388 Props
 

What have/are you guys running that have 500's for wheels? My 99 I picked up with carb 500's had 30's on it. I don't know what's all been done to the motors as they came from Cobra and were told they were take-outs from another boat they had there (all factory seals are gone)...only thing I have replaced on them are the carbs with 850s . Some say they are turning Bravo 30's, some say 32's. I finally got mine to turn ~51-5200 with stock Bravo 30's when the air got cool, 1/2 tank fuel etc. In the heat of summer here or with any load I'm digging to get 48-4900 at best out of them. Looking to either LAB my 30's or see what is working for everyone else out there and keep my 30's as an extra set. I believe the 30's were the stock set up from Hustler. I had a huge prop saga with my last boat and don't want to go down that path. What works for y'all?

Thanks!
D

I was out today trying a set of 30s with a ton of work done to them . 81 mph killing the rev lim . At 0 trim. 0 is level with the bot. I have 500 efi s. My bud is mike from hull,s prop. He has done sll my props. They gave the transom a bunch of lift my wife noticed it in the back seat. Im still learning this boat but 30s are not even close. Im going back out tomarow with a set of his loos 34,s

If you have 500's and 1.5 drives get the boat up to 70 and then drop tabs to .5 or 1 (if you have 280's) then run the drives up to 2, 2.5 or 3 and let her rip. You should see 85ish with stock 30's . The little bit of tab will keep the stern planted. If you trim more than that you won't see any increase in speed. Good luck!!!

Lost mph with that. Ran labed 34s today real loose props. ran 80 at 5000 rpms. . Going to imco 1 in shortys. Anyway. Drives are real deep.

Man, how are you guys seeing those speeds/RPMs??? I hit an all time best of 83 last time out with me, the wife and misc. gear, 1/2 tank (maybe a little less)....solid 80 at 5K-5100 that outting. Prior to that I couldn't pull the 30's to 5K if my life depended on it running proper trim/drives at 77-78 MPH. I was going to LAB the 30's to get more out of it but y'all are pulling 32's-34's...stock? geez.... This pic was 81 and all she had 65* low humidity, good conditions (sorry for the B&W)

I have 429 hr on power. Bone stk. I havent even checked the timing. The props it came with where right from merc raceing with there lab job. (Junk) i sent them over to mike at hulls he did his magic. He said they are like a labed 32. The 34s came with my phantom. Im not sure who did them. Im going to 1in shortys . That will add a few rpms. I think. This is my 1st hustler. It added 300 to my velocity 390,s.

Thanks for the reply. My 30's are bone stock, if yours or any of them were lab'd from Hustler brand new then that would answer my question because they would be turning like a 28 with the bite of a 30...so the 32's would be spinning up like a 30 basically.

So that leads to a new question.... Does anyone know if their props came from Hustler LAB'd or are those of you who say you are running 32's or larger are yours LAB'd and not bone stock?

Mike changes my props so much its not just pitch. He changes the tips and the back of the blades . I have labed 30s that are more of a 31 with a large tip on the blade. And i have 30s that are more of a 29 pitch. I have 34s that are like a 35 off.my phantom there all made for each boat.

Most 97-02 came with stock 30's, 1.5 gear,My factory test reports claimed 5300rpm,86 radar, drives at 2.25.w/ .25 tab. Im sure that was down hill too,lol I would say your boat w/ stock 30's should be 80 and 83 on a good day, Also depends on whats to the motors, you never know, it might be down on power some,valve springs,rich ontop end,also what about opts on boat, weight?,Just guessing, I weighed mine with extra stuff added, 9540 w/ 1/2 -3/4 gas ,no water,im guessing mine dry is 8790. Just remember all the 388's are not a 85mph boats

I set my drive indicators where the cav plate is parallel with the strakes on the bottom of the boat,that way 0 is level,also the indicators have slack in them, People do it diff so find out where yours is,,,so when Im running mine if i go past 2.5 i go back in and start over, I usually set it and let it settle and then run the speed up, I dont move it when Im trying to run over 80, also ck your toe in,I know my drives dont go up at the same speed.Just remember that above 90, for the tabs to touch the water they have to be angled down a good bit,as a reference. Also at 95 my speedo tube thats 1/4 in below the bottom on the 2nd strake quits working because it is in and out of the water , thats how high the transom rises.I think my centers were 38 1/8 toe.need to ck it, mine was out 1/4 when I bought mine.

