I know more folks need to see how this is done if they’re out there trying to figure out the correct prop for their boat. Might as well make it an easy step by step walk through video!
Love the on Water video. Since your the legend in the pontoon industry. Can please post a video on how to properly set a transducer on a pontoon so it doesn’t lose depth after speed of around 17-18 mph thank you sir.
Haha, I'm not so sure about the legend title! Most boats I've ever run lose the reading or accuracy of it once the boat starts moving at those speeds. The higher end units might have better accuracy, but most of the entry level fish/depth finders I use can only track depth at slower speeds (on toons and fishing boats alike). I keep transducers slightly above the bottom of the toon to prevent them from getting knocked off when beaching or sliding through super shallow stuff in order to beach. The only thing to check is the chirp speed or frequency if you're able to adjust that setting on your unit. This will increase the number of signals put out by the transducer and may help with accuracy at speed. Sorry, I don't have a better answer for that one!
Love your videos, looking for advice, I have a 2006 odyssey 320FC pontoon, 22' (1890lbs) rated to 115, I have a mercury 115hp 4 stroke with a Black Max 77340a45 14x13 pitch 3 blade. I get approx 5400rpm just me with about 10 gallons of gas (motor rated 5-6k). I can only trim up to a 1/4 or it blows out. The boat is a barge, especially with additional people, hard to steer. I did try a turning point 4 blade 14x11 prop and the rpms went close to 6000+ (just me) then with a load twice the engine started beeping in a wavy busy condition, and the first time after the beeping I found two cracked spark plugs? I put the original prop back on and seems to run fine, good cooling water flow. I'm thinking about a Merc Spitfire 4 blade for pontoon prop, the 13.8x11 pitch to be exact. Or should I go to a 11 pitch 3 blade? Do you have any thoughts? prop experiment can be costly. Below the waterline has buildup that won't come off, could this be all the trouble and there's nothing to be done? Thanks!
I think you have more of a water flow issue than prop issue when it comes to the blow out or ventilation. I would want to get the RPMs up by dropping to an 11" pitch, typically four blade is better for boats having blow out issues. Where people sit probably makes a huge difference, which isn't ideal, but common. Two quick fixes: drop the motor bolt hole(s) down if possible. A hydro-foil or "whale tail" on the ventilation plate can make a big difference in some cases too.
i just bought my first pontoon boat it is a 2000 crest ii dl with a 2001 mercury 50 hp 2 stroke.. what is the first upgrade i need to do to this thing. thanks love the videos
I often recommend running your boat for a season before making any major changes unless the seats are falling apart or there's a soft spot in the floor. That'll give you an idea of how the layout works for you so that if you overhaul it you'll know what you want to change. The motor is the most important part to your time on the water, so run that to get to know it and to make sure it's reliable. It'll also tell you if you need a bigger HP motor or if that 50hp does everything you need it to. Crests are great boats, and built like tanks...so you've got a great platform to restore when the time comes!
Hey Tom, two questions my friend…a boat motor manufacturer will have an optimum RPM range for their motors, correct? So will they as well, suggest a size of prop optimum for their motor to maximize their performance? And if so, then I assume it’s up to you and your boating requirements to find that ideal size and pitch and fine tune it? Reason I ask is I purchased an ‘03 50 hp Honda 4 stroke. But did some searching on line and it was recommended, for a large pontoon, a 22’ to go with a 4 blade and the particular pitch which I did order. Second question…you mention you installed lifting strakes on your ‘toons. In effect you’re “squaring” the bottoms of the toons correct? So why wouldn’t manufacturers pick up on this “add on” and offer square ‘toons under their boats? Thanks Tom. Keep up the great vids! Oh and I passed on your website info to a buddies father-in-law, who bought a used pontoon in the fall. Apparently he’s tearing her apart so is now watching your videos. 👍🏻
Hey David! Great questions. Yes, every outboard has a wide open throttle operating range. The manufacturers will provide a maximum diameter of propeller for each motor. The prop diameters tend to fluctuate with the pitch changes, but if they still fit that motor they'll run the prop just fine if it's the correct hull and setup. It is ultimately up to the boat manufacturer, dealer, or end user/owner to find the correct and optimal prop for their boat. Three blade versus four blade has different places where one shines over the other, but on most pontoons you'll see three blade, large diameter props...usually with lower pitches especially when it's a lower to middle range HP on a large boat. Ultimately, the diameter and pitch will determine the max RPMs at wide open throttle. On Pontoons I like to operate on the high end of those RPMs. If I were running a bass boat that I needed to max out top end speed I would go for the middle to lower end of that WOT RPM range to get more travel out of each revolution. There's a sweet spot for top end speed that doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to pontoons because they're a non-planing hull. If I ever built a pontoon from the ground up, including welding the logs together, I would absolutely square off the bottoms to a degree. I like trying to reinvent the wheel on stuff like that, so I'd probably design and build something totally off the wall. In the meantime, the manufacturers have added strakes to more and more boats to provide better cruising and top end speeds. Their middle pontoons have a variety of shapes aimed to provide the best lift and performance. I love being on lakes where the higher end tritoons are floating at docks because it's fun to check out how different the designs get from boat to boat. Thanks for sharing my channel with your friends!! Much appreciated!
