ok guys after alot of looking and searching for a boat and motor, i finally picked up a 17-56 triton aluminum duck boat with a 35 gator tail. Love it so far just had some questions. I ran 5 guys in it yesterday and hit tops 24 then went by myself and hit 27 tops is this bout right? Im new to these things so not much in the know and when comin out of a whole like just starting off seems a little sluggish. motors only got 88 hours on it and still under warranty

also to add it seems a little hard to steer. the boat is ribbed, dont know if that matters or not

that is right if your motor doesnt have any mods. They tend to bog down on the hole shot with a stock motor. Adding a modded carb such as a mikuni will help tremendously. Your speeds are pretty good carrying a load, and your light load speed seems about right as well. Steering takes some getting used too from a regular outboard. play with your trim a little bit and find the sweet spot when running. Your boat isnt the most ideal for a MM, with the ribbed bottom it has, but it will work. just makes it hard to slide through the mud or off of stumps if you get stuck. good luck..enjoy your new rig!

ya eventually im gonna buy a slick bottom boat i use mine for bowfishin and stuff and found a good deal on it and couldnt pass it up. ya it takes a little more muscle to run for sure but i also dont have a handle for when i stand up to run it i just run it sitting down. it also has a hopkins exhaust

ok took my boat again and when i try and run it full speed the motor the handle turns to the right real hard makin the boat turn left and have to push it back with two hands. Im trying to figure out why it is so hard? is it cause its on a ribbed boat? I also heard i might need to move my motor over an inch to the left of the middle rib?

Either (A) you're trimmed up to high, or (B) you need to bend you torque tab on your skeg a lil more.

for shits and giggles try standing up in the center and run it and see how it is. Some times you just have to move weight around like shifting the gas tank over or something. If all else fails bend the skeg a lil bit.

When I load my boat up for hunting or fishing I can load it light or heavy and get no tiller torque just by balancing the load before I pull off. Sliding an ice chest over as little as a foot can make a differance between easy running or a pain in the ass.

As camo stated when you trim up high you will get more tiller torque also but you should be able to get it managable.

ya deff dont know what the skeg is. muchless the torque tab to bend it. Ive tried gettin in the center didnt work still pushes the handle to the right hard still. is there any pics where i can see what the skeg and torque tab is?

Mine is actually just hard to straighten back when you are turning left at WOT. I misread your post. Anyway, try bending the rear of your skeg a little. This should help.

Yeah I have the exact same rig. That is a Triton 1756DS with a GTR 35. My motor is completely stock other than a K&N Air Filter. My speeds are pretty much the same as what your are getting I might hit oh 28-29 empty with just myself. My engine is a little sluggish also off the line from a dead stop, but like mentioned earlier the mikuni and a good exhaust would help that out. My boat also had a slight problem with tiller torque, but after bending the torque tab it seemed to fix the issue. As for the turning my boat seems to turn fairly easy and if cut hard enough will skim across the water sideways even with the ribs on the bottom of the boat.
As for the skeg and what to do i would first go to gator tails website and download the owners manual for your motor that would help out with any future maintenance that you will have to do.

Good I'm glad to hear somebody else has te exact same rig as mine ya its def sluggish off the line but will start goin. Is your motor straight in the middle of your boat or is it moved to the left an inch? Ya I'm gonna let a friend do it and help me out with it first had a atv before and know about them but this is new to me

all this info is good, but I would shift weight first, i got a mb and it torques too, they all do, movin your motor will help but trimmed too high it cant be stopped from pulling toward you. bend skeg as a last resort. every bend weakens the metal

yeah sorry i have not responded back sooner. But yeah my engine is dead center spent quite a while to make sure it was in the center of the boat. but i would make sure it is in the center and then try bending the torque tab if the problem persist and that should fix it. If those two things do not solve the issue i would not know where to go other than possibly calling up gatortail and asking for their input.

i just got back from the lake the torque is deff hard and still steers hard but still not understanding the torque tab is i downloaded the gator tail owners manual and still did not show me where it was, im gonna try and get with my buddy either tomorrow with a gator trax and gtr and see if he can show me deff do not want to bend the wrong thing.