Yea the Mercury electronic indicators can be deceiving. I would make a cheat sheet to see where the percentages in regards to the bottom until you get it memorized. I also use the mechanicals and have marks on them with a sharpie as it stinks getting old!!!!!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]554827[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]554828[/ATTACH]

Hey guys received my set of props from Dave Dewald yesterday. They are 15 inch Diameter thought they were 15.25 but spoke to him today to verify. 33 pitch and 20 degree Rake. In having a few conversations with Dave and giving him the info he needed he felt the bravo style hub would help give the stern a bit more lift and with more rake( my current props are 15 degree) at 20 degrees it would carry the bow better and may not need as much trim and may gain a few when all is said and done. Have to go to Florida this week be home on Thursday. Probably swap them out that next week when I get home. Dave stated that they ran well on the X Cat boats. Around 119 mph and they are propped more for acceleration than total top end. The fact that they ran that number is very encouraging as not much else has a record of running well on these new motors with their larger gear cases. As I have been running my rig a handful of times I have come to understand that although we all focus on the top end number the speed focus is actually more important in the midrange/cruising speed. I have run mostly 80 to 95mph. The top end number is important as it reflects what your cruising speed can be without totally killing your motors all the time. I liked my recent top end run of111mph number with 4 people and 85 gallons of gas as thats more what my load would be under every day use. Any way here are a couple pics of my new wheels. Steve.

Made it to Fla safe. Cant wait to get home to slap on my Dewalds and see how she runs. I know its expecting a lot for a good run the first time out but I just want to get similar performance with respect to what I have now. They look really cool anyway. Ha

You are the most patient person I think I have ever met!

First you miss the end of your season after your build was complete and now you run to Florida just as UPS delivers your Dewalds:lolhit:

Yea its crushing me Sam. Im hoping to get half way decent numbers. Nothing spectacular from them at first. Its ok if the prop Gods help out. I figure it pushed the X Cats very well and thats encouraging considering most everything else besides the Merc 5 blades haven't worked on these big goofy gear cases. I saw somewhere that those boats are about 4000lbs .They're really set up for acceleration so I would imagine they're underpropped and still up at 119mph. You never know. Maybe right out of the box. He had all my info in mind while he was working them. Dale likes them too so thats a plus.

five blades huh. you prop gooreauxs help me out with the 5 vs 4 differences.

Hey Craig, Right? Sorry bad with names. When Merc had my rig no 4 blade they tested ran well at all. The 5 blade cleavers they made ran head and shoulders above anything else. I dont know why. Could be the size of the bigger gear case? When discussing it with Dave Dewald back months ago he felt Because of what info we had from previous tests we should just stick with 5 Blades. Also the props he sent me are same as ones that have run on some of the X Cat boats with the ROS motors and he got positive feedback about them. They also probably run smoother and may put less stress on the lower gear cases but I'm not sure. I get home tomorrow but weather is iffy. Probably change out props this coming week and run them for a while. They have more rake than my Mercs. Don't know if that will be better or take too much horsepower to take advantage of. They are also Bravo hubs style which he felt the boat could use a bit more lift in the stern. We will see. Im sure ill have to have them tweaked if they run well anyway. You never know they may be fine but thats not usually the case the first time around.

So what happened with the desalts

When I go to the fuel dock I generally fill her up. My tanks are 110 gallons a side. Im estimating I can get about 95 gallons in each tank. I can get to 110mph with 4 people so far any day. Thats good enough for me. Im generally getting about 2 miles to the gallon I'm finding. I run 80 to 85 mph cruise but that always runs up to 100 or so. Yesterday I was cruising at 100mph at 6000 rpm for 8 to 10 miles or so. Love it. I hate running out of gas. If I can get to that 110 number pretty much any time Ill take the extra weight. Being that I have no rub rail Getting gas is kind of a pain in the ass right now as Im new at it and it scares me about getting all scratched up. So far Ive been very careful and its worked out for me. Went out for the first time alone yesterday but it was very windy. Tried some top end runs. I was running up the Toms River and was going with the wind as going against it would have been murder. My rig requires some positive trim to really unlock the hull to run and as I kept tapping up the trim where I knew I was approaching a no no range the front started to lift on me. Was running up through 112mph. It was very controlled as I just pulled the trim back down and the boat settled. It gave my heart a slight flutter but now I know what Im looking for. After that I ran out of room and my Butt was so tight I decided to stay calm the rest of the day. Ha. I figure my range as 2 miles per gallon to be safe. At say 180 gallons I can go 300 plus miles with a lot of room to spare.

The Dewalds Have not gotten on my boat yet. The weather has been terrible here and the Marina I took delivery thru is very backed up. I have also been going back and forth to help out with my parents as they are needing that now. Im trying but its been tuff.