[rfhbrando]

Thanks for the info. Another topic of concern I have is I am seeing on a few of these boats including the one I am heading to pickup next week… is that there doesn’t appear to be a Tachometer gauge installed. This one (and a couple others) looks to have a 3 gauge setup instead of the full mercury gauge suite. Anyone have any experiences adding the additional gauges from a wiring perspective? Is the harness for the tach already there perhaps or is it going to be new wiring home run from the motor? Thanks in advance.

[rfhbrando]

You know, after taking a closer look at some images online of a couple different boats, you are right. It is a tach, not a speedo. That is good. While we are on the topic Ricoshet, what all goes into installing either a Mercmonitor or a smartcraft speedo? I know there is a multi pin connector on the gauge, but is there a special adapter or cable to get it back to the motor?

Big thing I want is hours eventually, so if I can get that in a speedo or the mercmonitor, that would be great.

 

Thank you!

[rfhbrando]

Picking up a 2019 next Monday, so once it quits snowing up my way I’ll be sure to let you know!

[rfhbrando]

Have had mine out twice, one day for most of the motor break in, and then up on erie doing a little smallmouth fishing. Initial impressions have been very good. I love the storage and front deck space. Mine has the new 150 Pro XS and so far the hole shot has been impressive with a 3 blade fury, much better than I thought it would be. Haven’t had a chance to open it up yet to see what kind of speeds she will do. I want to double check the throttle stops on the motor and hot foot to make sure they are set up correctly before I do that. All in all, glad I made the purchase.

I also like the access to pull wiring, as I installed new Helix Mega units front and back. The hardest part was pulling the transducer cable for the back, but its much easier if you remove the shifter plate to gain access to that gunnel.

[rfhbrando]

Well, got my hot foot adjusted in line with the stop on the motor. Got the boat out today and had it up to 6000 RPM and trimmed out. Only got 50 mph. So time to look at tinkering with setup a bit.

 

150 pro xs, fury 23p 3 blade.

[rfhbrando]

You’ll have to elaborate.

[rfhbrando]

I didn’t notice any excessive torque in the steering then again it was mostly running in straight lines without steering much. Something I’ll pay more attention to next time out. Your right about not needing a lot of trim. At WOT I do not need to trim up very much to get to 6000 RPM. The side spray looked about right with how far back it was while at WOT and trimmed up, no roostertail or anything. I haven’t looked too closely at motor height yet, looks like from the factory the jackplate is at its null position.

 

[rfhbrando]

Bass Cat Boats:

That system requires the lower fitting be plugged.

Figured that one out the hard way the other day… I’ve been used to our old PII for 20+ years.

[rfhbrando]

Update. After running my new classic with the 150 for a half dozen times with the 23p Fury it came with, it became pretty obvious the prop was all wrong for this rig. I was all over the rev limiter way too early. Tried to lower the motor to about 1 inch below flush on the jack plate and still pushing 6100. The 23p fury cannot get the boat out of the water onto the pad, just not enough lift at all. Max speed with that setup was 50 mph.

I ended up trying out a 24p 4 blade fury today with the jack plate set back to flush (as it was from factory). Hole shot was still great, unnoticeable difference from the other prop. With the 24p 4 blade it was immediately noticed how much more lift there was, putting the boat on the very back of the pad very quickly. With this setup, I was able to get it to 58.2 mph at 6000 rpm. With this setup, the only thing I’ve noticed in the negative category is that there is a small rooster tail at WOT. Maybe 1 foot above the cowl of the motor at WOT. So, maybe there is some more efficiency to be had with motor height. Doing the math, with the 150 pro xs 4 stroke at 6000 rpm, 2.08 gear ratio, 24p it looks like its currently running about 11% slip at the 58.2 mph.

So, it is getting there. I figured when I picked this boat up that it would be around a 60 mph boat. It is still impressive the hole shot that 150 provides, and it gets on pad quickly now, and has great mid range cruise on plane. Any thoughts on how to get the last little bit of setup dialed in would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[rfhbrando]

I’m alright with losing a little top end in return for lower speed lift and especially rough water handling. I primarily fish lake erie and it gets unpredictable at times.

I was told by the factory that this boat with a 2 stroke 150 pro xs did 60 but the gear ratio on those motors were more favorable for speed to my knowledge than the new 4 stroke platform.

 

Either way, I have no complaints. Outside of top speed, I see no performance difference that makes it feel like it’s a 150 back there.

[rfhbrando]

Unfortunately the nearest dealer is about 5 hours away from me.

[rfhbrando]

My father is still running an immaculate 1994 Pantera 2. Recently repowered from the original ’94 150 Mariner Magnum III.

[rfhbrando]

Loaded down pretty good, it still does 70 – 71 with a Trophy II prop. Heck of a lot more fuel efficient than the old carbs were…

[rfhbrando]

My 2019 classic has this issue frequently but I figured out what as happening… If I fill my tank until the pump kicks off, it apparently overfills it so a little bit of gas gets into the vent line through the valve on the top of the tank. Next fill up, it won’t take gas until i pull the vent hose off the top of the tank and drain the half oz or so of gas out of it, then it works perfectly fine again. Not sure if this is a possibility of your issue or not being I don’t know how those models gas tank vents are, but maybe something to look at.

[rfhbrando]

I just replaced a set of dual rack and pinions on a 94 Pantera II (for the second time on this boat). On the P2 it is a really tight fit to get the rear most cable through without dismounting the motor, but it is possible. The only way we could get it to work is to unbolt the cable at the helm and pull as much excess cable as we could out the back so you have a loop of excess cable to work with. It is super tight but it works, as long as you are careful not to put too much pressure on it to bend something.

 

I’m sure unbolting the motor is the preferred and easier method, but that wasn’t really an option for us.

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