Video Suggestion: A walk through of your boat once you get to a few tournaments and dial in what you need on the boat, storage configuration of your gear, and overall walk through of your tournament organization of your boat has turned out and possible lessons learned.
More boat content. Buying them and seeing if they will run and fix them up. Just keep doing what u do best brother. And much love to ya from Maryland❤❤❤
Awesome dude.. Glad to see it run Brother. Definitely get the skeg straightened. I would say for new content bro. Do some lake breakdowns and tips and tricks. You got a unique Ohio set of lakes to fish. Maybe do some exploring and camping 🏕
My 19 foot 1987 stratos with a Yamaha 150 pro v 2 stroke will touch 55 and that’s with a cheap prop and stock manual jack plate. Your boat should be pushing 65 or 70 at 5000 to 5,500 rpms. Either your not trimmed up enough at max rpms, need to get a new prop or get a bigger jack plate that’s pushing the motor farther from the hull
It's a skeg not a prop. But you can use a hammer and barely tap it back to place. I had to do the same thing on a few used boats. Remember just slowly tap it and be patient.
Assuming thats a 25P Prop, the 200 Proxs should push that ride 64-66 all day long. Its gonna chine walk and that's just gonna require more seat time buddy.
Basically plowing water doing 55….the water was hitting the boat in front of you. It’s got another 15mph probably. Trimming it up will give it lift and you will rpm’s go up. Rooster tail shouldn’t be above the engine. The rest is just wasted power.
need to measure prop to pad and set to at 3.25 below. too low will cause chine walk like you are describing-- have jack plate? boat should do 70ish--my 20ss with 200 rude did 69-70 gps speed
Watching you fix. Your boat is a Chinese fireman drills joke to me … I happen to be from a family that builds boats since 1976 and have worked on boat motors for 45 years as well as rig new boats … First let me say I don’t care what you say it’s a fact boats are money pits be it diy or you take it to the shop you will dump money in it you will NEVER recover even selling the boat … Second you put junk in your boat your boat is effectively junk too and the price is lowered .. I work in salt water boats I wire from the battery’s to the helm with 8 gauge wire to handle the power demands of fish finders communication radios and entertainment radios gps I usually rig between 18 feet long to 27 feet long boats … I use tinned wire in all my installations ( corrosion protection) I don’t rig cheap BUT I ALSO NEVER GET WARRANTY WORK RETURNS too if a crimped connection fails because I did not crimp it properly I fix it under my warranty but it’s a few minutes of my time and builds customer satisfaction and relations … aa nickel and dime diy is just a garbage job and therefore the boat is garbage( any asshole who says you must solder and shrink wrap wire connections be advised as a Honda Dealer I got a notification from Honda stating crimp connections are perfectly fine it’s been used in the Automotive industry as well as Aircraft Industry for decades and is FAA certified and those facts overcome any of your comments being we don’t see jets falling from the sky all the time from connectors that are not soldered and heat shrunk)
A good thing to do with an optimax motor is to let it idle after a long or hard run. Or even just a run in general. So when you get to your spot let it idle for a minute, it helps cool the engine down. That’s a common problem with those motors is over heating. Because when you turn off the motor after a long run the power head of the motor is still hot and when you turn it off there’s no more water going through the engine to cool it down and the power head heats up and gets real hot. If that makes any sense. Great video
1) I would talk to a professional about straightening that skeg. If you break it off trying to straighten it, your only option may be to buy a lower unit. 2) You may also want to confirm the outboard is installed at the correct height for your hull if you are not going to install an adjustable jack plate. 3) After that , Mercury Marine has an online Propeller Selector available. But you will need the highest speed and RPM you can reach with the current propeller to utilize it. So make sure you have made the necessary corrections for 1 & 2 before a full speed test run. Directionally, If you have too much propeller pitch your engine may not reach full RPM. If you have too little pitch your boat may plain quicker, but you won' reach maximum speed. The propeller pitch on my Mercury propellers is on the side of the hub with the model number and will be followed by a "P".
