Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

[gstrom11]

Wanted to post a few pics of the new boat. Finally got to splash it last weekend after it sitting in the garage since March. It's a 1997 Campion Allante 615 vri CC, Volvo Penta 5.7GL w/ VP SX Outdrive, 14 1/2 X 19P SS Ballistic prop. Came with Bimini and full camper top, mooring cover, etc.. Bought it from a dealer who got it on trade late last fall. Very clean boat.

Wife wanted a cabin to do more river boating/camping and I wanted a 350 so I think we evened out on this deal.
After driving out and looking at it twice we talked numbers, dealer met all my demands (refinish prop, etc.) and we brought her home.

Boat rides smooth with the deep V and I really enjoy the power the 350 has to offer. Gets on plane in seconds and very smoothly.. Charted about 20 miles on Saturday just cruising around our local lake. Little choppy but still topped out at 51 per GPS. 35 Gallon tank, didn't seem to drink that much, but we weren't doing water sports, note that there are still not leaves on the trees here.. Water is cold...

Overall I feel the construction of this boat is great, very solid, one slight nick in the pin stripe, gelcoat in pretty much flawless. Had MN tags all the way from 97 stuck over the top of each other so lived here its whole life, not certain if it was a one owner boat or not though. Had a guy ask us on the lake if the boat was "brand new".. Got a good chuckle out of it.

Only question I have for the experts here.. WOT RPM was about 3200 (51mph top speed gps in the conditions) with this prop. Am I in an okay range here? What are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

 

[Saltydawg2]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

The tech guys will be right along. Just wanted to say,"nice boat"!

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

The tech guys will be right along. Just wanted to say,"nice boat"!

Thanks! I see us really enjoying this one. Little bit of a step up from the old boat.

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Some interior pics, updated, better quality.

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Nice looking boat!

The numbers do not match up? 51MPH @ 3,200rpm is way off (unless your in a different drive ratio than factory, 1.66). I woukld suspect your tachometer is off/incorrect @3,200 with a 1.66 ratio drive and 19P prop, you'd be at 31mph. for 51mph, the rpm's would be ~5,200 @ 10% slip (which might be a little low, but conceivable?)

Try a different tach...5,200 is the rated max rpm for that motor, so you're there!

~Brett

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Nice looking boat!

The numbers do not match up? 51MPH @ 3,200rpm is way off (unless your in a different drive ratio than factory, 1.66). I woukld suspect your tachometer is off/incorrect @3,200 with a 1.66 ratio drive and 19P prop, you'd be at 31mph. for 51mph, the rpm's would be ~5,200 @ 10% slip (which might be a little low, but conceivable?)

Try a different tach...5,200 is the rated max rpm for that motor, so you're there!

~Brett

Let me check the drive ratio and I'll get back to you, yeah I thought it was odd myself.. Speedo was floating around 55, gps said 51, so figured that was close with a tube style speedo. Idle as about 500RPM, is that on for a 5.7?

Thanks Brett!

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Let me check the drive ratio and I'll get back to you, yeah I thought it was odd myself.. Speedo was floating around 55, gps said 51, so figured that was close with a tube style speedo. Idle as about 500RPM, is that on for a 5.7?

Thanks Brett!

I'm not 100% sure of idle range...If I was guessing i'd say in gear 500rpm's sounds right...in neutral, 550-650rpm's sounds about right? I'd recommend checking the manual?

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

1.60 ratio is what it says on the outdrive (i'm new to I/O's only had O/B's before so a little new to this). I have only had a few hours out on her so far, need to take her out again to pay a little more attention to RPM's at neutral, in gear, etc.. but yeah I thought the WOT RPM was weird myself. Was a little overwhelmed making sure everything was good to go and enjoying the power the motor brings.. LOL

I'll have to look again to see if there was an actual owners manual included in the pile of paperwork we got with the boat.

Thanks for all the input so far!

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Couple more of the better quality pics-

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

So I just crunched the numbers on an online prop calc.... LINK There are a few different ones available on-line, they use about the same algorithms to establish hypothetical/theoretical speeds based on RPMS, Prop Pitch, drive ratio and slippage.

Here's what I came up with:
WOT:
RPMS= 5,200
DRIVE RATIO= 1.60
PROP PITCH=19P (FYI, for every revolution, a 19P prop will propel you boat 19" forward...theoretically)
SLIP=10%
SPEED=52.6MPH

RPMS AS POSTED
RPMS= 3,200
DRIVE RATIO= 1.60
PROP PITCH=19P
SLIP=10%
SPEED=32.4MPH

 

[greenbush future]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Nice clean looking boat you found, looks to have been cared for well. The tach may be off on your dash, based on what the pro's are suggesting. That isn't uncommon either, depending on what your buyers agreement is with the dealer, they may help you fix/replace that. And to me RPM's are what really matters, I'd guess 5-550 idle, seems a touch low too but, I'm not a seasoned I/O guy, had a few, but regardless, I'd speak with the dealer to get this minor issue(tach and idle) fixed/adjusted. That's one of the cleaner used boats I've seen, nice lines, style and POWER! Thanks for sharing

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Thanks guys, I have an email into my sales guy, we do have an agreement of 100% first day (splash) warranty for any issues, + 30 days after and a 50/50 parts/labor split so I want to make sure this is fixed now and hope to get it fixed for free. It would be sad if I certainly did need a new tach and they can't find the matching Faria tach and I have to get all new gauges to match ..

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Update: Spoke with my sales guy from the dealer, he agreed something was off. Had me take a look at the tach settings to make sure it was set to V8, I looked and it was set to 12 Pole (OB Alt). I switched it to V8, guess we will see next time we take her out. Odd that that wasn't noticed before, but maybe the previous owner didn't know any better (& didn't have an iBoats forum addiction)?


Edit: Found this link from Faria troubleshooting different tach issues and it matches up with my symptoms.. LINK

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Update: Spoke with my sales guy from the dealer, he agreed something was off. Had me take a look at the tach settings to make sure it was set to V8, I looked and it was set to 12 Pole (OB Alt). I switched it to V8, guess we will see next time we take her out. Odd that that wasn't noticed before, but maybe the previous owner didn't know any better (& didn't have an iBoats forum addiction)?




Edit: Found this link from Faria troubleshooting different tach issues and it matches up with my symptoms.. LINK

I bet that was it!!! The tach uses pulses from the ignition for reading...OB definitely send different pulses (given it fires every stroke...at least for the 2 strokes).

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

I bet that was it!!! The tach uses pulses from the ignition for reading...OB definitely send different pulses (given it fires every stroke...at least for the 2 strokes).

That's what my father in law explained to me too on the tach setting. Anxiously waiting next boating event to test it out!

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

That's what my father in law explained to me too on the tach setting. Anxiously waiting next boating event to test it out!

Aren't we all...there are 2 time frames in the summer...days we boat and days in-between boating!

 

[gstrom11]

Re: Maiden Voyage- 1997 Campion Allante 615

Aren't we all...there are 2 time frames in the summer...days we boat and days in-between boating!

^This is a 100% correct statement..

 

[gstrom11]

Wow, I never came back to update this after the numerous tests, that switching of the tach setting did fix it. Looking forward to getting the boat out of storage a week from this Saturday!