Sorry for the delay I’ve been at my Cabin and have terrible service. I dropped the motor to the lowest setting. I find the hole shot got better and haven’t really lost performance. With the 19 pitch black max I’m pulling 6200 RPM and going 48.5 MPH on GPS. That’s with my two kids wife and dog in the boat with me. So far so I’m happy with it. I’m going to crawl in the water and put the 19” SS Tempest and see what happens. I know before the motor drop I could get 55 MPH with that prop. I’ll see what I lost and how it is coming out of the water.

I changed the spark plugs yesterday and it didn’t seem to change anything. I’m currently running a 19 pitch black max I took the tempest off thinking that Aluminum would help the engine spin up faster rather than lugging it down.
Today I lowered the motor to the lowest hole. The cavitation plate on the leg is now level with the bottom of the boat. Hopefully this helps but I will likely loose some top end. But I don’t cruise top speed anyways. Will find out tomorrow.

I may have described my motor mounting incorrectly. My motor is almost as low as it can can be. I can drop it one lower it would be as low as I can make it. Are you saying yours is mounted 2 higher than mine? So you have 3 holes above the bolts?
Just want to clarify

I don’t think a boat of this size and horse power should be affected by 3 average adults. Not huge people Maby 200 pounds is the heaviest. I believe there is more to it then weight distribution.

I haven’t changed the plugs yet as the performance on the top end was awesome. I’m pulling around 6000RPM so I didn’t think they were an issue. Maby worth a shot.

I will try and borrow one to try but I have friends that have similar set ups and do not have the same issues. I feel like 19 wouldn’t be to much prop for a 175 HP on this size of boat. Does anyone have a 18 foot boat with 150 Hp or more and what prop do you run and how does it perform??