PDA

View Full Version : More about happy speedo's from the "bass fishermen full of crap about speed" thread



Raceman
05-16-2001, 08:55 PM
The old "happiness meter" story from an old Merc dealer story doesn't hold a candle to the one I ran across in a fast food restaurant a couple of years ago. I was standing in line with my Mercury Racing jacket on and this guy walks up and starts telling me all about his fast bass boat. He had another local dealer stick in a set of plastic reeds and one of those break off steel aftermarket tuners that I love to bash so much. I was right in the middle of my usual speech about aftermarket tuners being snake oil, and how I thought the tuner guru's catalogued "25 horsepower increase" was downright fraudulent, etc, etc, when this guy told me that the tuner and reeds put 8 MPH on his bassboat. I said "not unless your old tuner was beat mostly shut with a ballpeen and mosta yo reeds wuz broke off". I asked him what kind of prop change he did at the same time. He said none. I asked him what other changes he made at the same time. He said none, it was just the tuner and the reeds. Didn't put on a jackplate? Nope, already had one. Didn't raise the engine height? Nope. Well how much did your RPM's increase with just this majical tuner and reeds? The RPM's didn't increase at all. As a matter of fact, it turns 200 RPM's less. When I asked how all this could be, he said the dealer explained to him that because his engine was putting out so much more power now that it was able to drive the prop harder, making it more efficient, so it didn't slip as much as it used to, and now it's 8 MPH faster on the same speedo. An all for just 800 bucks. Wild thing was, this guy was so happy with it he said two of his fishin buddies were letting the same guy do the same mods to their boats.

half fast
05-16-2001, 10:27 PM
Dey must a put him sum dem split fire plugs in his motta. hf... rex say its how hiz stuf run so faz and outruns da rat all da time. jus what he sed

Dave Estes
05-16-2001, 11:11 PM
I'm guilty of drilling the pitot tube to raise the pressure on the bouron tube in the back of the gauge. The bouron tube itself can be "weakened" to give false and higher readings.

Balzy
05-17-2001, 12:34 AM
Once upon a time a long long time ago, I took a drill bit and chamfered the tip of my speedo pick up just a tad to remove some burs and bugers from hitting stuff. It was amazing how well the the old Checkmate ran the next time out. Same ****, more MPH and no more RPM. It's pretty easy to make your boat haul ass if you really want to !!!!!!!! Bet if that o;d basser checked he would find a big old countersink in the end of his pitot. LMFAO !!!!!!!

Liqui-Fly
05-17-2001, 08:08 AM
I have a brother-in-law with a high powered cat that had some motor work done last year; picked up a couple hundred HP on the dyno sheet but is turning just about the same RPM and same prop but insists the boat is faster because of the torque and prop push ect. I try to explain to him with the oversimplified 10 speed bike model why he isn't any faster but he just looks at me like I'm insane cause he has seen the dyno sheet. Oh well. LF

Todd
05-17-2001, 09:35 AM
If you wash it well and roll down the windows It'll go faster. Right?

WillyT
05-17-2001, 10:44 AM
IF he really picked-up horsepower (i.e., IF the dyno was accurate), that horsepower may only be achievable at a totally different rpm (probably higher) than before. This means he probably has to change his prop (or gear ratio) to take advantage of the modifications. A different exhaust system may also be needed to emulate the backpressure "seen" by the dyno set-up. By the way, doesn't he have a speedometer? Even innaccurate/"happy" ones can usually be trusted to tell the user if speeds went up, down or stayed the same.

Ron V
05-17-2001, 11:18 AM
That's a good one. People just don't realize that to gain speed you either have to gain revs with the same pitch (without losing efficiency) or you have to turn more pitch the same revs.

