we tried different props and with the jack plate we have tried different heights and the hull is straight without defects

yes we have, at WOT you can jack the motor out of the water or trim the motor out of the water it has very little effect on the bow ride height. it just cavates like it should when the motor runs out of water.

We had the jack plate all the way down which puts the cavitation plate almost 2″ below the bottom of the boat which is almost a whole 1″ lower than Mercury recommends for motor placement. I feel confident that even dropping the motor to 3″ is not going to make a difference but I could be wrong. I have kicked around the idea of contacting triton and getting their thoughts. That is if anyone will answer my questions.

Good day all, we did some testing over the weekend and last night. Here is what we experienced and figured out. We carefully removed the paint the previous owner placed off the tag to read the HP rating and Triton has it at 60HP. We took the prop off my 40HP which has the same pitch but is about 1″ smaller in diameter than the stainless one. The RPM’s were not audibly noticeable difference between them, there was 1 MPH difference between them. The trim with the smaller prop had a minor improvement but still not wants to plow at WOT, not real bad just with a small chop on the water everyone in the boat gets drenched from the spray. We tried moving the batteries for the trolling motor to the back with both props. There was no effect with that. I (208 LB’s) moved from front to back I affected the boat but nothing to really mention. So we started to play around with the speed if drop down to 20-25 MPH the trim has a more noticeable effect and we can trim the front of the boat up to eliminate the splashing. At 20-25 you can feel that there is more of the rear of the boat is in the water and as throttle up to WOT you can feel the transition of the boat from being in the water to being on the water. You can feel the boat flatten out to be parallel to the surface of the water there is where the tilt trim becomes almost un-affective. Even though the Triton Mod V jon is heavier than my Smokercraft Mv jon the Triton rides more on top of the water than the Smokercraft does. That could be due to the Triton has at least 1-2 Feet of width over the Smokercraft. What we took from this experience is the Triton needs to be driven with more attention to water conditions, even the smallest change will affect the operation of this boat. Thank you for all the post.

NO not sensitive at all, my attempt to be funny was not funny to you. Oh well. No, I am just stating we do not log jump rock skip beach our boats at WOT like you see these guys do on youtube. As stated the bottoms are straight without defects so that will not be the issue and yes I have looked at the bottom of the boat.

we do not run our boats like all the youtube videos LOL. They are very straight no dents no issues like that what so ever. Thank you for sharing that illustration

The prop on my 40 is almost 1″ smaller same pitch. We will try to run that one and see what happens.

Thank you I was looking for that. Where did you find it?

I will see if I can track one down. Thank you.

I would like that on both boats, it is not as easy to tell RPM by ear with the 4 strokes.

the prop is 11 1/8″ it is a solas 1331-111-13

Stamped 13P, I will measure it. How do I check for a spun hub? It is a tiller so there is not a tach. We were looking at options and that was one for a 4 blade.

Transome and shaft are correct, mercury manual calls for 0-1″ for the cavitation plate below the bottom of the boat. We will double-check all measurements and try it again. The previous owner pruned the skag off and we are assuming he ruined the prop too. So he may have just put whatever prop he could get that was close. One would hope he would have bought the correct replacement prop.

I have not measured that but will. Visually it appears to be parallel and the tilt trim should take care of any angle issue. We bought the boat with the jack plate on it, so no we have not experienced it without. LOL 300 HP that’s funny, the smoker craft has a recommended max HP of 45 and the trition info plate has been painted over by the previous owner. It does not take much to get a jon boat up on plane. The primary use of these boats are for duck hunting and being able to trim the front up is to handle the rough waters we travel in is kinda crucial. Now the 60 has the same size prop as the 40 does, from what I have read that is not unusual. The motor just seems to cavitate easily and through the trimming process, it never starts to porpoise across the water IE when the trim is too high. I just keep going back to possible the prop is to small.

Thank you, my other jon is a smoker craft mv1750 and that is 19 feet long with the pods and that has a 40 HP on it both boats run at wide-open 30-35 MPH depending on how much weight you have in them.

Thank you for your replie, we have marked the jack plate so when normal running the motor is set to Mercurys measurements for the cavitation plate related to the bottom of the boat and there are just two batteries for the trolling motor up there. The boat can be empty and still run this way.