Way2slow

That ain't gonna happen on a flat bottom boat with a prop driven motor! I don't know what or where you are measuring from but it's definitely the wrong place. With the bottom of the boat somewhat level, trim/tilt the motor until it's straight up and down. Check where the anti cavitation plate lines up with the bottom of the boat. It should be even with it to maybe an inch or so above it. Much higher than that and you run the risk of the water pump sucking air and motor running hot. The distance to the bottom of the skeg from the bottom of the boat is the absolute minimum depth water you can run in, and you are totally nuts if you try to that shallow. That or keep a supply of lower units and spare props on hand.

If it's just the metal panel, and no hidden O'Sh**s!! On either side, I don't see a problem. Just make sure drill a large enough hole you can install rubber grommets to protect the wire.

The only reason you would need a six switch panel would be if you plan to run front and rear live well pumps nav lights bilge pump, electric anchors, power poles, and other stuff. In reality, you will never need more than two or three. If you think you are going you are going to be needling something like that, then you will want to run 10-12 guage wire to the main power switch to insure you will have large enough wire to run everything a panel that size can handle. Also you will need to increase the fuse/circuit breaker at the battery to a 20-30 amp.

16 guage wir is more than adequate to run what you are wanting, 18ga will even work just fine. There is no need to run that big heavy wire. You are going to be pulling way less than five amps, and 18 will do that just fine. I just like 16 because it's a little tougher. The sonar is probably going to to be pulling 2 amps max, don't know anything about the hydrowave but you should be able tore look in the manual, I doubt it's over a couple of amps. As for what size fuse, the sonar should have come with a power cord and fuse holder, use that and what ever size fuse the manual recommends, probably no more than a three amp, same thing with the Hydrowave. Fuses are typically 150-200% over what the actual load is so if you use the those to determine wire guage, you will have more than large enough wire. If you are wanting to put them on a master power switch, get you a weather proof bat or rocker switch in a 15 amp SPST. If you use 16ga wire, get the blue crimp on connectors, if 18ga, use the red. As for wiring it, the battery negative (ground) will go directly to the negative wire on each piece of of equipment, it can be just one wire, going to one piece, and from that piece to the next. The battery positive will one wire from the battery to the switch if you install one with a 10 amp fuse connecting it to the battery for fire protection in case the wire gets shorted so you want that fuse at the battery, You will run each piece of equipments fuse to the other side of the switch. If you don't install a switch, just connect the two positive wires together and then to the wire going to the battery positive. Make sure each piece of equipment has its own fuse and it's the size fuse the manufacture recommends. Forgot to mention, if you get a piece of stranded, two conductor 16 or 18ga cable, lamp cord, extension cord etc, to run from the battery to where you are going to mount everything, it makes a cleaner, easier installation. Also the finer the strand, the better, handles vibration and moving it better. DO NOT use solid strand wire, breaks to easy when having to handle it much connecting and disconnecting the battery.

As mentioned, most likely you had the RodSavers. Like most others have found, they are usually only good for a couple of years, especially if the boats is stored outside. I changed over to a system that just has a small loop on the deck and has a round, elastic bungee cord that's goes into the gun wall when not being used. Every three years or so I replace the piece of bungee. Luv this system, works great, and the best part, I had a customer that made the bungee and gave me a 250 ft role of it and a few dozen of the hooks that goes on it. So I have a supply that will last several liife times.. If you stick with the RodSaver, go ahead and order two or three, so you will have spares and save on the shipping every time. You will go through them pretty quick.

