Hello all. I own a 2005 Xpress H56 (18'3" aluminum mod-v hull bass boat) with an F115 on the back and it is deceiving me and my dealer. I had the dealer ship the entire boat back up to Hot Springs, AR so they could address a porpoising issue and a low engine rpm at WOT with their recommended prop. On my test runs, there were two people in the boat with a combined weight of about 400 pounds (passengers' weight), an empty live well, 1/4 tank of gas, and no fishing gear. I would get at the very best 43 mph on the gps and 5600 rpms on tach in the dash. Dealer said boat should be reaching close to 6000 rpms and was necessary for engine life. The problem getting the higher rpms was that if I trimmed the motor up any more to get more of the boat out of the water, the speed would increase as well as rpms but the porpoising immediately started so I had to trim back down. <br /><br />Ok, they get the boat and make a test run with the same amount of gas in the tank, about 10-12 more pounds of passenger weight (they both sat in the same place as on my runs), and also no fishing gear in the boat. Manufacturer says he doesn't see anything wrong with the way the boat runs. He says he was getting 50+ mph on the gps and 6000 rpms easily on the tach and sometime able to go over the 6000 mark if pushed; all of this without the porpoising starting. He said he could trim the motor up all the way to just below the limit switch before the boat started bouncing. I can never get that much upward trim on the motor. <br /><br />I called them and asked them what they did and they said they did not touch a thing and that they just don't believe that I was getting the poor numbers that I was telling them. I told them why in the heck would I be going back and forth to the dealer over the last three months for this same problem and then eventually send the boat back for no d*** reason leaving me without my rig for a whole month. They replied that they did not know but that they had found no reason why I couldn't get the same results that they had gotten since all the variables were the same. I suggested that maybe the higher altitude and lower humidity maybe could have contributed to a better running environment for the motor to put out a little more power. They said they had never heard of such a thing and that the concept was not feasible and wouldn't make that much of a difference.<br /><br />Ok, so I get ticked off then and tell them to fix the couple of scratches I had gotten on the boat over the last couple of months, which they promised they would fix while it was up there, put the boat back on a truck and ship it back to me here in Louisiana and I would fix the boat, myself, once and for all by adding Smart Tabs. They were arrogant enough to say that my dealer may have to make a run with me to show me how to run the boat to its top performance numbers. <br /><br />My question is: Could the higher altitude and lower humidity up there in Arkansas compared to here in South Southern Louisiana have caused this much difference in this engine's performance? Could there be something else wrong with the motor? Or do you think the dealer is just FULL OF S***?<br /><br />Any ideas and responses that any of you may have will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.<br /><br />P.S.--I will ordering my Smart Tabs come Monday.
