sounds like you have some seat time in both boats, I’m just curious how the 24 I/o feels compared to your 22 especially with the newer heavy motor on the back.

my old 22 with a 300xs and 380s and barley any trim would point to the sky very very easily. These 22 prog are just bow light boats as we all know. Now add 2’ and a truck motor. Is the ride noticeable different?

I only drove Larry's 24LD once and didn't really hammer on it. I can say that the extra 2' of length, the extra weight of the I/O and the monster K-planes made it a much different boat to drive than my 22 - which at the tme had a 2.5 / 200 on the transom. Generally speaking, it had a much calmer feel well into the 70's.

As for my 22 with the 4.6 / 250R, it's a much different boat to drive now. Getting it to maximum speed before required driving skill and seat time, but I could hang it right out to dry and get 77 MPH (on GPS) out of it pretty easily. I always said it was like driving a Formula 1 car on the street. Light and very frisky.

With the four stroke, things changed quite a bit. First, I had to go with 10' of setback because the 250R does not come with a 25" mid-section and my boat was one of the early 22's that were built for the old Mercury 3.4 liter Cosworth monster with the 25" mid. To get the 20" mid on the new motor enough room to tilt up with a 20" mid, we had to go back another 4". Then there's the additional weight and height of the 4.6. Yes, you feel every bit of it. Even with my 10" tabs down, the bow reaches for the sky coming on plane. Once on plane, I still need to leave the tabs level with the bottom to keep the bow from getting too silly. It's very drivable though - up through about 75-80 MPH. After that - and depending on what prop I run - it gets much tougher to drive. I'm still working on / struggling with setup, but the 2.5 was much more user friendly to drive. The 4.6 is just way easier to live with overall though.

Hmmmm sounds like the v8 still needs some more seat time. But it must be a huge difference overall. What prop are you spinning with the new motor

The boat ran 88 MPH with a 30" Bblades ober the hub blaster, but it doesn't like it. (Maybe the driver doesn't like it.) I'm currently running a 4 blade thru hub Hydromotive that handles much better, but is only good for 84 MPH.

Tom, meet Mark.
Mark, meet Tom. Mark works for us. Mark, we rigged Tom's boat. Ill tell ya whatever ya wanna know lol.
Laster's boat is the 24 headed here soon for a throttle cable.

small world. I told you I was looking for a 24LD progression😃