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I recently bought a Stratos 186XT with Evinrude 115 ETEC. So far the boat has been great and it suits my needs perfectly.
However, I have noticed a problem with the prop ventilating quit a bit. If the motor is trimmed all the way down and running at 3/4 throttle, around the 3000RPM mark, if I make a turn, the RPMS shoot up to over 4000. It's not like I am turning sharply..just a gentle turn.

If I trim the motor up at all, its only worse.

My question is, if I drop the motor one hole down, which is all that I can go as there is only one hole left, will this improve the ventilation problem? or is it better to change the propeller. I am running the standard prop that the motor came with ( 13.2 x 21 )

Any help would be appreciated.

Essaye de parles a mikemicroopterus..... Il connais les bateaux 100% . Mon francais suck beaucoup.

Joco cest ton temps a rire avec mon francais.

Quelle anne est votre bateaux?\

I think my French is worse than yours....I can't speak it at all. Although I live in Quebec, I am from Zimbabwe...

My bad, I just assumed. A friend had informed me that although tonga and congo dialects are prevelant there was a extremely heavy french influence in Zimbabwe and many locals speak it rather well. I could be wrong tho

LOL...No worries at all I just appreciate the reply.
I will try get hold of mikemicroopterus....and I will try learn some French

FYI Zimbabwe was a British Colony....so mainly english. Hope this comment doesn't start something... hehehe

...

Sounds like you need to be trimming down not up???

Could it be the wash from the boat? i.e. turbulant water coming off the boat? Maybe you need a jack plate to get the motor back a bit and give it more bite.

orrsey

bass ackwards wrote:Sounds like you need to be trimming down not up???

He already said he's trimmed all the way down.

3000rpm at 3/4 throttle with a spike to 4000? Is 4000rpm the maximum this boat achieves in a straight line wide open? If so, it's seems to be reving too low. You might have too much prop. How is it when coming out of the hole? Top speed? WOT rpm's?

Orrsey, you may be right...from doing some reading, it seems most guys install a jack plate to push the motor back a bit. I may end up trying this, from what I have read, a jack plate can only make things better anyway. Anyone know where I could get a fair priced one??

jwhite, The 115 ETEC is rated for 5500 to 6000 RPMS..according to the manual, so yeah it seems a little low. The best I have got it so far, with only me in the boat, and a calm lake is just over 5000RPMs WOT...that was with trimming up once on the plane. Top speed was 72km/h on GPS...sorry, being from Zim I changed my speed to km/h
On the hole shot, I would say it's not bad, but this being my first boat don't have much to compare against. Back in zim I fished from my partners boat which was a 19ft bass boat with a 150HO, and that flew like a bat out of hell..so can't really compare to that.

I am waiting for a call back from the tech at the dealership where I bought it to see what he suggests. If I don't hear from them, I will probably end up taking it down to Mike, heard he is a master

A jack plate will not hurt thats for sure but there may be some merit to the prop idea too. Its a good idea that you have contacted the dealer because that seems fairly low for your top rpm's especially when you have the max recommended hp. These are just some ideas and I don't know a whole lot about the mechanics of a motor. I would contact the dealer but if you have the time, take it to Mike's. He is a straight shooter and will tell you the exact problem, if there is one. As far as I know Mike specializes in setting up bass boats and will ensure you get all the performance you can get out of your boat.

orrsey

The Stratos 176XT and 186XT are unique boats but not conventional high performance fibreglass bassboats. They were designed to compete price and performance wise with aluminum bassboat rigs, not fibreglass boats. Designing the hull to run on smaller HP motors was the priority. These boats get great reviews but on bassboat boards nobody can believe Stratos puts such small motors on them but they miss the point.....again think aluminum rigs not high performance bassboats.!

The 176XT is max rated for a 75 hp and the 186XT 115. I bought a 176XT with a 50 HP Yamaha. Sounds crazy I bet but I did my research. For $3,000 more I could have had a 70hp but would only get about 4 mph more, nothing on the hole shot but saved $$$'s on fuel. With 2 people, full tank (27 gal) and gear I do 35 mph and I'm on plane in 4 seconds. I don't fish tourneys so its enough for me. It cruises nicely at 30 mph. It's a brand new '08 that I paid $11,900 US ($13,000 Cdn) that was less money than a comparable Tracker, G3, Lowe etc. but light years better in looks, features, storage. I fished all over Charleston this Thursday and my fuel guage didn't even budge.

The fact that you're doing 45 mph (72K) is about the most you'll get out of it (I think) which is pretty good. No it dosen't compare to a 18.5 footer with a 175-200HP but costs half as much. It blows a 18.5 foot aluminum out of the water though for the same money.