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HarryK

On 11/4/10 1:01 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 4 Nov 2010 08:04:56 -0700 (PDT), jamesgangnc
wrote:

On Nov 3, 10:27 am, wrote:
On Nov 2, 10:49 pm, wrote:

On Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:54:42 -0400, wrote:
On 11/2/10 2:45 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 2 Nov 2010 07:44:44 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Those mods to the pontoons look interesting. Now, if he went to a
larger engine and added planing strakes, could he expect better MPG or
just higher speed. (fuel flow meters ought to interface with impeller
knotmeters to get mpg).

If you increase speed without increasing horsepower, mileage will
improve.

Wayne...I think the guy has "tapped" out on performance with the engine
he now has.

That may be true but unless they try to get more of it out of the
water with lifting strakes or similar, they won't know for sure. I'd
agree that more horsepower is probably easier and cheaper but it
certainly won't improve economy under most circumstances - only if it
is now operating "on the hump".

I believe his pontoons are not big enough for the weight so he should
weld planing strakes on the pontoons that are enclosed with extra
floatation. OR, he could resign himself to cruising at 7 kts to save
fuel.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Or he could get a boat that was designed to plane. I don't have much
sympathy for people that get one thng and then spend a lot of time and
money trying to make it work like something else. I don't care what
you do to a pontoon, any ordinary go fast boat will blow it away on
half the gas.

I have a pontoon and I agree with you. This is not supposed to be a
speed demon. I like mine because it is a very shallow draft boat with
lots of deck space and very low maintenance, Most pontooners have a
deck full of furniture and end up with a high maintenance boat you can
barely walk around in. They then want it to perform like a bass boat
so they end up putting huge engines on them. The one that really makes
me laugh is they also polish the toons to a mirror like finish. I
can't get them to say what percentage of the time they spend using the
boat vs working on their boat in the driveway. In that regard, fuel
consumption is probably not that big a deal. They only run them 20 or
30 hours a year. That is about a month for me and we are not getting
out as much as we used to.

The few I have seen out on the river here don't seem to "corner" too
quickly...and they seem to need a really wide area while on plane in
order to make a tight turn. Or maybe it's just an optical illusion.