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Experiments in boat speed...
When I finally got a chance to run the Ranger's E-TEC yesterday, I was
a tad disappointed that I couldn't get the rpm's up over 4900. So
having the time to do some experimenting, I went back to my friendly
long time dealer and we decided to change the engine position one
notch with no noticeable effect.So, we changed props to a 14 1/4, 21 three blade and there wasn't much
of an improvement - it handled a little better, but no increase in
speed. Standing around the shop, scratching our collective heads, we noticed
a mechanical jack plate sitting in the corner that the owner had taken
off a Stratos on a E-TEC repower. The light bulb went off at the same
time - scramble around, install the jack plate, engine and took it
out. Got plenty of RPMs, but the speed wasn't quite what I wanted. Switch the three blade to a four blade 21 pitch and voila!!! Problem solved. Pictures here. http://www.swsports.org/images/P8033238.JPG http://www.swsports.org/images/P8033240.JPG http://www.swsports.org/images/P8033241.JPG |
Shortwave
Aug 3
2006
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| I don't plan on repainting it. That was a serious error in judgment on my part. |
Shortwave
Aug 6
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| OK, "restore" the bottom. Re Gellcoat it??? |
tschnautz
Aug 6
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| What ever it takes to get it back to original condition. I painted it because I had originally planned to keep in shallow water
at the marina for those occasional quick runs into Narragansett Bay,
but I decided that trailering for those kinds of trips was much
better. I kept it painted, but gave up on it last year. |
Shortwave
Aug 6
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| you need some bottom paint, dude... |
tschnautz
Aug 4
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| I waiting for this winter to take it all off and restore the bottom. The less paint for that operation, the better. :>) |
Shortwave
Aug 5
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| If it gets cold where you are, the paint applies better, due to less
humidity, too. |
tschnautz
Aug 5
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| following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats: |
Gene
Aug 4
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| Why is everything so ...... clean? Eisboch |
Eisboch
Aug 3
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| My office, as you are aware, is carefully organized chaos. My boats are, well, different. I believe in keeping everything in
near new condition as possible. |
Shortwave
Aug 3
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| Glad you solved the problem. From an engineering standpoint, how did the
addition of a jackplate improve the top end? I am not familiar with
jackplates. |
Aug 3
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| They are used to position the motor vertically so you can customize
the engines position in the vertical plane. Some are hydraulic
allowing for adjusting on the fly and the one I have is mechanical -
basically, set it and forget it. It also gives you a certain amount
of set back which effectively increases the boat length without adding
hull to increase the speed. This one is a six inch set back. The reason is that with the original FICHT, it had a 20" shaft which
was recommended by Ranger, but it never really reached the speed the
boat is capable of even with changing the engines position and
swapping props all day long. The E-TEC is a 25" shaft and did much
better in terms of handling, but there were RPM and speed problems. Because of the odd transom on the Ranger, it required the jack plate
to custom fit the cavitation plate to the hull. The four blade gives
a little more bite. |
Shortwave
Aug 3
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