After a few years of longtail ownership on an small rig, today I finally picked up a legit mud rig. Found a 1754 Beavertail with a 35hp gator tail with electric trim. I was pretty in tune with the LT props, rpm's and HP. I have no clue about the SD's tho. When I had it out today, it was only rev'ing up to about 3600 RPMs. Is that normal? I didn't have a GPS on me, what kind of speed can I expect out of it? Is it best to run a SD trimmed up and spraying a long rooster tail?

Best thing to do is carry a GPS with you and trim the motor until you find your top speed. Then after a while of running like that you will get the feel of where the motor needs to be to get top speed.

Rpm is a tad low but not horrible.

Speed could be anywhere from 22-28 I would think.

Sent from my beeper

Does the boat have pods on it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is there a good GPS app you know of for an iPhone? Yes, it does have pods on it from the factory.

I use MotionX-GPS for IPhone.

Cut pods off for better performance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^what would perform better? I see how many of the guys on here say pods ruin performance on a SD but there isn't really a why or what specific thing performs better... Performance is a general term encompassing all boat functions.

You will get on step faster, carry a load better, and see better speeds. Pods create drag when getting on step and also distorts water going to the prop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pods create a tunnel hull effect and surface drives perform best with flat/smooth water behind the boat

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Do some reading of some of those pod threads. There is plenty of discussion as to what makes them bad. I've been involved in a few of them. I'm a big proponent of pods with some setups, but they take research and experimenting to be done correctly. They can't just be slapped on the back of a boat and all will be well. Most of the time, they only wind up offsetting some weight at the rear of the boat when at rest so it drafts a bit less water, and hurting performance (how quickly the boat is able to plane out, top speed, load carrying, and how shallow it can plane due to the pods dragging the ground) because of various factors.
So, performance in this conversation is defined as everything you want the boat to do better with a surface drive.

Every post I've read about those Beavertail boats is they suck with a SD and pods. Cut em off and you'll thank us later if you wait till season you'll regret it