Fall run pics.

[MILD THUNDER]

Joe & Ryan, those race hatches look great! Course maybe they kept Andy IN the boat to pass out.....
I saw a boat same graphics as yours Joe on Craigslist this weekend, but just 502's.

Thanks Paul..that 38 on Craigslist is owned by a guy named Mike. Looks very simliar to mine. His is newer and stepped bottom. I used to store my boat next to him downtown years back. I think his runs low 70's with the 502's and bravos. He kept it pretty nice.

[teamsynergy]

Am I going to have some led lighting to fit in.. all you fu$#kers have your engine bay lit up like Christmas looking all pimp..
I looked at underwater lighting so I can be cool too but holy $hitballs thats $$$$!
I`ll pass lol

Dan, I have extra strips like mine if your interested... I'll give you the AK discount...lol

[MILD THUNDER]

Dan, I will find the website I got mine from and email it to you. Purple cockpit and bilge lights would look nice....

[redhotsommer]

I think mine were like $40 each? As I recall, Joe's were even cheaper...AND he's got the color changers...mine are just red.

[MILD THUNDER]

I wanna say mine were like 50 bucks for the bilge. That was a basic four tube kit, with the two extra add on tubes. I have six tubes total in the bilge, with the color changing controller. Same kit i got for Ryan. Real easy plug and play wiring too.

[teamsynergy]

Mine can do white or red, come in a sealed aluminum extrusion and a clear lens. They have roughly 6' of cord and a separate power supply. Mine are $50.00 for a set of two and power supply. I think the strips are 3-4' long... I have 4 in my bilge.

[ICDEDPPL]

Yeah thats reasonable, the underwater lights are like $300 per light.

[MILD THUNDER]

[QUOTE=redhotsommer;561441]We had a great time as well. I was a little disappointed that I only got 80.1 mph with the 30s on...but I was only able to turn them 4900, so I wasn't even in the powerband. My slip calced out to almost 14%...I think 28s are going to be the ticket for me. QUOTE]

Mike, your prop slip is ok. Its around 11%. When calculating slip for a bravo, you need to enter about 1" less of pitch in the calculator. Bravo's dont measure true to their stamping. So for stock 30p bravo's, you would want to enter "29.2", or "29" if the calculator doesnt allow for decimals.

At 11%, i'd say your doing good. I dont think 5 blades would do all that much for you, maybe even hurt you. Even though you have 2" shorties, your drives were dragging thru the sand before, with the boxes. Your not throwing any rooster tails, I don't think your close to piercing the surface right now. I'd like to see you set your drives parallel to the bottom, take a level, and measure how far below the bottom the propshafts sit right now with the shorties. Mark Kingma just got his cutting edge props. Might be worth hooking up with him and doing a test run with them. The pitch might not be what you need, but you can at least see if the boat likes them! That is of course if Mark even likes you enough to let you give them a test run.

Also, what prop netted the best speed so far this year? I know you tried a bravo 4 blade, hydromotive cleaver, and hydromotive round ear. If your original hydromotive "cleaver" props gave you the best speed, I would definitly try the cutting edge props, and I would also try "just for grins" turning the props outwards. Cleavers lift the stern. If the boat likes stern lift, turning the props "out" will lift the stern also. "IN" lifts the bow. Most think its the other way around. Just ask bblades. My props turn "IN". I tried out and it didnt work for me. Go watch the video Dan put up of us running on saturday, and you be the judge on whether or not Im carrying the bow while passing Dan in the video.

[redhotsommer]

My problem is that all of the props I ran resulted in almost the same speeds! The 30s were 80.1, Brian's 26 Hydro Quad IV Xs were 82, and my 26 Hydro Quad IVs were 82.5. I honestly think the boat should be faster than that. I am light on fuel now, so maybe it's worth another shot with the 30s with a light load (no FPGs). I was running my tabs at like 2 pins this weekend, and the drives were out at 4.5 (normal with the shorties)...if I had trimmed it to the moon and raised the tabs, I probably could have gotten a couple more mph....I was playing it safe with passengers aboard.

I just want to hit 85 once...after that, I could care less! I cruise at 60-65 and I'm happy.

[redhotsommer]

Oh...and I know Brian wanted me to run his 26s as the IV Xs provide more bow lift. Honestly...the boat felt very loose with those props...it's usally rock solid at 80 mph. They were the only ones I didn't really like.

