Fastest Bass Boats of yesteryear and today.....

[merc25jo]

Id say your best bet for a windshield is either make a mould and build it from fiber glass or get some plexi glass and heat it and bend it. Looks like yours would be easy to do.

Thanks,I will give that a try. Would a heat gun be enough to do the job?

[merc25jo]

That bottom with any kinda power will be a hand full even ta an experienced driver. It has "0" pad. Isn't built ta run fast. More for ride if that's possible.......

I think it is good for what it is. I can control it comfortably between 60 to 64 and it runs smooth and rides good. But I have pushed it passed that, probably to the edge! Lol. By using a jackplate and doing those little things to the xr6 the biggest being the limiter I was able to get the max out of the hull. Before I did anything the max I could get was 55,56 mph. Being able to adjust prop shaft height while running helped out a bunch also. Guess I could of just could of possibly just upped my prop size

[johnnyracer]

Glasstream 17V was rated for 150 but there were a bunch of them in SE AL with 200 Mariners. Way into upper 70s and even low 80s with the right prop and driver. My 15V will just top 60 with an '86 Inline 115.

I had a 260 on mine . It was quick to around 600 -700 ft . It would run in the mid eightys fairly easy with a load but it was a hand full. Put a drag on it once and took it to the sand bar. Didnt make any friends that day. Didnt bring it back no more.

[south599]

either a heat gun or maybe a blow torch lol. youll figure it out. Something that might make handling a little easier is switching to a 4 blade prop. the Fact that there are 2 blade in the water at a time when have a motor jacked up high reduces the effect of the prop on starting chine walk. other than that enjoy the fact that your boat is at its top efficiency!.....until the speed bug bites you a lil harder then you can get a bullet lol!

[merc25jo]

I swear you read my mind! Lol. After I got through typing my last post it hit me....I have got to find a bullet! Time to find a real fishing boat.

[1FASTLASER]

That boat reminds me a lot of one of Buster Dobbs boatike the challenger. Pretty hairy ride when u start pushing them hard cause of the bottom.

[FastFisher]

Hi fellows, I'm new to the forum. I've got a 17.5' Sprint 275 bass boat. This boat is almost an exact copy of a Hydra-Sports X-270 hull. I think the listed dry weight of my hull is 1,050 lbs. It is rated for a 150 but I've got an old '84 or '85 2.4 liter 200 Mariner on it. I have a 6" Vance manual jack plate, hot foot, and blinker style trim. I'm running a 27 pitch A40 Tempest (the original Tempest with the rubber hub) with the prop shaft somewhere around 3" below the pad. My best speed so far is 73 mph at around 6,200 or 6,300 RPM. My nest step is to put a coned lower unit with low water pick-up on and raise my motor up some. I've heard that a LWP lower can give a gain of up to 5 mph.
When I get a LWP lower unit installed, I would like to try a big ear chopper prop with my motor raised pretty high. I wonder if my hull is too heavy for a chopper prop or any other surfacing type prop since these type props at elevated engine heights don't deliver much hull lift.

[south599]

The hull lift thing isnt true. You may need to get one slighlty worked to get the desired lift.

[Allyda]

Hi fellows, I'm new to the forum. I've got a 17.5' Sprint 275 bass boat. This boat is almost an exact copy of a Hydra-Sports X-270 hull. I think the listed dry weight of my hull is 1,050 lbs. It is rated for a 150 but I've got an old '84 or '85 2.4 liter 200 Mariner on it. I have a 6" Vance manual jack plate, hot foot, and blinker style trim. I'm running a 27 pitch A40 Tempest (the original Tempest with the rubber hub) with the prop shaft somewhere around 3" below the pad. My best speed so far is 73 mph at around 6,200 or 6,300 RPM. My nest step is to put a coned lower unit with low water pick-up on and raise my motor up some. I've heard that a LWP lower can give a gain of up to 5 mph.
When I get a LWP lower unit installed, I would like to try a big ear chopper prop with my motor raised pretty high. I wonder if my hull is too heavy for a chopper prop or any other surfacing type prop since these type props at elevated engine heights don't deliver much hull lift.

Actually, the Tempest is designed to be surface piercing, and is a very good prop out of the box-even better if worked. I'd looove to try one with about a 27-28" pitch on my Shadow but I have enough props now that run good on my boat. Back to your setup, yes, nose cone with low water pickups is a good idea for any big motor on a basser however to be real, you may only gain about 2-3 mph. The reason is with any boat the hull design will govern how high you can run the motor and still have good functionability. So you'll have to experiment with motor height in increments of 1/4" after you nose cone the lower unless you have a hydraulic jackplate. Get the Bob's dual hose nose cone. I need to do mine as well and it's the one I'm buying.