I am now at a loss, I just purchased a 200 SHO on my 21' aluminum deck boat that drags way less than a pontoon. I have the exact same prop size, I ran it this weekend with my wife and 2 small kids with 30 gallons of fuel, so roughly 3000 lbs, similar to your boat. It came out of the hole like a rocket!! Literally planed out in 2 seconds flat. However, I hit 47 mph wide open and trimmed, but only 4900 RPM's on my digital Yamaha gauge. I am not sure how this is possible being that we have a similar setup. Any thoughts? My only other thought is raising the engine a little more.
A tritoon and a planing style hull are still completely different beasts. An outboard has to do so much more work to push a tritoon, even with lifting strakes, through the water than a deck boat. I would take a look at your engine height first and if there's room to raise it without ventilating then that's where I'd start. You'd be amazed what that can do for drag and RPMs. Consider reaching out to the manufacturer of the boat to see if they have any suggestions for the motor you have and rigging height. Suzuki has a gear reduction at the crankshaft/driveshaft which adds torque and will make it hard to compare to other brands prop-wise. I'd like to see your setup turning 5500 RPM when loaded like that at WOT.
@@tomspontoons thank you for the reply. I tried to post a link but I don’t think it’s going through, Yamaha tested a boat nearly identical to mine with the same motor and same prop and they had achieved over 6000 RPM. Do you really think raising the motor will gain 1000 RPM? I believe the motor is a little low as I can only see the cavitation plate when I really trim it out, but something does not seem right.
@@vertc6 I can't say exactly, but I know that raising motors in the past has created some serious improvements....sometimes even to where a prop needed to be swapped because so many RPMs were gained. It's a cheaper alternative to raise the motor a bolt hole than buy a new $800 stainless prop! Worst case you have to lower it back down and then make the investment in a lower pitch prop.
I know this video is over a year old but I always go back through your videos when I’m having issues. I am just finishing up my second pontoon restoration, actually waiting on delivery tomorrow of my Bimini from pontoon stuff. I have a 2000 crest 25’ with 25” toons. It has a Mercury 115 ELPTO on it. It did not have a prop when I bought it. Went through the online process of figuring out the prop and ended up with a 13.5” x 15 four blade from Turning Point. I ran it this weekend and I get up to about 4600 rpm and 16 mph the when I push the throttle on to WOT I lose speed. I am over propped? I have tried to find the issue online and the only response is blown hub but my hub is fine. Do I need to move down in pitch? Sorry for long comment. Hope you had a great 4th!
Definitely too much prop for a 115 on that size boat. I think we ran an 11" pitch on the 115 Mercury that I installed on the 24' PartiKraft this spring and it's been great for them. I believe it was around 15" diameter, and it was definitely a 3 blade. If you drop to 11" pitch you'll likely still go the same speed, but should turn another 500+ RPM, and the 3 blade should help pick up some RPMs too.
@@VolunteerAirsoft Raising the motor can help gain some RPMs too as long as it doesn't ventilate/cavitate. If you seem to get a lot of spray or splash at higher speeds that could be a sign of it being a little low.
Peak HP should be achieved at the highest end of the RPM range for the motor. However, that doesn’t necessarily yield the fastest speeds always due to the gear reductions and the propeller pitch. Each boat is different and the peak performance has to be figured out through propeller testing with a tach on hand.
Next time I’ll do an abbreviated version. I’ve found if I give more info and detail in a video then I get less of the same common questions over and over in the comments!! I appreciate you watching though!!!!
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Appreciate your video, especially after our conversation, thanks Tom !
I know more folks need to see how this is done if they’re out there trying to figure out the correct prop for their boat. Might as well make it an easy step by step walk through video!
