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2500 Shake down cruise and discussion


Tall Tails

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I took possession of our new 2500 Hybrid on Thursday evening. I ran it for 3 hours on Friday and about the same today. Big, big difference from the 2200-V that I had for so long. I still feel like I'm driving someone else's boat. LOL. Over the 2 days we used up about 26 gallons of fuel. I filled up today and figured my MPG at 3.3 overall. I'm happy with that. That includes all the idle speed, etc required during the break-in period.

***The fuel tank takes forever to fill due to the EPA required vent and carbon filter. If someone knows how to work around this please let me know. It took at least 15 minutes to trickle the fuel in slow enough so that the pump wouldn't keep kicking off. ***

The boat performs well. True to what others have reported, the RPM's and speed pretty much match from planing speed on up to cruise and beyond. I think we will have to do a prop swap before I can really see top end. Brief runs to full throttle and back down have only shown the motor turning about 5200 rpms. We put a 20 pitch 4 blade Power-Tech on it thinking that without the T-top the 300 could swing it. I'm thinking its too much. Will discuss with the dealer this week.

I'm finding that the center live well does not like to fill while sitting at the dock. This is my normal routine to fill it before I leave to catch bait. Total airlock both days. Once the boat is moving it fills without a problem. Something to remember....fill the well on the way to the bait spot because it probably won't fill once I'm anchored and throwing the net. 

The clear plastic/lexan plate that protects the live well drain has some quirks of its own. Right now our bait is on the small side. The slots cut in the plate are just large enough to let the bait get behind the plate and immediately stop up the works. I took a piece of screening from a pool fence and rubber banded it over the plate this afternoon.  Tomorrow I will see if this stops the problem. 

I chose to have an Engle cooler instead of the factory matched front cooler. I also up sized to the 65 qt vs the usual 50 quart. Both for seating and drinks I thought this would be better. Using the supplied straps to secure it to the floor keeps the cooler too close to the console and the cooler cannot be opened. I stuffed a couple tennis balls behind the cooler to keep it spaced away from the console. It works...for now. I will have to find something more appealing than this for long term use. 

2 days isn't much time to find all the things that will be unique to this boat but it's a good start. 

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I've been looking at bay boats and following all the build threads. I plan to order a 2500 but the wife is making me wait until next year. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I like in Cedar Key Florida so if anyone is ever out this way let me know. I would love to check one out in person and possible get to ride on one before I make the big purchase. 

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On 8/12/2017 at 4:29 PM, Tall Tails said:

I'm finding that the center live well does not like to fill while sitting at the dock. This is my normal routine to fill it before I leave to catch bait. Total airlock both days. Once the boat is moving it fills without a problem. Something to remember....fill the well on the way to the bait spot because it probably won't fill once I'm anchored and throwing the net. 

You will need to confirm, but on my 23 HPS both the center livewell and the release well are run from one intake source. They have separate valves to each well, but they come off a T-Fitting and if both valves are open it struggles to prime at rest. If I close the valve to the release well it will prime no problem. About 90% of the time I'm only using the center livewell so I close the valve to the release well and use for storage so it stays dry. If you need to keep both valves open all the time you'll just have to turn the pump on while running, once it gets flowing it will keep pumping just fine.

 

Josh B.

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Josh, that is the same set up I have. I did try closing the valve to the release well but didn't get any result. Granted it was the first day and I wasn't going to sit at the dock monkeying with it for too long. :). Once the newness wears off a bit I will fiddle around with it. Once its primed and going it doesn't seem to have any problems. 

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Here is the clear plastic livewell drain protector that I have modified. I rubber banded a piece of heavy screen material over it to stop small bait and grass from going through the slots. I then had to make it fit tighter from top to bottom to stop bait and grass from going over the top of the plastic. I took a piece of hose and slit it length wise. It is on the bottom which I found was an easier fit than on the top. Not pretty but it worked perfectly yesterday. Placing it with the screen on the inside allows me to just pull any grass or dead baits off the slick plastic. 

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