How come this combo doesn't appear to have been very popular...vs the same Hull with a Pump?
A rare animal for sure.
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How come this combo doesn't appear to have been very popular...vs the same Hull with a Pump?
A rare animal for sure.
I have also asked the same question
Infomaniac runs a blown injected alky 19' & their is another 19' with a tunnel ram motor that frequents Camp Far West. Both boats are verry impressive.
The examples I've seen of these boat just plain rip. Don't know why the tunnel v-drive is not seen more often?
Morg
Originally posted by Morg
I have also asked the same question
Infomaniac runs a blown injected alky 19' & their is another 19' with a tunnel ram motor that frequents Camp Far West. Both boats are verry impressive.
The examples I've seen of these boat just plain rip. Don't know why the tunnel v-drive is not seen more often?The 19 at C.F.W is a cougar and I would put my money on Nancy in a race !
Morg :D :D
Info's is a Cougar, but still a rare piece. Very nice, rare, piece, too.
I've been boating my whole life and knew nothing about v-drives before joining the forums here at HB. I'd say 99% of non-performance boaters will say "v-what-huh"?
If I knew what was up with vdrives a few years ago I'd have one right now;) Who's got a Spectra 24xs for me to take off their hands!!:D
I think a lot of folks freak out because they don't understand the hardware (I'm starting to get it) Is the maintenance and hardware comperable to the cost of say a setup with a Bravo?
Mirvin;)
Uh, I just realized that maybe I should read the "sell me on a vdrive" thread!!!!!:confused:
Mirvin,
The "sell me a v-drive" thread tunred into a joke.
As far as set up, here is my take on it.
Bravo= Dodge Prowler. It is a cool deal but it is a production line setup.
V-Drive=Custom built hot rod. Everything is custom fabricated. You can buy some of the parts, you can have some made & some you want to fab yourself.
It is getting better with a few guys turning out parts, But it is a lengthy install, & you need to know what you are doing.
Morg.
I can give a few ideas...... #1, It costs a manufacturer about 1/4 the cost of rigging a v-drive as it does a jet.
Also, the few 19' Daytonas that Eliminator built as v-drives, had a bad tendency to blow over at high speed (85+). Eliminator was rigging them like flatties (put the v-drive way forward, use power to carry the nose, and engine weight to balance it out) and you just can't do that, unless it's got a weak motor, and you never get enough speed out of it for the boat to pack air. Cougar was the only manufacturer that had any real success building v-drive tunnels, and if you look at the pics of Infomaniacs, the prop is pretty close to the transom, as opposed to say, a circle boat. I've done some research on this, as I was considering building a v-drive tunnel. From what I have gatherered, the trick is to balance the natural lift of the hull with the lift forces created by the location of the v-drive, the strut, and the prop itself. Since the natural lift of a tunnel boat changes drastically as the hull increases in speed, and your lift changes from hydraulic to aerodynamic, successfully rigging a v-drive tunnel requires about 3 times the R&D as a flatbottom. Cougar, being a lower production, ultra custom bulder (especially in the late 70's and early 80's) spent the time to make it right, where Eliminator was not willing to do so. Once Cougar figured it out, it was set in stone. If you ask them to build you an unrigged tunnel (19 or 21) with the intent of making it a v-drive, to this day, they will only sell it with the v-drive mounting plate, and the strut pre-installed.
Sorry for the long winded post........:D
Ducky...Thanks for the info. Eliminator more or less droped the Ball..or didn't care to further R+D the 21 V-Drive Daytona to make it right.
So I guess that about answers it.
Eliminator sent the V-drives out to Jan at Lightening MFG. (headers?) They tried a couple of different hull bottoms, but the Elims. have no strakes and they were rigged like a regular V-drive and not what it really was. Any of the bad running boats could be fixed (easily) but the current owners don't know or don't care. Elim. had a number of round bottom V hulls that with V-drives 'rolled over' on one side, and most of those were never fixed, so what the hell do you expect? V-drives actually take some thought and expertise to build, Lightening Co. was not able to get enough money to to the proper R&D, so you got what you got. Elim. also used a 'famous' K boat guy to rig some V-drives, those boats were so BAD that they just are not around any more. Many were rerigged and I did a few of them. Who knows, you may just see a cat with a V-drive in the near future. :wink: