24 Skater Jackplate Question

[2thelake]

Hello S&F!
New member here who doesn’t really post because most of the questions are already answered! So much information and knowledge on here! Thank you guys for sharing!

Anyway if you can help me out I got question on 24 skater jackplates… The posts I have seen are all from 2000-2015 describing how Pete said to run the motors directly bolted to the transom. The majority of the 24s I see nowadays seems to run jackplates though. Mine currently has 5.5” cmc manual jackplates and runs great with 3L Optis.

STR has since had his slimline Jackplate out for a while and I’m wondering what the consensus was with people who are running the slim line vs other jackplates that are not so slim.
Thanks,
Mark

[Lake rat Skater]

I have a 25 motion with 300 pro max motors and first had 5.5 inch cmc jack plates. In smooth water the boat would start to hop around 45 mph and wouldn't settle down until almost 90. I did some measuring and had some other things to do over last winter so I got rid of the jack plates. I really like what it did as now I can cruise at 60 before it starts to porpoise and then by 80 it is settled down.

I think top end might be down 1 or 2 mph but to me that is well worth it. I have noticed the slim line and I say go for it. They were just a little more than I wanted to spend.

Call STR before buying as you may have to drill new holes in your transom and I think STR work with you to try to ultize the 4 existing holes.

[JPEROG]

Hello S&F!
New member here who doesn’t really post because most of the questions are already answered! So much information and knowledge on here! Thank you guys for sharing!

Anyway if you can help me out I got question on 24 skater jackplates… The posts I have seen are all from 2000-2015 describing how Pete said to run the motors directly bolted to the transom. The majority of the 24s I see nowadays seems to run jackplates though. Mine currently has 5.5” cmc manual jackplates and runs great with 3L Optis.

STR has since had his slimline Jackplate out for a while and I’m wondering what the consensus was with people who are running the slim line vs other jackplates that are not so slim.
Thanks,
Mark

Mark,

I would consider moving weight forward and going with a set of hydraulic brackets. My personal preference would be the 8 inch Porta race brackets. They give you "by far" the largest mounting foot print for the least amount of stress on the transom. They offer 3.5 inches of travel which is more then you need for optimum rough water and or max height running. A lot of people move the rear seat forward two feet and build a storage hatch then mount the batteries directly in front of the cockpit liner (one on each side of your center stringer supporting the tunnel and deck.

Joe

[2thelake]

Mark,

I would consider moving weight forward and going with a set of hydraulic brackets. My personal preference would be the 8 inch Porta race brackets. They give you "by far" the largest mounting foot print for the least amount of stress on the transom. They offer 3.5 inches of travel which is more then you need for optimum rough water and or max height running. A lot of people move the rear seat forward two feet and build a storage hatch then mount the batteries directly in front of the cockpit liner (one on each side of your center stringer supporting the tunnel and deck.

Joe

Lake rat and joe thanks for the input!

Joe, the boat is currently under surgery getting the thin plastic windshield taken off and a new fiberglass custom faring/windshield put in just like the “rum runner” 24 skater on here. The rear seat is already taken out and a new fiberglass one is being mounted forward of the aft lip of the deck liner with a new bulkhead being glassed in. I was able to acquire an old race hatch from NY which will be chopped down like you said. The batteries are forward like you said but the trim pumps are still back aft. I have the same hop as lake rat 45-75ish but that was with the 5.5” cmc jackplates and a heavy wooden rear seat all the way aft.

With that being said those porta brackets look very nice. I wonder if you could adjust the hop on the fly since they come up and in. On the sight they sell 3 different versions of the 8”. Wonder if the bigger versions would be better even though they are rated for more HP?

Another question that pertains to the plates is how far apart would you want the brackets to be mounted? Previous S&F posts mention 48” apart like Pete says to do but I have read on some FB group posts that people have them 52” and even 56” apart which is faster for flat water. Not sure if you guys had any input on that.

I am not racing my boat offshore through waves. Mainly just use it as a destination sandbar ripper… always at least 2 people in the boat all times and it only runs in Lake Michigan or Indian river (depending on season) when it’s flat or 1-2 foot chop at most. Just wondering if you guys had any input on the motor spacing as well.

Thanks,
Mark

[JPEROG]

Go 8 inch "race series" brackets. 56" on centers if it were mine. The only thing that is going to help the transition hop is a tunnel tab or individual tabs in the rear notch of the running surface- "I have these in the current 28' that we are playing with" but rarely use them. Skaters are made to cruise at 50 and under or 80 and up. If you decide to use a tunnel tab on a 24', "have had 3 and driven several others", you better remember to bring it up EVERY time or you will have a real heart rate increase the next wave you trip a wave with it or coming off plane and it causes violent bow steer.

Being able to drop the motors two or three inches in the rough or chop on Burt and Mullett is a world of difference "staying hooked up".