It's raining and sitting here board so decided I would explain the octane bit a little better and how it affects the engine. The higher the compression, the higher the octane needs to be to prevent pre detonation, Spark Knock, which can damage Pistons and break top rings if severe enough. In the late 70s-early 80s when they had to remove the lead from gas, the primary octane booster at that time, the quick, easy fix was to just drop the compression to as low as 85-90 pounds in some Motors and back the timing off a couple of degrees. This helped those poorly casted, high production motors burn even more fuel. That's why motors like the Johnson 200GT picked up the saying GT stood for Gas Thursty. They took a 300 hp design and used it for a 200 hp motor, so they could keep. quality of the castings to a minimum, thus cost to build. Gas was still somewhat cheap back then, so who cared. As the years have past, and they have found replacements for lead as octane boosters, though still none as good, and the cost of gasoline is no longer cheap and very much a factor in what motor you buy, they had to come off the engineering dollars, greatly improve quality control and their technology to build the most fuel efficient motor they can. The first step was much more advanced engine control systems. With this they were able to increase the compression with much smaller error margins to allow for bad gas. Those old motors that used to run 85-90 pounds now run 125-128 pounds to run 87 octane. You can run approx 135 pounds with 87 octane but they have to leave some room for those people that thinks it's OK to run that crap that has sat in the tanks for months-years on end, or buy that marina gas that's no telling what. The higher the compression gives better fuel economy, more bottom end torque, and more horse power.. The two strokes of today are nothing like the two strokes 20 years ago, nor the four strokes. In the old days, you could just bump your timing up a couple degrees and burn higher octane if you felt that's what you needed. Today's motors it's not so simple. The advanced design has no way of knowing you have added higher octane, and the manufacture has invested major sums of money in engineering and testing so that motor performs at its peak with their recommended octane. Now, you can always do like the racers do, put it on a Dino and try to tune it for the octane fuel you plan to run, but short of that, I would just run what the manufacture recommends. It is however your motor, and if you feel you know something the manufactures engineers didn't, you can 107 octane race fuel in a 87 octane motor if you feel that's best.

Sorry, wasn't trying to step on toes. All I meant was, it may only take 75 horse power to push a Bullet at a 45 mph cruising speed, and it may take 100 hp from the same motor to push a Nitro at the same 45 mph. It just simply means it's going to take more fuel for that motor to make 100 hp to push that Nitro, than its going to take to push a Bullet. It's also goiing to take a lot more fuel to get the Nitro on plane than its going to take to get something like a bullet, so just jumping from spot to spot a 1/4 mile apart will burn way more gas if you do that many times a day. That's why I was simply saying if you want to find out approximately how much fuel a certain motor is going to burn, it just needs to be from similar style and weight boats. Now, if you throw out the speed and compare rpm to rpm, then fuel consumption is going to be about the same in gallons per hour once it's up on plane, it's just one boat is going to be covering a lot more distance than the other for the same amount of fuel burned, assuming both are propped to turn the same rpm at WOT. At WOT, you might be running 80 and him running 68 but the motor is going to be using the same amount of gas. You are just not going to run as long to get there.

You also have to remember, it takes a whole lot less power to push that hydro rocket than it does to push one of the bigger lead sleds like many of these large boats, so fuel consumption will not be comparable between something like a Bullet and heavy Nitro. If you want to get true comparisons they have to be similar style boats. I can tune my 325 hp hot rod motors to only burn eight gallons per hour at 45 mph on my Javelin Renegade 20DC, which is actually a little less than my Evinrude DFI, but that motor has had over 100 hours of port work to make everything match and burn properly. That also changes to about 23 gallons per hour when I'm start feeding all 325 of those horses, but then you are running 80 mph so that's not as bad as it sounds. The newer motors are built with a lot more quality control in the casting design to make them more efficient than the older motors. That's why I can take a mid to late 90s 225 Johnson and not change even one factory installed part, and with a die grinder, make it burn a lot less fuel and make 290-300 horse power, and still have more bottom end torque than when stock. I can do the same with the 200, but with most of those you have to change carbs and intakes. NO! I will not do anybody's motor that happens to read this. I'm not in the business of working on others stuff.