Next time people start talking **** I think I will tell them to put their money where their mouth is. That guy I referred to even wanted to give me two boat lengths because he said he'd still blow me off the water. I just didn't feel like getting into it because I thought it might be possible for the rig to run 50 or a little over, though I knew there was no way it would run 75 like he said. But next time I'll lay $100 on the table. If he beats me I'll pay out. I found out on the BFHP that the same boat (Lowe 180 DZ) that guy had the other day ran 46 GPS with a 115 Merc. I bet the 115 Ficht that he has isn't as fast. Maybe I need to conduct a seminar for this guy on what a 19' deep V without rivets on the bottom and composite lay up can do with 90 hp and dual throat carburetors.

Liqui-Fly
05-17-2001, 11:28 AM
He is running over 110 mph for sure but telling if your at 110 or 113 or whatever isn't all that easy and his GPS doesn't have recall...I'll have to let him borrow mine...He just didn't understand why I was saying if he didn't pick up RPM's with the same prop he isn't going any faster despite HP ect. LF

mercrazy
05-17-2001, 12:55 PM
most bass fisherman are ego maniacs. i've fished with them for 20 years and bragging rights are their number one priority. they spend thousands of dollars and numerous hours on the water to get a $5 trophy. they jump at the chance to show their prowess about anything from the speed of their boat to the speed of their women. they don't realize how foolish they sound. that's the reason i've about quit fishing and started the hi-performance stuff. trouble is i need a little bigger set of nuts to participate fully at this game. i get skeert over 90mph.

jimmyb
05-17-2001, 03:09 PM
mercrazy is right... most bass fishermen do have egos... thankfully i am in a club that aint so bad. just remember the more beer they drink, the bigger the fish, the hotter the babe, and the faster the boat!

Liqui-Fly
05-17-2001, 03:19 PM
Yeah none of the racers on dis chere board have egos hehe. Look at ol Rex...talk about an a-hole...ugly too. Boat speed is like member size....how many guys do you know that would pull it out? As long as it's on the trailer it is fast. LF

Propster
05-17-2001, 06:01 PM
I am always hearing these unbelievable speeds from bass boaters, jet boaters, I/O boaters, lots of boaters. I look at their setups sometimes and shake my head. (gee, I have never heard of a Ranger with a 150 that runs 95!) I really don't want to hurt anyones feelings by calling them on it, never make any friends that way.

I just offer to take my GPS out with them and see what it says. The last bass boat I ran in, the speedo said 83 and the GPS said 68.9. Now that is a happy speedo! The guy defended that speedo like it was his daughters honor. He was sure my gps was off. Had another guy with a Bullet with a 225 Pro-max run me, swore it would do 94. He did pretty good up to about 82, but that was all it had.

The funniest one was this guy in a 19 shallow vee bottom jetboat with an LS6 big block Chev. He said it would do 95 mph. I have seen jetboats that went that fast and there is a lot to it. You need at least 800 hp and a lot of pump work to make a jet boat go that fast. That would require huge cubic inches, supercharging, nitrous or all fo the above. He had none of it. I asked him how he measured that speed, gps, speedo, radar? He said it just felt that fast and all of his buddies nodded in agreement. I saw him out on the lake and ran him. He got up to about 64 and that was it! I started running big laps around him and he was wide open!

Oh well, what can you do. GPS - the magic B.S. Eliminator!

XBuddawg
05-17-2001, 10:42 PM
Maybe dat's why I ain't fished this year?...lol... well, I did throw a stick or two the other day...

It is amazin' how fast dem bassers can run! HELL! I got one of dem bassers, and she does run good! But I am still skeptical about da numbers some will give. Specially when da radar or GPS gets brought out. "The batteries are low, or the wind wasn't right, a cloud go tbetween the sattelite and GPS...etc, etc, etc....

I'll take anybody 84.8 with my stock OMC. With a different prop, I may even take ya 90 or better. But right now, today, my basser will run 84.8 with me and you, long as ya don't weigh 400lbs, and dat's a fact Jack....LOL!!!...

Later,
Buddy

PS: If we leave da GPS at da "Condo", and I hit some Ticfaw River trash so as da pitot gets kicked up, We could go 100+!!!

LMAO!!!