Joe

[Chaz]

Anyway if you can help me out I got question on 24 skater jackplates… The posts I have seen are all from 2000-2015 describing how Pete said to run the motors directly bolted to the transom. The majority of the 24s I see nowadays seems to run jackplates though. Mine currently has 5.5” cmc manual jackplates and runs great with 3L Optis.

Lake rat Skater

I have a 25 motion with 300 pro max motors and first had 5.5 inch cmc jack plates. In smooth water the boat would start to hop around 45 mph and wouldn't settle down until almost 90. I did some measuring and had some other things to do over last winter so I got rid of the jack plates. I really like what it did as now I can cruise at 60 before it starts to porpoise and then by 80 it is settled down.

And at that time they only made 2.4 or maybe they were spittin out 2.5's and he wanted them on the transom. Fast forward to the 3.0-3.2L era or now into the porkchops .. wonder what he would say today ..

Whoever owned CMC was a genius. Gotta be a million of them out there
When I took them off my Motion, I couldn't give em away .. so I got .44c a pound for them at the recyclers.
I was gonna put the motors on the transom, a wise man asked .. what if you wanna move the motors 3/8" of an inch .. ???
So I bought less than $100 bucks worth of 4x4x.500 angle and made my own inverted manual plates. They are 1 7/8ths from transom to the face of the brackets. Slotted the outside for an inch of travel and mounted the motors 1.750" above the bottom and mid-slot. I can't tell you how wide the motors are. I put the tip of a 15" wheel an inch inside the tunnel and drilled them to the wall. Simple logic says .. The wider you go the higher up hill your motors wind up being. That all well and fine till ya realize that you run out of water pressure earlier .. with more keel deeper in the water .. Oooppsss , scooch em in and lift the whole thing with shallow rake wheels.

You can make em slap every mullet in the river .. and throw ya out on the fourth hop .. or over trim a touch and go up to 70 ish just ridin around or tuck under a bit and pull the wheel into a gentle arch .. when it won't go any faster just bump it up to flat , it will break free and run till you run out of mule , with nary a hop.

I had a customer that was into those lowriders .. hop the front , hop the back , run down the road on two caddy corner wheels , while the trunk was opening and closing sideways .. quite the sight and an exercise in over complexity ..
I'd think it would share some resemblance to a 24' boat with 2 trim pumps, 2 jack pumps, 2 outer tab pumps and 1 more for the tunnel tab .. 7 pumps .. At that point, might as well set em back 12" ..

[2thelake]

Thank you Chaz and Jperog.

I get what Chaz is saying with motors going up hill and all the pumps. But I’m kind of wondering now about why Jperog said 56” apart. As I don’t have the boat with me I’m now wondering if the 24 skater has running strakes that terminate at the end of the running surface outboard of the drain plugs on both sponsons. If it does have strakes at say 57” I bet if you went any wider then 56” I could see a lot more turbulence in the water running off the end of the boat which might cause water pressure issues.

Jperog/Chaz do you guys have water ramps embedded into your boats sponsons like all the 28s seem to post about on here?

Another question I have about the porta bracket for the specific application on a 24 skater would be how to run it? Is the idea to tuck it in to get going and then once on plane extend it out all the way until right before water pressure becomes an issue for optimal surfacing? From what I’ve seen on here, more set back = more speed but it also moves the boats CG aft which would lift the bow more. But how much
worse would the hop be in flat water. I would think with the bow a touch higher it would start its hops at a lower speed but would it end its hop sooner to be able to cruise at say 65 instead of 75?

-mark

[Chaz]

The pumps thing, I was just teasing with Joe a bit ..

I can't speak for him, but I would imagine he's thinking more about the newer, flatter dead-rise hulls than the antiques like we have. (He has one as well, but it will be more of a flattie when he brings it out again)
Some have run their motors outside the strake line .. Looks cool, but I don't think they were happy with the outcome.
What I was saying is, that the wider you go the higher up the hill the prop center line will be. Which put's more hull below the centerline at speed.



Moving weight:

Putting the batteries under the deck moves 100 lbs more than 10 feet forward, which is a good thing.

Some guys move the trim pumps up there, I left mine in the back.

If you think about it, placing motors outside the boat, hanging off the back makes no sense. But thats what we have to work with. A pair of them weigh's 1000 lbs , yes ...a half a ton . Moving them 3" one way or another has a noticeable effect on how the boat handles.
As lake rat stated .. his would start loping at 45 and wouldn't quit until 90. Mine did the same thing. Batteries up front and moving the motors closer together and forward made a world of difference. Take it for what it's worth ..

As far as driving .. my trim indicator goes from 1 - 10 . 5 being neutral. If I want to get on plane I start at 4 1/2 , put it in a slight arch, at 85 trim up to 5 - 5 1/4 straighten the wheel and go till it has nothing left.
Leaving it tucked or flat and riding at part throttle it will start to lope at 55.
Trim up to 5 1/2 - 6 and it will happily plow along at part throttle up to 73 before it starts to lope. And with a boat full off people, none of us need to really go any faster. By ourselves, make sure the life insurance policy is up to date and have at it ..

