local pond for some test runs . This is the only boat I have been in that actually scares me a bit with its handling characteristics . I read all about how this would be the case and how they are drivers boats , so I expected it to some degree. I figured meh , it can't be that edgy . Wrong . Everything I read here and all over the net is true . Its going to take some dedicated practice and learning on my part. And I'm looking forward to it , Its putting some excitement back into running a boat. Its really just the trim and turning at just on planing speeds ( where it wants to lay over ) . Its really sensitive to weight distribution also .

I know its just a stock 22' river /lake boat to most guys here , but it feels like a rocket to me . Made the lake feel tiny today. I could have looked at a nordic 22 sprint or checkmate zt230br , but have always wanted a 22 Classic for its timeless style . I hope I can get it together because I don't want to go scaring the s**t out of my passengers ( wife and kids especially).

One of my all time favorite boats out there, congrats on the purchase. Sweet little hot rods for sure.

Congrats. Just take your time. If you don't open it up for a year or two as you build seat time and experience/confidence, so be it.

Ya def going to take it slow . It feels like if I didn't and screwed up it could be bad. I'm going to use the remainder of the season for training purposes . I want to get out on bigger water with less traffic and practice. I've actually only got a few simple mods planned in the offseason : drive shower , depth sounder , courtesy lighting inside , and another prop ( rev 4 ) . So hopefully an early start to next season also . Then there is the trailer , Its my first roller and I hate it . Going to convert to bunks I think.

Had one for 7 years take it easy at first learn to use the trim tabs to control it at slower speeds. My good friend has a 2006 and needs tabs at all speeds. I was lucky with my 95 22c it only need tabs below 50mph after that hammer down and trim up till WFO that's when it felt right. But you always need to be cautious of side wakes and any thing over 2 ft chop because the boat will fly easy.

Did you just roll it at loto?

i have a 23P Rev 4 and a 25P mirage plus, the rev is a much much more versatile, every day prop.

nocoolname37 , what power are you running ? I had read that another member here was running a 22c with a 502 mag and using a 25p rev 4 . He had good numbers and was pleased with the 25p. I cant decide between a 23p or 25p rev 4 . Id like to think I should have no trouble with the 25 . However I would like to have better holeshot and lower planing speeds for towing at times. I'm turning a 25p m+ now . I would love to get the right pitch rev 4 and sell the m+ . But if it makes more sense to go 23p rev 4 for general use and keep the 25m+ for the fast days so be it . Unfortunately I need more seat time to really judge the boats performance either way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq6bSy4lfnU

Its impressive . Def setup well. He probably has to custom order all his pants ...

Saw one wipe out and sink at the shootout Saturday

How does that happen? Just too rough for the 22?

a few modifications put me at about 450 hp but my hull is both heavy and sticky (top speed with the m+ with 4 people and fuel is only 60 gps)so i would believe that you would be able to pull a 25P Rev 4 having a much faster/lighter boat. welcome to the prop guessing game haha

Was running in the shootout
Nice flat water very little chop
Looked way over trimmed to me

Once you get some seat time you will find that it's a very gratifying boat to drive. One problem is that you can't put anyone else behind the wheel, therefore I don't ski anymore. :(

Learn it, Enjoy it. Seat time is your best friend.

Sounds like you got a beautiful boat. I,ve got a small river rocket my-self, that gets squirrely at higher speeds. I do testing with the boat by myself, on a calm day, while wearing a life jacket and the tether switch.
When friends and family are with me, I gently cruise the river, and enjoy the scenery.
There is a place a time for it all, just pick the right time and speeds for the occasion.

See here: http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...continued.html
Boat has a totally different bottom (owner modified) and many other things not factory......same with the 118mph Donzi in the vid put up in 1stpage of this thread.

Yup. We were tied up about 2/3's down the course and he came past us chine walking horribly. Instead of backing off and letting it settle and try again on another run he tried to drive out of it.

If your discussing the black boat that wiped out at LOTO. I believe that is a 24' Cigarette not a 22' Donzi I could be wrong. Hope driver is OK and recovers to fight another day.

