318 Skater prop testing and continued dial in.
 

Hello Gentlemen, I thought Id start a new thread if anybody wants to follow on any changes I make prop or set up wise in the future toward dialing more speed on my rig being that the boat has been delivered. I spoke to Dave Dewald on the phone in ref to props. Being that I need a set of back ups I figured I might as well work with him and spend money on a set that may do better than what I have now. He currently has a couple sets of 5 blade cleavers he has casted with Bravo style hubs that are 33 and 34 pitch with 21 to 23 degree rake. We had spoken a while ago in ref to my current props and I provided him any info he asked for. He said today that they should be ready in a few weeks which works well for me as I won't be doing much boating until April but will need the back ups once the season gets going. Everybody I have spoken to thinks the boat would do better with more rake in the props as it requires a decent amount of trim to carry the bow. We will see what happens and he can tune them to whatever we feel is necessary. None of the other props Merc had to offer worked very well. Seems to need 5 blades to run to my liking. I will keep everyone posted and any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Probably won't post any new info on here again for a month so don't think I forgot. Steve.

Nice , keep us posted ,

What is top everyday " half tank & 2 or 3 in boat plus cooler " speed now ? vs what you are looking for with new prop setup ?

Awesome ride :)

Hey Mike, Just put her in the water on Wed Haven't had a chance to run her flat out here yet. I did run her up the Toms River. It was me and my girl and full tanks 220 gallons roughly 1300lbs of fuel. We hit 106 pretty quickly and still climbing. Ran out of room and had to back off. Im new first time running her alone. Trim was off a bit one motor was 42% turning 6750rpm and the other about 38% at 6500. Im pretty sure I could have gotten 108 or 109 out of her which I feel wasn't too bad with 1300lbs of fuel and two people. Currently takes a lot of trim to get her running top end but Im hoping to fix that in time. Boat needs set back and more rake in the props. Nose runs higher than I would like and thats fine for now. This has been posted already but she ran 114mph at Mercury in glass flat fresh water with about a half tank and one person. Im looking forward to working with Dewald. Don't know if he can do better but his track record is awesome and like I said I need a second set of props anyway. Why waste my money buying a basic set of bravos.

Just for the record 27% trim is with the propshafts running flat with the bottom of the boat so 42% is 17% positive which it ran its best speed at for three weeks at Merc Racing.

Max top speed lite on fuel and only one person in the boat is a great # to talk about but it's not a every day go boating # , So personally I would not set the boat up for the one time top speed # , I would set it up for everyday riding with some mid range punch :) But thats just me , 105 to 110 would be nice :) everyday #'s with people and fuel ,
Have fun with that boat , look's like a head turner

The boat will hit 114mph with half tank. Thats 100 gallons of fuel. It turned 111mph with me and Merc guy in boat with 100 gallons of fuel. That 114 it hit all the time at Merc Racing. It is a consistent number not a one time deal. It will vary depending on weight as most boats will especially outboards. But its still a top end number and the best it has run so far. It hit 98mph with 6 guys and full tanks at Merc Racing. Thats 6 adults and 1300lbs of fuel. That number is great for my set up and it was getting 1.75 mpg. If it had 300xss on it you probably wouldn't see 90mph I'm guessing. Maybe 85 with that much weight.

That is Awesome #s

Steve
Refresh our memory what pitch/diameter/rake are the Mercury props you are running?
You mentioned in one of the posts that the bow is higher than your liking. Running a higher rake propeller will only make that worse not better.

Hey Ron, Merc props are 5 blade 33 pitch cleavers 15 dia 15 degree rake. Yea I know with more rake the bow will carry better and I won't need so much trim to keep it up. I could direct the force of the props further back and not have them directing upward so much. Is that not correct. Dave felt the same way and may pick up a few mph. At least it could give me a better running attitude.

How many miles do you run in a day of boating? I torture my myself every trip trying to carry as little fuel as possible. 40 gallons a side is what I carry. My Skater is a 32' Classic with 300X motors. I average about 2 miles per gallon. The few times I fill mine is running Key Largo to Key West or Long Island sound running to Block Island.
I would think your 400's would be very efficient motors. Once you figure out the range your boat has I would leave the extra fuel at the gas dock.
For the record I run out of fuel about once a year. Lol it Always happens when we add a dinner stop to a long day of boating.

Well this photo was made taking out the kids for a high speed run on tanks I swore the gauges were not accurate. 1.0 Gals remaining was accurate lol. We lost port two miles back and as I predicted we lost the starboard 75 yards from my dock and the wind was of course blowing us into the bank. The only thing worse than being pulled in by a party barge would have been the Foutain that runs on our lake:lolhit:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]552480[/ATTACH]

I now keep plenty of fuel onboard and don't worry about a couple of MPHs. Unless I know I'm going to need them!:evilb: