21 TRX set up?

[Mike A]

My tournament partner recently purchased a new Patriot 21 TRX with the new Merc 250 Pro XS four stroke turning a Fury 25P wheel. His previous boat was a Triton (SHO) as well which he loved but he is very disappointed in this new boats performance (along with a couple design issues as well). New boat came with a manual jack plate on it. Hole shot was terrible and chine walked severely as soon as he got to 64 mph. And no, he did not test drive it before buying it. Anyway, swapped out for an Atlas hydraulic thinking he could adjust for both issues. Not so much. Did find a spot (9) that improved the hole shot somewhat but we fished a tourny this past weekend and once we had the live well full it was a long time getting on pad. And there is no place where the chine walk doesn’t show up at the same place........about 5500 rpms and 64-65 mph. Any information/advice I can pass on to him would be greatly appreciated. I speculated that he may need to consider a Bravo 4 blade but don’t know enough about the Mercs and Tritons to know for certain. Thanks.

[Stinnettjn1]

I was in the same boat ( no pun intended) when I got my new 21 TRX this February. Mine came with a Fury 3 24 pitch. Ran like a beast but undrivable over 70. With partner and full load ( fuel, livewells, lots of tackle) took forever to get past 58 mph as the hull would not lift. Might hit 70 if lucky but rpms were around 6000. Tried a Tempest 25. Same thing. Both set ups were 2.75 " PTP. Finally got my hands on a Fury 4 24 pitch. Lifted the Stern well but still lacked the bow lift I wanted. 2.75 PTO and full load was around 68 to 69 with 5800-5900 rpms. Got a Bravo 1 24 FS. Just enough Stern lift to get the back of the boat out of the water (4 group 31 batteries, full livewells, more crap than I need) but gave me nice bow lift around 55 or 60. I have since hit 72 with myself and full load. Fishing partner and myself ( big guys) can easily get 68 at 2.75" ptp. Water pressure is good and rpms are in the 6000 to 6050 range with decent hole shot.I have since lifted the motor to 2" ptp. Seems the holeshot is still good but haven't had a chance to really run it full out for top end numbers so not sure if it helped or not. I have 2 PSV holes plugged currently but plan on running them all unplugged with the new ptp setting to see what happens.I really don't think the 21 TRX is capable of much more as it is a pretty heavy hull. Oh, and the boat is very driveable me 70ish with the Bravo.

Hope this helps.

[mdtritn21]

Sounds like you need a set of 2 degree transom wedges to get more motor trim for more bow lift and a prop smaller than the 25" fury..

[bhodgedds]

Any changes?