Panther

Doc,

Do yourself a favor and put your "old" lowers up against a "sportmaster" lower and tell me if they look the identical... As I suggested a few months ago, your lowers looked like sportmasters. Sportmaster lower is actually slower than a standard Bravo....

The "new" lowers you got are the bmax design, they are the same as what I have....

Panther

Out of curiosity, how long are you running WOT?

When I had IMCO extreme SC's (garbage) I was running 1.50's and the motors would turn 5200 rpms with 32 Bravo One's. The RPM's would go right up to 5200, no delay.

Now with the BMax 1.30 I run 5100 rpms on 26 Bravo ones. My RPMS max out at 4800 then rise up to 5100 as the boat picks up speed.

Last year the boat ran a best of 83 mph, this year I had a best of 81 but I haven't blown a drive all season on 60 hrs. Last year I blew two IMCO's with 20-30 hrs...

johnnyboatman

iTrader: (5)

is it the lowers that are slowing you down?

docmanrich37

Did the final testing and didn't get anymore speed out of the bravo style lowers.
Ran the thing woft for aslong as i could and it didn't help except make the boat lighter from all the fuel i used.
Not sure if its the lowers,uppers or both that's slowing me down.It seems i'm the only one running slower.I like the reliability of the drives but not going that much slower.
I was running 5800 with the 1.50 and turning stock [email protected] i'm turning a 28 stock @5100 running 88mph.

Strip do you want your drives?

Panther

Doc, I was running the same props as you...

Last year I was running 32's to 5200 rpms and ran a best of 83 mph.

This year with the new drives I thought I would need 28's so that's what I tested with. The boat ran 75 mph and I could only turn 4500 rpms... I then ran 24's and spun them up to 5700 and the boat ran 79 mph.

Finally I ran a set of 26's and the boat ran 81 mph @ 5100 rpm.

It sounds like you need a set of 26's either way.. Were all the props you tested brand new?? Lord knows I've seen a bunch of butchered old props laying around. Don't test with the props unless you know they are brand new or never labbed or fixed by a prop shop, sometimes they f'em up!

What I've learned is every boat is different when it comes to gear ratios and you never find out until you try it.

Frank

docmanrich37

I ran a set of Julie and Matts' 26 test props and got rpms upto 5400 but boat didn't pick up speed.The test props where not brand new so i don't know if that had anything to do with it.I might be able to get a brand new set of 26's.I'm trying my old 1.50 max drives to see if i still have 100 mph.to show that the mph loss is in the bmaxs.

Panther

I would also put the old drives on and test to see what the speed is again. If you test with 26's again I would definetely test with a brand new or Mercury "Blue" prop. Personally I think it's a crap shoot unless you test with something that you know is brand new and no one has laid their hands on. I also found that when testing that every prop is different, sometimes by as much as 100-150 rpms.

Last but not least, are you sure your 32's haven't been labbed?

Sounds like you're on the right track.

Back4More

Forgot if it was mentioned before....Is your drives at "Toe-out" 1/8"?

docmanrich37

The 32s are box stock.

Back4 More i went and checked it twice just to make sure and we're 1/8" in.I'm testing my old drives sat or sun and i'll post the results.

docmanrich37

Just got back from testing.98.5 mph with 1.50 max machines.

Strip you should call Dean cause i think he'll have a set of drives for you.