Charger SV / 200 EFI set up for water skiing

[mrmerc]

Hi all. I'm new to this forum so thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer.

A friend has a 20' Charger SV with a 1999 Merc 200 EFI which he just bought. The previous owner has it set up with a 28" chopper II and a 12" set-back plate. He would like to use the boat for water skiing but in this configuration it can hardly pull up an adult on two skis. I would appreciate some direction on which way to go with the set-up to make it better for skiing. Of course we don't want to compromise top end performance any more than necessary so two props might be a consideration. We tried a standard 3 blade aluminum 25" pitch prop on the weekend but it just ventilated and couldn't get the boat on plane. I think the set-back plate raises the motor enough that the prop ventilates as soon as the boat starts moving forward. Am I on the right track? If this is the case we will need to replace the setback plate with a hydraulic jack plate? How much top speed will we sacrifice if we just eliminate the set-back plate all together? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[pyro]

The setback helps lift the bow of the boat with less trim required, especially when carrying passenger load. What kind of 3-blade did you try to run?

A hydraulic jackplate will help a lot. Up for flying, down for skiing. If you want to pull skiers, get something 22", 23" or 24". Also, you could try a 24" or 26" chopper, this will pull a skier, and still get good top end. Some thru-hub props will still run OK at a semi-surfaced height. I use a 26" small-hub Trophy Plus and it gets on plane with the propshaft only an inch below the pad, but the holeshot is better with it set lower. It's too much pitch for skiing. If I skied at all, I would invest in a good 23".

If you lose the setback and get a hydraulic jackplate, it will offer better holeshot at a sacrifice of bow-lift. These are good things anyway if you want to ski. Make sure you have planty of negative ("tucked-in") trim angle. Bury it for ski starts.

[Tom D.]

I wouldn't mess with the set-up of the motor or jack plate. Too much of a hasle and time consuming if you want to keep your top-end. Try some different props. Have one for top-end and another for sking. Something like a 20 pitch for sking, it's slow on the top-end but a hell of a hole shot will yank the rope out of there hands or get them up. Play the pitch game. Just my .02!!:D

[Rickracer]

Bolt on a 22"~23" wheel, maybe even a 4 or 5 blade, and HANG ON to the ski rope. :D

[NPK2003]

Well, cannot say I disagree with any of the previous posts, BUT, with the rig and motor you are running, I would just leave everything alone and latch on to a Land&Sea Vari-Pitch prop. These props ONLY seem to work for skiing and such. You cannot run them above 6000 or so RPM and don't even try and surface them an 1/8th of an inch. But with a 200 for power, this prop has its' place. Used ones are plentiful. I'd sell you mine but I surfaced it once to often:eek:

My Ally with a Promax couldn't pull a zipper down out of the hole with skiers attached even running a 26 small hub trophy. I got hold of the L&S prop and could yank the arms of a slamon skier out of their sockets. This way you can keep your setback for carring the bow and still pull skiers. BTW, the MOST fun I had with the vari-pitch prop was pulling two of my younger brothers (32 & 40 yrs old) together, each on their own tubes behind the Ally. I didn't let on about the 17 pitch low end prop capacity. Well they are dualling with each other, trying to knock one another off the tube. One of them signals me to "Go Faster"!:D OK!

So I hit it hard and the tube(s) streeeeecccchhes out almost to a straight line, then snap back to shape as they catch up to the accelerating Ally. Whooaa! Could'a parked a 24 foot pontoon in the wide open mouths of my two brothers as they rocketed forward!:cool: They were too scared to let go of a hand to signal to "Slow Down!":p ! So I didn't until about eighty! Those brief moments were worth every penny I paid for the used vari-pitch prop. They did survive and eventually regained their tans, even though they got out of the water a pale ghost grey! :D :D

Now that is brotherly love, isn't it?

Nick K:)

[mrmerc]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The 3-blade that we tried was a quicksilver aluminum 13-3/8 x 25 (p/n QA2022). I think that the motor is too high to work with this prop. It is on the lowest hole but the plate has 4 or 5 inches of rise by the look of it. The ventilation plate on the motor is at least 6" above the pad so I think that is the problem with the aluminum prop. Will a 4 or 5 blade tolerate running this high?

[Rickracer]

You'll need enough cup to get good bite, and it's not possible to do with aluminum and have it last. :cool:

[pyro]

yeah, that's a fact. Most every aluminum prop is meant to be run completely submerged, like with the propshaft center 8 inches under the pad. Their blades tend to lack the "cupping" at the trailing edges, and their blades are a uniform thickness, instead of thin leading and thick trailing edges.

I have a 23" quicksilver aluminum I got with my boat. At the jackplate's lowest point, it's only 5" under the pad. the prop has good holeshot, but it turns too much RPM for its pitch because it's sucking in air when it's running. If I even slightly try to turn the boat, it ventilates and slows down. It's un-useable!

[CUSTOM PERFORMANCE 1]

With the engine height that you have posted, you will play hell trying to find a thru hub prop for skiing that you can get out of the hole. Engine height is the key. A hydraulic jackplate will give you everything you need for adjustment and 2 props for covering all of your performance needs. If you are not going to use a hydraulic plate, then a hole shot modified large blade chopper will do the job, somewhere in the 22" pitch range. I have 2 of these and will sell one if needed. I ran a stock 200 merc with a 5" spacer plate for a total of 25" shaft length on my STV PRO COMP SKI and it would rull your arms off if you could hang on with the 22 chopper.

[mrmerc]

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured that the engine height was the problem. I think a hydraulic jack plate will be the set-up that will result in the least compromise in performance. We have been toying with the idea of lowering the engine on the jack plate or lowering the jack plate on the boat since this would cost a lot less $$ but it will definately be a compromise.