I bought a 2006 Nitro 482 with a Mercury 115 2 stroke. This is the first bass boat over 15 feet that I have owned. I am happy with the boat but have noticed that it takes what seems to be more time than other bass boats to get up on plane. Lots of my friends own boats and bass boats and almost all of them are telling me to change my prop. I am running a stainless 3 blade prop with a 21 inch pitch. I forget the manufacturer of the prop but it must be a very common one because when I show it to people they seem to have the same one. In any case I was wondering if there is any one who could help me out and suggest whether this is the proper pitch for my HP rating and boat size. 

 

Thanks

 

Mark

It does have to do with the prop for sure. My factory prop that came on my 150 mercury would get on plane really fast but would go slower on plane. When I busted it on a stump last year, I bought a new one and it's stainless, it takes a little while to get on plane, but when it does it will go way faster. I don't remember the exact sizes but I can find out if you need me to.

Let's cover the basics, first.  Can you verify that the motor is trimmed all the way in when taking off?

its trimmed all the way down

Usually, slow planing is from being over-propped, but that 21 doesn't seem too much.  I know when I went from a 27 to a cupped 29 on my Bullet, planing was really slow, but I gained some serious top end speed.  I feel like something else is off.  How is the boat loaded, is the motor working properly, is the prop in good condition... there's a lot of factors, and it's not an exact science.  Can you talk to the former owner?

 

Other thing you can look at is prop slip when trying to plane.  You need pitch, RPM, LU gear ratio, and actual GPS speed.  You might be able to determine better what's from that.  Do you have access to a lower pitch prop, or same pitch in a four blade?

I find my boat planes slightly faster with the engine not all the way down, because the engine can spin up faster.  Its not a huge difference, but it is noticeable. How are your RPMs at wide open, are you able to get close or hit the max RPM rating of your engine?