My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

[mikenusaf]

I bought a 14' aluminum boat. I call it a mild "V", almost, but not quite a Jon boat. It has an Evinrude 6hp, 6 gallon fuel tank, battery, and trolling motor on it, all in the back. With all that and my 260lb butt in the back, it only sits about 4-6" out of the water in the back. Is this normal? Also, I ran it for the first time yesterday and got a wopping 5mph out of it. Should it go faster? Moror runs great but I might need a new prop? It is my first boat so I do not know what the prop is supposed to look like, but this one might be worn down. Wish I knew what size the prop was supposed to be so I knew if it was worn down or ok. I am thinking about moving the battery and fuel tank as far forward as I can to help with it sitting so low. The speed is really my main concern right now.

Any recommendations/suggestions/comments appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[ziggy]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

imho. ya just got to much load in the back. move whatever ya can fwd.
i grew up with 6hp and less row boats. ya aren't likely to get much speed out of it. i doubt if ya'll even get up on plane no matter what ya do.
if yer props all chewed up by all means replace it. it does have a dramitic affect if it's in bad shape. but even with new. 6hp just ain't quite enough to go too fast. sorry..

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

???It has an Evinrude 6hp, 6 gallon fuel tank, battery, and trolling motor on it, all in the back. With all that and my 260lb butt in the back, it only sits about 4-6" out of the water in the back. Is this normal? ????? I am thinking about moving the battery and fuel tank as far forward as I can to help with it sitting so low. The speed is really my main concern right now.

Any recommendations/suggestions/comments appreciated.
Thanks.

Without more info than you've posted and/or photos it's hard to give good advice but I will take a stab at it. I can't claim to be an expert on anything, but I have run 14' aluminum boats for over fifty years so do have a little experience.

If there is an ID plate on the transom, the info from that posted here might be of some help.

Yes, by all means, move some, or all, of the gear you listed forward. It may take some experimentation to figure out exactly the best place for the various items to go for best effect. Side to side placement of items is important on some boats as far as handling goes. Again, experiment.

I've never run any motor smaller that 18 hp on my boats, with 30 hp being the biggest, and don't really know anything about the 6 hp Evinrudes. That does seem awfully small to me for what you are doing. Prop pitch can make a significant difference in speed too. Again, model number and age of the motor might help us to help you.

As far as safety and speed, my advice is to concentrate on safety first, then worry about speed. Speed won't do you much good when your boat is swamped and you are floating around in a lake hoping for a rescue.

Naturally, if you fish only in small, shallow, farm ponds then most of this advice is worth nothing. But, again, that info is missing.

Hope this helps at least a little.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Depending on the year the 6HP Jonnyrudes are awesome motors. I had a mid 1960's one years ago on a 12 footer (rated for 8 HP if I remember correctly) and it pushed quite nice. Mine ran so great that I never even bothered to take the oars out after about a month with it. However, I only weigh about 140 pounds. Unless the prop is bent or severly nicked (which should be obvious), I would not do anything with it yet other than to check to see if it is somehow spun or sheared (not likely). Search for spun props for info. First thing to try is to get any extra weight forward. Move trhe gas tank forward as far as it will go. Put the anchor(s) in the front. Other than that, if the nose is riding quite high ( and it sounds like it might be) you can try to move the stop pin on the motor's angle adjustment so that the bottom of the motor is closer to the front of the boat. Move it only one hole at a time and evaluate the results.

Good luck.

TerryMSU

 

[Socal Pat]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Yup. I ran an old 14' aluminum with a brand new Nissan 6hp. I only weigh 180 but even so with the motor trimmed all the way down my bow was still running pretty high. You will NEVER get it to plane and 5mph is about right. Just before I sold it recently I was going to move the battery forward. Was going to cut a hole in the mid bench and install a hatch there where I could stow the battery. It will help some, but you have what you have.... a slow old boat thet will probably serve you well for years to come. Mine did.

 

[5150abf]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Get the battery and gas all the way forward, probably still won't be enough but way better than where you are now.

 

[mikenusaf]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Well I am a newbie so I will post my stupity here on what I found out. After some investigating, I found out my prop is either the wrong one for the motor (too small) or very worn down from years in the sandy rivers. I expect is is worn down, so that explains the speed issue. I dont need it to plane, just go a little faster. I would like to put a bigger motor on it, but won't that add more unwanted weight in the back and make my issue worse? My boat has no marks on max weight, etc. Might be a plate under the paint...
I am moving the fuel tank, battery, and trolling motor up, I think that will help. I also removed the seats the prev owner added. More weight there with the steel swivels and wood mounts he made to mount them to the boat.

 

[mikenusaf]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

The new prop and moving the weight forward was the trick. It now goes pretty fast for a 6hp and actually gets on a small plane. After comparing the old and new prop, I found out that it was the wrong prop.

 

[mikenusaf]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Getting 10-11 MPH now. Seems like fuel economy is better also. I am very happy. I even found a great hole on the river for blugill so my 5 year old caught his first fish Sunday.

 

[DANZIG]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

Excellent! Thanx for the updates!!

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

6 gallons is a lot of fuel for a 6 hp. Downsize your tank or carry less fuel. If that makes you nervous, carry 1/2 gallon in a small can for a reserve. PLus a smaller tank gives you more room for all that fish you will be toting.

Can you downsize the battery, too? Traditionally, since the motor is a pull start, you wouldn't have a battery on board, but trolling motors and gadgets changed that.

 

[dlngr]

Re: My boat seems slow and sits low in back..

I don't know where you boat,but yeah,downsize the gas tank. 3 gallons should be enough for a decent day of fishin', and you got the trolling motor to get you in if you run out of gas.