Jack plate?

[willyb]

I have a 18 foot challenger bass boat with a 90 Honda four stroke and a 6 inch jack plate. When i fill the boat up with gas and fill the live wells up, with me and my fishing partner it has a hard time getting out on plane. If it has about 1/2 tank of gas and empty live well it will plane out good. My question is if i remove the jack plate do you think this will help. I have lowered the motor with the jack plate with no results. I mean what good is a jack plate on a 90 anyway. It also has a 21 prop on it would like to put a 19 to see if that will help but hate to buy one and that not work. Where would you guys think i should start. Thanks Billy.

 

[wrechin2]

Believe it or not the jack plate is helping the hole shot. You would want to raise it a little to see if it helps the hole shot. The closer to the surface, the easier it is to spool up. Spooling up is like riding a clutch. It is wanted slip to allow the engine to make power. The 19 pictch of the same prop will help. Long story short is that you can actually have a 23 turn more rpms because of blade characteristics. So you may run a different 21 and it will do what you expect. I hope this has helped. There is a lot when disscussing props.

 

[Liveliner]

I had a similar situation in the past with another boat. Alone in my boat my 100 hp Zuki V-4 would pop up and run 60 mph with a raker prop on a small Vision boat. If I added one person who was a 200 pounder, I had a very hard time getting on plane. I also had a second prop that I ran to haul the loads. I think those old battleship boats with a little old 50hp caused the least worry. You knew what you had and accepted it. Those mid sized fishing boats that you want to run like the big boys make you suffer when you really go to fish. Been there done that.