Upgrading River boat

[Fish-a -holic Joe]

I have an old 14' Jon boat with a 30hp tiller no power trim or tilt because of rock monsters and submerged trees in deep water with current.  I motor troll a lot. Thinking of upgrading to a 16' Mod. V tunnel with additional transom floats to keep the back higher and staying with a tiller 30hp.  Would a jack plate be necessary or feasible?   Also, thoughts on yea or nay for power trim?

 

Fish-a-holic Joe

[WRB]

Oct 2009 thread opened for a unrelated question.

Your Jon boat is too narrow to support the weight on the transom to ride higher on the water surface. Adding more weight with a jack plate will not help. More surface via a wider hull at slow speed displaces less water riding higher.

Tom 

[Catt]

4 hours ago, Fish-a -holic Joe said:

I have an old 14' Jon boat with a 30hp tiller no power trim or tilt because of rock monsters and submerged trees in deep water with current.  I motor troll a lot. Thinking of upgrading to a 16' Mod. V tunnel with additional transom floats to keep the back higher and staying with a tiller 30hp.  Would a jack plate be necessary or feasible?   Also, thoughts on yea or nay for power trim?

 

Fish-a-holic Joe

 

I'm currently running a Alweld 1652VV Marsh RD Package Tunnel with a Tahotsu 40 hp tilt/trim.

 

To run in our shallow water marshes I installed  Nauticus Smart Tabs.

 

The only issue is when launching go slow or the tabs will pull the transom down.

 

 

[Way2slow]

Worth their weight in gold when running shallow or getting on plane in a hurry.

 

Catt,  Seveal post up you posted on the topic of motor motor height.  I replied to a post about having the skeg above the bottom of the boat.  Was not referring to the anti-cav plate.  Not sure how this old topic came up but just happened to read that.

[WRB]

Planning tabs or tunnel hulls don’t help at the OP’s 2 mph or trolling speeds.

Tom

[Catt]

@Way2slow 2009 I was running a 40 Tahotsu 2 stroke & totally different boat.

 

Now it's a 40 Tahotsu 4 stroke & the boat is a whole lot heavier due to built in flooring & sides (no ribs exposured), no Jack Up/Set Back Plate.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure we had a disconnect some where but totally agree with your assessment.

[Way2slow]

Many years back I bought a tunnel hull jon with a jet drive and no jack plate.  Hated that sucker.  Trying to maneuver around off plane was horrible and in current, almost impossible.   I finally swapped out the jet drive for a prop drive and installed hydraulic jack plate.  On plane, I saw almost no difference in what I could run over and there was only a couple inches difference off plane, but could easily maneuver around.  

I've been in tunnel hulls with and without the hydraulic jack plate and the ones with it are so much nicer.  

I don't have a hydraulic jack plate on my 20' flats boat (it's a tunnel hull) and thought many times on adding one, but since it hasn't been in the water in seven years, and I don't have a bunch of extra money the throw away after retiring, that's never happened and probably never will.

[Catt]

If ya really wanna run shallow water & not worry about your motor hitting anything Google Havoc boats with a surface drive outboard. 

 

But get ready to pay big time ?

 

[J Francho]

17 hours ago, WRB said:

Oct 2009 thread opened for a unrelated question.

I split the topic.

 

28 minutes ago, Catt said:

Google Havoc boats with a surface drive outboard.

Watching their videos never gets old.

[moguy1973]

Could always go with a jet prop and no tunnel hull.  They'll get you shallow and no worry for breaking a prop or lower unit.  Guys run them all over the rivers here in inches of water.