Zx 200 hoping like a kangaroo

[wchandler]

I have a 2017 zx200 with talons, 12” jack plate, 200SHO, running the 23p SHO prop. Question is I’m unable to drive at low speeds without it jumping like a kangaroo. It also will hop when coming down off pad to stop. I can run WOT as long as the water is slick. Any small wake and the boat almost jumps out of the water and starts hoping. I’ve owned many boats and never had one do this. I’ve moved jack place from hole 1-8 with little change. Prop to pad sits at 3.25” on hole 8. Removed talons and it did help with the porpoise. Any ideas or suggestions is appreciated. It will also chime walk pretty bad at wto @5900 rpms. Just can’t seem to get it settled in to maximize performance.

[Finlander]

Switch to a 4 blade prop. This should correct or greatly reduce much of what you are seeing.

Trim below 50% when coming off plane, actually use it as a brake to slow the boat rather then just letting off the gas.

Chine walk could be corrected by raising the motor but it could also just be seat time. Hard to say without actually driving your boat.

Where are you located in Georgia?

[mrdeath]

Define "low speeds". If you're trying to stay on plane at 25 mph, gotta keep it trimmed all the way down. And coming off pad, you have to trim down as you slow down to prevent it. Once you get a feel for it, it will be second nature to you.

[bayouXpress]

go to the skeeter forum. Plenty of information on this.

Its hard to get these boats to not hop at less than 28mph. You can try a hydra foil. But need to be trimmed just about all the way down.

coming off pad you need to trim down first.

The regular running you may need to work on the weight distribution in the boat because that is not a normal skeeter trait.

Do you have any wedges installed?

[ifishinxs]

Move as much weight forward as possible. Keep the boat trimmed down. My ZX200 will run at 20 mph on plane. You have to trim these boats up and down depending on speed. Once you figure it out it will become second nature.

[catch5]

It’s a fairly common trait amongst skeeters. Been talked about many times on here. I have an older zx202 and does it also.

[BassCatBrad]

I owned a Skeeter for almost 3 years. I owned a Triton for 10 years prior and a Bass Cat for the last year and a half. I will say Skeeters are prone to porpoise at slower speeds. They are extremely trim sensitive. When slowing down trim all the way down first. That will help. Adding a hydraulic jackplate also helps. Good luck.

[jarhead175]

Trim down or get a hydrofoil

[alli ss]

You just need some wedges

[Steve@BMS]

4 blade, wedges, or hydrofoil, Bob's can help you with any of those :)

[woppercatcher]

I have a 2017 zx200 with talons, 12” jack plate, 200SHO, running the 23p SHO prop. Question is I’m unable to drive at low speeds without it jumping like a kangaroo. It also will hop when coming down off pad to stop. I can run WOT as long as the water is slick. Any small wake and the boat almost jumps out of the water and starts hoping. I’ve owned many boats and never had one do this. I’ve moved jack place from hole 1-8 with little change. Prop to pad sits at 3.25” on hole 8. Removed talons and it did help with the porpoise. Any ideas or suggestions is appreciated. It will also chime walk pretty bad at wto @5900 rpms. Just can’t seem to get it settled in to maximize performance.

When I bought my 2018 I had the same issue for the most part. Skeeters will always want to bounce when coming off plane if you don't trim down so make sure of that. I had to do a couple of changes to my setup. 1. Moved some weight from back to front and balance the weight best I can. My original setup from factory was the jack plate was at 7 dots motor mounted on 3 hole from top. I left that the same but lowered the jackplate down 1/4 or one dot to 6 dots. That helped mine run better. Note, Skeeter changed the hulls quite a bit from the older models, say 2011-2012. Back then they had 25t1 props with motor mounted on 2nd hole from top and wedges as well. My brother has a 2011 and his boat runs way different than mine. I would prefer that setup if possible.

[fishin couillon]

Its a Skeeter.......

[K.D.]

Common issue

[MetsFan9]

Trim down and the problem will go away.

[willwork4fish]

Chris Bailey foil

[Fish Loco]

I have a 2016 and i find it hard you have chine walk, porpoise yes mine dose some just takes some seat time.

[printman71]

Skeeters are big, fat, and wide. They typically don't chine walk.

[swamprat]

Trim down,Or speed up,Easy fix

[kondan]

I have a 02 zx190 and drive it pretty much with the motor trimmed down all the time from holeshot to 40mph, no porpoising. Slowing down you’ll have to trim all the way down also

[trashmanssd]

Get a few 50 pound bags of sand or any thing similarly dense (4-5 bags = 200 lbs). Get out on the water and experiment moving them around the boat to see if it helps. I found extra weight as far forward as you can get it helped my boat settle down at slow speeds best (along with trimming down all the way anytime I was under 35-40 mph). Didnt take to much weight just putting my heavier equipment in the forward center box and my extra plastics in my starboard rod box then putting life-vest and rain gear behind drivers seat and my extra hard baits and jigs and spinerbaits in the port rear box. Moving weight around can make a big difference in boat attitude. I may have lost 2-3 mph top end speed and it may get on plane a few seconds slower but I think the boat drives a heck of a lot better at normal speeds and in rough water which are way more important to me. It keeps a much better bow flat and steady attitude at slower speeds (I drive 35-45 most of the time). I prefer this so I can run slower with out porpoising in rough water and split waves with with the bow v instead of trying to skip over them and have them hit the flatter bottom of the boat.

Also I would get a Chris Bailey foil as someone else said and get a plate for the bottom of your jack plate also, those will help a lot. From the sound of it you have dual talons and 36 volt trolling system (4 batteries total) thats a lot weight in the very far back of the boat that needs to be countered by either lift in the rear or weight in the front or a little bit of both.