Tips on driving a 24' Skater

[tux974]

You are doing something wrong if you are on the limiters at 75. I have 200's on my 24 and at 6200 I am at 90mph with 3 blade 30 cleavers.....

Tony, hope you got my response PM!
Sotally, I had my motors on the transom. 30's with a load, 32's light for a better top end!

[rchevelle71]

Tony,

Ryan knows these boats very well, and is a nice guy to talk to. Get ahold of him and drag it over to Sarasota whn he is not racing.

Rick

[Thunderduck]

Bad props.

[SotallyTober57]

Tony, hope you got my response PM!
Sotally, I had my motors on the transom. 30's with a load, 32's light for a better top end!

Do you know which of the 5 holes you were running the motors on?

We did a test run before we bought the boat and had it t 90mph in 1-2ft chop with 5 people in the boat and running 32p props. Tony and I went out on a lake last week after we lowered the motors down .75" and barely broke 75mph with 30p props.

[SotallyTober57]

Bad props.

Bad props or wrong props?

[tony97gt]

Tony, hope you got my response PM!
Sotally, I had my motors on the transom. 30's with a load, 32's light for a better top end!

yes I did. Thx

[Thunderduck]

Bad props. Rich (Junker) and I ran many different props on our 24s and those must be "bad" props.

[tux974]

Do you know which of the 5 holes you were running the motors on?

No, I do not too long ago! I suggested to call Peter @ Skater!

We did a test run before we bought the boat and had it t 90mph in 1-2ft chop with 5 people in the boat and running 32p props. Tony and I went out on a lake last week after we lowered the motors down .75" and barely broke 75mph with 30p props.

Interesting. Why did you change the bolts holes, water pressure? maybe being up higher it allowed the 32's to break loose...not sure though. See if someone can loan you a set of 32's and 30's give that a try as long as your water pressure is good now.

[SotallyTober57]

Interesting. Why did you change the bolts holes, water pressure? maybe being up higher it allowed the 32's to break loose...not sure though. See if someone can loan you a set of 32's and 30's give that a try as long as your water pressure is good now.

We changed the holes because we noticed the motors had poor water pressure and during the test run an alram came on, which we thought was a result of the water pressure. After we lowered the motors down we noticed that there is almost zero water pressure until the boat is on plane and at WOT. At that point water pressure is between 15-18psi. It turnsout that the alarm we heard was a result of the port motor hitting the rev limiter at 6200rpm.

[Thunderduck]

We tried numerous props and engine heights. Boat was fastest (118) on the forth hole with 14.5 x 32 cleavers (34 rake). Andrew Ingle cut channels in the bottom (last step) to direct water to the bullets. Boat was "spooky" fast. I could feel the boat moving from side to side. Andrew told me the boat was about to "hook" at that point. It never did. We moved the engines down to the third hole so I could run offshore. Much better boat on the third holes.

[tony97gt]

We tried numerous props and engine heights. Boat was fastest (118) on the forth hole with 14.5 x 32 cleavers (34 rake). Andrew Ingle cut channels in the bottom (last step) to direct water to the bullets. Boat was "spooky" fast. I could feel the boat moving from side to side. Andrew told me the boat was about to "hook" at that point. It never did. We moved the engines down to the third hole so I could run offshore. Much better boat on the third holes.

What engines?

[Thunderduck]

280 ROS - No rev limiters.

[SotallyTober57]

280 ROS - No rev limiters.

Tony and I are running a pair of 2005 2.5L 200's with a 14.5x30 cleavers in the middle holes...

[warren]

Leave them alone at 15 psi good there 4 now go up 1 hole 3/4 inch you r long out of water later get jack plate throw those props away stupid slip at that speed 4orget holes if comfort happens at 15 psi thats good 4 now with no seat time 14.5 x 30 cleavers if they r good slip should b10-12 percent water optimal at 12 to 15 psi so u r close get wheels stop fuuuking around with hight u rrr close enough/red rocket out

[tony97gt]

Leave them alone at 15 psi good there 4 now go up 1 hole 3/4 inch you r long out of water later get jack plate throw those props away stupid slip at that speed 4orget holes if comfort happens at 15 psi thats good 4 now with no seat time 14.5 x 30 cleavers if they r good slip should b10-12 percent water optimal at 12 to 15 psi so u r close get wheels stop fuuuking around with hight u rrr close enough/red rocket out

We aren't really concerned with the height right now. I believe the motor is at the optimum height for our learning curve. The height was reduced originally because when we did a test drive with John (who we bought the boat from), we were getting an alarm around 6rpm +/- which he thought was the water pressure alarm. These are fishing motors so the rev limiters aren't as high as the 260's or promaxes or 280's. So he suggested we move the motors down one hole from the 2nd to the 3rd/middle hole to see if we picked up more water pressure and to stop the alarm. We moved it down and picked up mroe pressure, but still get the alarm which we discovered is the rev limiter and not water pressure alarm. The motor height is staying where it is for now and we won't be getting jackplates anytime soon because we have different priorites right now. One of the biggest issues hurting us at this point is the lack of seat time in this particular boat. I have some decent seat time in our 18' Talon at 92mph (yeah I know it's not an STV), but I was $hitting brick when I first bought the boat and was doing 78mph. With seat time and setup I'm sure our dreams of triple digits will come soon.