looked at a boat for sale today,had the olds motor with a panther jet.how are the panther jets,performance and reliability wise?? :confused:
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looked at a boat for sale today,had the olds motor with a panther jet.how are the panther jets,performance and reliability wise?? :confused:
My first jetboat had a healthy 396 with a Panther pump. As far as a good all around lake boat i loved it. Ran mid 60's and was very reliable, very user friendly but not really any performance upgrades for it. So when i wanted to go faster (more horsepower) had to cut it out and glass in AT-309(berkely style) pump. Panther has a small imput shaft and bearings and bends with about 400 or more ponies. So as a lake boat its great but if you want to go fast look into something else.
looked at a boat for sale today,had the olds motor with a panther jet.how are the panther jets,performance and reliability wise?? :confused:
Keep looking, there are plenty of boats out there with Chevy or Ford motors and a Berkely/Dominator/AT set up. ;)
Panthers are a good pump and very reliable. As mentioned above, the main shaft is a little on the small side which could lead to some issues with a lot of HP (500+) but the main bearings are very strong. Panthers main bearings are a pretty good sized roller bearing that are constantly submerged in 90wt oil. So long as the ceramic seal stays in tact, they'll last for many years.
My 21' Tahiti had a Panther that was 26 yrs old,when I took it apart, all the clearances were well within OEM.
The good things about a Panther are they come stock with a S/S impeller, come stock with a ride plate, are basically already set back along with the bearings being in oil.
The not so good, very few aftermarket bolt-ons and the main shaft. Panther does make a diverter that works very well in trimming the boat but if you're wanting to throw a big high rooster, it's not the way to go.
I've rebuilt a few of them now and only one needed new bearings as there was a little rust on them. The last one was put in a boat a couple of weeks ago, 18' Tahiti bubble deck, 454 BBC (mildly built), Panther with diverter...71 mph.
You can find a lot more info by clicking the Laid Back Forums link in my signature. I put up a Panther forum over there.
thanks for the info guys,am going to look around some more.seen some stuff in my price range today in recycler.thanx,brett
Sorry...Panther jetdrives are JUNK :hammer2:
equal power and stock pumps, I'll put my Panther powered boat up against any of the others.
BTW, I have a Panther powered boat and a Berk powered boat. The Berk has taken more time and money just to get it almost equal to what the Panther came with stock.
I guess it boils down to, if you know what you're doing, the Panthers will work well....as will others.
Like Cas said they last forever. Good for low to medium HP and zero maintaince. Mine was 25+ years old when I had it rebuilt and really all that was wrong with it was the Suction housing was ate up from me abusing it shallow water :boxingguy
I love my panther, the pump cover was a little goofy looking, because it was weathered.... I took it off..... seems fine without it..... The thing is ultra reliable... and when out with other jetters..... I seem to be the one that never has probs.... which also makes the panther powered boat the official tow boat.......
never had any problems with my panther pump.......if it goes 65 now that is what it will do in a year from now.......no speed improvements available that i know of. but nice lake boat pump