Def going to be speed testing with a vest and tether . Probably with only a buddy. I'll probably also be doing a lot of cruising in style with family and friends most of the time anyhow. I plan on plenty of learning before trying to wring it out . I hate to admit it here but the boat stock feels plenty fast to me at the moment . I have only ran it to about 60 or so and it feels great, although I'm sure that will change a bit at 70+ fully trimmed. The part I'm trying to get is the slow planing speed turning where the boat wants to really roll over . I have been playing with throttle and trim while turning to figure it out . I know its not an ideal boat for towing , but It will be doing so at these speeds and that's why its important to me . I have had other small boats that ran upper 60s ( 18' checkmate persuader with sbc ) but it wasn't even comparable to driving the 22c. I did have a u19 single prop for a hot minute , but only ran it a couple times . I don't remember it feeling a ton like the 22c either . I know this is the norm and I am cool with all the learning . Its just not like any other boat I have operated before. I would love to run into another member on the board with a 22c who knows how to run one just to go for a rip. Anyone in metro det ?? LOL.

Nope, it's a Donzi 22 Classic with some hull mods.

22 actually easier than the U19. As said, take your time, get the feel of the boat. IMO, tabs up, take the fuse out until you get the hang of running without them, and you will. Once past that, the tabs can be your friend for cross chop, occasional low sped porpoising etc, otherwise you will find you don't use them very much at all. If your looking for some help in MI, I know a few people up there that have extensive seat time in 22's of all flavors..

Yep see way too many people that don't know how to use Tabs . Big tabs on a little boat moving at a good clip will bite you in the azz..

One of the reasons I mounted mine the way I did..it softens them up but you still get the durability of a real tab....

Most of us Classic owners have gone through this learning curve. You can throw a lot of what you know about driving a boat out the window. On my maiden voyage my boat rolled onto it's side twice and I was like "why the hell did it do that?". Now I've mastered the boat and carving deep banked turns at any speeds. You will learn to feel when it is about to roll too far and simply straighten the steering wheel to stop it. Most people don't realize the skill it takes to drive these boats and to carve those turns. Very fun and satisfying. One thing I'd like to emphasize is that your boat should have ZERO poor handling traits at high speed. Porpoise should stop and there should be no chine walk. Usually you will need just a bit of port tab to keep the boat level. As you trim up for top speed you can raise the tab. If you have an issue at speed then you may have a problem to address.

I had a 700HP 22' Donzi classic and while I loved the boat it was really uncomfortable when it got past 80mph. I know others have run faster stating it was nice and straight but mine felt like it was on the ragged edge. I don't think it's the best choice when trying to go to max speed. It's definitely a drivers boat but you need to know the limits.

A few things. Most of the newer 22C's want to roll over to port as you come out of the hole and will maintain this attitude after you are up on plane w/o trim or tabs. As speed increases and positive trim is applied the roll to port diminishes considerably and the boat will have more of a level running attitude, depending on weight distribution. So you can drive through this by trimming up. The other option is to apply some tab down on the port side out of the hole. It doesn't take much as sometimes just a little past being parallel with the running surface will do it. Most of the time the starboard tab is not required. I have tab indicators so I run mine both down to keep things fairly symmetric but with "4" down being parallel to the bottom of the boat I run the port tab to 5-6 and the starboard to 4-5. Once I'm up on plane and the boat is level I trim up to where I need to be then set the tabs for the running conditions. Don't be afraid to look over your shoulder at the spray off the tabs. Sometime this is a simple method to read your tab position when you don't have indicators and can tell you a lot about what's going on back there.

I hate porpoise so I'm almost always running the port side tab down around 5 unless I'm up over 60 and the need for them pretty much goes away. I'd play with that port side tab a little and get a feel for what works. Again you can drive through the port lean pretty easily with positive trim but it's the 22 porpoise that will feel uncomfortable beyond this if your boat reacts this way. The props are also a big area of discussion on the 22's and can effect handling.

All this is for smooth to choppy water at reasonable speed. The boat should be rock solid when running at speed (60+) in this type of water with good positive trim; tabs can be pretty much all the way up. One thing to note though is that I'd be prepared to drop the tabs back down if you're running at speed and want to drop the speed down. When I'm running at 70+ with no tabs and want to drop back down below 60 I'll drop the tabs back down a bit before pulling back on the throttle and trim. This is easy with indicators when you know where everything is but I'd be a little careful doing this without indicators until you're comfortable with the boat.