[FUJIMO]

...always been a transom mount guy. prop accordingly. done.

[JPEROG]

56" puts minimum blade in the tunnel and still feeds clean water. With the setbacks I never needed water ramps, w/o I had them- (between my brother and I, we have had seven 24s). I have run them both ways and my preference is wider. The hydraulic plates allow you change the handling of the boat in 2 seconds and is the biggest cheater system available on river runs (for turning) or lakes for (varying conditions). Every boat That I own other then my Allison and the current 28 skater have hydraulic brackets. If I keep the Skater it will be getting a pair of 300Rs with Porta brackets, add a tunnel extension, and moving weight around.

Joe

[2thelake]

Joe, at 56” instead of 48” apart would you say that there is a significant difference in the way it handles (turning/stuffing a sponson) ..apples and oranges but would it be as significant as swapping the lowers so the motors would turn inboard instead of outboard? I guess it would also depend on what wheels you would run in terms of blades. I have only run only little 3 blade cleavers on mine so I have no idea what it’s like to run the dewald 5 blade through hubs that everyone says to run

[JPEROG]

With the motors at 56" you will turn them out and the boat will handle better in turns and cross wakes. I highly recommend running 4 blade over hub Dewalds or 5 blade thru hubs as you mentioned.

Joe

[Chaz]

When I said, narrow them up it was very un`Chaz~like. I am much more precise than that.
So I measured C/L yesterday. I'm @ 54" . Which is 4.375" narrower than when I bought the boat.

Carry on ...

[2thelake]

When I said, narrow them up it was very un`Chaz~like. I am much more precise than that.
So I measured C/L yesterday. I'm @ 54" . Which is 4.375" narrower than when I bought the boat.

Carry on ...

Thanks for checking! Safe to say now that wider is better then some of the old setup posts from the 2000s saying 48” is the number.

Just to let you know, I found S&F by google. If you type in 24skater: fuel tanks, top speed, how to drive, hop, props, motor height ect…You and jperog are almost always in all of those old threads that pop up going back and fourth with people…so from a newbie like me it is awesome see you veteran members comment on my thread 15 years later. Thank you again. There are still some others that I remember from the old posts like rbeckley, whoever owns that overkill skater, and even STR himself who I wish would jump in here again to revisit the topic of setback…just to see if their opinions have changed through experience after 15 years even though they have all most likely gotten rid of their 24/28s.

I still find it very interesting that both of you run your boats on the extreme opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of setback. You run 1 7/8 plates (I assume STR would agree with you as he makes the slimline plate for cats as per his website @ 1.75”) while Jperog prefers 8” which is more then what looks to me like everyone else’s 24 (#24skater on Instagram/OB skater FB group/Keys island runners) with 5.5 or 4” CMC or bobs plates. So thank you again for all the replies! I really do appreciate you guys going back and fourth and giving new people like me the chance to see what the veteran cat owner thinks 15 years later.

-Mark

[Chaz]

I measured it for my own sanity .. LOL For some reason I though the tunnels were a lot narrower. Too many numbers floating around in my old head ..

I can agree to disagree .. it's not personal it's personal experience. Fords and Chevys make the world go round.

When Joe mentioned Porta brackets, I wasn't going to mention one single peep on this thread. Scott has been very good to me. And only he and Chris Carson have earned the level of respect for me to call them professor.

I think every bass boat in Lake-O has a hyd. jack plate. I had one on my 21' Superboat. Out, up, up, out, up .. new personal best .. right up to the point that it fell off the pad. I never would have found the sweet spot without it.

When they put a pair on the Pirate, I thought it was a mistake because of the weight of two units. They could run into the corner , stay in the gas , drop the inside motor and the boat would start rolling the corner with-out any wheel input. Turn the wheel and cut under anyone trying to carry the same momentum. Worked so good they banned hyd jacks.

I have built a bunch of "stick-mids" for the drag racing crowd. Every year they get shorter and set back farther .. I have said, Bossman, this is the year someone fills the bottom two holes with water .. luckily .. so far they have proven me wrong ..

If you run in the same Indian River as I do. Then you know there are barges, trawlers, sportfishing boats, that run the ditch taking out their half out of the middle while plowing a four or five foot wall of water off each side. A couple aint so bad, but when there's one every mile or so it gets annoying to drop down off of plane, do the rocking horse deal, then go thru the planning process all over again, again and again.
If you have 15" mids and a lot of setback, add trimming the motors up to keep them dry as part of the ritual.

I see some of the new 63" wide tunnel, 30+ feet long boats have the sponsons ran all the way to the transom. I would imagine with the extra flotation provided, it allows for plenty of room to go back as far as you want .. with-in reason ..