If you are wanting to get a 20-21 ft boat, the minimum size motor you are going to want is a 200.. Couple of things to remember. The hull requires a certain amount of horse power to move it. It going to require a certain amount of torque to get on plain, and if it takes 100 hp to push it 35 mph, and 200 hp to push it 65 mph, that's not going to change, no mater what motor is on it. Just how efficiently the motor will do it is the variable there. From that, you decide what motor is going to best fit your needs. If fuel economy is a major issue and you figure 40 mph is a good cruising speed, then you look what motor is going to push that hull most efficiently at 40 mph, and still have the torque to get on plane. Now to fit that bill, you are looking at a 3.0L to 3.4L, that is either a Diret Fuel Injected two stroke, or a four stroke. Now is when you start rationalizing, just how much is the cost of the best motor I need versus just how much fuel economy do I want to give up for a less expensive motor. Then it's how old of a used motor do I want to take a chance on, know the older the motor the more fuel it will probably burn. Not saying as a motor ages it burns more fuel, just the fact the didn't have the technology designed into them for fuel economy the newer motors have. So, do you buy a much newer, much more expensive outfit with a gas sipping motor, one of the older cheaper, carbureted or EFI gas guzzling motors, or something in the early to mid 2000 models that has all the engineering issues they ran into building these new gas sippers. Also remember, a smaller motor does not automatically mean less fuel consumption, it can actually burn more tnan a bigger motor. It has to work harder and take a lot more throttle input than a bigger motor. Making it work way above its peak efficiency range, where the bigger motor does the same job with ease and stays well within its peak efficiency range. Remember, it's going to take the same amount of power from any motor you put on it to run a certain speed, so it's how efficiently the motor will deliver that power at that speed.

Try a local welding supply, some of those carry it in bulk roles and you can get just the length you need. You will find every body wants a stupid price, some just not quite as stupid as others. Here's one on line source. http://www.weldingcable.us/RADAFLEX-6-AWG-Black-Welding-Cable_p_11.html You can search for welding cable, probably find your best price, or you can search for "marine" cable and pay a really stupid price. Some might list it as battery cable. With the marine and battery prefix you can usely find red, using the welding prefix, most will only carry black and you put red tape or heat shrink on each end to mark it.

Some of that's going to be determined by if it's efi or DFI. If you turn them loose, 225 horses are going to eat, At mid RPM ranges, the Opti-Max, is suppose to be better on fuel than the efi motor. The Verado is suppose to do better than both of those. I'm not a Merc guy, so as for how they burn, don't know.

I guess if you really wanted to do something, build you a regen circuit for your TM. Then figure out someway to make the prop spin when drifting, and let it be charging the battery. Figure this one out and the patent would be worth a fortune. DC motors become generators when free spinning.

A 12 volt TM is not more efficient than a 24 volt, it's just the opposite, a 24 volt motor is approx 25% more efficient that a 12 volt, and a 36 volt is more efficient than a 24. The higher the voltage the more efficient the motor. Then as J Francho mentioned, for the longest run times you need to get a Motor with PWM or similar type circuit. They do nothing for increasing run time on max speed, but you will see benefits at below max speed, and at 50% and slower, they make a big difference. These are the motors with variable speed control, on not the preset numbers.

Yes, you are correct in your idea that four GC batteries will give you a longer run time than most any bank of four 12 volt. You also have to look as the Ah rating on the GC batteries, the Trojan T105 is what it says and is one of the most common in industrial equipment, I have installed a bunch, and serviced bunches more. You can buy cheaper, you can usually find Trojans cheaper than that Amazon price. Just be aware, cheaper sometimes means lower quality, and lower capacity. You mention getting 10 years out of them, well maintained, and for your application, you might, but I would not bet on it. Six to eight, and eight is a stretch, is much more common to see. To get that life from one, a high quality charger is critical. Does not matter if you are charging one at a time or all four in series, you still need a charger that deliver 10% of the capacity, or 20-25 amps at 6, 12, or 24 volts, depending on how you connect it. You also want a charger that is not going to put more than about 7.3 volts per battery into them. If you charge a battery too slow, it can stratify, the acid and water separate, with concentrated acid at the bottom and a much weaker solution at the top. Charge them at too high of voltage and the plates can be damaged. So, if you are going to spend big bucks for batteries, don't kill them by skimping on the charger. Check around on ebay and golf cart shops, you might find a used 24 volt GC charger at a reasonable price. I think I have a couple, but they've been sitting around for at least 10 years so I would not put much hope in the capacitors still being good. Another thing you need to be aware of trying to do one at the time, when a battery is below about 80% charge, it will start to sulphate in less than 24 hours, so you would not want a long delay time between the first and fourth battery.

