OK, It has been 2 years, let me explain my journey of issues
Picked up a Falcon 195 about 2 years ago, got the boat w/ an Evinrude G2 200 H.0.
Came with a 24 Raker H.O. prop
4" TH marine HYFRAULIC JAckplate, keep in mind with the built in offset of the evinrude this like having 10" of offset. They come from factory with 8" plates on Mercs.
dealer was not a Evinrude dealer so falcon mounted the motor, took it to my local evinrude dealer he did all the programming and set up and got me rolling, went to pick the boat up and he had done a little prop swapping to get the boat "right" he had a 23p 4 blade rude prop maybe, told me it was the "safest" prop, I was like safest???
i took the boat out and WOW, come out of the hole bow raised extremely high, when it topped out in height it layed over slightly to left, leveled out and boom it was gone like a rocket! now, up until 64 MPH it was fine steady, plenty of grip, handled well and was safe.
Once you got to 64mph it porposed and chine walked so bad you couldn't handle it no matter the jackplate and trim setting. completely unsafe!
I went back to the Evinrude guy said give me that 24 Raker H.O back and let me drive it. Again Bow raised up laid over slightly left and like a rocket gone, i think i got about 66-67 out of it before it done the same thing porposed and chine walked so bad it was straight scary. I'm talking nose bouncing like crazy!
Got on the forum here and was reading some numbers on here that some had posted, one member posted he was getting 74 MPH, I thought there is absolutely no way! i was able to track him down fortunately and he was kind enough to give me his phone number, it was a dealer from tennessee. he explained to me that his boat was doing the same thing and that he took the rod holders out and stuck (2) 45 lb tractor leveling weights as far up in the nose as he could get them and that when he ordered another one that he would have it shipped with a 12" plate instead of an 8" and see if that helped.
SO, here we are, I removed the Bow graph plate, stuffed an old canvas tackle bag with 100lbs of lead Ingots and shoved that puppy as far up in the nose of the boat as i could get it!
what happened? Out of the hole nose raised a little less, still more than any bass boat i have blasted off on in 18 - 21 ft , but when it layed over it didn't kick back to the left, once on plane 68-69 Mph absolutely fine, now that last little bit 70-72 you do have to "drive" it a bit but there isn't a lot of 19 ft lightweight "performance" boats out there you don't have to work with a little bit when you start reaching those speeds . ALSO, to reach those speeds the jack plate is ablaut midways up on the 3" mark and trim is tapped out, all the way up! and as soon as you reach that 70-72 speed the nose of the boat start porposing again, i mean bouncing like crazy, slapping like all get out!
I mean its so bad that everybody in every tournament I fish knows when I'm coming down the river cause they can hear that bow slap.... slap... slap....slap... long before i go buy them. ! and i have to back down off the trim to get it back stable again, but also when you back down off that trim to lay the nose back down to keep the nose from slapping your back down in that 64-66 MPH range.
Now i have just managed to get by like this. i got used to it if you will, but i mean its hard picking up a random partner to fish with me bc they know how crazy and unstable this boat is, yeah its fast but its unstable, i mean my regular parter keeps his fist cocked ready to punch me when i start "riding it out" and working that wheel like I'm jabbing with a grizzly bear!
I tried prop after prop after prop, raker HO, Raker 2,Tempest(joke), bravo(joke), 25 Fury(74mph prop if you can handle the lift and getting loose), SPEED AINT EVERYTHING HERE, ​ I would whole lots rather loose speed and have a controllable safe boat than run Mach JESUS and be on edge the whole time, The 4 blade props and props built for lift were an absolute no go! the Fury's did alright, the fury was right on with speed but had a hair more lift than raker HO prop, lift is not what I am looking for at all, more lift more bow rise ya know + more porp slap. all that testing and settled back down with the original 24P raker HO, better overall torque and handling through all speeds.
Recently i met a guy at the boat launch with a 195 like mine with a 200 Pro XS we got to talking and go figure, he battled the SAME issues!
I talked with him for a while and he luckily bought his boat from a much more reputable dealer than me that was able to work with him on the issues, he told me that they finally swapped to a 12" plate and it worked a lot of the issues out. HAVE i found the answer? it would only make since right? proposing when the trim is topped out, it would make since to extend the jackplate so you could have more leverage to force the boat down when trimming up right?
what do i do after hearing this? that's right! took the 4" off and slapped me a 8" hydraulic jackpot on it and let it rip!
now here we are, there were benefits and there were issues,
Benefits of longer plate : when coming out of the hole, Bow does not raise half as much, it actually comes out of the hole like a real boat now, at cruising speeds 50-60 and you crossed the wake of another boat the bow does not bounce way up, its like it eats the wake and keeps plowing through a lot smoother, this is helpful especially as we get into these warmer months and all the boat traffic.
BUT... lets talk top speed and blasting off and stuff.... i mounted the motor in the same holes, so to get the boat stable and running right with the most grip at top speed the jackplate is 2" higher, from 3" mark to the 5" mark now. but this puppy is LOOSE now i mean "LOOSE" zero grip!, at the moment there is no way i would blast off in a shotgun tourney right now, the trim gauge is marked off in 1/8"s, previously the boat ran topped out with the trim topped out now it get 70s in 7/8's trim but when you straighten it out and let it rip you have to go all the way up on the trim. and what happened when you do this steering is LOOSE, prop is turning right handed and i can actually get the speed to top out about 72 in a slight left hand bend of a river when if turning against the prop spin and getting a little more grip. boat still bouncing and proposing and driving like crazy and having to work it, its like adding the extra length to the jackplate was looking promising but its back to the same old same old and in the grand realm of things as far as grip actually a little less safer in my opinion.
what do i do now? add more weight up front? oh yeah i forgot to add when i am alone and go to bigger wavier lakes i throw a group 27 interstate in the center of the tackle storage to keep the nose down a tad bit more.
do i take the trolling motor batteries out and place them in some custom battery boxes in the rod storage boxes and wire them up? to lessen weight in the back?
i am taking the batteries out tomorrow and running it to see if removing some weight would help and then would eventually get lithiums to help with the weight in the back.
I can deal with some more than normal chine walk, I don’t mind working that wheel like a nascar arcade game all day to keep it on pad, I JUST NEED THe nose of SON OF GUN TO STOP BOUNCING! I want it to get to a top speed and glide like butter, when that nose starts bouncing, you start losing that grip to work that chine walk out and that’s when things start getting hairy. Gotta trim her down and start all over again!
i just want the son of a gun to ride like a real boat and not feel like i lost my butt buying this thing. i mean every time i ride with someone else in any other boat i just think why cant mine ride like this. I dont very much care for my own safety, I just want to be able to fish a tournament with someone out of my boat and them not fear for their life when I'm working that thing like a hayabusa on some flooded out gravel road!
I really dont think someone should have to pay 50,000 and slap 100lbs of lead in the nose to make it run over 65MPH, I know falcon has received this complaint before, I'm curious if they fixed this design on newer models? I mean i wouldn't know I've called em and discussed it and was told i would get a call back... but here we are.