Complete Amateur Needs Help…

[dan-in-tn]

One other thing I don’t think anyone mentioned. Are you trimming all the way down before you take off? The trim slows down when it goes from tilt to trim , but continues down. Trimming all the way under will have a big effect on hole shot. Also check to see that someone has not moved the tilt pin out on the stern brackets so the engine can’t trim all the way down. You should have 4 holes in the stern bracket. The pin should be in the hole closest to the transom for most negative trim angle. This will help the boat’s hole shot. That boat with the console forward should not have a hole shot problem unless one of the other problems mentioned exist. IMHO

Dan in TN

[steeleman]

Also remember 3/4 throttle may not be 3/4 of the range of the throttle lever. Some motors move about 1/4 -1/2 of the range just getting the boat fully in gear before moving the throttle forward.

My old Merc moves about 1/2 of the full range before it starts opening the throttle.

[SCOTT BOGUE]

Along with others who have responded, I think your boat is simply stern-heavy and she is relatively narrow as well. I had a similar boat, with a similar problem.

Check out trim tabs at http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/tech-help/faq. They are often used with stern-heavy boats. However, they are not going to eliminate the bow-high plowing problem, only reduce it. That may be enough.

Experiment with moving as much weight as possible toward the front of the boat to see what effect that has.

And do eliminate the possibility that there is water trapped in the hull.

[fleetwin]

quote t2stroke:

One other thing I don’t think anyone mentioned. Are you trimming all the way down before you take off? The trim slows down when it goes from tilt to trim , but continues down. Trimming all the way under will have a big effect on hole shot. Also check to see that someone has not moved the tilt pin out on the stern brackets so the engine can’t trim all the way down. You should have 4 holes in the stern bracket. The pin should be in the hole closest to the transom for most negative trim angle. This will help the boat’s hole shot. That boat with the console forward should not have a hole shot problem unless one of the other problems mentioned exist. IMHO

Dan in TN

Good point Dan, always check the simple stuff first!

[mrbrightside7]

Thank you all so much for this information! It is all so helpful! To answer some of the questions people have had, yes the motor does have a whale tail on it, so like you said, someone else was also having this problem and installed that. I have looked into the trim tabs and those look like something I might want to invest in. I always start moving with the trim all the way down, but I should check to ensure the trim pin is where it should be. I am going to move the gas tanks to the front with the battery.

As far as water potentially being in the air chamber below, does anyone have any tips on checking that without having to rip up the flooring?

Thank you again so much for all of the help! Each and every response in here has been extremely helpful!

[outbdnut2]

Another item not mentioned yet is that most all outboards will have a throttle position, somewhere above a fast idle, where the motor will "miss" a bit and run rough. Best to run above or below this spot if you can. This is a throttle position where the carb is switching over from running primarily on the low speed jet to the high speed jet, and is kind of an in between thing where the air/fuel mixture is not right. This is normal.
Dave

[flathead]

Do you pull the plug out of the back of the boat? I imagine you do, but just in case, when you get it on the trailer, pull the plug and see how much water runs out. Park on an incline. If you have water, that can be your weight problem.

[Author]

Posts