Hey steve what kind of sonic do you have, ever on the chain?

Brian (Captbkoch)
At least have the common courtesy to speak with me when I call you. You've got the stones to take a shot at me on this forum but then when I call you you hang up on me. I didn't appreciate your hanging up on me when I tried to talk to you. I was going to talk to you calmly and matter of fact. YOU know what Sonic pulled on me (it's a matter of record) and know that they do this type of thing to many other boat owners.
S -

Steve, I answered my personal phone and asked who was calling. After repetedly asking and getting no responce I hung up, you acted like you were a sales call! You state that I"took shots" at you in here!?? Thats far from the truth! You have your issues and feel that you are correct and everyone else is wrong, thats your oppinion. You state that I know this is how Sonic treats its customers. False! I had nothing to do with you buying your boat but I still tried to help you with your issues!!! I guess that puts me in the same boat as Fred. You state that you dont wanna air dirty laundry in here but what were you doing saying what you said ,, mmnnnn I wonder!! You say I have "stones" to do something , naw just the balls to state whats right!

captbkoch so who are the new owners ?

B -
Nice try. I stated my full name and said "this is steve chalupka from OSO and I thought I'd respond to you personally (for the guy who was sarcastic about the comments like "now go shovel your driveway" to me that being a smart ass! You THEN hung the phone up.
S -

Steve , you never stated who you were! I repeatedly asked , you said something like , this must be Brian. Then I hung up! I guess the temp has your humor frozen! simply a joke about the weather!! Kinda not funny now that I have had to explain it!! I actually think my fingers are beginning to freeze as the temp here is dropping rapidly!

Boy it looks like I got some s**t started..

Anyway here's the latest:

The trim hoses showed up today. Nothing on my drive showers, nothing on payment of invoices sent to Sonic. Mechanic is about to contact Sonic on payment for installing spacers, replacing drive oil and trim hoses. Not sure if he will release boat without payment first though. He's going to contact Sonic directly this week and let me know.

One thing I want to make clear also is that I have no issues with the quality of the boat. My problems have been service related. Poor rigging and follow ups.

I must say that even though Brian is not at Sonic at this time, he has stayed in touch with me since the day I bought the boat. Asking how he can help. Thank you Brian...

Latest on my Sonic. Spacers, trim hoses all showed up and were installed last week. Still waiting on drive showers and payment from invoices already sent to Sonic on past repair. So, thank you Joe for sending the parts. My mechanic said he talked to Joe on the repair bill for the spacers and hose changed out along with a few other warranty issues. Joe asked him to fax a copy so he could review it and did not see any problems on paying it.

I now am running 2" spacers in my XR ITS drives. The boat was delivered with 1" spacers installed. So with this new set up we took the boat out for a run across the bay to see what if any difference the 2" spacers made.

Results:
Weather: 54 degrees and 10 to 15 knot winds
Boat: 150 gallons of gas and two adults ( 3/4 tank )
Props: Hydro's 26p P5X's turning out
Seas: Light chop ( less than 1 foot )
Speed: Running with the wind and seas- 74.8 mph GPS
Against the wind and seas- 72.0 mph GPS
RPMS: At 3600 rpms speed was 50 mph - gained 4 mph with the 2" spacers - rpms dropped from 4000 rpms to run 50 mph
WOT 5050 rpms @74.8 - gained 2 mph with 2" spacers, also 100 more gallons of gas
WOT against the wind and seas 4975 rpms @ 71.5 mph
Hole shot: Boat will now plane without keeping the throttles at 4200 to 4500 rpms.
I found out that with little or no tabs the boat will plane much easier now, example: I start out at idle work up to 2200 rpms here you feel a little prop slip ease it up to 3000 to 3200 rpms and the boat starts to accelerate and the bow starts to ease over. Before the spacers I had to power right through the 2200 rpm range and hold the throttles at 4200 to 4500 for quite a while before the props would bite. Sounded terrible and got strange looks from other boaters. An unfortunately the cool rooster tail has almost disappeared.
I'm going to forward my results to Throttle up and let the experts tell me what to do next. I'm thinking I would like to try 25p P5X's but don't want to loose the mid range. These 5 blade props are great for mid range. Two friends ran them on there single engine boats, a Velocity ( JimG ) and a SuperBoat ( Krackmeup ) and said the midrange was the biggest improvement they saw with a 1 to 2 mph gain at top end. I'm sure they can give you there full numbers.

So my guess is Sonic missed the X dimension by at least two inches. Maybe with the ITS drives you need to go lower than recommended. I'm not going to do it but I feel another 1/2 to 1 inch would be about perfect. When I run more fuel out of the boat I will update the findings. I'm sure with a quarter tank of gas ( 50 gallons ) and three inches less draft things will change. I hope not.

Can anyone or Sonic tell me what measurements you are using for the X dimensions on the 42's? This would help future owners what to look for. Mercury Racing maybe you can help with some input on these ITS drives X dimensions?

When I receive my drive showers and payment for invoices, I will be glad to pat Sonic on the back and say thank you and sorry I had to go public but if you would have only taken care of things better with customers issues and warranty's, people like Cass Shewbart , myself and others would be here but out bragging about Sonic boats. Sonic the balls in your hands don't fumble...

Sincerely,
Bill Kern

Bill, I have a 2005 358 with twin 525's running Hydromotive P-5X 27 pitch. I was running P-5X 28 pitch and turning 4900 RPM's. I switched to the 27 pitch and picked up 250 to 300 RPM's and 3 MPH top end. I could really tell no difference in midrange but out of the hole it was a little stronger. I hope Sonic will follow thru and complete the warranty and service as any good company should.

guys those of you that added spacers to your drives , how is that going to effect your factory warranty since this modifies the stock drive ? are you still covered by merc?