1st two hours of Break in complete!

DogTag34

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Not that anybody wants an update - lol - but we hit 76 degrees Thursday so we took our new boat out to finally play around with it some. While it will normally be in a slip at the cabin - we had to trailer to a nearby lake near home. All went well as far as trailering went - loading went better then my fears - My beautiful wife touched down on the trailer perfect on her third attempt. This was our first time trailering and we didn't realize how much these "drifted" as we got close to trailer - took some adjusting but not dents or scratches - I kept it trimmed down the entire time although I was dying to trim it up and see what difference it would make. I stuck to the book with only 60 second bursts at WOT - was fairly windy - 12 mph......peak rpm was 5672 and peak mph was 45.4.....our speed varied between 44.1 and 45.4 in these bursts......First pontoon so I am guessing the rpms look ok - my service guy said I was looking for 5800-6200 when trimmed up - this was when I was asking what prop they supplied - they put on a Mere enertia - does this look ok? motor was mounted in the very bottom hole? felt fine but i have nothing to compare it to - my highlight was turning this thing - That esp truly leans it into turns - we had a blast anyways - cant wait to finish the break in.
 

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Beautiful boat! Thanks for the pics.
 
Sweet!!
 
Awesome report! Thanks for the pics. Your numbers look good. Post the new rpms after you experiment with the trim. I'm sure you'll come up into the recommended range. You are very close.

One thing I never understood was Mercury's recommendation in the manual to "vary the throttle" during break in. Does that mean constantly accelerate (drive it like you stole it)? Or change the rpms every few minutes (granny style)? There are many opinions about what proper break in is...
 
I would expect more speed but that’s just my gut feeling. My 24’ s with a 200 hits 44. I would think the motor might be low by a hole or two. Something to look at. beautiful boat by the way.
 
Nice boat! Congratulations! ..... I added 2 sets of vertical loading guides bolted to trailer in between outside and center toons, one set on rear frame member and the other far forward (but shortened a few inches so bow deck edge moulding clears.) Our boat is a 2013 22SLX tritoon and now it is a piece of cake to load on trailer, even in wind. It has no choice but to self align if you are semi close to centered. I got them from Overtons. Here is a picture of stern that shows them. My trailer also came with carpeted horizontal bunks that also help align when loading.IMG_3411.jpg
 
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Awesome! You have a great Summer coming up.
 
Thanks for the pictures and write up. Once your break-in is complete, hopefully your WOT RPMs will increase enough to put you in the suggested range. Otherwise, you'll need to drop your pitch down one.
 
Congratulations. Looks and sounds great!

I would echo what Lakeliving and Michiman said above.
 
I would expect more speed but that’s just my gut feeling. My 24’ s with a 200 hits 44. I would think the motor might be low by a hole or two. Something to look at. beautiful boat by the way.
I think the ESP slows it down some - this isnt from experience - just reading - I believe the esp helps more for turning then speed - actually might slow it down a few mph - although the max engine without esp on a 23' boat was 250. So to get the 350 it had to have esp. I might have to play with it to get it dialed in - hope I don't need to remount the engine - I am far from an expert on boat rpms so i will repot back with rpms and speed once I start trimming it up and let the collective group guide me:) I appreciate the feedback.
 
That looks like you could have pulled up to the dam and jumped over to Big Daddy's BBQ for a little afternoon lunch at the corner of 205 and 78. That is Lavon, right?
 
That looks like you could have pulled up to the dam and jumped over to Big Daddy's BBQ for a little afternoon lunch at the corner of 205 and 78. That is Lavon, right?
Great eyes:) Yes - Lake lavon boat ramp is 0.5 miles from my drive way - The boat will be up at our cabin in oklahoma but Lavon is covenient lake for me to break it in.
 
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