Merc 150 optiax w/smart gauges

[Mykal]

Does anyone own a 1775 or 1800 Pro-V SE with a 150 Optimax w/smart gauges? I would like to know how far down the boat will troll. I'm trying to decide if I would need a kicker to cover the slower trolling speeds or if the Opti would cover this.
Thanks.

[vikes40for60]

My buddy has a 225 Merc with Smart Gauges and he can "troll down" to 550 RPMs. I would think that you would see the same RPMS in the 150 Opti but different speed of course with differnces in boat and prop. I would guess if you are looking for the speeds of 1 - 1.5 MPH you will need a kicker, but that is my opinion. I opted for a Vantage for slower trolling speeds on my boat.

[Guest]

Big motors like that are not made to troll with, you will be buying more spark plugs then fishing plugs!

I would definatly get a kicker.

My buddy had a Tuffy with a 150 on it, during a tournament the kicker went down. And we were getting our fish trolling so we tried the big motor----no good! 4 mph and loud.

-----------
RiverTown Guiding
Mississippi River Pools 3-4
http://www.geocities.com/wish_i_was_fishing2002

[Grabs]

Brian, don't know if you are aware or not, but the smart gauges are a digital electronic controller which allows the user to adjust the RPMs of the motor to optimize your speed for both low end and high end performance or in this case speed.

Mykal's question is if they will go low enough.

[Guest]

Oh wow! My buddies boat had nothing like that!
We were running as low as we could go at 4 mph. we made one troll like that and and the motor started to fowl.

But that big of a motor you wouldnt think would idle down that low inless they drop a cylinder or two.

[iffwalleyes]

Brian with the smart gauge on the Opti Max it is possible but it is a spendy option. Very cool none the less. Still cheaper than buying a kicker.

------------------
Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes
I Fish For Walleyes

[This message has been edited by iffwalleyes (edited 05-09-2003).]

[Fuzzy]

I have a 150 Opti w/ smart gagues on my Tyee.
It will troll down to 550 rmp but that is
still 3-4 mph in my boat. I like the smart
gagues, but still too fast to troll slowly.

[Mykal]

Thank you for the comments so far. Sounds like Monday I will get a chance to test the 150 Opti trolling speed on a demo 1800 ProV. It also has the 9.9 kicker on it so I should be able to test both. I would hope the boat would troll down below the 3-4 mph range. Otherwise I don't see the use for the Smart Gauges.

[marine_man]

deleted after re-reading previous post.. sorry!

[This message has been edited by marine_man (edited 05-13-2003).]

[Guest]

My friend has the "dumb gauges" on his 690. When they do work it still pushes the boat to fast unless you go into a good wind. The kicker is the way to go. They are nice for reading fuel consumption etc. and getting weather reports!

[Mykal]

Well I drove a 2002 1800 Pro-V SE dual console on Saturday. 150 Optimax would drop down to 550 rpm's in manual mode. Couldn't tell exactly how slow because it did not have the digital speedometer setup. I did notice the 9.9 did not troll down any slower than the Optimax did at 550 rpms. I'm guessing here but I would say 2-2.5 at the low end, without factoring in wind conditions. So a guy could get by with either/or but only needs both for redundancy. I will say the 24 volt auto pilot has more power than I thought it would for this boat. Did not test it in wind over 10-12 mph though.