48' Cat Questions
 

Hi all. New to the forum. New to O.E. picked up a '95 48'er with ASD 8's and no power. Here's my question. I'm shying away from big block power. I have access to two mint GE T-58-8f turbines, 1350hp each. But...I've seen discussions that these boats are nose heavy. Is this accurate? If so, I feel that turbines at a svelte 350lbs each, is perpetuating the problem. So in my mind, I'm thinking I'd be better off going with two compound turbo diesel engines for power. Im thinking that the extra weight in the rear, should help the bow lighten up a bit. Plus the torque of the diesels should be a benefit, and the fuel consumption is way less than the turbines, and especially blown big blocks. Thoughts? Diesels would run about 1200lbs a piece. Thanks in advance.

No I did not. I bought this privately. Survey came back excellent, so I jumped on it.

Go turbine power and dont look back!!!!

Niagara Falls, N.Y. It will be on the Upper Niagara River and Lake Erie mostly. With some time running Ontario. Plan to do the Ray Nuchereno Memorial Poker Run, Erie if we're ready and shook down, and 1000 Islands, schedule permitting.

302Sport I like the turbines, I'm just wondering if it will take too much weight off the stern.

Heres a 39 Ocean express with turbines that used to race. MTT actually still has the boat sitting there in a warehouse. They would be worth the call.

i will be going thru the erie canal this summer will try to see your turbine boat while down there
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302sport... That was your boat?! I have that video saved to my YouTube, and I've probably watched it 50 times. I think that the 39 is a better balanced boat, than the 48. So, as stated above, my concern is shifting weight to the bow, and off the stern. I've read that the 48's handle rough water like it's not there, no doubt due to the heavy bow staying down rather than riding up the waves. Taking weight off the rear would amplify this trait, and I'm concerned it will hurt the handling and the speed. Since I'm in the building phase, I'd rather build the problems out, rather than try to fix the problem after the fact.

No, that was never my boat, just remember seeing it. My recomendation woud be to build the boat as light as possible, and remove everything from the cabin that you will not be using. Build it like a race car or race boat, as light as possible then ad weight if needed. I honestly think with the turbines, the boat will be fast enough to carry the bow.....

Sorry. Read that as a boat that I used to race... Read it too fast. My bad.

Which 48 did you buy? If you bought the blue/silver "made in Detroit" boat, then it has counter rotating drop boxes and you are way ahead of the game for a turbine installation.

Not "Made in Detroit", although I love that boat. I have ASD 8's.

But if theyre not counter rotating, you will not be able to put turbines in unless you can find a counter rotating set of asd 8 drop boxes. Or if the T58's you know of have the drop boxes with them, that would work too.

I'm a tractor puller, and that's actually where my turbines are coming from, a friend's modified pulling tractor, so SCS is building my boxes. They build all my stuff for me. But obviously my ratios are going to depend on my powerplants.

Which actually leads into another question... Preference on rotating inward, or outward? Inward should help lift my bow, yes?

Inward helps bow lift. I ran SCS external drop boxes on my Nortech turbine and they were very easy to change gears on. Took about 10-15 min per side.

What ever happened to this project. I think that with some bottom mods and the correct rake on the props you can make the boat work correctly…