Hello all

Have been reading for quite a while and finally decided to join. Lots of good information and knowledge on here. I'm running a 2013 Tracker pro 170 with a 60/40 Mercury 4 stroke. Pretty happy with it performance wise as long as you don't weigh it down with too many people. Runs low 30's on water like glass. Little slow to plane but the weight distribution sucks with the tank and batteries in the back. All in all I think it's a lot of boat for the money. I run the middle Allegheny river in the Kennerdell Pa area. Would eventually like to get an inboard boat that I could carry some more people on.

Welcome! I am running an old Pro17 with a 60/40 evinrude. I moved my batteries to under the front deck and I'm much happier on the way it rides and planes now. I know it is hard to cut on a new boat, but it could be an option. If you run a 24v trolling motor I would just move those 2 batteries up front then you would have to change/run new wires. I moved all 3 batteries (group 24 size) to the front of mine.

One last thing, I only get mid-upper 20's out of mine.

Ya I thought about moving batteries around but like you said, it's hard to cut up a new boat. I only have a 12 volt trolling motor so I just have a starting battery and one deep cycle. My tank holds eleven gallon so I always try not to put more than a half tank in to keep the weight down in the back. As far as the speed goes, dealer GPS'd it at 30 when it was new and that was in chop. The river I run is like glass this time of year and speedo shows low 30's. It was choppier early in the season and I definitely see a reduction in speed. Can't understand why they don't try to distribute weight better from the factory. Dealer said they make suggestions to the company every year at meetings that they hold but they generally don't change anything.

I am sure with a prop motor the weight distribution is ok, but for a jet we need a little more weight in the front.

Ya good point. Just seems like it would make more sense to put the batteries up front either way to counter the motor and fuel weight.