[teamsynergy]

My problem is that all of the props I ran resulted in almost the same speeds! The 30s were 80.1, Brian's 26 Hydro Quad IV Xs were 82, and my 26 Hydro Quad IVs were 82.5. I honestly think the boat should be faster than that. I am light on fuel now, so maybe it's worth another shot with the 30s with a light load (no FPGs). I was running my tabs at like 2 pins this weekend, and the drives were out at 4.5 (normal with the shorties)...if I had trimmed it to the moon and raised the tabs, I probably could have gotten a couple more mph....I was playing it safe with passengers aboard.

I just want to hit 85 once...after that, I could care less! I cruise at 60-65 and I'm happy.

Mike, IMO, either the 28's or 30's will work. Unfortunatly, you will have to send them out for labbing to achieve the RPM and speed you desire. With the cooler weather and lake conditions, we ran a solid 91 saturday. My plan going forward is to send them to Brett this winter and have them labbed. Currently I am running merc bravo 1 4 blades, 32's and they are the merc labbed versions. My slip is roughly 17-19% so I think once we lab them, I could see 95-96. But we'll see. I really dont want to mess with 34's as they are crap.

[MILD THUNDER]

So its sounding like the boat likes the standard hydromotive cleaver, like your original props. The "loose" feeling you felt when running brians props, was probably due to the fact they are 16" diameter, where your props are 15.5", and stock bravos are 15.25". Bigger the Diameter, the more stern lift you will get. 5 blade props made my boat feel loose too, to much stern lift, didnt like them at wot.

Ok, here's another question, which props feel more stable at wot? The cleavers or the bravos? This is pretty much a conversation you would probably want to have with Brett, but I think at the end, your best prop would be having the 30's sent to brett for tweaking. He may do things like cut them down to 15" or less, add some cupping, thin the blades, etc.

[Magic Medicine]

How many RPM's are you wanting to spin? if your at 4900 now where do you want to be? I'd think you'd like to spin at 5400????

[paulb32]

My problem is that all of the props I ran resulted in almost the same speeds! The 30s were 80.1, Brian's 26 Hydro Quad IV Xs were 82, and my 26 Hydro Quad IVs were 82.5. I honestly think the boat should be faster than that. I am light on fuel now, so maybe it's worth another shot with the 30s with a light load (no FPGs). I was running my tabs at like 2 pins this weekend, and the drives were out at 4.5 (normal with the shorties)...if I had trimmed it to the moon and raised the tabs, I probably could have gotten a couple more mph....I was playing it safe with passengers aboard.

I just want to hit 85 once...after that, I could care less! I cruise at 60-65 and I'm happy.

Gotta get your boat next to Leo's. He says with his 500's he's 83 all day, and has hit 86. I don't know any further details, but I'd think match his setup is another baseline. HP for HP you should be faster, or at least the same. Seems Joe is on the mark-need more bow lift, not stern lift. 4.5 on the drives is "some" trim already and the boat appears pretty flat. Reggie ran em on the back 3 ft only, you can do it too....

[OBNOXUS]

CMon Mike,,,,,trim it out,,,,remember Cumberland !!!!!!

[redhotsommer]

You have a point, Paul. I should be faster than Leo as our hulls are the same and I've got a couple hundred more horses and shorties.

Andy...my peak hp was around 5200.

Dennis...that was fun and easy to do because it was not my boat!

[WETTE VETTE]

More bowlift can be done with props or adding some spacers to the drives to gain some additional leverage. Didn't you do motors and shorties at the same time? In many cases when several different props are tried and the top end is the same the explanation is in the set up. SC288 went through the same deal this spring, but in his case he needed shorties and that got him past what seemed to be a wall at 80.

[teamsynergy]

I think labbed 30's will do the trick... When all else fails, call BBlades.

Also, I just ran your numbers again and if you can maintain no more than 12% slip, run labbed 30's, and get 5400 out of them.... You should be 87mph.

[MILD THUNDER]

You have a point, Paul. I should be faster than Leo as our hulls are the same and I've got a couple hundred more horses and shorties.

Andy...my peak hp was around 5200.

Dennis...that was fun and easy to do because it was not my boat!

See if Leo can measure with a straightedge where his propshafts are. Then measure yours. Yours should be 2 inches or so above his, because of the boxes. If yours were as deep or deeper than his, I can see that being a problem.

Your drives were DEEP before!

[ICDEDPPL]

Mike I overheard on the dock some ideas.. if you need more speed you should add a 3rd motor or possibly look into a 39 Apake