Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire To plane or not to plane Come in boat peeopls...

2019 Tracker 175 TXW with a Mercury 60. Takes a good while to get the boat up on plane. Really don't want to mess around with the prop as I only have a top speed of 32mph now and don't want to slow it down. So, will a Stingray plane get the ass end up quicker or a waste of money and time? Not horribly enthused about drilling holes in my motor but will if it provides a good solution. Buddy had a no drill one and it fell off and was lost before he could try it out. So no, not an option.

Your top speed is typical of that size boat and motor. You might take a look at moving some weight forward in the boat to the extent you can. Batteries, fuel, fat asses etc.

Take the stops out.

Move weight forward and adjust the trim.

The fins do help, but always check periodically that your bolts and nuts are snug, if left loose, the fin can vibrate and crack your cavitation plate.

There must be some tests on YouTube?

I had a 15 foot with a 40 long shaft Yamaha, it took forever to plane out, Move weight forward. I put a 60LBS sack of sand under the front deck, it worked for years.

Its been too long and I don't remember the size of motor but Dad had a 14'er that would stand on end before it planed. He put a 5 gal bucket of sand in the bow and it helped a lot.

Do this. Also look at whether or not your motor is mounted too low, it might help to raise it up an inch or two if it's too low.

That, and adjust the trim angle of the motor. The prop may need to be moved in closer to the stern.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Clean-Used-1998-Mercury-100-HP-4-Cylinder-Carb-2-Stroke-20-L-Outboard-Motor/303254105287?hash=item469b5a6cc7:g:0oQAAOSwIG1dVXT1

Same here with a 84 Tracker with a 40 long shaft Mercury. Had a welder at work build me a transom extension and raised the motor 8 or 9 inches until the plate was level with the bottom of the boat. Dunno why Bass Pro put those long shaft motors on. Had the boat delivered as Tracker didn't have any dealers in Texas at the time. Wouldn't have bought it with that motor if I'd seen it at the Springfield store.

A long shaft motor on a short shaft boat will do that, too.

I used a planer plate on my Skeeter with Yamaha 150 motor. Got up on plane a lot quicker, but more importantly, allowed me to run skinny water at much lower speeds without the boat coming off plane. Very useful when running in stumpy or shallow areas. When running wide open and trimmed out, it was out of the water and has no influence on the boat's behavior.

Engine sounds like it’s buried too deep being a long shaft. May need a jack plate if there isn’t enough adjustment to raise cav plate to near hull depth. After that adjustment it should perform much better. If more is needed rather than a Stingray, look at Nauticus Smart Tabs. They are auto adjusting trim tabs and quite effective and inexpensive. I run them on both my boats and they really improve planing and running on lower rpms to stay on plane. Highly recommend them. Good luck.