13 Foot Dee Vee Hull for Exhibition Racing and General Use Motor Mounting

[rustnrot]

I have a Bullet 130, a 13 foot deep vee hull that I am either putting a 50 hp Tohatsu or 60 hp Mercury on it. I need some "which is better" guidance not so much for the motor but rather for the setup accessories. This boat will be used for no-rules exhibition racing and for general playing around at the lake.

1. Power tilt trim and power Jack Plate. Each of these adds weight of course. This hull - I have read - should have very little if any setback. A power trim unit can be integrally installed in a motor, obviously a power tilt trim unit requires some amount of setback but can be as little as 4 inches.

2. Which is more necessary for "racing" applications -- when racing is it an advantage to be able to constantly adjust tilt and trim on the fly? How about adjusting a jack plate on the fly? If engine trim can generally be "set and forget" then I save 25 lbs by not having a power trim unit. Also, if engine height can generally be "set and forget" weight here is also saved.

So, which has higher priority, power trim and tilt or power jack plate? Or bite the bullet and go with both (with an additional 50 lbs. on the transom).

Thanks, Tom

[Yellowjacket]

You need the trim to help you turn. You trim in and that helps the bow bite. If you don't have the ability to trim it down you will have a hard time turning unless you move a lot of weight.

Might be an advantage to jack height to keep the prop down in the water as you turn. The guys running small motors in GT Pro are only using trim though, so you probably need that for sure.

[rustnrot]

Thanks, this IS exactly the kind of input I need and makes perfect sense. The Tohatsu already has built in power tilt trim. Both engines are 15 inch shaft.

[rekcuftar]

My priority would be tilt and trim for your motors and stated use. I have a similar hull and have a bob's hyd plate. My jack plate was around $900 and if it was free, from a performance stand point you would be faster without it. The plate added 47 lbs and leveraged the heaviest part of the rig the motor back 3 7/8's inches.

I have a 20 inch shaft so I needed a plate of some sort. I use my boat to pull my 5 year old on a tube nieces knee boarding and such. So it is put together with a bunch of compromises.

I think on one of Tim's posts he said his favorite setup was his short shaft stinger mounted right to the hull. That says a lot when his last setup was an SST 60 with a 20 inch mid on a cnc hyd jack.