Love the on Water video. Since your the legend in the pontoon industry. Can please post a video on how to properly set a transducer on a pontoon so it doesn’t lose depth after speed of around 17-18 mph thank you sir.
Haha, I'm not so sure about the legend title! Most boats I've ever run lose the reading or accuracy of it once the boat starts moving at those speeds. The higher end units might have better accuracy, but most of the entry level fish/depth finders I use can only track depth at slower speeds (on toons and fishing boats alike). I keep transducers slightly above the bottom of the toon to prevent them from getting knocked off when beaching or sliding through super shallow stuff in order to beach. The only thing to check is the chirp speed or frequency if you're able to adjust that setting on your unit. This will increase the number of signals put out by the transducer and may help with accuracy at speed.
Sorry, I don't have a better answer for that one!
Great learning vid! Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Love your videos, looking for advice, I have a 2006 odyssey 320FC pontoon, 22' (1890lbs) rated to 115, I have a mercury 115hp 4 stroke with a Black Max 77340a45 14x13 pitch 3 blade. I get approx 5400rpm just me with about 10 gallons of gas (motor rated 5-6k). I can only trim up to a 1/4 or it blows out.
The boat is a barge, especially with additional people, hard to steer. I did try a turning point 4 blade 14x11 prop and the rpms went close to 6000+ (just me) then with a load twice the engine started beeping in a wavy busy condition, and the first time after the beeping I found two cracked spark plugs? I put the original prop back on and seems to run fine, good cooling water flow.
I'm thinking about a Merc Spitfire 4 blade for pontoon prop, the 13.8x11 pitch to be exact. Or should I go to a 11 pitch 3 blade? Do you have any thoughts? prop experiment can be costly. Below the waterline has buildup that won't come off, could this be all the trouble and there's nothing to be done? Thanks!
I think you have more of a water flow issue than prop issue when it comes to the blow out or ventilation. I would want to get the RPMs up by dropping to an 11" pitch, typically four blade is better for boats having blow out issues. Where people sit probably makes a huge difference, which isn't ideal, but common. Two quick fixes: drop the motor bolt hole(s) down if possible. A hydro-foil or "whale tail" on the ventilation plate can make a big difference in some cases too.
i just bought my first pontoon boat it is a 2000 crest ii dl with a 2001 mercury 50 hp 2 stroke.. what is the first upgrade i need to do to this thing. thanks love the videos
I often recommend running your boat for a season before making any major changes unless the seats are falling apart or there's a soft spot in the floor. That'll give you an idea of how the layout works for you so that if you overhaul it you'll know what you want to change.
The motor is the most important part to your time on the water, so run that to get to know it and to make sure it's reliable. It'll also tell you if you need a bigger HP motor or if that 50hp does everything you need it to. Crests are great boats, and built like tanks...so you've got a great platform to restore when the time comes!
Hey Tom, two questions my friend…a boat motor manufacturer will have an optimum RPM range for their motors, correct? So will they as well, suggest a size of prop optimum for their motor to maximize their performance? And if so, then I assume it’s up to you and your boating requirements to find that ideal size and pitch and fine tune it? Reason I ask is I purchased an ‘03 50 hp Honda 4 stroke. But did some searching on line and it was recommended, for a large pontoon, a 22’ to go with a 4 blade and the particular pitch which I did order.
Second question…you mention you installed lifting strakes on your ‘toons. In effect you’re “squaring” the bottoms of the toons correct? So why wouldn’t manufacturers pick up on this “add on” and offer square ‘toons under their boats?
Thanks Tom. Keep up the great vids! Oh and I passed on your website info to a buddies father-in-law, who bought a used pontoon in the fall. Apparently he’s tearing her apart so is now watching your videos. 👍🏻
Hey David!
Great questions. Yes, every outboard has a wide open throttle operating range. The manufacturers will provide a maximum diameter of propeller for each motor. The prop diameters tend to fluctuate with the pitch changes, but if they still fit that motor they'll run the prop just fine if it's the correct hull and setup. It is ultimately up to the boat manufacturer, dealer, or end user/owner to find the correct and optimal prop for their boat. Three blade versus four blade has different places where one shines over the other, but on most pontoons you'll see three blade, large diameter props...usually with lower pitches especially when it's a lower to middle range HP on a large boat. Ultimately, the diameter and pitch will determine the max RPMs at wide open throttle. On Pontoons I like to operate on the high end of those RPMs. If I were running a bass boat that I needed to max out top end speed I would go for the middle to lower end of that WOT RPM range to get more travel out of each revolution. There's a sweet spot for top end speed that doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to pontoons because they're a non-planing hull.
