is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

[dmented692006]

i have a 18ft procraft bass boat with a 150hp yamaha pro-v engine. Do i have enough ponies to pull a 3 person tube? if not, do i have enough to pull a 2 person tube?

 

[Randy169]

Re: is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

I don't see why you wouldn't. I pulled 2 people on two tubes (I know not the same - but close) with an old Johnson 150 on an 18' Glasply and had no problems. Even with a full boat.

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

I would think you have more than enough to pull that plus some. Ive pulled two tubes with two adults on each tube with an old 200 hp evinrude behind a 20' cuddy. No problem with power, usually tubes are only pulled at 20-25mph unless your riders are kind of nuts or want a real thrill/death ride. I don't know how you have it propped being a bass boat, that might be the only thing you would need to change but maybe not. Power wise you have more than enough. You could pull slalom skiers if you wanted to. The only prob with a bass boat is sometimes the rope connection point is so low to the water that the rope has a tendency to drag in the wake which wants to pull the front of tube down. So when starting have your riders lean/pull back until the tube gets planed out a bit then you should be okay. Also might want to look into a ski bridal they attach to your transom hooks and have a floating pulley that you attach the rope to they work well with an outboard.

 

[dmented692006]

Re: is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

the most i can tell you about my prop is it has 4 blades. i dont know what the pitch or anything is, but it will get up and go if you are heavy on the throttle. is it ok to hook the tow rope to the little hooks that are in the back of the boat on either side of the motor? The little hooks you use to tie the boat down to the trailer.

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

Yes the "transom hooks" are the best place to attach the tow rope to. Like I mentioned a ski bridal(sp?) works very well with an outboard they run about $10.00 to $15.00 at any boat store. The best way to tell on your prop is to look at the hub section for some numbers ie 15 x 17 and then you will kind of know where you are at. Even if you have a speed prop ie 15 x 21 it still might be okay to pull tubes but maybe not a slalom skier. The higher the pitch the more top speed you have but less power coming out of the hole. The lower the pitch the more pulling power you have but you lose quite a bit off the top speed. The prop section of this forum is a very useful tool to determine correct pitches, sizes etc based on what you intend on doing with the boat. Also you don't want to be way off on a prop with an outboard as they like to be run at certian rpm's when wide open throttle. The wrong prop can make them run lower than what they are designed to run at thus losing efficency and carboning up faster.

 

[Randy169]

Re: is my motor big enough to pull a 3 person tube?

The bridle is a great idea for towing one tube. (Wish I thought of that.)

Pulling two, I found attaching to the transom hooks was better.

They will be low in the water though and the people will have to lean back to get going - or end up submarining.