Slow Boat

[CT George]

Hi Folks,

I just purchased a new Tracker Grizzly 1648 MVX and outfitted it with a 2016 Mercury 30 HP 4 stroke with a 9.5 x 11 prop. The motor sounds like it is running fine but the boat will barely get on a plain with me and 2 children in it. I was not expecting to win any races with this set up but thought it would do ok since the max HP for this boat is a 40 HP. I have been out of the boat game for 20 years so this is the first 4 stroke I have ever owned. Do I severely under power this boat or is it possibly a prop issue? I don't have a tach since it is tiller driven but it sounds like the motor is struggling to get up alot of RPMs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Rich1]

Problem is it needs the 40. Boats should always have the max HP motor on them. They sell them with smaller motor to make them sound like a deal. Think about it 10 more HP is a 30 percent increase in power. There is where your speed will be.

[CT George]

Problem solved. I was out yesterday and the motor would not idle down. I pulled the cowling off and found 4 bolts used for mounting the motor on a boat. The dealer must have left them in there when they pulled it off the last boat. They were blocking the throttle linkage so I was only getting about half to 3/4 throttle. I don’t have a gps but I’m guessing it runs about 20-25 mph. now.

[R2Tracker]

Glad you found them before they caused an issue even more serious.