Don’t want one myself , kinda strange all you guys need both hands on the wheel in your version of ruff water but I’ve never seen a hot foot on a saltwater boat that reach speeds of 100 mph .
Don’t want one myself , kinda strange all you guys need both hands on the wheel in your version of ruff water but I’ve never seen a hot foot on a saltwater boat that reach speeds of 100 mph .
thisOriginally Posted by Bassman25
When I used my first hot foot last year I had a hard time adjusting to it. I'm old school and I had trouble around the dock and putting the boat on the trailer. I thought who and the heck came up with this stupid idea. I'm not going to say I made an easy transition to the hot foot. It had a learning curve.
What made it hard at first was my years of experience using the hand throttle. However I started to get experience and soon my eye and foot coordination even surpassed the old way of doing things.
Now I wouldn't even dream of using anything else. In addition I have full control of the boat 100% of the time. Now my old boat may have got over 30mph and I was hardly ever pressed to keep two hands on the wheel. It was more of a barge weighed down by two outboards steep sides that you would have to have bad luck to fall out of the boat. Sometimes I had to stand up because the vision was blocked, but this was a tin deep v boat.
I don't have that vision problem with my bass boat. I never have to stand to get a better view of anything.
What I like about the hot foot also is the safety factor. If my foot comes off the boat slows down, try that with a hand throttle. Now while I never reached any blazing speeds with my old boat I certainly do with my bass boat. Can you drive with one hand? Yes you certainly can but you can sit 40 feet in a tree stand without a safety harness. My point is one hand at over 50 doesn't mean your doing it safe.
The last time I looked a bass boat has pretty low sides. Not something I want to be cruising at high speeds standing up in.
In any event your free to make a choice. To me high speed bass boats equals hot foots. If you don't agree that's ok.
I have a hot foot, but would be nice to have the switch over option to the lever for long runs.
Majority of the time I prefer it. I Like having both hands on the wheel while running a bayou, or over 70 mph.
2016 BassCat Pantera II
Mercury 200 ProXs
I like a hot foot on my big boats, mainly for feathering the throttle in rough water. I think it’s what you get used too. The boat I have now doesn’t need one. I putt putt around below 40 MPH most of the time. If the water is rough it can be a 20 MPH ride for me. It took a while to get used to the had throttle again when I first got my tin rig a couple years ago. I need to figure out how to adjust the throttle friction now that I have some hours on it. Of course it’s not as simple as a screw under the box with the recessed controls.
You know, there's one words for people that don't practice safety......NUTS. One thing you people don't take into account is the other guy that could be drunk, on drugs (or both), and worse yet, doesn't have a hotfoot. Years & years ago there was an incident ( or accident) on a bass tournament. At this time single steering was in use. Dual steering was not invented yet. Neither was the hotfoot or kill switch. On a "shotgun" takeoff a boat in the tournament had the steering break. The passenger was a newspaper sports writer/observer. Both driver & pass. were thrown from the boat. The boat ran in circles at a constant high speed (hand throttle). The observer was killed from the boat & prop lacerations. After this a major boat manufacturer would not put any of his sponsored boats in a tournament until this issue was resolved. Hence the kill switch was standard in a boat after that. Later the hotfoot came out as another safety feature. If you read carefully, the optimal word is safety. These features were designed for one reason only.....safety. If you don't want to use them, that's your prerogative, but if & when you ever, God forbid, have an accident and kill or injure some innocent person, whether it be a friend, daughter, son, grandchild, etc or even yourself. Ask one question, Why. Would like you to do one thing though. Next time you're on the water put a big banner on your boat that reads " watch out for me, I'm nuts"
Big water we love them. Okeechobee can get like the great lakes but super shallow. I drew a guy with a brand new Procraft in a federation tournament. Everyone knew it was going to be a rough ride coming back to weigh in
that day. took us 27 minutes to get to the spot in the a.m. Running back to the north end to the Kissimmee river. Took us 57 minutes. No hot foot so every wave he would slam down and full throttle it then builds up speed and you spear a wave. Get to the river and it looked like an ocean inlet. Water was flowing out and wind pushing in. Well up the face of the first one and duck dove like a surfboard straight under the next one. Guy had no control. When running big water foot control gives you control. I have a hot foot and foot trim on the left.
1996 Stratos 201 pro xl
1996 Johnson Faststrike J150GLEDB
Nuts ? Hahaha Blah blah blah ---- I dont know how i have mangaged to run BOATS SAFELY for over 40 years without doing it the way you think is the ONLY way. Enjoy your hotfootif it works for you awesome ! As for me i have tried both ways and choose to not run one . The safety factor is the guy behind the wheel .
1988 Ranger 364V
150HP Merc Black Max
And always make sure kill switch is hooked up --either way you run your boat !
1988 Ranger 364V
150HP Merc Black Max
According to some of you guys i must nuts and a menace and don't care about my life or anyone around me because i don't have a hot foot!
How did i survive all these years without? I must be on borrowed time
+1
1988 Ranger 364V
150HP Merc Black Max
lucky I would guess.......Not really, the nut is usually behind the wheel, the safety factor is the kill switch & possibly a hotfoot. I guess we could take the safety off of firearms because you haven't shot someone in 40 years.
Last edited by tracer1; 03-22-2019 at 12:18 PM.
Very possibleAccording to some of you guys i must nuts and a menace and don't care about my life or anyone around me because i don't have a hot foot!
How did i survive all these years without? I must be on borrowed time
OMG
1988 Ranger 364V
150HP Merc Black Max
yep, for sure!
You are in Rhode Island. Largest lake 1,539 acres?? Okeechobee 448,000 acres.According to some of you guys i must nuts and a menace and don't care about my life or anyone around me because i don't have a hot foot!
How did i survive all these years without? I must be on borrowed time
1996 Stratos 201 pro xl
1996 Johnson Faststrike J150GLEDB
Just my opinion but I would not own a bassboat without a hotfoot.
I have ran bass boats for first 23 years with a hand control throttle the next 12 years with a hot foot . Either way is safe the guy operating the boat is either water savy or not . I made some long runs on lake ozarks , Truman ,Mississippi River ,Ohio River and Kentucky lake both with hand control and hot foot . All those places get big water . I’m talking about runs one hour or more one way . Never once did I feel un safe as long as I was in control . A foot control does not make your boat any safer than the guy driving a hand control . All 6 of my bass boats hauled ass over the years . Hand control or foot control it doesn’t matter it’s the DRIVER.
You can be as safe as you want to be but your motor steering is held on with one bolt in the end. And those huge logs and stumps lurk right under the surface. Break your steering and get tossed out most likely no matter if youre going 35 or 75. Safe guys get tossed out the same way.
xpress x19, 200ho G2, aluminum sawtooth cut prop, paper sack tackle storage, ugly stik pro team, color c-lector
Don't think I would have a bass boat without it!
Just can't leave well enough alone!!
98 Stratos 273 w/ 150 Faststrike
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