Jet Outboard

[petey100]

I have a Tracker 1754CC Jon boat and I Had a 90/65 Merc Jet on it for four trips then it died on me . It went ok on chop if you were up on plane at a good clip but if you slowed down it would beat you up bad. I just got it back from Tracker with its new Mercury 40 EFI JET and I did the Smartcraft Mercmonitor and a Garmin 421S. I am hoping it performs ok and well that it is reliable unlike my 90/65 . I think the 90/65 was too heavy and that the lighter weight of the 60/40 will help me . I only sucked up weeds once and well it sucked! Long story short I like jets and where you can go with them vs prop. If you do suck up weeds you stop and knock them off If you hit bottom with your prop you stop and paddle!

[jet man]

I have run jet outboards since about 1990 on the Mississippi. This summer after this post was started I finally took the plunge an purchased an inboard jet.
www.riverpro-boats.com
Wahoo; what a great platform to fish out of and I problably don't burn much more gas with the 200 opti at mid range than I did with my 60/45 jet which I had to push wide open most of the time.
Handles way better than a jon for sure
Guess what, it still does not like weeds. Plus getting them unplugged is not as simple as lifting your outboard and reaching over the back end LOL

[T Mac]

It depends on what you plan to use it for.
I have one. It is my "other" boat.
We need jets to run up and down our rivers in eastern Montana.
It gets me into some great areas for fish and for hunting, that I wouldn't have time or means to get to otherwise.
On lakes... no. I use my 20' Lund on our windy lakes.


Petey... You can never do better by going to less horsepower on a jet rig. Unless you go with a smaller, lighter boat, too. Lightness is key.
And yes... one needs a pretty flat bottom boat to work well with jet outboards. That means when you get out in chop... you will get beat to *@#% .
Worse yet, ... In chop... if you start grabbing air between waves and you will bend a crank or push rod, sooner or later.

I learned all this stuff (as a dealer and user) the hard way.

[Brookieslayer]

dont buy a tunner they suck too much air whenyou hit standing waves in rivers a 3 degree deadrise is a great hull for a jet boat.

Later.

[T Mac]

Originally Posted by Brookieslayer

dont buy a tunner they suck too much air whenyou hit standing waves in rivers a 3 degree deadrise is a great hull for a jet boat.

Later.

I agree... personally, I don't want a tunnel on a boat with an mid sized outboard jet. Besides what "Brookieslayer" mentions, the tunnel is just more inefficiency in an already compromised situation. The tunnel actually slows you down when a n OB jet is at the back end of it.