Location: Green Bay, WI | I few years ago I had a Tournament Pro 185 with a 130 Honda on it--console, not a tiller. The thing was a D-O-G, dog! I realize that a 4-stroke isn't a 2-stroke when it comes to torque, but I couldn't even get the bow out of the water with the 130. So after *extensive* testing (with different props and numerous attempts at changing motor height), and an Alumacraft engineer coming to drive the boat...they told me "nope, that's just not enough motor for that boat." You don't say? I couldn't get the thing to go faster than about 33-34 mph. I know you don't buy an Alumacraft boat for the speed, but still--it took nearly WOT to get anywhere at 30mph!
So I upgraded to a 200 Honda, and man did that thing handle great. It was an awesome boat after that, and I actually got better gas mileage with 70 more horsepower, simply because I could get the boat onto plane. That would be my concern in the situation you describe--not being able to get the boat on plane.
So while I have never run the tiller model at all, I would be very skeptical with a 90-horse tiller on that rig. It might run just fine, but I have my doubts. At the very least you should drive one with similar horsepower, if at all possible. That's a real heavy boat for 90 horsepower, IMO, but it's a great hull and will literally go through anything!
TB
EDIT: By the way, I wanted a 150-175 four stroke on that boat, but Alumacraft told me the 130 would work great--and I even pressed them on it a bit before getting the rig. But in the end I took their word for it, and I think that actually hurt my case a bit because when I later told them how poorly it performed--and they spent a month or more, basically not believing how poorly it performed and suggesting that the dealer perhaps hadn't set the rig up correctly. So when they finally sent a guy out and we spent a frigid say in late October running it and swapping props, you can imagine my dismay when he told me that there wasn't enough motor for the hull... I had been telling them that for 2 months! So you are smart to explore this issue fully before hand--but I don't personally believe you can go wrong with that hull.
Edited by tcbetka 1/24/2008 6:29 PM
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