Yes, absolutely.

One thing to look at is the depth of the prop. I don't know if PQ raised the x-dim in the years since my boat was made, but if they hadn't that is one big area. You used to have to run the prop deep with the props that were available at the time. Not so now. I picked up 5mph by raising the prop 2 inches (although it does not plane as well as before) and the 6.25 inches propshaft to hull is still pretty deep, leading me to believe there is more to be gained.

Of course it's still a good 8mph slower than a comparable v-hull with similar power, so there's obviously still something else.

Whats the cost of a shorty drive?

I've seen the IMCO shorty lowers for $2000 used. I picked up an entire used drive with an imco shorty for $3000. The seller said the entier drive was built up as an imco extreme not many hours ago. If that is the case, then I feel I got a good deal. If the drive blows up 10 hours into next year, then not so good of a deal :)

You might want to measure how deep your prop is from the bottom of the hull. At 8.25in, mine was a no brainer (newer boats will be somewhere between 3in and 5in and fast boats with surfacing props will run 2-4 inches above the hull bottom)

As a small warning, I did lose some planing time. It's not bad, and never really a struggle, but compared to when the prop was deep in the water, it's a destinct change. If I were using the boat for wakeboarding, it would probably bother me, but my average use is: get on plane, accelerate to 60mph, cruise for 20 minutes with one or two bursts to 70 where appropriate, stop, shut down, chill for a couple hours, repeat.

Whats your top speed?

The 260 hull is a solid running hull - not the fastest nor the slowest. It works perfectly for what it was designed to do. As you know the 260 is nearly bullet proof when it comes to handling. You crank the wheel at 55-60mph and it turns like its on rails. You never fear that it is going to spin out or that you're going to lose control.

Hull design, overall weight, location of center of gravity, x dimension, all play into the boat's solid but slower performance than comparably sized boats.

bcarpman's boat is a '93 which is the first year the boat was made so the factory was likely still experimenting with x dimension, props, outdrive gear ratio etc. on production boats. Plus PQ's were built like Sherman tanks in the early 90's so his boat probably weighs more than a 260 from late 90's or newer.

Also, we shipped all the boats from the factory (mid 90's on) with a Mirage Plus 3 blade prop. The extra cup on the "Plus" really helped to lift the nose on the boat. I think the "Plus" didn't come out until 95 or 96 so it probably had just a Mirage on the boat. And my experience with running a 4 blade prop will give you rocket acceleration out of the hole but it will typically lift the stern and drive the nose down.

Also, keep in mind that we stayed with Mercury product so we did all of our testing with Merc props. There may be something that performs better that we never even tested.

bcarpman what drive ratio are you running and what type prop and pitch?

Marc

[QUOTE=MK;2722749
bcarpman's boat is a '93 which is the first year the boat was made so the factory was likely still experimenting with x dimension, props, outdrive gear ratio etc. on production boats. Plus PQ's were built like Sherman tanks in the early 90's so his boat probably weighs more than a 260 from late 90's or newer.

Marc[/QUOTE]

That is probably why my 91 290 was probably the best boat I've owned. My 99 380 if you remember Marc was a different story!

My 97 seems to be on par with the 93 I had. However my 97 was built for whoever was the manager at that time so it maybe the exception?? Not sure as far as hull construction if there was any difference. But I will say corner were cut throughout on several of the newer models I looked at.

I'm running a 24p LH Bravo 1 4 blade w/ 1.5 ratio drive.

I tried a variety of 3 blade props and just blew them loose with even the smallest amount of throttle

I'm running the new Hydro 4 blade and the boat really seems to like it. Never had any luck with the Bravo's.

Tabs are a definite requirement for the 260 Legend SX. Mine was a 1998 with a 502 and no tabs. Sooner or later every time I would run the boat at top speed it would chine walk. That was the only issue with that boat and it was great otherwise.