25/20 outboard jet on a 12’ Jon?

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Fishfried

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Hello, first post here. I have some experience fabbing and welding on boats. I sold my jet boat years back and want to get a small one for fishing the local river. Has anyone had experience with a 25/20 2 stroke outboard jet on a 12’ John? Either a 40 or 36” wide Lowe riveted Jon? It would be for me to fish from. 12 V Trolling motor and light gear. I’m not totally new to jets and aluminum boats, but this configuration of small outboard and Jon boat I have not seen. The reason for the short Jon is because I want it to fit in my garage. Thanks!
 
Even though I don't think a 25 will give you a full 20 HP (I'm thinking more like 15-18) you still may be over powering that boat. Jon boats will be lots of fun in creeks and calm rivers as you will slip and slide around turns.

I have no personal time on a small jet like you mention, but I'd be careful if you plan on running up to WOT. Enjoy
 
There are a couple of smaller boats around here on the river with small jet outboards. With the current on the river, they have to run WOT to go upstream and it's loud and they are still really slow. So it would depend on where you plan on using it, a bigger river with decent current will probably be too much for it. And jet outboards use more gas so fighting current at WOT will go through gas even faster and you would want ear protection. It would probably be fine on small lakes, ponds or streams.
 
You would be better off to get a 14ft and no less than 40in bottom. A 25/20 will push it, but will be underpowered and take a bit to plane out. Keep it as light as possible. Jets push the rear of the boat to the side in turns and will put the back corners under water in hard turns on a narrow boat. I had a 15ft riveted boat with a 36in bottom I built for my first jet with a 25/20 (more like 15 maybe 16 hp). It would plane with 2 guys after about 100 yards and was very unstable. Took around 8 in to run in and had water coming over the transom frequently.
 
Fishfried said:
Hello, first post here. I have some experience fabbing and welding on boats. I sold my jet boat years back and want to get a small one for fishing the local river. Has anyone had experience with a 25/20 2 stroke outboard jet on a 12’ John? Either a 40 or 36” wide Lowe riveted Jon? It would be for me to fish from. 12 V Trolling motor and light gear. I’m not totally new to jets and aluminum boats, but this configuration of small outboard and Jon boat I have not seen. The reason for the short Jon is because I want it to fit in my garage. Thanks!


I have a 1648 Crestliner and I ran a 25/18 Johnson on it for 18 years. I never won any races, but it got up on plane without any problem, and did 18-20mph measured by GPS. I fished many, many miles of river with that little motor. When I upgraded my 16 footer to a 60/40, I stuck that same little 25/18 motor on a 1448 and it did considerably better. Just remember, you are hanging a 25 hp powerhead on that little transom, which was probably designed for a 9.9.
 

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