Boat setup will a jack plate help

Ok i have a 1994 284 dc with 1994 150 intruder a 14 1/2 24 raker 2 just bought the boat. It went 54mph (gps) at only 4600 rpm 26psi water pressure at wot. I took my prop to a good prop guy. He took off a little of the blade an slight mod to the cup. Got it back an ran the boat now it has 4900 rpm 57mph (gps) same water pressure. Im working with the prop guy to get my rpm up (5500) he said we will do it in small amounts till we get the prop where i want it. Now my question is the boat seems to not get all the way up on the pad. I had a friend drive it to see and the spray and water contact starts at the consols at wot, full trim. If I get a jack plate like a cmc with 6" set back and 5" rise will this help me get the boat out of the water. I think if i get the boat out more the speed and rpm will increase. Any one with any kind of advice about anything would be great. like prop, setup, weight distrabution , anything would be great. This is my first bass boat and don't know all the tricks of the trade.

My pad height is 6" I just measured.

If your 6" below pad the motor needs to go up before you do anymore prop work. Start at 3 1/2" below pad and go up 1/4" at a time until you start to loose H2o pressure or the steering gets hard. most likely you will need a jackplate (6")

My 294 was at 5" below pad with no jackplate and the motor on its highest setting. I added a 6" jp and it made all the diff. in the world

Good luck
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It sounds to me like you need a better prop guy... A good prop guy would not start making adjustments to the prop without realizing that you are way to low in the water and need to raise that motor... Get a plate and start it at 3" below the pad and see where you are...It should be real close if the prop has been changed to much yet...You should then move up in 1/4" increments and re-run it...Make sure to be watching water pressure and rpms until you see a gain in rpms, but a lose in speed or you start to loose water pressure below 15 psi...That boat and motor with a 24" prop should be in the low 60's pretty easy....A 6" CMC is a perfect plate for that boat...

come on guys 3" below as a start point? and go up on an older heavy boat with only a 150?. listen get the plate and start at 4" below the pad and then go up in 1/4 " incruments, now for your info do NOT repeat DO NOT let your water pressure gauge go below 18 lbs of pressure as then you are playing with fire. if he starts a 3" and goes up he is goona run out of water pressure really fast and his rpms will be 5800+ way too quick. yes you can run the engine at thoose rpms but I am goona tell ya and this is from Championman that extended running at 5800 rpms is just asking for trouble. the recommended rpm,s for that motor from the manuf is ......... at max 5500. so as you see the manuf does not recommend running at 5800 for long.
Just be real carefull on what you do and take each reply with a grain of salt and maybe go over to the rude board to ask on what your motor is able to do before maybe taking anyones advise and ending up with a anchor since it has blown. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif

OK, maybe 3" is a little high to start , but if the rpm's were too high at that point or the water pressure too low, then he could move it down, but I really did not think he will need to run at 4" below and did not think he needed to take the time to start that far down...
That is not that heavy of a boat and with a strong motor and a good set-up that boat will scream and run into the mid-60's... There are a lot of those 280 series boats in my area and they all seem to run very strong...
As for the rpm's, I never said what rpm to run it at and I assumed he would run it in the recommended rpms range...The mfgr's recommended rpm range is where the motor makes the rated HP, not the only rpm range that tyhe motor can run...He should ask the Rude boards guys for the max rpms, but I have not seen that running those Intruder/Faststrike motors a little above rpm range has been a problem...They always seemed like they were the original HO motors and put out more than the 150 HP they were rated at and ran very well in the upper 5k's...But what do I know...

according to the owners manual which I have the prop shaft hp at 5000 is 150 the recommended wide open throttle range is 4500-5500 also (112kw) @5000 rpms. so you see the hp is best at 5000 and the " ho" point comes in over that with the extra 500 rpms which may do maybe 10 hp more. so running at 56-6000 which a lot of people do usually ends up a disaster. just a little info from the owners manual on the motor also have the manual for the boat too.

I think something is off on the numbers and may need the tach checked. I have done lots of prop testing with a 278 with a 150 Intruder and just dont think that a raker 24 at 4600-4900 is going to get you those GPS speeds, speedo maybe. You may be closer to 5200-5300 already.

But a 24 raker at 5000 is about 50 gps in my boat. Check the tach before you start over reving that motor and I agree on the former post about the prop guy. A 22-24 raker is one of the best props for your boat at 5500rpm and you will see low 60's GPS

Thanks for the info. I have also found out that 5500 is it. So thanks for the warning. The jackplate I think may be the way to go. I have strong water pressure now but 18psi min. sounds good to me thanks for that. The boat has a digital tach/gps mph/compass/combo gauge so I now its on. I get my prop back tomorrow again so we will see. What about the boat lift. Will the jp get more boat out of the water. The spray an contact is I think close to the consols. The motor has bolt holes on top and a open side on the bottom for adjustment. I looked an It can only go up one more hole.