Took my rig out today for the first time since the test drive.
1860 GD with 35 GDSD
12 gallons up front plus two 200lb men for the load
The boat did pretty good. 25-26 deepwater saw 28 going across some shallows in the river.
First question is with the trim up it runs about 3800 with that load and that's where I was seeing my better speeds but the prop wants to blow out occasionally. Especially in a hard sliding turn, just when I get it turning and want to get back in the throttle the prop wants to blow out. If I trim down a quarter turn it holds the prop in the water better but I lose rpm down to about 3600 and also 2mph. It's a more comfortable ride like that too but I'm only getting 23-24 mph.
Not real sure on where to measure a three blade prop and the guy I got it from said it was fairly new.
Definitely gotta check out my float foam. It's a 2008 boat so no doubt its waterlogged, the boat feels kinda heavy and sluggish compared to my old 1844 with the foam removed.
Am I crazy or do you guys think This thing is slightly below what its optimum performance should be?


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Those numbers sound about right for that load with a stock motor I would check the foam and my out of water rpms


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I fought those a little with my old set up and my foam is no doubt water logged. Bending the tabs in front of the prop up seemed to help a little with not blowing out but depending on the load and water conditions I would adjust my trim a quarter to half turn as needed.

Also there's some pretty good tiller torque pushing toward me. Is that normal for a godevil? I've only driven a MBHD surface drive before which was pretty much an outboard as far as ease of operation.


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That's about how mine performed when i had the GD. Ran 24-25 with a new prop, 26 was fastest i ever saw

If properly adjusted, you shouldn't have any tiller torque or problems with your prop blowing out turning. Mine did when it was new but very minor adjusting got it just about perfect. RPM and speed sound about right for a stock carb model. Id check your lash and do a leak-down test on the engine to make sure you're healthy there and give a baseline for future wear and head problems, fresh plugs wouldn't hurt. Can't speak on the foam, you'll just have to check it out.
As far as your prop goes, measure one blade from hub to tip and multiply it by two to get your diameter, then measure your blade width at the thickest point.... If nothing else it'll give you some numbers to judge the wear by.

I would start there and a prop measurement for sure. Adjusting the skeg is almost a matter of preference. I almost want mine to pull very slightly away from me. It's just more comfortable for me on long runs. Not to the point that I have to use force to keep it straight. But just enough where I place my palm on the throttle and grip and it'll sort of hold itself, and hold the throttle open. Hard to explain but it works for me. If I stood and ran mine more, Id probably want the opposite, where it just holds against my leg... Some prefer perfectly neutral. Just make it comfortable for you...

Does your boat have the big or small pods in the back? I had the big pods, just the very bottom corners were wet, rest of the pod was find, i just wanted it out lol. Now the floor on the other hand, it was completely soaked

Same year as my boat. Do you have the extra pod in the center? just curious. Ive been thinking about making that for life jackets. I kinda like having that step up when I'm running through marsh.

Any foam that's been in a boat for several years, is a performance killer. I'd remove it all if it were mine.

I'll be cutting mine out of the excel here shortly. It's soaked under the floor.

I don't know what year it changed but I was told by coco himself when I picked mine up that it didn't have floor foam.

It probably wouldn't hurt to pull it up anyways and replace the rivits, all the rivits in mine were all busted if not about to. I was able to just pull the floor straight up by hand. I'll see if i can find the pic of what mine looked like underneath.

What the foam looked like, then what all was under the foam..i think I scooped up more mud out from between the ribs than anything. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1436740073.612923.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1436740087.929212.jpg

Does anyone know what year hulls had foam in the floor?

GD is supposed to be self trimming, but like you were saying mine will get to the optimal spot and be right at the verge of blowing out and if the water isn't perfectly smooth it will blow out. I just run it and pull down slightly, not enough to even make it uncomfortable, and it does great. I have toyed with the idea of bending the tabs just a little to see if it would help some, but I kind of like how it runs now. I have it trimmed down some and let it self adjust...

I found that the "self trimming " worked well in 3' or less of water but not as well in deep water.

Do you guys pin your handles or let them float? Seems like my screw is too tight bc if I let it float and then hit something I have to put one hand on the motor to push it back down otherwise it'll stay up and push the motor out of the water. I like to let it float bc im always up and down and the low position is too low for standing


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A couple years ago I had to tighten the nuts on the vertical pivot and I ended up over tightening them and had the same issue it sounds like you are having. The motor would pop up but not have enough weight to fall back down. If that doesn't help, you may have some built up corrosion in there from lack of grease. Just a word of warning if you adjust those nuts make sure you keep an eye on them, you may free them up enough to back all the way out from the vibration of the motor.

On another note bending those tabs on my motor helped "bite" the surface of the water and get the prop back down faster after hitting a log etc. A lot of times I'd have to let off the gas to help it but it would happen pretty quick.

How I set the handle was situational. If I was making long open water runs I'd pull all pins and let it float mostly for comfort. In shallow water/mud/veggies/ tight turns I'd lock in second position from bottom to be able to stand up or sit down and drive while being able to force the prop up or down on the fly. While standing up going through logs I'd put the pin in the above mentioned hole but let the handle float. that way the motor could kick up w/out yanking me but at the same time I could pick up the motor without crouching all the way down or having to sit down to do it.

I didn't always adjust the pin for changing bottom conditions but did for long stretches or a lot of tuns. Be sure you have a safety line attaching the pin to the motor if you have butter fingers like me.

I always kept mine pinned unless i was in an area i knew had alot of stump. If it was un-pinned it would blow out bad in shallow water or veggies, so i pinned it because i wanted to be able to hold it down in those conditions, and keep it un pinned in stumps incase i hit something, That tiller arm was a killer if it was pinned and and cought a stump..lol.

Yeah i've had it pinned and hit random logs in the marsh before and actually had to stop and turn the motor off to make sure of 2 things. 1) check if my leg was still there. 2) check if my prop was still there lol. That handle has no forgiveness...

I'm with you on the seat pedistal position. I sort of feel like that was a bit of wasted money on mine. It's in the complete wrong place. I just sit on the floatation pod. May sound like a puss but I've got one of those kneeling mats old lady's use while gardening, I throw it up there for a seat cushion.

I usually run with my handle pinned in the hole one up from the bottom. The handle will float a little for hitting objects and I can still hold the prop down if I need to in vegetation or whatever. I don't usually stand up, where I run that will generally get you a banana spider on your face or a tree limb thru the eye....

I use transom straps from the back handles to the eyes on my trailer and a long strap from the outer board bracket, around the base of the cav plate (above the prop/seal area) and to the other board bracket. I don't use the rope method like GD says to. My boat still moved way too much after the GG with the rope. With the transom straps tight it doesn't budge. My handle is up there just along for the ride, but I've never seen it bouncing yet... And some of the back roads I take to these little dirt boat ramps suck!

I used a ratchet strap over the back and transom straps like SETx mentioned. Never had an issue between long road trips and rough roads.