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View Full Version : Finding the cruise sweet spot?



Cattitude1
10-09-2006, 04:44 AM
let me bounce this off you guys to make sure my head is kinda in the sweet spot.
My new to me 30' Daytona has mild power- 496 HO's- it'll stay that way for a while, messing with setup over the winter (1" imco lower and whatever 5 blades it likes-this alone should drop rpm some as it'll run 5100 easy now).
I spend a lot of time at cruise- easy 40 miles per outing as most of my buds hang out north on the lake. at about 60-65mph depending on conditions, you can really feel the hull release and pickup speed and rpm without moving the sticks, but with my 1.5 gear and current 30" bravo's this leaves me near 4k for cruise rpm- about 500 higher than I prefer.
Seems like it would still be the lesser of the evils though cause I'd be working the engines harder at 3500 if the hull were still stuck- make sense? I'm thinking the overall load/fuel burn is best right at or just above where the hull is happy/released- comments?

havaduner
10-09-2006, 07:04 AM
I would run at the higher RPM. As you said, the hull is starting to pack air, and the load on the motors is less, that is why the increase in RPM. Also, less load on the drives.

andy01
10-09-2006, 07:26 AM
I wouldn't worry about the 500 rpm, I would think more about running the boat wetter is working the drives harder also. Run it at 4000 gets you there faster, you'll get a better ride out of the boat packing air. 4000 rpm is not going to hurt one thing in those 496's, you could run it there for 100's of hours
Tell your friends to get faster boats or leave behind them.
Andy