If I ever built a pontoon from the ground up, including welding the logs together, I would absolutely square off the bottoms to a degree. I like trying to reinvent the wheel on stuff like that, so I'd probably design and build something totally off the wall. In the meantime, the manufacturers have added strakes to more and more boats to provide better cruising and top end speeds. Their middle pontoons have a variety of shapes aimed to provide the best lift and performance. I love being on lakes where the higher end tritoons are floating at docks because it's fun to check out how different the designs get from boat to boat.
Thanks for sharing my channel with your friends!! Much appreciated!
I am now at a loss, I just purchased a 200 SHO on my 21' aluminum deck boat that drags way less than a pontoon. I have the exact same prop size, I ran it this weekend with my wife and 2 small kids with 30 gallons of fuel, so roughly 3000 lbs, similar to your boat. It came out of the hole like a rocket!! Literally planed out in 2 seconds flat. However, I hit 47 mph wide open and trimmed, but only 4900 RPM's on my digital Yamaha gauge. I am not sure how this is possible being that we have a similar setup. Any thoughts? My only other thought is raising the engine a little more.
A tritoon and a planing style hull are still completely different beasts. An outboard has to do so much more work to push a tritoon, even with lifting strakes, through the water than a deck boat. I would take a look at your engine height first and if there's room to raise it without ventilating then that's where I'd start. You'd be amazed what that can do for drag and RPMs. Consider reaching out to the manufacturer of the boat to see if they have any suggestions for the motor you have and rigging height. Suzuki has a gear reduction at the crankshaft/driveshaft which adds torque and will make it hard to compare to other brands prop-wise. I'd like to see your setup turning 5500 RPM when loaded like that at WOT.
@@tomspontoons thank you for the reply. I tried to post a link but I don’t think it’s going through, Yamaha tested a boat nearly identical to mine with the same motor and same prop and they had achieved over 6000 RPM. Do you really think raising the motor will gain 1000 RPM? I believe the motor is a little low as I can only see the cavitation plate when I really trim it out, but something does not seem right.
@@vertc6 I can't say exactly, but I know that raising motors in the past has created some serious improvements....sometimes even to where a prop needed to be swapped because so many RPMs were gained. It's a cheaper alternative to raise the motor a bolt hole than buy a new $800 stainless prop! Worst case you have to lower it back down and then make the investment in a lower pitch prop.
I know this video is over a year old but I always go back through your videos when I’m having issues. I am just finishing up my second pontoon restoration, actually waiting on delivery tomorrow of my Bimini from pontoon stuff. I have a 2000 crest 25’ with 25” toons. It has a Mercury 115 ELPTO on it. It did not have a prop when I bought it. Went through the online process of figuring out the prop and ended up with a 13.5” x 15 four blade from Turning Point. I ran it this weekend and I get up to about 4600 rpm and 16 mph the when I push the throttle on to WOT I lose speed. I am over propped? I have tried to find the issue online and the only response is blown hub but my hub is fine. Do I need to move down in pitch? Sorry for long comment. Hope you had a great 4th!
Definitely too much prop for a 115 on that size boat. I think we ran an 11" pitch on the 115 Mercury that I installed on the 24' PartiKraft this spring and it's been great for them. I believe it was around 15" diameter, and it was definitely a 3 blade. If you drop to 11" pitch you'll likely still go the same speed, but should turn another 500+ RPM, and the 3 blade should help pick up some RPMs too.
@@tomspontoons dang, was hoping dropping the pitch, reducing drag and increasing the RPMs would give me another MPH or two. Thank you for the reply.
@@VolunteerAirsoft Raising the motor can help gain some RPMs too as long as it doesn't ventilate/cavitate. If you seem to get a lot of spray or splash at higher speeds that could be a sign of it being a little low.
Merci beaucoup ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Happy to help!
What RPM is max HP?
Peak HP should be achieved at the highest end of the RPM range for the motor. However, that doesn’t necessarily yield the fastest speeds always due to the gear reductions and the propeller pitch. Each boat is different and the peak performance has to be figured out through propeller testing with a tach on hand.
Good joob
Thanks!
Get on with it man dam.......
Next time I’ll do an abbreviated version. I’ve found if I give more info and detail in a video then I get less of the same common questions over and over in the comments!! I appreciate you watching though!!!!