if your not turning a untouched stock 30,,I would think a labbed 32 prob be too big...again I would try a untouched merc lab 30pt 4 blade..Its not going to hurt buzing it up some,I know on mine its only gaining 5-6 hp per 100 rpm above 5800rpm, and it will pull to 6-6100 on a real good day and pick up speed from that 5800 to 6000 even tho it only 5 hp per 100rpm,mines not stock power, one way of thinking is its less drag the faster it goes so take less hp to make it increase speed,yea to a point


Hustler also tried some 1.36 gears w/ 28 bravo merc 4 blades .But Joe said the 1.5 and 30's were faster.

When I bought mine April-14-2002 I test drove 2 diff 388,a 99 carbed and 2001efi, both would hit 5200rpm, speedo would say 85-86,not gps

Back when Clay A was racing a early 388 w/ carb 500 F2/race boat,they did all kinds of stuff trying make it run faster, worked the hell out of the bottom and added rocker tabs,etc. he said he could run around 90-91,but handling was loose, the rocker tabs settled it down, but scrubbed the speed at the same time,Then Fountain came out with the 35, he said there was no way to compete after that,but later finding out they were cheating, bending the rules etc, lol,, Also Chip F is a member here, he has over 150 race hours in a 388,multi championships etc,

fyi when i was running stock 30p 4blades and borrowed a set of very thin old f2 race props, 32pt 4blades, I could hit 102 on a good day on the 30, the 32 on a real good day dropped from 6000 to 5700 and still ran a 102,you could feel the bite, a little sluggish,but would buz up.Also mine doesent like flat water,needs about 1ft chop,if more that 2ft chop it might bark between them.

Hope this helps,prob tmi, just get out there and test,try stuff, check drives,skegs,hook in bottom,measure, go tru stuff etc

Rob

I also loose 2-300 rpm when it 98 degrees,water 90 and high humity

Thanks a million for all that information Rob, truly apprecaited. I am going to send my 30's off to get redone more than likely. You and I run the boats very similiar, you are correct, the tabs/drives are WAY off...when I got it and tried to run them equal (both tab levels the same, drive's the same) it would list really bad to the stbd....after marking off everything on the indicator it looks as though a 3 year old put it together as they are off more than I would have imagined. You are right on with my speeds and untouched 30's with my carb 500's and 850 carbs...80-to 83 was the best in 65* air, in the heat I only saw 76-77 which I thought was really low even for "hot" conditions. I have no clue on the motors, only what's been told to me unfortunately and that is a little sketchy IMO and I know they were take-outs from Cobra...but have zero factory seals on them so know they both have been gone into.

I emailed with Joe and he said my boat was origonally a 525 SC boat sold to a dealer in Michigan and has had a few owners he can trace except for the time it was at Havasu... Does anyone know my boat by any chance? I was told there were a lot of threads on it from a while back on here somewhere but I don't know. Boat had big blower motors in it when it was at Havasu, sold to a guy at LOTO who only had it maybe a year before I got it a year ago September....

For the money I would try and find a used set of untouched/repaired lab merc 30's,prob end up at more that $100. a blade,depending on if yours have already been reworked,repaired etc, it adds up,

You can search I posted in the hustler section some test reports on the 388 with 500hps, it shows at what rpm and speeds it got, Even on mine with 1.30 gear w/ 30 4blade and 28 5 blades there was not a big increase in 3000-3400rpm speeds,

Heres what mine was doing w/ Herring 28 5blades, remember mine is not a good comparison,
but just to give ya an idea that speeds didnt increase much at cruz
2500-33mph
3000-46mph
3500-61.6mph
4000-68.9mph
4500-78.1mph

Also I wouldn't beafraid of buzing a 500 5400rpm
goodluck
Rob

fwiw , I have a perfect set of labbed 30's done by bblades in the swap section for sale , might be the ticket for
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...-4-blades.html

Thanks again for the info Rob! Can't wait for Spring to start tinkering some on the water...

Ran-Dom 32.... Are yours set up as a std lab from Brett or are they set up for your Fountain? I know he sets them up for what you have and last time he and I did business well let's just say....umm...yeah. Great work he does though.

