Boat Performance Problem-Planes too soon

I bought my first boat this year, a lowe 1860VPT (side-console) jon-boat. She’s powered by an Evinrude E-Tec 50-HP.

Just this month, I had a motorguide DS-82 trolling motor, on-board 3-bank charger, and 2 deep-cycle batteries to get me to 24V, installed. Well, the trolling motor is awesome (I can make good progress upstream with those 82# of thrust! ), as is the charger, but I now have a new major problem; my boat’s [censored] drags low in the water and my bow seems to plane way too easily at low speed. As I increase speed, the front rises uncomfortable high; enough to concern me about the potential of flipping the boat in the right gust of wind. This is with the O/B trimmed all the way down. To make a long story short, to avoid this “uncomfortable” set-up, I have not been running my boat wide open and have to put-put along when I used to be able to tear it up. I know I’m not gonna get the performance of a deep-V in a 12 degree shallow-vee boat, but when we tested the boat at delivery, we had no problems getting her up to 35 mph. Now, I’m lucky if I can do 18…

The simple cause seems to be too much weight in the back;. the SRM-27 batteries I think run about 60# each, so I have added 120# to the rear. Not to be bitchy, but I did ask the guys at the boat place (who did this work for me) about mounting the batteries in the front compartment (which is not waterproof), but they thought the batteries would get fouled or damaged somehow and had strong opinions against it. I didn’ quite understand the problem with the front compartment getting wet, because the back compartment gets wet too. Eventually, I came to see things their way.

Maybe 3 batteries (1 starter/acc. battery + 2 deep cycles) and a 6 gallon fuel tank are just too much for that rear compartment?

I would appreciate anyone’s ideas on possible options to fix this, if it can be fixed while still keeping my trolling motor and its batteries somewhere in my rig. Part of me feels I should just mount the trolling motor batteries up front and be done with it. The work they did wasn’t exactly cheap either. Also along that line, would keeping everything as it is now and placing some ballast (within the rated capacity) up front possible help?

I just miss the performance my boat had just a few weeks ago, it especially hurts on bigger water like the Miss where you may be running 5-10 miles or more between spots.

Any help is grealty appreciated!

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

Joe you really need to get some of the weight back up front…Find a way to mount a couple of battery boxes up there (somehow), but get the weight up front and I’m sure that will solve that problem for sure…
I’m not real familiar with your boat but a metal shop can fabricate a couple of plates (leveled) in the front that you could mount a couple of battery boxes to and your good to go…

good luck !!

My smaller jon boats both seem to be very sensivtive to where the weight is placed in them. How does your boat run the way it is set up now with someone sitting in front compared to not sitting up there. If a 200# person keeps the front end down this might tell you something.
In both of my boat if there is someone with me the fuel tank and extras can be placed towards the rear. Then placed towards the front when by my self. Sounds like this would not be as easy to do in your bigger boat.
One other thing I have to watch when the rear of my boats are over weighted is swamping them from the rear when stopping to fast.
Good luck figuring this out.

Thanks for the ideas Dave and sharing your experiences Mike. The battery boxes should be no big deal. Its not like I store anything much in that front compartment anyway. I just don’t understand why they were so darned insistent in putting those batteries in the back.

I have the swamping issue a little bit too. If I stop her quick from speed, I get a little water flowing in; didn’t have that problem before either.

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

One issue with placing the batterys up front might be the pounding they will take. Jon boats seem to beat the water a little more than a V hull. Even the modifide V on my 16′ is not the same as a true V. It does help.
Any thoughts on what that extra beating might do to the batterys. It would seem to me like they would need to be strapped in extra well if placed way up front.
I’m not sure of how big of a concern this is but might be some thing to think about.

Besides moving the batteries up front you may want to also move the 6 gal gas tank up there. That should solve your problems.

Dave Gulczinski

Mike:

I know battery abuse was one of the reasons my boat guys were so insistent in mounting them in the back. To be fair, they did a really nice job with it, that is laying everything out orderly.

Pounding of the hull hasn’t been too bad, and believe it or not, (this was before the extra rear weight gain) it rode well in 4′ waves one day when I was caught by a windstorm on lake McBride. I usually don’t head out in that stuff by choice. The boat is really more of a “tracker” style bass hull than a strict flat bottom. We have a “V” front and a 6 degree very shallow vee at the transom.

