Lm18 madison wi

[Jeff]

She looks great in the water!!! Jeff

[Fuzz]

The boat looks great on the water!
Did you say that the faster you went the spray moved forward? That is backwards of what would be expected. I must have missed it but what HP is the engine?

[Cbuf]

The pick was of my trim plate on the motor being just under the water at about 30mph. I was always told that the plate should be just above the water. Planning on raising up the motor a hole and adding wedges to give negative trim. if that fails thinking of adding smart tabs.

[Cbuf]

Finished the plumbing, but I need to more the hole down 3/4". Such a bummer. However the drain test worked awesome. When 5 gallon is entered into the hull about 2 gallons flowed out and the 2.5 gallons are pumped out. When I flooded the boat with 20 gallons is was gone in about a minute.
The reason for moving the scupper hole down was a mis- measurement on my part, I didn't include the transom angle. So dumb, I wasn't even thinking about it. I wish it was as easy as putting the plug in and redrilling, but now I have to reglass, resand, re prime, an repaint.
I also got a set of used shims and I hope to get them installed this week.

cbuf

[Cbuf]

Front seats are in.

[Jeff]

Very nice!!! Jeff

[fallguy1000]

Curious to see what the shims do for you.

[Cbuf]

I got the boat back with the shims and raise up one whole. That did the trick, no more porpoising. It ran great nice and smooth. I still need to work on getting the right prop the standard brp 17 x 13.5 had my rpms over the limit. I tried a 17 inch cupped x 14 prop and it has my rpm right at 5900. I want to give a 19x 13.5 standard prop a try or find an 18 pitch. The boat cruises nicely at 30 mph at about 4900 rpms. Max was about 35 with that big cupped prop.

My new problem is the stick is long and makes driving it uncomfortable. I was hoping it was comparable to the merc big triller but it isn’t even a contest.
1. The offset is only 20 degree on a narrow boat like the lm you need more like 30 degree so you don’t have to sit on the edge of the boat.
2. There is no locking pin like in the big tiller, so the stick just falls hard when the motor is trimmed up.
3. The steering friction on the etec is horrible and not adjustable.
4. The trim switch rotates with the handle, so at take off down is trim down, but at full throttle down it now trim up I’m sure I could get used to it, but it is a dumb design.

So I now I’m looking at rebuilding the console into a wheel boat. It will cost me about 1000 between controls steering and cables. Plus lot of work, however I think I will be happier in the long run. Additionally I could sell my tiller handle for a couple bucks to offset the costs.

Cbuf

[Fuzz]

I am glad you were able to get her to run right for you I hate to say this but if you did not run chase tubes for remote controls it will be a pain in the ass to switch over at this point. I built my dory as a tiller boat and after running it I went remote. I ended up making a side console to make it work but it will never be as clean of rigging as it could have been. Maybe run the boat this summer and then see if you still want to make the change.

[Cbuf]

I have room to run the controls without much fuss. I was worried more about space to fit a wheel and binnacle mount controls. However I found an 11” wheel with a knob that should allow me the room needed.

Prop update. I tried a 4 blade stern lift prop and man was it great. Boat rides really well now. It has been rough so I haven’t been able to ride full wide open, but should be in the range.
STD 17x13.5 running over rpms
Cupped 17x 14 running at 5800 but tons of bow rise causing my ass to sink.
Switched to a 17 x 13.5 four blade. Ride is much much better but haven’t been able to run it full yet.

Today I geared up in my full rain suit and took advantage of the rough weather and driving rain. Purposely steered in 3.5 -4’ tight lake waves a couple times. Took 2-3 over the bow on purpose to flood the boat to check drainage with and without the scupper pump turned on. In both instances water drained out as designed. About 5 minutes for the scupper alone and under 1 minutes with the scupper pump. I would say that is a success. However a Nieghbor watching do this thought I was completely nuts. I would rather test it those conditions learning how the boats handles them, then to find out on accident later that it can’t.

Cbuf