I am considering a tunnel boat. Aluminum, prefer to have counsel steering. 16-18 footer or so. Would like a top speed of about 45mph. Am I dreaming or does anyone have experience or thoughts on what might work?
How big of a tunnel is preferable?
Pros and Cons
Thanks
haywood…i know this has nothing to do w/your post, but I was supposed to ask you about “the one the got away” earlier this week 
45 mph should be no prob! I don’t have any experience with those things… other than I always seen them racing down in Texas. Those boys were pushing 110.
okay…I’ll ask it…what’s a tunnel boat??
Try this link. http://www.wooldridgeboats.com
You may also request a catalauge from them and a VCR tape.Steve
Tunnel boats are designed to run in extremely shallow water. Some tunnel boats are designed to run with jet outboards, others with props. There are many different degrees and styles of tunnel boats. In some the tunnel goes almost the full length of the boat, in others it starts about half-way back. In some, like Baymaster boats, the tunnel kind of splits in half about midway up the hull and becomes part of a kind of trihull configuration. Some tunnel boats, like the roughneck aluminum boats, have a very small rectangular tunnel designed to fit a jet. Prop tunnel boats have a wide variety of tunnel shapes and sizes. All of these designs have different advantages and disadvantages. Because this web site caters to primarily people in the northern states, and these types of tunnels are more common there, I am assuming you are talking about an aluminum boat with a jet. Here is my take on tunnels, and I have driven many different kinds as fisheries research vessels. Tunnels generally require more power applied to get on plane and to stay on plane. Once on plane, they handle fine. I dislike the older Roughneck hull design particularly. The ones we have here will not stay on plane at below about 3800 rpm with an appropriate jet motor to boat size ratio. I have not driven any newer tunnel Roughnecks, but my supervisor has a new Roughneck (personal boat, and not a tunnel) that is very nice. But the power to plane thing is pretty much a constant problem with tunnel boats. If you want to plane at slower speeds, a tunnel is not your best bet. Tunnels also have problems with reverse power, especially if the engine is not pointing straight behind the boat, because the thrust of the water hits the side of the tunnel. This makes it hard to go any direction but straight backwards when in reverse. Also, you lose a lot of stopping power. If you are used to throwing it into reverse to stop to keep from ramming the dock, start a lot earlier when using a tunnel. I sometimes use tunnels because I have to. I don’t particularly like them for any purpose other than that for which they were specifically designed. I wouldn’t want to commute to work in a 4-wheeler ATV either.
Call over to Starks in prairie du chen. They seemed to have some good advice on tunnels also. From what I have heard carptracker is right on track.
If you do a search on this web site you should also find a little more info.
Haywood
Before you buy something, you really should call Kevin from River Pro. He will take you fishing for an afternoon on the Upper Miss. I have never had more fun in a boat than those couple of days I spent in his. I just wish I had the cash to buy one. Just not working out that way right now.
He actually drove it over gravel bars where the gravel was showing above the water. 55mph, no problem.
Haywood: If you don’t need to go quite as shallow, you could consider a tunnel prop set-up. I had a Polarcraft 1860 for several years that I ran on the lower WI River with great success. I had mine set up with a 60hp tiller but that sized boat is rated for a 90 hp (I think) with a console. The dealer should be able to confirm what speed you’ll be able to acheive. The big advantage of a tunnel prop is that you can use it on lakes as well. I think Sea Ark and Alumacraft offer this type of boat. The tunnel size on these boats would be just a few feet. My boat could run in about 15″ of water on plane.
John
Thanks for the info guys I did talk briefly to Kevin at river pro, seems like a good guy.
Any of you out there have a River Pro boat?? What are the likes and dislikes?
I was told that one of the drawbacks to a Jet is the noise and fuel consumption.
Any thoughts?
Thanks 
Higher fuel consumption and more noise are part of the price you pay for a jet, in addition to the ones I pointed out above. Also, you have to have a higher horsepower powerhead to get the same thrust, so there is a lot more weight on the transom. They mark down the horsepower rating on the cowling by about a third when you put a jet lower unit on, but effectively I think the reduction ought to be closer to half. There is also the dollar price you pay for that jet motor. Jets are also very sensitive to weight distribution in the boat. If you have a person walk to the back, it may be hard to get on plane; if a person walks to the front, you WILL lose all reverse power – make sure your weight is in the back when you want to stop fast. Jets SUCK (in both the literal and figurative sense) if there is any floating debris around. The debris will clog the intake, and bits of floating wood will clog the water intake (there is no water pump on most jets other than the one that drives the boat) and it will clog a lot. If the little holes clog with a bit of wood or a small pebblem then you have to take the cage apart to get to the impeller, and you have to remove the impeller to get at those little holes. So steer clear of floating debris! If you have to go through floating debris, go through at top speed – if you putter-put through, I can guarantee you will be dismanteling the lower unit. For similar reasons, it is easy to fill the entire cooling system of a jet unit (including inside the powerhead) with sand, if you drive it up on a sand bar and let the pump suck up sand. That is an expensive repair, and it happens a lot.
Another thing I don’t like about jets is how they slide sideways in high-speed turns. Dangerous, and you can potentially catch a chine on a wave when sliding sideways and flip the boat. It is in fact possible to turn a jet boat 90 degrees to the direction you are traveling, which is not a good thing if you want to stay upright.
Don’t get me wrong – jets are really nice if you need one. And you can’t beat them for slow-speed handling and turning radius once you get the knack of it, and you have your weight distro right.
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