Max HP on a V20

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by Pipe_Dream

Back in the day the old Pipe Dream had a 155 (commercial) Evinrude on it. Okay for two people, it tended to bog down with 4-5 people, fuel, gear, etc. That was why we moved up in HP.

All you guys with 150s: are they adequate for a loaded V-20 or V-21 with bottom paint?

A prop change probably would have made all the difference in the world. Prop selection is far more crotical than most believe, and can make the difference between a boat that works or not. That 155 evinrude was nothing more than a regular 150 with flat exhaust chest. Theres alot of v-20 owners out there who still run them on v-20's and even larger boats with no problems. But if you put a prop on with not enough blade area or too much rake, and the boat won't ever want to plane or even run out on top.

A good example was my 16 foot flat bottom jon boat I had. With a 3 blade 11 pitch prop it was all it had to get on plane with 3 adults, but did okay with just me. Switched to a 4 blade 11 pitch solas, and it would jump up with 1 or 3 people in it, and actually gained almost 2mph top speed. I saw similiar results with my carolina skiff 19 dlx. With the blade it did okay until you gotsome weight in it, then the prop just slipped, and the bow went for the sky planing, changed to thesame pitch in a 4 blade, and that sucker would take you off your feet planing. Just to throw a curve ball in there to sgow the importance of having the correct prop, I switched to a different 4 blade, same exact putch and diameter, but it was a michigan wheel instead of a solas, and the boat became a complete dog that gulped fuel to run on plane. Or my current Sundance. With the factory reccomended 3 blade prop, the boat barely got on plane, and porpoised so severely it was unuseable on plane. I have a feeling thats how I got theboatso cheap was the prior owner was fed up with it not being useable. I went through 8 props before I found 2 that would work on it(I wanted an aluminum andal a stainless for it), and actually made the boat safe to run.

Many people have formed bad opinions about boat/engine combos simply because they were in a boat that was setup incorrectly.