Bass Tracker ProTeam 165 with 9.9 optimization help

[jetswu87]

Hello all!

I recently purchased this boat to fish our local lakes which are all limited to a 9.9. I've done quite a bit of reading and feel like I have a good amount of helpful info in my current setup. I know this is a rather large boat for such a small motor but she just pushes around the lake.

Boat setup

2001 Pro Team 165 (semi-V)
Foot controlled trolling motor
1 battery
5ish gallons of gas
2 people (200lbs each)
Gear (figure 50lbs or so)
2001 4 stroke Mercury 9.9

GPS speed wide open 7.5mph, 8.5 if i stand on the bow. Will not plane, WOT RPM in gear is 4k-4.1k verified with timing light and on board tach. Motor will reach 5800 in neutral. Motor runs great! Starts every time, plugs look good. I compression tested it tonight bone cold and go 100psi on both cylinders. I have verified the throttle is opening completely. I will say when I'm in gear on the water the motor does not gain any more rpm 3/4-full throttle. I've adjusted trim last time out and it made no difference.

What I do know, the prop is the standard 9"x9"(48-828156-9) that comes with all these smaller motors. I've attached some pictures, it's not in the best of shape but I'm curious if the damage to the prop could be causing poor top end performance. The pictures don't show but the end of the blades have some chipping and slight bends. I also know the fin is not even with the bottom of the boat, I measured these distances and I'm coming up with roughly 3" lower then the boat. There is very little room in the stock setup to move this up. The boat stays pretty dry and is in great shape for 15 years old. The bottom has some dents and dings but nothing I wouldn't expect.

So in my very limited knowledge of outboards I've come up with a jack plate as a possible help, from what i understand going down in pitch will help get more RPM but will not necessarily improve speed.

So I ask the help of my fellow boaters in their opinions on how to make my setup better.

Thanks in advance!

Vinny

 

[jethro]

I think 7-1/2 mph isn't that bad for that setup. You might be able to tweek a mph or two with another prop, but I would bet you won't plane out unless you get a bigger motor.

 

[WVfishnfool]

Get a new prop or have that one rebuilt and depending on what year model the motor is you can change the carb and make a 15 hp out of it. Some engines require carb, reeds and reed block as well. On my 2004 9.9, 4 stroke all I have to do is buy the new carb for 300+ dollars and it becomes a 15 hp. The only thing our local DNR can check is serial# tags and as long as they read 9.9 not a thing they can do.

 

[typed by ben]

sounds like you have some strategies to squeeze a few more mph out. the main thing youre fighting though is gonna be the weight and probably the length of your setup, especially since you cant get on plane.

but you can cut down on drag.

the jackplate will do two things- move the motor up as well as back. the further back you move your motor the higher up you can bring the cavitation plate, within reason. getting the motor up and out of the water is gonna help you out on drag.

you can also polish out all the nicks and dents in the prop. i cant see just how banged up it is but any wave or chunk out of the prop hurts, add em up and youve got a death of 1000 cuts. the bonus there is it costs nothing to do and it has always worked for me in the past when i was missing performance.

 

[jetswu87]

I have looked into the 15hp carb and everything I've seen has show that's the only difference. The carb is $200. I'm sure this alone the motor would pickup some RPM.

I'm wondering how much the motor being pretty low under the boat is hurting me, I looked again this morning and I may be able to rig a piece of wood as a spacer and still bolt the motor through the meat of the transom for some testing. If the motor picks up rpm from less load then it'll go faster! I did some reading on hydrafoils last night and I think if I'm able to get the motor up and hydrafoil it to get it on plane I'll pickup some speed. Most of the weight in this boat is all in the rear, and the gas tank is built-in unit...the battery cables would be a bear to re-run.

I'm not unhappy with the performance of the boat, but if I could get this thing going 12-13mph on plane I'd be giddy.

I think I'm going to change one thing at a time and see results from there.

Any more ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

[TNtroller]

A new prop or re-worked prop would help, and anything you can do to get the cav plate up even with or just above the bottom of the hull would reduce the drag from the LU. A transom riser can be made fairly cheap, just need some 1/8" or 1/4" thick alum plate, some spacer material such as plastic cutting boards to fill the space between the alum plate, some SS bolts/washers/nuts and 5200, and some time and tape measure.

could reduce the weight of the load and re-balance the remaining weight as well.

 

[jetswu87]

Thanks for the replies!

Figure I'd share what i did today.

I raised the motor with a 1"x1" wood board, which measured about 1.25". Depending how the trim pin the motor was even or an inch below the hull.

I adjusted the valves, they were all tight. After this i took the boat out and grabbed my neighbor for a passenger to simulate my normal run.

This made absolutely no change in the boat, same results 7.5mph with both of us in the back seats, 8.5 with one of us on the bow. I even moved forward in front of the console while driving and it remained the same per GPS. I moved the Trim pin from one hole to another with little to no change.

The tach stopped working so no comparison there, but given the speed i don't believe it was more then 4k like before.

