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Poor proformmance

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brian boatin

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I just purchase my first boat. After renting many boats to see which boat would fit the family needs we decided on a 2002 22 foot tritoon with a 130 hp Honda motor (bf-130). I had high hopes that we could ski and tube behind this Cadillac of boat but during my first trip out with only my wife and my self aboard the boat performance was at best disappointing. We could only do about 26 mph at 6000 rpms. I looked at the prop and the numbers reads as follows (d3x14x11r). I assume that means 3 blades, 14-inch diameter, with an 11 pitch. After looking at the prevuse owner paperwork I notice that it came with a 13-inch diameter prop. So do I have the optimal prop on my boat or did I just buy the biggest boat enchor on the planet?
 
welcome aboard Brian

I will begin by saying that Im running a 13 pitch prop on a 2012 24' two toon with a 75 hp Merc. with that said I can run about 20 to 22 mph at about 5500rpm

I will say you can run a 13 pitch prop, a 14 or 15 might even be better, your RPM's will come down with the higher pitch of the prop, think of the higher pitch prop as overdrive on your vehicle, but the higher you go you will also lose your holeshot or torque to pull someone out of the water, you can do it you will just drag them a little farther.

You will increase mph but i dont know that you will exceed 30 mph, right now it will be a trial and error until you find the exact prop you are happy with, some dealers and marinas have used props they may let you try out until you find the one that works for you.

dont give up sounds like you have a nice pontoon.
 
Toonafish said:
welcome aboard Brian

I will begin by saying that Im running a 13 pitch prop on a 2012 24' two toon with a 75 hp Merc. with that said I can run about 20 to 22 mph at about 5500rpm

I will say you can run a 13 pitch prop, a 14 or 15 might even be better, your RPM's will come down with the higher pitch of the prop, think of the higher pitch prop as overdrive on your vehicle, but the higher you go you will also lose your holeshot or torque to pull someone out of the water, you can do it you will just drag them a little farther.

You will increase mph but i dont know that you will exceed 30 mph, right now it will be a trial and error until you find the exact prop you are happy with, some dealers and marinas have used props they may let you try out until you find the one that works for you.

dont give up sounds like you have a nice pontoon.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input.
 
Something else you may want to consider. The underside of the logs could have some growth on them. This will slow you down considerably.
 
Toonafish said:
welcome aboard Brian

I will begin by saying that Im running a 13 pitch prop on a 2012 24' two toon with a 75 hp Merc. with that said I can run about 20 to 22 mph at about 5500rpm

I will say you can run a 13 pitch prop, a 14 or 15 might even be better, your RPM's will come down with the higher pitch of the prop, think of the higher pitch prop as overdrive on your vehicle, but the higher you go you will also lose your holeshot or torque to pull someone out of the water, you can do it you will just drag them a little farther.

You will increase mph but i dont know that you will exceed 30 mph, right now it will be a trial and error until you find the exact prop you are happy with, some dealers and marinas have used props they may let you try out until you find the one that works for you.

dont give up sounds like you have a nice pontoon.
Click to expand...
 
I bought a 2575RSI with an Evinrude 135 2 stroke. They are both 2003.

Finally got the boat on the water and at WOT the highest the engine would go is 3800 rpm which showed 22 mph on my GPS. I think the rpm should be 5000 at WOT. I couldn't find any markings on the prop. Guess I will take it off and look on the inside. I wonder what the correct prop would be?
 
bigrussie said:
I bought a 2575RSI with an Evinrude 135 2 stroke. They are both 2003.

Finally got the boat on the water and at WOT the highest the engine would go is 3800 rpm which showed 22 mph on my GPS. I think the rpm should be 5000 at WOT. I couldn't find any markings on the prop. Guess I will take it off and look on the inside. I wonder what the correct prop would be?
Click to expand...
Best bet is to start with a good Evinrude dealer. Your rpm's are too low.
 
brian boatin said:
I just purchase my first boat. After renting many boats to see which boat would fit the family needs we decided on a 2002 22 foot tritoon with a 130 hp Honda motor (bf-130). I had high hopes that we could ski and tube behind this Cadillac of boat but during my first trip out with only my wife and my self aboard the boat performance was at best disappointing. We could only do about 26 mph at 6000 rpms. I looked at the prop and the numbers reads as follows (d3x14x11r). I assume that means 3 blades, 14-inch diameter, with an 11 pitch. After looking at the prevuse owner paperwork I notice that it came with a 13-inch diameter prop. So do I have the optimal prop on my boat or did I just buy the biggest boat enchor on the planet?
Click to expand...
Hi Brian -

