Boat gas

[kstonich]

I use have a 150 black max on my skeeter I could go 80+ mph with a 5x25 prop but burned 6-8 gallons an hour running it. I miss the speed but I now have a Lund 1800 loaded, a 130 Honda a 9.9 kicker motor a front mounted electrical trolling motor 3 batteries and with a couple of large ice chests , I'm loaded with weight, I can fill the 24 gallon tank and run all over Cumberland and fish up and down the lake for my typical 3 day trip and not need to buy more gas. They are quiet , you can hold a normal conversation running up the lake at top speed which for my boat is around 43 and I can even troll with the big motor all day if I wanted to with no fouled plugs. I don't miss my 2 stroke gas guzzler

[Shellkat]

Sounds like I can buy a whole lot of gas for what a four stroke costs. Fished all day yesterday in Elkhorn and never burned the first drop. Took my 14 and 17 year old daughters and caught a ton of tweeted and about 20 14 inch smallies. It was fun the girls had a blast.

[Shellkat]

Redeye not tweeted

[GeoFisher]

You will get much better gas mileage out of a four stroke but I'm not sure if the cost will make up for the cost of a new motor. The one great thing about four stroke motors is you can troll all day and it won't foul out the plugs. Also very quite you can hardly hear it running.

4 strokes are great.........but the new 2 strokes are pretty stellar with fuel economy. a Used optimax will get GREAT fuel economy. I get about 7 - 8 mpg at 4500 rpm..........that pushes me about 35mph in my Tracker PT190..

[GeoFisher]

What type of propeller do you run. 3 blade or four blade and what is the pitch of the blades. And like was said above running at 3/4 full rpm will save money on gas. It takes much more energy to go full throttle than 1/2 or 3/4 throttle.

Reducing drag helps if you can find a way to do that. Clean the bottom of the boat and keep it clean and streamlined. Anything that can reduce the friction between the water and the boat helps too.

Of course the tilt of the motor can make a big difference too.

I've got an older Johnson 35 HP which is a 1978 model. It still runs good to this day and I bought it back in the late 1970's. I run some sea foam though it from time to time and change out the spark plugs once in a while. I use good premium oil in the gas and mix it correctly. I'll add some stabile to the gas to prevent it from going bad if I have to store the gas in the tank for the winter.

Summer gas has a lower vapor pressure due to USEPA regulations that require the Refineries to reformulate the gasoline in certain areas of the country to help lower evaporative emissions of hydrocarbons that help form "Ozone". So the gas may not give you as much "KICK" in the summer time as in the winter months. It's more volatile in the winter months. This can effect your gas mileage and power I would guess.

Hey, is reformulated fuel used everywhere. I know Lou area requires it, but what about other areas.....I honestly don't know.

[GeoFisher]

Geo, boat is 2014, motor is 1976

Yea, I read that........Just joshing ya

[Shellkat]

Geo, I just retired my 1957 Richmond to build this boat. I used everything down to the bilge pump off the old boat.