Yep guys, every thing said here rings true to what I've experienced so far . I have only owned one boat with tabs and only need them to calm porpoising at various cruise speeds . I am going to try to run the boat with drive trim only and really get a feel , then work with the tabs later ( at least I hope ) . This way I'm not adding too many variables to the learning curve. It does feel rock solid when running into the 60s trimming up . I hope I got a good one from the start and it doesn't start gettting out of line once wrung out. I think part of the problem with my slow speed rolling is I am not feeding quite enough throttle in and its also falling off plane a bit mid turn. Idk. It turns great at 35 to 40 tho. The 22 classic has always been a dream of mine to own . So I'm damn sure going to see it through. As a side note a good friend (boater also) of mine was like " How much was this ? You don't even get any cup holders ! " I chuckled . I guess it either does something for you or it doesn't . Nobody I boat with can figure out why I sold my Crownline 202br lpx and spent more than twice as much on the Classic. I DO .

What changed on the 22 Classic from the 90s ( merc era ) to the mid 2000s that causes them to possibly handle different?

I don't know if I'd say a 22 is "easier" than a U19. Two totally different handling boats. The U19 will chine walk in flat water, which you can learn how to stop. But, it will never porpoise even without any tabs and too much trim. You also have to REALLY try to launch the bow into the air, as it won't do it unexpectedly. Pretty much the opposite of a 22.

Maybe I missed it, but what prop are you running?

Also, is your boat yellow?

No, my boat is white with single red deck stripe / small red hull stripe. Running 25m+

There's been a couple changes through the years but I really think the slow speed handling things could have been addressed by Donzi but they never had any interest in doing so.

There were three main changes through the years, the switch to a reverse chine, re-spacing of the stringers and inner lifting strakes, & X-Dimensions moving down then back up.

Most of the changes happened during the era when AMH owned Donzi but I don't recall when the reverse chine change actually happened. The stringer/inner strake move seems to have happened around the time when Donzi and Merc switched to the 496 engines but we never really figured out why since a BBC is a BBC. As far as X-Dim's, the X's were quite a bit higher before AMH then AMH dropped it down to a fairly low standard dimension for years. It wasn't really until around 2002 that they seemed to entertain the idea of moving the X back up for performance. Once the 22-Shelby boats came out in 2006 Donzi seemed to be comfortable with putting a 22 on the market with a 2" raised X-dim.

At one point I asked one of the Donzi factory guys why the 22 handles like it does. His response was that it's just a big rocker hull & does what it does at slower speeds.

Mine is a '99 with a reverse chine.

Ken

Thanks for the education. Is a 2007 a good year as far as hull design elements and quality? I read some where that quality suffered for a brief period , not sure when or if it was even true. I followed the market for a while and bought mine because it appeared to be a fair deal . I really didn't educate myself as much as usual ( or I should have) on the specifics of manufacture. I actually just wanted to stay away from the omc era stuff for ease of parts sourcing and resale . Also what entity owned donzi in 07 ? Thanks

FWIW, the M+ is squirrely on these boats IMO. Fast, but.. A Turbo will settle it down pretty well and usually run as well or faster than the M&

Took the time to read the posts, and I agree seat time and prop testing will get you there. The 22 has a "flighty" bow and there is a fine line between fast and launching the bow.

My Pantera 24 was the same way, and a Rev4 prop handled much better than a Mirage and Mirage+. I also had a Turbo lightning that handled well for a 3 blade and was almost as fast as my Mirage.

Got out today , det river from wyandotte to lake st clair . Played on the lake for a bit then headed back to wyandotte. Water was kinda snotty on the lake. I spent a good deal of time running without the tabs , and some time with. The boat is happy running with little or no tab (over 35 ish) especially over 50mph. It feels great at speeds of 60-65 in the garbage I was running in. The bow is certainly happy to launch like others have said. I am coming to realize that the boat will probably act fine in most cases , I just don't have the seat time to know for sure yet. So I get an uncertain feeling here and there. I'm sure it will go away with more time. As for the slow speed rolling, I am confident it's because I wasn't feeding in enough throttle mid turn . I'd loose speed and start to fall off plane. If I drove into the turns the boat just carved away . Alot like riding a sport bike in away.

I have an 18. All the stock props I tried out had bad handling. I would consider giving Brett at B-Blades a call. I got a pair of props from him for my old Formula. When I sold that boat myself and my friend both tried them on our Donzi's. Not only did he gain 5MPH at top end (I don't know what I gained because my tach is currently flakey so I am not pushing it) but we also are both amazed at how all the bad behavior of the boat is gone. They both run much flatter and ZERO chine walk. Props are amazing things and can completely change the way the boat works.