1998 lund laker 16

sounds to me your not able to plane out your boat, can you adjust your tilt/trim ?

Maybe you dont have enough horse power to get to plane out.

JMHO

is it electric start? tiller? Do you have your battery and gas tank in the rear? Try moving them up front, and ditch the sand. you could have too much weight in the wrong place.

I am thinking that you don’t have enough motor. So the sand is only hurting things.

FDR

I’m thinking you have the motor on the wrong end of the boat if the stern rides up:)
Is the motor properly aligned at the bottom of the transom in relation to the hull? Is your motor a short shaft instead of a long shaft? Maybe a picture of your setup could help.

Maybe I’m missing something…I don’t see how the sand in front would keep help to keep the stern down, I picture a see-saw. I agree with the others regarding horsepower.

I have a 14′ semi v with 15 HP on the back and have same issues. I put weights up front as well and resolves issue. It gets really bad when the current is strong, but issue goes away when someone is up front. Maybe the motor just isn’t right.

bigfoot motors have a different gear ratio in the lower unit than standard motors,maybe you can’t get enough speed to get it to plan out?

Quote:

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bigfoot motors have a different gear ratio in the lower unit than standard motors,maybe you can’t get enough speed to get it to plan out?

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BINGO. That is why you see a lot of them on pontoons.

FDR

You need to first make sure the motor is mounted at the right height. The flat plate above the prop, called the cavitation plate, should be even to 1/2″ above the bottom of the hull. This could also be a trim issue. The question is do you have a manual lift or do you have power tilt/trim? If you have a manual tilt/trim motor, my guess would be that you have the trim stop, the rod that crosses the motor mount to stop the motor from getting closer to the hull, is in the wrong position. If the motor is not positioned correctly in height/angle the motor will not perform correctly. The bigfoot does have a different gear ratio and it also has a beefed up lower unit. They were designed for pontoons, but they can also be used on boats. My guess is that you also have a tiller boat? A 25 hp on a 16 Laker is a bit underpowered in my opinion, but it should still plain out. I would also throw a tach on the motor and check to see what the rpms are running at wide open throttle. If it is not running at the upper end of the operating range the prop must be changed out with one that will get those rpms. The right prop will also make a difference on how the boat performs. Good luck!