Looking at possibly getting a GD 1654 and wondering if anyone has any experience with this hull. I noticed on GD website they have it listed as rated for a 35 hp SD in one location, but only a 27 hp SD in another location..??...

Anyone running a 35 GDSD on this hull? Any issues with porposeing or weight in the rear of the boat with this setup? I would be hunting 3 people, a dog and gear at the most, and not all that frequently. Mostly 2 guys a dog and gear and sometimes just myself. At times I can have a lengthy trip out and back and want to upgrade to a SD.


A buddy has a 1854 with 35 SD and it runs nice but Im worried about hiding and extra 2 feet of boat in the places I hunt (upper Mississippi River). Generally were hunting out of our boats.

Thanks

There are more boats in size than what is listed on the web site. Need to call go devil and ask them to send u their packet. Certain styles are rounded chines and others are tapered. I ordered the 56" wide (rounded chines for more control at high speeds). The 54" ur looking at is tapered chines are better at slower speeds


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They have two different models of the 1654, one is for a surface drive and the other for a longtail. One is squared chined and the over round chined. I would suggest going with the 1660 over the 1654. The 1654 has high sides. The 1660 is the fastest boat and the same exact price as the 1654.

The 60 can get on top the grass a bit but still runs great. I run the 1848 tapered chines model. I attempted to get it stuck yesterday but managed to get out of every spot on my own. I love the 1848. I also really enjoy the 1660. Where I hunt the high side models are a pain because of the windy conditions. High sides catch the wind and make it tough on the tiller. That is just my opinion. You really can't go wrong with any model. He designed a group of boats that really perform well. I would not change a thing about my boat.

High sides?? Are we talking about 20" sides as "high sides" vs the 17.5" ??

a buddy of mine had the GDLT boat with the rounded chimes 16x44 with a 35gtr on it and it performed great. now he has a 16x60 GD surface drive boat with a 35gtr and it performs good just doesnt take the turns as good as the LT boats with the rounded chimes

and the gdlt boats are short transom boats and the surface drive boats are long transom if im not mistaking

i run a gd 1660 x 35gdsd. i absolutely love the boat. i would go with the 60 because of the stability and if youre considering a 54 they arent gonna hide any different. two of us can stand on the sides and its not even going to think about dunking a rail. it also flies. itll run 31 or so in shallow water with me and the dog and 9 gallons of fuel. only think i will say is if you hunt 4 people and/or shuttle a bunch of gear, i would go with the 1860 or 1854 because they carry a load a little better. however, that extra length makes it harder to hide moreso than the width. with 3 people, dog, 6 dozen dekes, waders, guns, 65quart cooler, handle of beam, 9 gallons of fuel, itll run about 24 in shallow water, 22 in deep water.

A friend of mine runs a 1656 with a GDSD, and it porpises pretty much uncontrollably when he rides solo at WOT. I think because it's so short and wide. With a load it gets better. But empty she bucks like a bull. I think you'd be better off in something longer. Just my opinion.

Trimming down helped, but it became a pain in the dick always adjusting the manual trim. Plus he had to trim it down basically until the prop was pretty much buried and it hurt his performance. He tried wedges, but they were too much. He tried welding a bead on the bottom, that did t help enough. He was talking about trim tabs, I'm not sure if he put em on yet or not. It's tricky with the cut back transom.

sounds like something is messed up with his tabs or something. i have a 1660 w a 35gdsd and its never even thought about porposing... lays completely flat regardless of where the weight is...

Round chines turn great at high speeds but slide at slow speeds. The tapered chines do the opposite. The 1848 model I have still turns ok at high speeds but not as good as a round chine. The tapered chines draft less water so they tend to operate better in the muck than the round chines with surface drives. If you riding in 5 inches or more of water then it really don't matter.

i dont see the point of round chine with these boats. it kinda defeats the purpose. a tapered chine is so much better than a square and still allows the mudboat to be a mudboat.

The round chine serves a good purpose for long tails. Makes it much easier to operate and perform. If can work well on surface drives on several different conditions. I am a tapered chines guy but still think round chines add value in certain conditions.

double posted - see next post -

Anyone have any info on what the minimum speed is to keep these boats on plane? Either 1660, 1854 etc, if there is a difference. Also, when talking about sliding during a turn with tapered chines, how much do you need to back off from WOT to minimize the sliding? I would imagine that the width of boat would also influence the tendency to slide, with wider boats wanting to slide more than narrow...correct????

I have very limited throttle time with a surface drive so I'm trying to narrow down what would suit me best. I will never be running mud flats as we don't have them up in WI on the Mississippi river, mostly where I run there will be varying amounts (down to a couple inches) of water on top of mud or sand, and in addition running through vegetation.

Well you have to understand that hulls behave differently in deep water (more than 3 feet)
shallow water (about 12") and flats (<3" to 4")

Deep water planing is a factor of loading when the bow rake clears the waterline which
under light loads maybe 12 mph or under very heavy loads closer to 20 mph....

When running WOT the tapered slides very little in deep water but the tendency to
slide becomes much greater in shallows and extreme in flats. My 1844 will still turn
so sharp you need to be holding on in the shallows as turning ability is almost identical
to deep water....

Science - as a hull goes from deep to shallow water - there is an increase in hull lift
which keeps the tapered from leaning and biting into the turn - because of the round
profile of the round chine (especially the narrow ones) it experiences the same lift
but can still lean to make the turns sharply....

See that video above again to see the leaning in action which results in sharp turns...

Hard bottom - the wider tapered 1660 has the edge
Veggies - the narrower 1844 has the edge
Loads - both carry 3 men well
1860 or 1856 - better 4 man performance but slower solo and a bit less maneuverable


Hope that helps.... But you really gotta drive em to understand it fully....