New purchase xcursion

[smoker62]

It doesnt appear you strakes are giving you anything over the same boat without them , I think my 522 is basically the same boat as well. I run 24-25 with a 115 and no strakes.

[Littlehoe]

my bad after reviewing the internet I have discovered I don't have strakes... Needless to say I am still dissappointed with my boats performance with the 115 yamaha...

[Gonefishing]

picked her up and took it to the boat shop and had the toons painted. Got her back and have a 3 day weekend. Went to the boat store and picked up anchor, dock line, rod holders and some new tackle. Filled up the tackle boxes in the rear tackle station, got the anchor, chain and line together. Important for the wife got the Porta potty in place. Got ez fenders on. Off to the store to pick up some rope for the fenders. And dock line maybe Monday
will be a nice day and I can put her in the water. Just to ride around some and enjoy her.

[Bamaman]

my bad after reviewing the internet I have discovered I don't have strakes... Needless to say I am still dissappointed with my boats performance with the 115 yamaha...

Keep on ragging your dealer into ordering you a set of factory strakes out of their parts catalog. I cannot believe that they're not available from a company as large as that. Then find a quality welding shop to put them on with a Tig Welder.

If the manufacturer will not supply them, have some fabricated--look at other brands of boats' strakes for comparison. We're not talking rocket science here.

Otherwise, your boat is performing right where a normal 115 horsepower boat is supposed to run.

One can spend the $ to put a 150 hp motor on a boat, but without the nose out of the water, performance will still be limited.

[smoker62]

Do you need inner and outer on a twin tune ? I would imagine both as it will supply more lift. I guess you would have to be pretty precise with the placement as well . How would you get the placement correct ? What gains in speed would one actually see on a twin running a 115 ?

[Liquid Asset]

The strakes go below the water line at what ever place gives you the most surface area. It depends on the style of strakes every o.e.m. has their own style but thats a rough idea of where to place them. When I put mine on I made them silmilar to a manitou style. I like the way their boat handle so that what I went with. The o.e.m.'s have extrusions made for their strakes I made mine out of 1/8" sheet and had them bent at a local machine shop. My buddy is a fabricator and has done all the welding for all of my boat projects. If you have strakes put on make sure you get a guy that knows what he's doing. It's one of those jobs that has to be done correct the first time. Not a job for the local jack of all trades, especially on a new boat ! The reason some o.e.m.'s only run inner strakes if for handling. It is supposed to help the boat turn. Some outter strakes end short of the rear on the outter logs to help in the same way.

As for the speeds you are running 24-25 mph. that's not to bad. The 4 blade props are great for hooking up I loved the one I had on my old mercury. They do casue you to lose a couple of mph. on the top end. I loved how the boat would chugg right through rough water and not bog down like with a 3 blade prop. It's a bit of a give and take switching to a 4 blade. With my boat rebuild project taking a couple of summers to complete I have ran it with 2 logs and a 50 h.p. motor. Then 3 logs with a 50. 3 logs with a 115. Then added strakes, then underskin. Now I am running a 90 yamaha. The long story is that all of these upgrades only added a couple of m.p.h. each time. The faster your go the harder it is to gain more speed. The strakes will help but it's no quick fix to make your boat a ski boat. Strakes and a 150 would be great ,but an expensive upgrade .

[rbiederwolf]

Why cant the manufacturer have a dealer bolt on a center tube??

Problem with bigger motor on a two tube is that it still will not plane properly. Also i think it will still be a problem in wakes as nose floatation will still be an issue.

Strakes will help greatly for planing. get manufacturer to send them to you and have them welded on. Cost for welding was about 500 dollars.

BTW in my experience a two toon with strakes will NOT out run a tritoon strakes. When I went from a two toon with strakes to a tritoon with strakes I gained about 3 mph with same engine. The added floatation of the added center toon got more of ALL the tubes out of the water, thus actually less drag.

But lets forget speed for a second, a tritoon is a much safer boat when in any inclement boating conditions.

[NCBOATER]

Bottom line, if you want a pontoon boat to go over 24mph, be loaded, pull skiers and tubes, get at least a 150hp outboard and a tri-toon. If I had to do it over again I would have ordered a tri-toon with 150hp, underskinning, and hydraulic steering. My options now would be to install a 3/4 length center sport tube and lifting strakes on the insides of my twin tubes. The problem with the lifting strakes is finding someone to do it in NC, and it will probably void the lifetime warranty on my tubes once someone welds on them. My dealer does not want to tackle installing strakes or the center tube. I could probably install the 3/4 center tube myself, but it would be challenging. Surely someone on here has done this to a new pontoon and were the results worth it?