Ok using the same 20 hour rating most deep cycle TM batteries are rated at, the Trojan T105 golf cart battery is going to be 225 Ah, which is just about twice the capacity of most group 27 DC batteries. Because of their size, they will be more efficient at the typical loads you are running so yes, if you get 2 1/2 hours out to two group 27 DC batteries you should get over 6 hours from a bank of GC batteries. However it's going to take four GC batteries to get 24 volts. They are going to weigh approx 65 pounds each and they are not cheap. Also remember, when running series batteries, they need to be like batteries. You can't mix old with new, different sizes, or different capacities. Also realize, batteries should be charged at 10% of their capacity, so when running a bank of four GC batteries, you are going to need a 24 volt 20-25 amp charger, an old 24 volt GC charger. Those are not cheap either.

It's not just outboards, it wasn't too long ago you could build a strong engine for your car for a couple thousand dollars, now it's 10-20 thousand to ever how much you care to spend. I'm looking at building a turbo charged, LS 408 stroker motor for my truck and it's looking like it's going to cost about 20 grand. Six grand just for the turbo, over two grand just for an exhaust system, five grand for the transmission. It will be pushing 30 grand when done. So, it ain't just outboards.

Check the spec sheet for the one you have and the one you are getting and make sure they are the same frequency, or frequencies if dual band. Also, some will will run multiple bands, beyond what the generic dual band Xducer will support.

Anything is possible, if you have the fiberglass skills, how practical though would have to be determined. It would basically require making a whole new top cap. If you found who has the molds now, they might make one , but the cost would probably be more than another used boat.

All I can say, that's a lot of boat for that motor. As for performance, like I said, I wouldn't have a clue. Since that hull tends to be a little slugish getting on plane to star with, propping it is probably going to be a trip. If the transome and the floor is good, that would make you a fun project. It will also pay you to buy a SE SPORT 300 hydrofoil. They make a big difference on the big HP motors, one should definitely help jour little motor.

What size/model Shadow? I think they made 18', 19' and 20' models. The 20's are the only ones I've had any experience with and that because they had 3.0 OMCs on them and helping the owners make them faster. As for the others, I've never even seen one. Not a whole lot you are going to do that motor in the way of mods so understand up front, if it's a good running motor with good compression, if you start getting that itch, don't waste your money on trying to do motor mods. Just go ahead and find you a 2.5 if you want to stick with Mercs, or 3.0 if you want OMC. Set up is critical and that's where you are going to get all the speed it's going to give you with that motor, and that is one hull that can definitely use a hydraulic jack plate. The 20' hulls also needed a lot of setback, even with the heavier OMCs on them. I'm talking 10 to 14" of it. All three of those found a Rich Boger tuned Renegade prop worked best. That's a high rake, four blade prop. Also understand, I don't know much about what props are available for that motor, but that is going to be the most critical item you put on it, and you most likely will not get it right the first time, so try before you buy, or you can waste a lot of money. You now know just about as much as I do about the Shadow,

Woops, I just realized you had SHADOW in front of tunnel hull. What size? That is an extremely light and pretty dang fast hull. I think the 20' weighs less than 1,000 pounds. I know a 200VT with 300hp will run in the low to mid 90's with the proper set up, and have seen 101 with just the driver.. I've never had dealings with one with that small of a motor so I can't even speculate how it will perform. Most are set up to run with the Bullets and Ally's. They are a little sluggish coming out of the hole, so the prop will be crical. A smaller pitch will get on plane better, but that hull is so fast once it's up, it may over rev the motor, What make 115 you have? One thing I will warn you of, they are very stable, go fast boats and do not chine walk, how ever they do have one serious flaw. If the hull is up and flying and you chop the power, make sure you have a very good vest on because you will probably end up in the water, they will make the fastest bat turn you have ever seen. If you don't know what a bat turn is, you had better that boat don't teach you. One other thing, that can very easily turn out to be the most expensive boat you will ever own. What happens is you get the go fast itch and you start doing all these things to make it faster. The faster you wat to go, the more it's going to coast you. Forgot to mention a bat turn is the boat doing an instant 180, while you usually keep going the direction you was headed. A sample of one, this one was stupidity induced by the way he tried to cross a wake but the outcome shows you kinda what a bat turn looks https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G4fwaVV10oo

