Another one followed me home!

[bonz_d]

Actually they did. Got 2.

And that trailer only has 4:80X8 wheels and tires on it so it's pretty low with those on it. The Admiral was standing even with the bed of the trailer in that one picture and you can gage how deep it is.

I do have a few issues I need to sort out with this. One is the bow is very light, actually the whole boat is pretty light, on take off it really rises and seems to take longer than it should to come down. Once on plane it runs pretty flat. About 3/4 throttle is a nice ride, full throttle into the wind, yikes! There is also a jack plate on this and I've never run with one before. When on plane it is spraying up a pretty good amount of water from both sides of the engine. Don't quite understand this.

Anyway this is what I'll be fishing in for the rest of the season. Should be fun and hopefully I can get back to work on the Alumacraft.

 

[GA_Boater]

So The Bonz 2 - Pike 0. :thumb:

When the water sprays like that, the motor might be a little deep in the water. With a jack plate the motor is usually raised a little more than normal because the water under the stern kinda balloons up behind the boat. The jack plate moves the motor into the ballooned area allowing a higher motor. Raising could help the light bow, too. Give a higher motor a try.

 

[bonz_d]

bonz 2 - Pike 1 wife lost a real nice one right next to the boat.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking because it seems that I've read that before about jack plates. This one is a Mini-Jack non-adjustable one there is a series of mounting holes on each side and right now the bottom bolts are in the second from bottom holes. Just concerned that moving it up that one hole may be too much. I'll have to measure the centers and I do believe there is about a 3' setback.

Going to try and get it out again in the morning and will try and get some pictures.

 

[bonz_d]

As promised here it is.

 

[Watermann]

Hey the little SN looks great out there busting some waves! :thumb:

It does look like from the pic that the AV plate is a bit too low.

 

[bonz_d]

Thanks Watermann. Now I just need to figure out how much it needs to come up.

Still trying to get everything set up before I jump in to really cleaning it up and painting. That Johnson is one I picked up from CL for an easy $325.00 with the controls. Someone painted a snot so good camo job on it. But it is slowly coming off with orange citristrip.

 

[littlerayray]

Keep having fun

 

[GA_Boater]

Nothing worse than a "snot so good" camo paint job. LOL

I think the motor is little low, even without a jack plate. It looks like the plate is as high as it goes without drilling new holes in the transom.

 

[bonz_d]

Wasn't a typo error! Cause it looked like snot.

Along the sides of this are dimples that mark where to drill it. There is room to drill and move it up one more inch. My question is by moving the plate up am I going to change the structure enough that it could cause damage to the transom? Best I can measure right now the cav plate is about 1.25" below the bottom.

 

[bonz_d]

Well w/o any definitive answers I've decided I'm going to remove the engine and drill for the lower bolt holes. I figure I will find one of three things. Either it worked or it didn't or it weakened the mount support to were it is unstable or putting too much stress on the transom. I'll update when it's finished.

 

[jbcurt00]

It'll probably help to move it up an inch. But if the AV plate is 1.25" low now, you probably need more then an inch to get the best possible results.

W setback brackets, typically an AV plate is located above the keel. You'll still be below it after going up an inch.

The 4 new holes in the bracket wont hurt it. Drill it, mount the OB and run it. See how much it improves

 

[bonz_d]

jb, I'm sure it will and as you suggest I'm still wondering if that will be enough.

So I did take it all off and drilled those new holes and yes it still looks low. The original transom is 16' and after just measuring the new mounting position it would be 21" from the bottom to the top of the plate. So I'll see how this works otherwise there looks to be enough room to move the engine up about another .5" on the plate. In order to do that I'll have to unbolt the engine, space it up and redrill the motor mount bolt holes. Other than that I'm out of easy solutions.

 

[bonz_d]

Just got back from the water and sadly it didn't work. Helped a lot but didn't fix it. From what I could see it looks like it would have to come up another whole inch Which I don't have. Also in this configuration the shallow water drive is useless also. So now I'm at a loss as to what's next. Certainly don't want to turn this into an elaborate project as I already have one of those.

 

[Willyclay]

From what I could see it looks like it would have to come up another whole inch Which I don't have.

Maybe you could make your own jackplate and customize it to the exact dimensions you need like the racers at the link below. Good luck!

http://www.dillon-racing.com/jackplate/index.htm