Another noob question on boat speed

[silversvt26]

Ok I took the boat out to the lake Yesterday. The boat is a 17 1/2' glastron fishing boat. shallow hull deck with a bass seat in front and rear. foot trolling motor in front. 150hp mercury in the rear. The bottom of the boat looks smooth and in good shape. I actually have 2 questions here.

1st is the steering. I notice that the engine is VERY hard to steer at low speeds. Looks like it has hydrolic steering although I could be wrong. Any ideas what the problem might be?

2nd is boat speed. With my wife, son, and myself, we only got the boat to about 37mph. That seems a little on the slow side. The boat dealership I bought it from said the previous owner had put on a stainless steel prop which looks to be in good condition. Maby wrong pitch?

Thanks again for your help

Sounds slow to me. Was the motor trimmed all the way down? What was the rpm at full throttle?

If you don't know the difference between hydraulic and cable sterering then that is an excellent first place to start learning about your boat. Also if the steering is "VERY hard to steer" as you say then it is probably not a good idea to stick the wife up in the bow "bass seat" and try a full throttle run.

Learn about your steering first and fix it. Next worry about the full throttle runs.

[silversvt26]

LOL.....thank you for the response.....I would never stick my wife up front when running fast, but that does make me laugh a little. My previous boats have been I/O's with cuddy cabins so I do know a little about boating, I'm just new to outboards. I always had our I/O's serviced and never had any problems with them. Yes the motor was trimmed all the way down. I did not pay attention to the rpm's, i'll have to pay attention next time. The steering system has 2 steel piston like rods that move back and fourth and look like they come out of 2 large cables and they have grease eyelits to put grease into.

Try greasing and working the steering back and forth. If that doesn't loosen it up it's probably time to head for the dealer. Sounds like dual cable steering to me and probably stiff just due to sitting and no grease. After fixing that you can worry about checking full throttle and having the proper ptich on your prop.

Most boats will have an amazing difference in top speed with the motor trimmed up compared to trimmed all the way down. Only way to know if prop is proper pitch is by observing rpm at full throttle with the motor trimmed for maximum speed. Some high HP boats can get squirelly at wide open throttle when over trimmed. Engine owner's manual should give you full throttle range. Probably something like 5300 to 5800 rpm. Should be able to hit minimum full throttle range with boat fully loaded.

[silversvt26]

I'll buy a Engine's owner's manual and try greasing the steering cables and let you know. Thanks for the help

[jobowker]

1) When out of the water, can you easily turn the wheel back and forth?
2) While driving the boat, does it turn easy in one direction, but harder in the other?
3) Do you have a tach and if so, what does it read at WOT?