eavega
Lieutenant
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2008
- Messages
- 1,377
So, we had a beautiful Saturday in Atlanta as the weatherman had predicted. They had also predicted a nice Sunday, so I planned to take my boat out on the lake for a bit of a shakedown after three months of non-use. Also had to verify and test a couple of things:
1. Rebuilt the fuel pump.
2. Had a stainless steel prop I picked up on ebay to try out (higher pitch so I wasn't sure it would work)
3. Wanted to try out a larger battery to see if it would regulate voltage a little better.
So here is what I learned:
1. Don't believe the weathermen!
2. When the water temp is 48 degrees and the air temp is 52 degrees with no sun, boating is no fun unless you are prepared for it!
3. I've heard it mentioned on several threads that if your motor uses an unregulated charging system, you need to be running a big battery in order to keep the voltage on the charging circuit at a decent level. I switched from a small starting battery to a large Marine/RV battery for this trip. Previously the charging voltage would get up to 18V when running WOT, which worried me because all my electronics were on that circuit. With the big marine battery, the voltage never got above 15.5V.
4. All the adjustments I was told regarding pitch and going from aluminum to stainless steel prop played out properly. I was currently running a standard OMC 17" Pitch aluminum 3 blade prop which would run at 5500 RPM WOT, and give me a velocity of 30 MPH by GPS. I tried the 19" Pitch SS OMC prop, expecting my RPMs to drop by 400. However, I was told that due to SS not flexing as much as Aluminum, the RPM drop would be closer to 200 RPM. I was also told to expect top speed to come up a little. This was fairly close to what happened. With the 19P SS 3-blade prop, my engine speed came down to 5200-5300 RPM (still within the recommended WOT RPM Range), but my speed went to 33 MPH by GPS at WOT, 30 MPH turning at 5000RPM cruising.
5. Verified that the fuel pump rebuild was a success. The occasional hesitation I felt on my previous trip was not apparent even with a WOT run of about 10 min.
All in all, a good shakedown cruise on the lake. I also let my 10 year old nephew drive the boat, and the look on his face made all the work I've put in on the plantain totally worth it.
Boating season is around the corner here, and I am ready for it this year!
Rgds
1. Rebuilt the fuel pump.
2. Had a stainless steel prop I picked up on ebay to try out (higher pitch so I wasn't sure it would work)
3. Wanted to try out a larger battery to see if it would regulate voltage a little better.
So here is what I learned:
1. Don't believe the weathermen!
2. When the water temp is 48 degrees and the air temp is 52 degrees with no sun, boating is no fun unless you are prepared for it!
3. I've heard it mentioned on several threads that if your motor uses an unregulated charging system, you need to be running a big battery in order to keep the voltage on the charging circuit at a decent level. I switched from a small starting battery to a large Marine/RV battery for this trip. Previously the charging voltage would get up to 18V when running WOT, which worried me because all my electronics were on that circuit. With the big marine battery, the voltage never got above 15.5V.
4. All the adjustments I was told regarding pitch and going from aluminum to stainless steel prop played out properly. I was currently running a standard OMC 17" Pitch aluminum 3 blade prop which would run at 5500 RPM WOT, and give me a velocity of 30 MPH by GPS. I tried the 19" Pitch SS OMC prop, expecting my RPMs to drop by 400. However, I was told that due to SS not flexing as much as Aluminum, the RPM drop would be closer to 200 RPM. I was also told to expect top speed to come up a little. This was fairly close to what happened. With the 19P SS 3-blade prop, my engine speed came down to 5200-5300 RPM (still within the recommended WOT RPM Range), but my speed went to 33 MPH by GPS at WOT, 30 MPH turning at 5000RPM cruising.
5. Verified that the fuel pump rebuild was a success. The occasional hesitation I felt on my previous trip was not apparent even with a WOT run of about 10 min.
All in all, a good shakedown cruise on the lake. I also let my 10 year old nephew drive the boat, and the look on his face made all the work I've put in on the plantain totally worth it.
Boating season is around the corner here, and I am ready for it this year!
Rgds
