How did you come to purchase the Hustler, and that particular pitch? Does it have a hole under the leading edge of each blade on the side of the barrel?
I assume you don't have power trim and are talking about positioning the tilt pin in the clamp bracket. When you say you are at 1 hole up, I am taking that to mean that the tilt pin is inserted 1 hole above the closest hole to the transom.
Assuming everything cooperates with your decision.....like your boat load is properly positioned, the engine has enough HP to propel the boat to a reasonable speed for what you are trying to achieve, and to a point...maxing out the performance type action as you move the tilt pit farther from the transom, the thrust of the prop causes the bow to rise and in doing so, reduces the drag between the hull and surface allowing for more speed. Since there is a relationship between prop rotation and speed for a given setup, this allows the engine to rev higher.
Most everyone recommends not going over the max. recommended RPMs under the lightest load conditions and best engine trim angle. When that happens you don't have enough "bite" with the prop meaning you need to increase the pitch...which will pull the RPMs down and "should" propel the boat faster....with a slightly slower "hole shot"....getting up on plane.
The number kicked around here is 150-200 RPM per inch of change.
You may be ok where you are. When you push it out too far, without having power trim where you can vary the tilt as a function of boat speed, you will wind up with a bow high condition at WOT, sluggish hole shot, and porpoising....where the bow of the boat bounces up and down.....a condition that is only corrected by moving load forward, speeding up, or decreasing the tilt angle.