Actually they were set for a 35 Nordic Flame twin step, they are a standard bblades lab job with a bit of cup added on the tips to help carry the bow of a v bottom, they worked great on my 42 , ran 90 @ 5700 , test time only on these ... They are perfect

Im going to 1 inch imco,s this week. Im going to leave the race labed 34s on and see what the rpm dif is. I know there going to be to much. But its all about testing. I had 21 different sets of props that mike did on my 390 till we found the perfect set up. There is so much that can be done with the blades of a prop.

Did you get to try the 1 inch imco's yet? Just saw all the discussion on this and hoping to see what the results are. SP388 - Rob has a lot of good info. BTW I see your in Punta Gorda - not far from me here in Tampa.

Im waiting on the longer studs. The imcos have a thicker flange. I forgot about it. Ya im just south of ya.

GNJ What speed are you seeing with your 388?

I bought my boat last year and couldn't get it past 77mph with me, wife and 3/4 tank fuel. RPMs never went above 5000. After reading so much about these boats doing 85 mph with stock power, I figured something was down on power with my set up. Went through the motors over the winter and made 509's outta them. 741 cams, dart 308 heads, Arizona Speed TBs, reprogrammed ECUs by Mark Boos. Saw 83-84 mph in the spring when temps were around 85 degrees and 5200rpm. In the summer heat I could'nt get past 80mph with 1/2 fuel and 4 people. I'm wondering if the intakes/TB are holding the motors back. Gonna put a vaccum gauge on it at WOT to see.

I would get back w/ Mark on seeing what he thinks,I know hes been getting close to 600hp w/ the dart steel heads,with that cam i would be turning it higher, might try diff props to get the rpm up, ive got stock heads that i ported with the same cam as u, I would think it would/should pull to 56-5700, make power to there, mine starts to taper off after 57-5800, but again mine blown


remember they will keep pulling on the upper end, mine was only gaining 5-7 hp from 5800 to 6100. the boat is still climbing past 5800,


I know of one 388 that would only run 79,i would think the real number on them is 80-82, and on a real good day 83-84,playing with props should get a little, my factory test report said 86+.5275 and 5300, not sure if thats a realistic or repeatable speed,im sure some hulls are better, like ive heard if the hull stays in the mold longer its usually better,

some weight more that other, diff opts

I know my buddy that was racing a mti and that year they reworked /change the bottom after every race that year, they never got it to the exact same other mti he was racing against that same year, ya just never know with hulls,

Like I always said if our 388's had a 42ft fountain bottom I bet it would pick up a good bit ,especially with bigger power,but what do I know,lol

I know running with the waves, like 1ft it really picks up,lite on fuel feels like putting 4.56 gear in a hot rod.

Best I remember rumor ,back in F2 Fountian would get the 500's with the higher hp,i believe they were around 540, heard of 1 560, but then they started cheating,all kinds of cool stuff, it work they really took off after 2001-2002, but thats old days


I know on mine I would see 80-82 on speedo, built up motors and was making 765, went up 4 prop sizes,ran 99.8 gps first time out,stock 28 bravos, fallowing year went up in boost made 840+. on a rear good it would hit 101-102, when up again883hp, not much more speed,turning props in is when it ran the 105. but was real loose, update breaking drives slowed me down , rather ride and have fun nowdays, also thats a stock 30p 4bl merc props turning 6000, like my data on computers show 128 hours at idle
0-1000 RPM =128.17 Hours
1001-2000 RPM = 16.50 Hours
2001-3000 RPM= 25.04 Hours
3001-4000 RPM = 37.92 Hours
4001-5000 RPM = 3.36 Hours
5001 RPM and up = 21.55 Minutes


good luck:):)

I think what we (Velocity T and I) need to do for more speed is to tie the bow of our boats onto the back of your boat..

Just ran the boat with 1 in imco shortys and same 34 labed 4 blade bravos . Went from 80 at 5000 rpms to 82 at 5000 rpms. And didnt have to over trim. I also had 2 extra people and 50 gal more fuel on board. So it like the shortys. Then i tryed a set of race labed 28 5 blade hydros. 80 mph at 5200. It pulled real hard but no top end. Sending out the 4 blades to mike for loosing up a bit.

How did the boat feel and behave getting up on plane with the -1 Imco's?

A little tricky getting on plane . But no big deal. 2mph just with lowers .

Hey Tom - Can you post a pic of your boat? Curious to see what it looks like. Thanks!

Send me ur email