17'2" double eagle butt heavy trim tabs?

[bonez10]

any of you guys out there run double eagles and find they are butt heavy I have moved as much weight as I can forward but with a 115 yammy, 9.9 kicker, dual batteries and half my fuel at the back I cant seem to keep it on step below 19 mph. any one put trim tabs on ? I'm thinking Bennett m80's just wondering if someone has done this before I spend the $800 thanks

 

[profisher]

Tabs won't help you when you are trolling. I owned a 1989 17 Ft Double Eagle that I bought new. It had a 115 Yami 2 stroke and 9.9 Yami 4 stroke on it. My was ok because I had the boat made with the 25 gallon tank in between the back to back seats close to mid ships. I sat on the top of the well in a swivel seat and steered the 9.9 with a custom tiller handle....the motor was a remote so throttle was on the gunnel. I think your better fix would be to move the fuel and batteries forward a bit. I only had a battery on that boat as well. I think back then we still ran manual riggers so didn't need 2 batteries.

 

[Fisherman Rob]

Yes, but I don't find it too bad. On my '96 the water level is right at the splash well drain when stationary. I have a 115 Yamaha 2 stroke which i think is about 370lbs. I put a SE Sport 300 fin on and that helped getting out and on the plane a lot. Next time I'm out I'll check how slow I can go before falling off the plane. I think I can go below 19 mph though. A compromise for having a deep V is that it doesn't plane as flat as a Boston Whaler or similar.

 

[Cmiles]

My 98 de rides great with a 90 Honda and 9.9 yam kicker but I had a 94 17-2 hourston beforehand with a 115 yam and 99 kicker that did ride very butt heavy a set of bennetts fixed the problem on the hourston I'm sure they would work just as well on the de

 

[casper5280]

Mine old boat was the same a Profisher's 130 2 stroke in the back and 4 stroke kicker but I had a 20 gal bow tank in it. The guy I got the boat from make the switch and turned the old below deck tank spot in to a fish locker.

 

[casper5280]

I think the main problem with the older Double Eagles may be that they were made for 2 strokes and guys started switching over to the new 4 strokes and newer Eagles don't seem to have a problem with the heavier 4 strokes. Maybe the had redesigned the placement of things in the boat, Don't know for sure haven't really looked at the all that close.

 

[Fisherman Rob]

I'm going guess that a lot of the older double eagles, before they had the fibreglass deck liners (95 and older?), have wet foam in them. The older design was susceptible to water intrusion were the deck meets the hull. On the other hand, this makes the older DEs easier to rip the deck out and replace.

 

[RiverBoy]

Put a hydrofoil on your outboard. Problem solved for $50. I had the same problem with my 17' Campion Explorer. 4 stroke Yamaha 90, Gas tank , kicker, battery my fat butt behind the centre console etc etc all heavy at the stern. Ocean water almost level with splash well drain. Used to bug me, now I don't mind, that's where I keep my fish. Always keeps them nice and cool with fresh ocean water.
Anyways with the installation of a hydrofoil it is a different boat. Runs more level, fuel economy is better. Now it leaps out of the hole. Big bonus: when you come out of plane, you don't get that wall of water destined to swamp your boat. Hydrofoil pretty much all but eliminated this.

 

[Ripperoflips]

I'v got a old 84 17.2 DE that came with a old 70 Evinrude and it took forever to get up on the plane with two batteries and 17 gal. tank at the back, a friend suggested to try some hydro wings that you mount on the cavitation plate. I put some on and after that with just me in the boat it jumped on to the plane, but a different story when there was more than just myself on board. After the old 70 died I put a Merc 115 2 stroke and didn't have any problem jumping out of the hole after that. You might want to try some of those HYDRO WINGS, really help when you're under powered for your weight.

 

[bonez10]

Thanks for all the replys
It gets and and goes good. It's just when it's a little choppy and I want to slow down it starts to fall off step
I've heard hydrofoils put a lot of extra strain on the cavition plate and transom .

 

[SpringVelocity]

any of you guys out there run double eagles and find they are butt heavy I have moved as much weight as I can forward but with a 115 yammy, 9.9 kicker, dual batteries and half my fuel at the back I cant seem to keep it on step below 19 mph. any one put trim tabs on ? I'm thinking Bennett m80's just wondering if someone has done this before I spend the $800 thanks

Have you checked what is underneath your floor? You might want to check that you don't have waterlogged foam. Those boats are notorious for that. Trim tabs are awesome if you can get them. If you cant I recommend a hydrofoil.

It will push nose in water, and also start planing at lower rpm. But before you do that really check what is under your floor. If you have water logging that is your issue. Plus if you don't deal with it kiss the transom goodbye. They don't take long to get soft if there is an issue with water beneath floor.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Thanks for all the replys
It gets and and goes good. It's just when it's a little choppy and I want to slow down it starts to fall off step
I've heard hydrofoils put a lot of extra strain on the cavition plate and transom .

No they dont I wouldn't worry about that. They wont do anything to transom or cavitation plate.

 

[Dencope]

I have a set of m80's for sale. Older but still in box and never used. Spoke with Bennet and they said they haven't changed much over time. And they're hydraulic actuated. Pm me if your interested and I can send you some pics.

 

[halimark]

I had the 17.6 DE and also noticed it started to get butt heavy over time. Slower on plane, sluggish and a heavyier feeling when winching onto her trailer. As some have already said, I drilled a hole into the bottom of the stern under the existing plug and installed a screwed in plug. First time the 18" spade bit went in probally 10 gallons of water poured out. After that I undid the plug each trip, and maybe half a cup of water would come out, but the butt heavy problem disapered, The correct thing to have done would be to fix properly, remove the floor and wet foam then redo. I sold as is and bought another 18.6.

HM