Put her in the water for a bit. Motor started right up, and never missed a beat. Seems we finally have it tuned in alright. It pushes us pretty well too. We made a 3+ mile run in 7 minutes (took us about 50 in the Grumman) so I am estimating our speed to be about 28 - 30 mph. I don't have a clue whether or not I have the correct prop, and this is a little dinged, so I may be able to nab a couple more miles yet. Here are a couple pictures.
The spillover dam from lake Acworth (some of y'all may have heard me talk about it - known for the large bigmouths, but I can't seem to find them), that feeds into the bottom end of this lake.
Dad running it at WOT.
Not sure why these next few turned out so bad. It wasn't dark.
Me coming out of the no wake zone. This thing doesn't have the greatest hole shot.
Heading in at WOT, or close to.
The problems:
Apparently, when patching transducer holes (this thing has had a million transducers it seems) I missed 2. I noticed water in the bilge, and then saw it streaming in from the transom. No problem at speed, but at rest it puddled in pretty quick. Just from the 2 minutes of idling around the no wake zone before trailering, I accumulated about 5 gallons.
The passenger seat needs to be on a swivel. The layout of this makes sitting angled inward much easier.
The fuel hatch needs to be 2 piece. I had designed it where you have to remove the stern seat to open the hatch, as it only needs to be opened when filling up at the gas station, and that seat would be off the boat when trailering anyway. Problem was, you can't check the fuel level with the seat present. A two piece lid will allow checking the fuel and bilge without removing seat.
Motor has major torque steer issues. The slightly larger, or newer motors have an adjustable tab on the bottom of the cav. plate. This one has it molded in, so I can't adjust it. Going to add a shim to one side and that should solve the problem.
Cover rattles. Knew that would be a problem, as it is missing much of its weather stripping. Real annoying.
Wiring chase cover rattles. Instead of just carpeting the top, I am going to carpet all the way around.
Not having lid pulls installed yet has been a bigger pain than I thought it would. Need to remember to get those ordered.
Trolling motor pedal well is a great idea, but it is too far from the butt seat. Without one, I would space it that far from the seat, but because it is sunk in, the need for the extra distance is gone.
Aside from those, it worked real well. It pushes me at a reasonable clip to fish these larger lakes easier, and is reasonably stable. Flat bottom does have a somewhat rough ride, but that is just the nature of the beast.
I didn't get too much chance to walk around on it, but it is definitely stable enough to move around on, and fish from.
When I was alone, the side to side trim was absolutely perfect, both at rest, and in motion. But, with another person in the passenger seat, it leans to the left. I think I am going to mount the kicker on the starboard side, as opposed to the original plan of the port one, and then do a little rearranging to make the weight come out more even with 2 people. I think if I turn my batteries 90 degrees, it will get the heavier one to the left of center, and I think the fuel tank can slide to port to counter the kicker when I am alone as well.