He WILL break it if he tries to straighten it ( i have had many try to straighten it and come whining can I fix it till i quote the owner a new lower unit case )the guys who rebuild lower units actually break off the old skeg and weld a new one on so better he find a lower unit rebuilding company
@@turneynicholas the skew guard is a half assed bandaid like using duct tape to fix it I can speak with almost 45 years experience Mercury Marine certified me in inboard/outboards as well as outboards at 14 at my dads insistence because I was heir to his dealership and shop I think my years speak enough and I live in Hawaii ppl do accidentally hit rocky bottoms and break skegs
Forsure get that skeg straight. That can totally effect handling and not in a good way. A small chip is fine but bent skeg can cause big issues with handling and saftey. As for the tone. You can try a new alarm and see if that is the issue. But sounds more like it is shorting out somewhere. Just with key on it should not be doing just a tone. Grounding issue is my bet. No expert but it would be a full tone of sorts. Good Luck..you are 95% there!
That stratos hull is fast when it goes side to side at 50 that’s called chime walking so when the boat walks to the left you want to slightly turn your motor to the right and vise versa. Changing props will also increase performance so the higher pitch prop you go the faster you will go.
It is called “chine” walk. The sides of the boat where the bottom & side come together towards the transom is the “chine”, thus when you chine walk the boat is rocking right to left on the chines. Being able to steer out of chine walk takes time on the water & sometimes a set of brass balls.
For the powerloss could it be the battery BMS if you have lithium? If your engine alternator is plugged directly to lithium battery it can trigger the BMS and damage your alt. Consider a DC DC charger.
The boat looks great, unfortunately if you want a new video that will perform well your going to have to crash it.. Sorry in advance. Good luck! New Sub!
Seeing you're at West Branch, don't throw muskie baits for muskie there, throw smaller stuff for bass. I've hooked muskie every time I've been out for large mouth out there.
the next vid you have to take the wife and one of her friends on a chartered fishing trip you find the fish and they fish the winner gets dinner where ever they want loser has to jump in the water and swim around the boat
I’ve got a DVX 518 with a 200 Opti and I get around 70mph with a 27pitch. You should be in the 60’s with your boat a little bigger and heavier. I think you’ve got a bad ground on the alarm. It’s faint so not an actual alarm.
Definitely need to have a roster tail at full speed about the same height as your motor, you have to find that sweet spot and set up to get more speed. You need the right kind of water to run all out. Watch out for rogue waves and rollers these waves if hit at high speeds can be dangerous. Never run between two barges it could be disastrous, as the rollers come together and if you would happen to hit this deal it would send you and your boat flying through the air, just some words from experience. Be safe out there everyone and tight lines.
I once drove a 225 Evinrude with a bent skeg like that. At high speed it developed a severe rhythmic rolling motion. It was sketchy to do, but I could steer out of it by matching the timing of the effect with an aggressive snap of the steering to the opposite direction. Kinda weird going straight at over 70 mph by snapping the wheel only to the left over and over.
The skeg is a big issue of speed and handling at speed. My dad's got a big stratos like that with a 200 evenruide and that thing Flys at about 85mph so I figure you'd be close if not faster so something is definitely not right. Probably skeg and definitely the trim
The skeg needs to be repaired. Shooting a rooster tail isn't efficient, sprat should be level with the top of the cowling. What you experienced is chine walking and all boats do it. You need seat time and wouldn't hurt to find someone experienced to go with you a few times and coach you. I suspect low to mid 60s out of that boat
You should get 64 pretty easy your getting funky is chime walk. youl have that sometimes alot of time you will have that funky feeling at a certain speed if you have the balls it probably wont get worse with more speed it will get better. Not sure why but your bent skag has a lot to do with it. Hve fun dont be afraid to trim it and hammer down. took me about 100 trips to not be afraid of my bass boat
Have your skeg fixed before ever lining that boat out. By fixed I'd have a pro handle it. Your buddy doesn't know about eyewear at speed in the open air?