If i get a new prop should i stay with the 9x9? If i can get this setup to plane I fully believe it'll do double digits.

I may get the 15hp carb, but thats $200 that could go towards a gps fish finder

 

[WVfishnfool]

I would get that prop rebuilt to original specs and try it first. That one blade is bent worse than you think. And believe it or not a fresh prop properly pitched and balanced will make a big difference. However if it doesn't do what you're looking for then try raising the motor again and see what happens. When you're trying to obtain performance and speed you have to try one thing at a time so you can eliminate what doesn't work and what does. Sometimes it's a combinations of things. In my last Ranger I owned it was a matter of adding a jackplate, moving a battery from one side to the other, and moving the oil tank into the middle of the bilge area. Then storing my anchor and my safety/tool kit in the left side instead of the right. Add in another $1500 spent on buying props and having them shipped off to be balanced and blueprinted and the time involved in going to the river and burning gas testing and it added up fast. Every time I changed something I would have to go to the water and run the boat keeping an eye on water pressure, rpms, and speed. (Adjusting that manual plate was a PITA that's why my next one will be hydraulic). However I went from running 65 mph with just me and a light load to running 70 mph with me, my tourney partner, half a Bass Pro Shop worth of gear and 45 gallon of gas in the boat. I spent about 6 months on this entire process to get there. Then just when you think you have everything figured out the heat and humidity of summer grabs you and you have to change prop pitch and setup a little bit more to try and get back where you were at. I posted all that just to give you an idea of how involved it can get when your trying to squeeze every last ounce out of one of these things whether it's a large or small rig. The only way to do it is one thing at a time and see how the boat reacts. There's not some magic formula that will instantly give you what you're looking for. Three main things you need to get there are: #1 A GPS to check actual speed differences when adjustments are made. #2 A reliable tach to see how many RPM's your turning. #3 Some way to keep tabs on your water pressure. Oh and I almost forgot there is one more thing: A very patient wife if you're married. My last obsession got so bad one day she said "If you spend one more dollar on a prop this week I'm going to take one of them things and cut your bag off with it." :shock: :shock: :lol: :lol:

 

[jetswu87]

Just to update:

Ordered a 3 blade 9.25 x 8 pitch prop to replace the dinged up 9 pitch i had.

Results:

Same load, 4200 rpm. Same Speed 7.5-8.5 depending on bow weight.

I also did a run without a passenger, boat got to 10mph almost instantly and topped out right at 12mph. 4600rpm, I believe the boat was planed...felt like a rocket ship compared to 7.5 mph lol. I believe the boat planes around 10mph.

Reason I'm almost certain it was on plan at this speed, is when i turned the speed dropped to 9.5 like it came off plane. I didn't attempt to adjust the trim or anything as I was about out of day light.

 

[fishonsc]

Need to prop it where you are running close to max rpm for your motor at WOT. You are giving up a lot of power there and you are lugging the motor. Sometimes going to a lower pitch prop will increase speed because you are running in the correct rpm. I am running a 9.9 on a 1648 sea ark and I can hit 17 mph. 15 mph with a friend.

 

[typed by ben]

fishonsc » 13 minutes ago[/url]"]Need to prop it where you are running close to max rpm for your motor at WOT. You are giving up a lot of power there and you are lugging the motor. Sometimes going to a lower pitch prop will increase speed because you are running in the correct rpm. I am running a 9.9 on a 1648 sea ark and I can hit 17 mph. 15 mph with a friend.

^^ good advice... lugging can also hurt the motor long term

 

[jetswu87]

Well going down a prop size gave me 150-200 rpm. The smallest prop that is made for my motor is a 6. Operating range for my motor is 4500-55500 according to iboats.

So even assuming getting 300more rpm out of two steps down, I'll be at 4500 WOT with the boat loaded. With another $100 prop, I can just get the bigger carb for $185.

As for long term damage to the engine, it's 15 years old and still had the original prop on it. Sure it's been run like this it's entire life.

I may pickup the carb this week, if I do I'll report back with the change. Hopefully to help someone with similar setup in the future.

 

[fishonsc]

You are giving up a 1000 rpm's and that is where the motor makes its power. A bigger carb may get you a few more mph. Not worth the $185 to me. Could do that with a stainless prop and run in the correct rpm range.

 

[Bugpac]

Once you add the carb your probbaly gonna be overreving and changing the prop anyhow.

 

[jetswu87]

Figured I'd give an update in hopes to help someone later down the line!

Got the new carb on it today.

Loaded with 2 people and gear the boat will do 13.5 mph, on plane. Tach showed 5200-5300

With just me and my gear it got up to 18-19mph. The tach didn't work when i did the run, it does this at times. It wasn't on rev limiter but judging by the RPM loaded I was probably 5500-5700. Limiter is 5800.

The boat actually plans pretty well, both of us are sitting in the back chairs when traveling..So not very balanced at all, I'd say it takes 50-100ft to plane 10mph seems to be the magic number.

 

[typed by ben]

nice.