Porpoising on a 280
 

It seems when I get my 280 trimmed for max speed it begins to porpoise quite a bit. I generally don't run in very rough water 1' chop or less. If I tuck the drive to stop this it lowers the rpm and I lose speed. What's the secret?

I'm running the stock 26 B1 at about 4850 RPM. I need to get it up to 5000+ because the best I have seen on GPS is 71 MPH. Engine is a 496 Mag HO w about 35 hrs on it.

How far over neutral do you have it trimmed? At least with my 41 neutral is 3 1/2. I never trim above 5 1/2 or 6 max. Beyond that I just see RPMs and no more speed. The boat handles much much better with less trim too. The toughest part is keeping the boat balanced on the pad.

280
 

I have owned a 280 with big power and have found that the boat works differently with different props. I have had the fastest speed with hydromotives and the best all around performance with bravo 1's. I have not really had a problem with porposing with the big power. You can usally accelerate out of it if you are in calm water. I have never experienced it in rough water. Good luck though.

It is worse in calm water. I think I may be over trimming as this weekend I dropped the drive in a bit and was able to maintain speed w/o bouncing as much.

I have had that happen in calm water with 260 as well, the bow kinda bounces, depending on speed. I agree when there is at least 1-2'chop the boat runs great. I have found after 3/4 trim on the drive, it actually slows the boat. I only have the 454mpi but a labbed bravo. So for top speed runs I give it full throttle them slowly trim it up to around 3/4 on the gauge.