Yeah i thought u ran it the rite way but hey my 200 merc on the 17ft Carolina did 80+ an yes that fin on yourlower unit will affect the drive on it if it leaves the water it will turn bad bro u can bend it back just dont bend to much cause it will break
If you don't trim it up all the way, the motor will be pulling too hard and trying to lift the back of the boat out of the water and shove the front of the boat down deaper into the water ,thats why it's not handling smoothly. Bent prop will cause vibrations in the lower unit causing water seals to start leaking and trash the lower unit. No worries on the skeg, ive seen guys on the river run them broke off for years and still running 70 and 75 mph. With no handling problems. It should run an easy 65. Them old merc's biggest problem was injectors cloging up and leaning out the motor and that's the end! Also not warming them up to temp before opening them up will cause pistons to start scoring the cylinder walls, also an early death, so when ya put the boat in, let it run and warm up wile you park your truck. Your buzzer alarm is telling you somthing, heed the warnings.
Is it only doing the beep before u start the motor and goes away after the motor is running? If so then it’s just telling u the key is turned to on position so u don’t get out and leave it that way and drain ur battery with everything turned on. Just like a car
You were very excited as you should have been. Thanks for sharing the build. Posting your tournament recap and coverage along with the continued tweaks to the Stratos will continue your viewership.
I HIGHLY suggest running a hot foot especially if you’re going to replace the throttle cables anyway. It will allow you to drive with both hands which is important when trying to drive through the chinewalk. It’s also another added safety feature.
If the power loss at the console was when you started the motor, it could be as simple as you need to upgrade your battery, not sure what size you are running, but I would get power loss with my group 27 when I start the motor. Motor was pulling too much to support everything else. I switched to a Group 31 and never had the issue again when starting up.
I just bought it this month, it’s a brand new deep cycle starter battery. I think there may be too much hooked up to it with Garmin etc. might move the graphs to a separate lifePO4 for Battery I use for the live scope black box
O man I just did that with my wife it did not go well at Shasta here in California just make sure u have plenty of line and time to fix the backlash we finished 11th out of 12 boats ! She would not leave the pole in the water or get off her phone
It may help to fix the skeg ASAP or you're gonna have some chinewalk coming....also, do you wanna invest in a 8 inch hydraulic jackplate? It'll help with top end too when you do decide to finally open it up at WOT!
My 08 stratos 294xl has a 2006 evinrude etec 200hp and i have hit 66mph. Great build, i want to do the same seadeck as you just in a different color. Love the videos
55 is a great speed I would recommend getting a hot foot and hydraulic jack plate but that is very expensive and isn’t a need, but a hot foot is a great investment though also I would love to see you fish some bigger tournaments
The Highest trim position should be "negative trim" ( cavitation plate on motor should be parallel with pad of boat at your trim stopping point ( that's why trim gauges are a thing ) next if your not turning desired rpms at that trim setting your gonna want to check motor height and or prop size ( stock lower unit hinders getting motor to high due to loosing water pressure ) should have a little wiggle room without getting to "high " ,,
That looseness you are feeling is most likely chine walking. The bent section on the lower unit is the skeg. It will affect performance at speed. You can most likely mostly straighten it yourself. You can also buy a replacement skeg repair part but I have only done that on smaller engines. A jack plate would be needed to get optimal performance. My guess for top speed trimmed all out on a nice smooth lake would be around 63-65. Nice job on restoring and fixing the boat!
upgrade the graphs on the boat like live scope and stuff yk and raptors and than take it to a tourament or just take it to a tourament and fish with me yk yk plssssss
Bro stop worrying about the comments and people roasting you 😂 haters gonna hate. You build a bass boat with your bare hands, these guys wish they could do that. Good video