I have the 2003 2275rl version of your boat. Tri-toon with a 2002 Honda BF130 on it. Bought it last summer on Hartwell. This past off season I had the toons professionally cleaned (look like new, sharkhide I'd bet) as the boat sat in the water at the previous owners dock. I also propped up a step to a D3 x 13.5 x 17 pitch from a 15 pitch. The first day I ran it with me (200lb) and a half tank she ran 34mph+. 5200rpm approx. The engine is rated between 5000-6000 rpm. I would go up to a least a 15 pitch and put the 11 on board as a spare. 3 blade Aluminum. Cleaning the toons made a ton of difference in the drag and the prop then helped. I pull kids on tubes no problem with a few folks on board but if you have 6-8-10 people you will be at full throttle. I suspect you could pull a skier on two skis but I have not done it. Boat is rated for a 175HP max.

Hope the info helps - Clean the toons and prop up!

DC Stoddard
 
Good Morning everyone! I just bought a 2013 "S" series 20' Bennington yesterday. The original package included a 9.9 motor. I upgraded that to a 50hp Mercury 4S EFI BF. It says that max hp for my boat is 70hp. The money for the upgrade was considerable. My question is, what kind of performance can I expect from this motor on my sized pontoon. It has the 23" tubes on it. My kids can't ski so I guess the only thing we want to do is fish, cruize, and maybe pull them around on a tube. This is our first boat of any kind and we don't know much about them.
 
Morning Jay, and welcome to the Club!

We have the '11 20SLI w/ 25" toons, 50hp Yamaha. We got 18mph @ 5800 rpm with a 14"x13p prop.

You should expect numbers pretty close to that, perhaps a bit more with 23" toons.

Look at the specs others have posted on here to get a little more comparison.

Congrats on the new toon, i am sure you will love it!
 
Thanks! We are super excited. It's gonna take forever for winter to end it seems. I can't wait to see what 18 - 20mph is like on the water. From a newbie like me, it seems that is extremely slow. I guess the only thing i have to compare it with is my car...lol. UGH. I hope I made the right choice. The salesman said that the big foot package on the 50hp Merc 4S would help too.
 
Jay, welcome to the club! I have a 3yr old and a 9 month old who have been on the boat with me since day 1. My wife wouldn't let me go faster than 20mph with the kids onboard even if I wanted to.

Though you won't be setting the water on fire, you'll find that your boat is all that you need. If for some reason you decide otherwise, Bennington's hold their resale exceptionally well in this boating market.

By the way, don't let the forum make you second guess yourself. I'll read these posts on this site and tell myself "I should have gone bigger" or "I need to trade-up". Then I go out for a weekend cruise with friends and fall in love with my boat all over again.
 
Thanks Spin! That helps a lot. Thats exactly what I was doing. Sitting here second guessing myself. It's hard to guage being that this is our first boat of any kind. I can't wait!
 
You made two great choices already. 1 you bought a Benny and 2, you joined this forum. I'd have confidence in the decision you made regarding your power plant.
 
Yeah, we went to the boat show here in Cleveland last weekend and it was a no doubter which we were going with. We planned on a pontoon from the start and once we saw the Bennington Pontoons, we has our hearts set. I had no idea how much boat motors cost. The upgrade from the 9.9 that came with the boat to the 50 4S with the bigfoot was pretty heavy but i'm glad I did. The max motor for our size boat is 70. We are considering calling them and going with the 70. Only question is, is the performance difference that noticable from the 50 to 70?
 
The thing I like about having more power is that you don't have to be at full throttle all the time.I can cruise around all dat long and the motor dousn't have to work all that hard. But, if a storm comes up and I want to get to shore or to safety, I can get there quickly. What size lake are you going to boat on? Just my $.02
 
The gain from 50-70hp would only be a few mph. Probably not worth the extra $$.

The other thing to consider is your prop selection, as i said, we have the 14" 13p vortex by Michigan Wheel. I am considering going to an 11p to gain a few more rpm's. When we get 4 adults on board, the rpm loss is about 400. The 11p would get most of that back.
 
Thanks! I'll be on Lake Erie here in Ohio. Just far enough out for the kids to fish etc. I'm not sure what prop will be on it. This is what I do know. Mercury 50 4S EFI BF. Sorry i'm so new to this. I have read that my 20' boat with 23" logs should be ok and cruize at about 20mph. Maybe a bit more or less depending on passangers, water contditions, fuel levels, etc. I will have to see about the prop or is that what the BF means? Big foot?
 
Jay, we are from NE Ohio as well. Did you buy from Boatmasters? You are brave with plans to boat on Lake Erie - are you planning on Sandusky Bay or the main lake?

Shawn
 
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