One last thing, every outboard pre 1985 was hp. rated at the powerhead, not the prop. Thus, at the prop your 84 200 mariner probably puts out around 175-180 hp.

As far as a chopper type prop?, Again this depends on hull design. I run them on my boat because it's hull is a tunnel Vee, However for fishing most of the time I run my Hydromotive Quad 4 thru hub. With over the hub props you also gotta be careful with the throttle coming out of the hole. Again this is a trial and error process, and it'd be a good idea to have a friend or someone you can borrow one from to try first before buying. I can tell ya from experience, buying props is expensive. I have 7, and I have over $2,900. in props alone and I bought all of them used. I would almost bet though that even with your motor higher that Tempest might be the best prop for your hull. Good luck with your setup, and keep us posted.


Ally

[onemortime]

Well, i finially got the shadow vt rig all together , except the 2 battery's for the trolling mota. The first day was just getting some seat time to see how it handled and drove.after reading some of the previous threads of set-ups and weight from the front end, and jack plates, motors, etc. This is how my boat is rigged. Mota is 82' 225 merc, chrome bore( all 6) carbed with v- stacks,cast flywheel, 1.87 gears with bobs lwpu and exhaust system, 8" slidemaster j/p,3 bank on charger system, 200 88' mid section 20" , 1-1/2" above the pad, new transom,knees,stringers all coosa board replacement,hydraulic steering, row boat shifter,hot foot,liverios gauages,motor guide t/m,spenille 27p o/s cut, haven' t firgured out how to sink the tach yet, so no numbers to what the tach is running. I was going to be happy if it ran in the upper 60's to lower 70's. You want even guess what some of the numbers we have ran . So guess if you may. I'll post the the numbers at a later . Mike t help me to make these speeds, thank you mike.

[south599]

im going with 85-90

[onemortime]

Thats close,but we tried three differnt props. First we tried a hoss/ allison cut 30p and at best ran 65, then ran a spinellie 30p o/s cut and ran 69/70. As i stated earlier the tach works but not accurate, its not in sink and i have no limiter on the motor.i am having problems posting the gps numbers.

[south599]

You'll get it. I had trouble getting my new tach to work with my motor. But having all the same gauges looks awesome!

[Allyda]

Thats close,but we tried three differnt props. First we tried a hoss/ allison cut 30p and at best ran 65, then ran a spinellie 30p o/s cut and ran 69/70. As i stated earlier the tach works but not accurate, its not in sink and i have no limiter on the motor.i am having problems posting the gps numbers.

There should be a flush adjustment on the back of your tach you'll need to set the poles to sinc with your alternator on your Merc. Your dealer should be able to tell you the correct number of ploes for that alternator/stator assembly. I know on mine I have to set it on 6 poles which, not all tach's will have a 6 pole setting. If it doesn't, set it on 3 (If your alternator has 6 poles) and you should sinc up.

For my Shadow 20 ft 8 in Tunnel V I'm useng a 10" Quicksilver Para-Mount Hydraulic Jackplate that's done absolute wonders for my boat. I can actually pull wheelies if I want to, lol! Anyway, with my 10" hydraulic plate running an 86 200 hp. Looper with now semi new powerhead (I got a lot of seat time in down on the Big O), running my 14 & 1/2 x 27 Yammie Drag 4 (I spun the hub on my Hoss HPD) I ran on average 77.4 GPS right at 6K with just me in the boat but with a full tank, and full tackle load. For chit's and giggles I actually ran rings around my friends bass tracker on our way to where we were going to fish at about 5K on the tach. Pacing him at around 38 mph I was only running at around 2700-2800 rpm's. My boat performed it's best since I changed my jackplate. I still need to nose cone my lower though cause a couple of times I almost ran it too high. If I saw my water pressure dip though I immediately bumped down the JP switch twice which seemed to put her where she wanted to be. I did have my lower's two upper water intake holes plugged off on each side. I had no porpoising issues and as long as I trimmed the motor down a little for the turns it was like she was on rails. I can't wait to run her up here.

Sorry I haven't been around too much guys, I've decided to move down south so I've a lot going on. CoronaMike where are you?????

I've included a few pic's from my trip down on Okeechobee for y'all's enjoyment. Please guys, don't laugh at my pink top or my polka dot hat -they bring me luck, lol!

Ally

[1FASTLASER]

One more. Got your email. Dude that thing if that gps speedo is correct is smoking. Great job!!!!!!!!!! LET HER EAT!!!! Just goes to show ya that a fissin boat can run wit da big dogs with a little bit if elbow grease.