TOPIC: 1958 alumacraft semi V with 15hp evinrude

Wondering if anybody else has a similar setup. I tried it the other day and almost flipped. It just wanted to raise the nose and wallow around.

The boat has a 17" transom, and the motor is a 20" shaft, so I made a jack plate with 3" rise to get the cavitation plate right at about the same height as the bottom of the boat. The jack plate is also about 2.5" thick, so it puts the motor 2.5" back.

Im in the process of moving the trolling battery and 3 gallon fuel tank up front, but that really polarizes the mass. Big motor in back, my ass right in front of that, and the trolling and fuel all up front.

Any suggestions?

Ill get pics tomorrow. Its cool, and dosent leak!

Pictures 1958 Alumacraft E. 12 foot fishing boat, max recommended 12hp and 3 passengers. In reality, 2s a crowd on this thing.

Jackplate.

Prop height relative to hull bottom.

Heres where Im going with the front end. Ive removed the front seat, and replacing it with a simple plywood platform. Will bolt to same flanges that the stock seat was riveted to. Stock seat can be put back in. Im also planning a plywood floor under the plat form to hold the trolling battery and fuel tank. In test runs, I got fuel leakage onto the floor, and it looks like that could eventually cause a leak. So, gas and battery get a plywood floor, but rest of the boat stays bare.

Any suggestions?

Im also looking to add controls, and steering eventually. If this thing trims out well, then I would rather drive it in a conventional manner. Tiller steering was kinda scary with 15hp so far.

Suggestion:

If I were in your shoes, ........ I could hear my wife telling me now, "You just need to loose some weight."

That's what the Wife always says just before she falls overboard. Hmmm, could there be a connection ?

Yeah, but its easier to move stuff around on the boat! I noticed on the youtube videos,,, the old fat guys in similar boats are riding slow and bow high. The skinny guys are planing and going fast. Looks like having a passenger up front helps too.

Possibly testing again today. I have the motor set all the way down now. Before it was 1 notch up on the trim. Ill have all the movable weight up front.

Less wind today too. The other day it was very windy. My minkota 46 even had trouble making progress.

Test went well today. Less wind. Better balance. Better angle on motor. Very controllable. Quite fast. I was lapping at about same speed as a couple ski pullers and a big powerful pontoon. I think they were wake boarding, not quite as fast as skiing. Still,, the little tin boat proved itself.

I got some worried looks at dock, folks wondering if I needed help. Nobody said much after we went skating round the lake though. The evinrude 15 worked well, although seriously, it loads up after just a short time at lower speed, trolling, docking speed. Not sure I like that motor,, but its what I got.

Im going to research smaller prop for the 15. I boat at 4500 feet plus,, up to and including around 10000 feet,, so I think smaller prop will help.

Ill post pics of the cleaned up front end after its finished.

If it's loading up, it probably needs an idle mixture adjustment, running too rich at altitude. Lean out the idle mix with the motor warmed up, in gear.

Turn the mixture knob clockwise until the motor "coughs" then back off about 1/4 turn or so. See how that does. Best adjustment is one that lets the motor idle in gear cleanly, and still allow smooth acceleration. If you rapidly twist open the throttle and the motor dies, it's still too lean.

Note that if it doesn't have enough adjustment on the knob to fully lean out the mixture, then pull the knob off its shaft and re-clock it to gain more travel. The idle mix knob is a slip-fit on the serrated idle mixture needle, so you should be able to pull or carefully pry it off.

If it has standard points ignition, it should run Champion L77JC4 spark plugs.

If it has the CDI switchbox, you should be using QL77JC4 plugs.

Both plug numbers have an extended electrode and are supposed to be good for idle quality.

HTH............ed

O/K, next time out I will warm it up and adjust idle in gear. I basically adjusted it for starting. Once adjusted for starting it was left alone.

As for plugs, its got ngk bh6s. Its a points motor. I had to redo the whole thing. Ignition, carb rebuild. Dealt with bad gas and rusty gas tank. Now it runs well, but yeah, I think still too rich.

It would be great to have a cdi motor with electric start!