Do you guys think it might be worth contacting Lowe directly and seeing if they had any suggestions on weight distribution?

I suppose I could take the batteries out and do some of my own water testing and see what happens, probably best to try to get back to where everything worked well and then work from that point forward…

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

If you want to try throwing the TM batteries up front, but don’t want to pay to have them do it, I can help you get it done. Shouldn’t be too big of a problem. As far as the ‘dry’ aspect, if the front compartment has a drain, we can buy a pair of $10 battery boxes to keep the Interstates dry. The on-board charger should be waterproof, but to keep it from getting soaked and sitting in a puddle we might be able to mount it to the side of the compartment.

Running fuel lines doesn’t sound nearly as much fun; I would worry that, on your boat, if we did that we might end up having some problems either having it exposed (sunshine will do a number on rubber hoses given time) or rubbing somewhere underneath where we can’t see. Since your TM is a bow mount, moving the batteries up front definitely makes the most sense.

I’m probably going to be rewiring my TM batteries in the next couple of weeks to bury the wires and put a plug in, just as soon as I can find a plug and recepticle that will carry 50A without heating. You’re welcome to come over, have a beer and watch. Maybe we can get some ideas about how to route yours.

As far as vibration and abuse, mine sit in the bow all the time and I beat the livin’ crap out of ’em during both spring fishing and summer tubing/skiing. The battery I have now has lasted 5 years, no problems. I’ve read (appeal to anonymous authority here) that vibration damages the batteries as badly as shock, and given the way my motor shakes at certain RPM’s I would think that mounting them in the back would be as bad or worse than the occasional skip across the water.

John:
I’ll definately take you up on the offer; I’ll even bring the brew. This go round, I am totally down with trying to do as much of it myself/with some help from a buddy or two. At $65/hour labor rates, the work is not cheap, especially if you are not exactly happy with the end results. Not only that, I think the wifey is about to cut me off on major boat rigging fundage! 3-4 hours of labor and you just bought a new GPS or locator. We need to put a fence around the acreage and the shower door is leaky, so I think some re-prioritization is in order. While we’re at it, they got me an ICOM-302 and 3′ antenna kit for my birthday that also needs installed. I hope I don’t wear out your offer! I’ll figure some way to reciprocate, I’m sure you’ll have some odd jobs you could use a helping hand with.

The on-board charger is waterproof, and I am pretty sure we won’t ever have a case where it would be submerged (even moving it up front) if I did, I’d have much bigger problems than just a a soggy charger.

First things first. I don’t think I’ll get to it today, but sometime in the near future I want to pop the TM batteries out and head over to the res to do some testing. If you can join me when I head out, I’d definately appreciate another opinion.

Regards,

Joe

Try raising your motor and inch or 2 if you can. The lower the prop the more torque is being forced on lifting the prop and less in pushing the boat. If you can not buy a heavy lab. They love riding up front.
jc

A couple of things for you to look at:
Where is your cavitation plate on your motor in reference to the water line, and the hull of the boat? The plate should be even with the hull under normal circumstances.
Can you raise your motor to a higher level? By doing so, you reduce the levering effect at higher speeds that causes the bow to lift when trimming.
Also, a jack plate will to the same thing. Spendy, but it provides the same effect.
I hope this helps!
Tuck

Joe, I’m in MPLS all week for work, but will be around next week as far as I’ve been told (if not, boy is the wife gonna have some choice words for me). There’s no hurry on burying the wiring for my boat… I need to come up with a good way to secure it under the gunnel before I get too involved with it anyway. The rest should be a no-brainer (which is fortunate, because I’m often reminded of how little I’ve got up there).

Let me know when you’re thinking about digging into ypurs and I’ll see what I can work out.

Chris:

I checked the cav plate and it is level with the base of the transom.

John:

We’ll get in touch when you get back in town and get this thing figured out. I’ll be heading back “home” to western PA for the boys to spend some time with their grandparents (6/16-6/22), but that’s it for the summer; I’ll be staying in the Midwest until Christmas rolls around. Plenty of days to head over to 9,10, or 11…

All:

Thanks for all the ideas and great advice, you are great bunchof guys and I really appreciate everyone’s input.

As I get this problem fixed over the next few weeks, I will post my progress.

Thanks,

Joe