My son has a 21' we use in the bays, in south Texas. With a hydraulic jack plate, we can run run on plane in 4" of water. Works on the nerves running 30-40mph that shallow but the boat will do it. A friend has one he just got from BPS About 16ft or so with a 60 and hydraulic jack plate and I think they claim his will run in about 3" on plane, but seriously doubt he has tried that. It takes about 8" of water for my sons to take off and get on plane with hydraulic risers on the back, but his is a fairl heavy boat with a V-6 engine. Now, that's going easy, that's not just sticking it to it like in deep water. I've had one aluminum tunnel hull with a jet drive on it. It was great for hauling butt up the river, but when you got where you were going, trying to maneuver it at slow speed totally sucked. A tunnel hull with hydraulic jack plate and prop drive makes a very nice combo.

Sorry BlakMax, because I diagree with some of his comments, especially that RC numbers mean nothing, but then he did just say he knew more about that than the manufactures, I don't disagree with most of his recommendations he gave you. I would never recommend a true deep cycle for a cranking battery, no more than I would recommend a straight cranking battery for a bass boat. Based on the amount of electronics, pumps etc, and how much time you spend fishing versus running and gunning, I would go with a group 27 or 31 Dual Purpose. I don't diagree that Interstate is a high quality battery, so are the DieHards and a few others I prefer Deka's. Difference of opinions is why there are so many flavors of ice cream. I also think Optima would be a poor choice, as well as most spiral wound's. I find the stack cells give a less problems. It's very easy to buy a battery to small in an effort to save a dollar, but it's hard to buy one to large as long as you have the space and don't miind the weight. The higher the capacity, the more the lead, lead is heavy and lead is expensive. So don't let two dips***s that have fundamental problems about the facts muddy the water on you getting a good battery. I'm also not saying a AGM Is not a good battery, for what it was designed for. I just gave my reasons for not using them in MY boat.

I'm not trying to make this another P contest about who knows more than who. I'm not your average Jo blow when it comes to batteries either. When you come in and start posting your "KNOWLEDGE" that is totally wrong and against what everybody , manufactors and engineers, the real experts have to say, then I do have a tendency to question it. I called a friend of mine who knows a little about batteries, I guess he's does since he's the lead engineer for US Battery, just to make sure something magical hasn't happened. To try keeping this as civil as possible, I'm not posting his exact words for what he said. I actually had him post on here a few years ago to clarify wrong info another self proclaimed expert was trying to give. Also you Bragg about the faster, actually up to five times quicker recovery rate AGM's have over flooded cell batteries, that is true, and sounds great from a salesman, which most of your post was your sales pitch. However, how many boat owners do you think would have a large enough charger to take advantage of that. The battery can only charge as fast as a charger will feed it. I don't know of many boaters that have 50 amp per bank chargers they use to charge their boat batteries. Most are less than 10 amps per bank, those that know a little about how they work will have a 10 -15 amp per bank. Now, it might transfer that energy faster because of its lower internal resistance, but it can still only do it at the rate the charger is going to be able to supply it.. So for charging purposes, what good does it do to say you have a C5 battery when the max your charger will charge it at is C1-C2. So it's still going to take just as long to charge an AGM as a flooded cell if both are at the same AH rating and discharge level. Unless you sell some miricale batteries or sprinkle magic dust on yours. Battery power is very finite, not infinite. They can only produce so many watts of power. Does not, matter how they are constructed. As they produce power, it reduces the amount of power left in them to produce, plain and simple. AGM's do not have some sort Perpetual design that will let them produce power and not discharge, like you seem to claim they can. If it could produce more power over a longer period of time, it "would" have a higher a higher RC rating. I used to laugh about what a DJ on the radio in that area said about the drivers there. Something like, "the driver in front of you was nuts, and the one behind you was an idiot. I was station at Langley AFB for six years, found a lot of truth in that statement.

I've come to the conclusion you seem to have a problem with me, or my suggestions, I think it best if I stay out of your post from now on, and felt it best if I deleted my post to keep from creating more conflict. I'm just and old, dumb redneck that doesn't know much about this stuff and you seem to have all the answers anyway.