
Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
First off, in order to determine max rpms, the brand of motor will help. My gut instinct says it will be around 5500 for maximum RPM, so yes...you would be correct in that 7000 is way too high. BUT...in order to be sure that the rpms are too high, it would be of benefit to have the tach checked to be sure. I have a feeling the tach might be something to consider as that particular boat weighs 960 pounds with a 90hp rating. A 50hp motor should get somewhere around 26 - 28 at best so 23 is not too far off.
How is the boat coming out of the hole if he punches it? spins? pops out?
A rough way to check is to see where the rpms are at idle while in gear. somewhere around 800 rpms would be about right.
Now...given the tach is reading correct, I would first look at where the motor is mounted on the transom. Is it high off of it, or is it flat on the top of the transom? If it is flat on the transom, I would say you are looking at going to something in a 11-3/4 x 17, and my gut instinct says the motor will be either a Johnson 2 stroke with a 2.42:1 gear ratio, or a Mercury bigfoot which will have a similar ratio around 2.33:1 (please do not quote me directly on that..the ratio escapes me right now).
As for the steering, there is probably not anything you can do with that as some of the steering brands out there do not have a design like Teleflex brand has with their no-feedback steering. I once ran our neighbor's lund angler and if I let go of that wheel, I'd flip the boat. It was just the design of the system. So...if the wheel and cables were to be replaced, you could alleviate that issue...otherwise, make sure the steering wheel is always in hand.
Steve
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