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  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2019
    Location
    Panama City, FL
    Posts
    5

    Trying to learn about my boat

    Last year I bought a 99 18' Xpress with a 15 Suzuki 115 and a 6 inch manual jack plate and a 23p Suzuki S/S prop. I was away working for 15 months and didn't even see the boat until I had owned it for around 5 months. I had some buddies go look at it and test drive it for me and they said yes so I bought it because boats like that are hard to find around here. I have tried to do some research on it but I haven't had much luck. I'm not sure if it is a x56 or h56. I don't really know the difference. The guy I bought it from told me that it would porpoise bad if you didn't know how to drive a boat but if you would stay in it and trim through it you could drive it out. I found out what he was talking about pretty quick but I couldn't drive through it. I'm used to 21 ft fiberglass boats and chine walking but this wasn't anything I could drive through. I checked and the motor was 6 1/2 inches below pad so I raised it up all the way which got much about 4 1/2 inches below. After reading that these boats need a lot of cupping in the prop I took it to a prop shop and the guy agreed that more cupping might help but he really would like the motor higher. Before all this I got 50 mph one time but other than that I averaged 45 to 47 mph. After raising the motor I would red line the motor just past 3/4 throttle when I trimmed up. After adding the cupping I dropped to 45 max. The cupping help the porpoising but didn't make it go away. I finally remounted the motor on the jack plate and ended up about 3 1/4 inches below pad. Once the motor got this high I started throwing a rooster tail when I was trimmed up but still hanging around that 45 mph mark. I didn't really think about it but I started the year with a full tank of gas and hadn't had to add any. This motor is really fuel efficient. Even making 30 and 40 mile trips on the river once a week I'm hardly burning any fuel. This past weekend we went to a bigger lake and stayed so I filled up in the middle of our second day and the boat was a total different beast. I wasn't able to trim up and get the hull out of the water anymore without the porpoising coming back and lost almost 5 mph because of it. When I got home I moved my trolling motor batteries to the front right before an afternoon tournament and realized that my porpoising was gone but so was a couple mph. Yesterday I went back to the river and made another long run where I could finally really figure out what the boat was doing. Going down river I got 43 and coming up I got 41 mph. The river is really low and not running hard so there wasn't that much of a difference. Keep in mind I still have some throttle left to get more pitch in my prop but at this point I'm not sure whether I need to try a 4 blade or a 25p 3 blade. Do I need to move the batteries back and weld on tabs? I will say that before the batteries were up front I could tell the motor was as high as it could go but now that I have them up front I think it may be a touch high.

    My wife has decided that she would like a bigger boat, mostly more beam because of our kids that are with me most of the time (2 y/o and 4 y/o). She didn't like the fact that the boat rocked as much as it does when we were looking at 10 ft gators. It probably didn't help that my son threw so hard he fell off the boat. I'm not really interested in going to a 21 ft probably more like an x19 if we did change but I also don't want to spend another 10 grand getting 1 more ft of hull. If I keep this boat I plan on getting a hydraulic jack plate next year so if needed I can get more setback then. The other thing I'm planning on is having this prop tweeked until I get the new jack plate then buying a better prop.

    I'm sure it sounds like I don't really know what I want at this point and that is probably close to the truth. I would like to get as much as I can out of this boat while I have it. Even if I do get another boat this one will probably go to my dad so I want to have it right for him.

  2. Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
    Location
    Mobile, Alabama
    Posts
    6,551
    #2
    If you can get someone with an Xpress to test drive your boat and check your set up, you may be able to solve the porpoising problem sooner. I have had 2 Xpress boats and initially had some porpoising. My experience driving Allisons and Bullets with 200 and 225 hp engines probably helped overcome this in the Xpress boats.

    Many Xpress owners have found 3 1/2" PTP to be a good set up. If you can get someone capable of driving and Xpress at 55+ mph to drive your boat it will eliminate any questions about skill vs setup problems.

    In some instances Xpress has recommended welding a 1/8" bead where the hull meets the transom on the first step on both sides of the pad.

    Good luck resolving this issue as you have a nice boat which should perform without the porpoise problem.

    Keep us informed about your progress in resolving this issue.

  3. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2019
    Location
    Panama City, FL
    Posts
    5
    #3
    I'm going to the prop shop next week to see if he has a 4 blade I can borrow. I'll probably leave mine with him and have him put a little more pitch in it while I test out the 4 blade. After that I'll know if I want to weld the tabs or not.