Chine Walk Anyone heard of this??

[finspat]

Was wondering what this term means and I heard that there

are no worries with ranger boat, but others beware???

Not to get in a pee match with anyone just like to know

Any info would be appriciated!!

Thanks

Fins

[DTro]

yes, and it's very dangerous. Basically it happens when you are traveling at a high rate of speed, and the boat starts hopping back and forth between the chines, it starts out slow, and if you don't slow down progresses until you are basically forced to stop. I've heard of people doing a lot of damage to their boat/trolling motor/accessoriess from the force.

I think this only happens with certain hull shapes.

There is a thread on a popular boat forum, that I recall reading where a young kid talked about buying his first bass boat and basically posting day to day about buying it. He finally bought it and said he was taking it out for the first time.......the next day he posted about "opening it up" and that he almost killed himself and did a huge amount of damage to his boat.

[delmuts]

just touching on the basics. the chines, are the ledges( kind of) on the underside of the boat. chine walking is the movement from one side to another. earl bentz had said that any boat that is capable of 65 + mph will do this , and one has to learn how to control it!

[ChuckN]

My boat has done it once and it's spooky. The way I was told, never throttle down quickly, but turn the boat in a either direction and then throttle and trim the motor down.

[Valv]

Quote:

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earl bentz had said that any boat that is capable of 65 + mph will do this , and one has to learn how to control it!

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Yeah, I remember it, I had it twice with my 14ft and was very scary, thank godness I am such a good driver I controlled it well....

[sparkyaber]

When ever I try to eek out the last little bits of speed out of my triton she always ends up walking around. It feels if the (Contact Us Please) end of the boat starts to get squirrelly, if you trim down or let off the throttle it will stop. If you don't it gets progressively worse. I get too scared and always let off the throttle. I have heard that you can drive though it, but I have yet to be able to.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I remember a thread about this last year. I'm pretty sure that you can keep going and drive through it, but it takes some cajones.

[delmuts]

the guys say , you don't drive through it, but learn how to control it with minor adjustments of the steering wheel.

[delcecchi]

Bass and Walleye Boats magazine talks about this often, in connection with high speed bass boats. When the boat is really going and riding on just a small part of the bottom it has to be balanced or it can start rocking back and forth and if you are unlucky the rocking gets worse and worse. It sounds like it takes a precise hand on the steering and a well tuned steering system.

My boat doesn't go fast enough for it to be a problem.

[hydro]

One source of chine walk is having the motor mounted too low on the transom. Raising up the motor to a higher mounting hole or cranking up the jack plate will cure the problem if that is the issue.

If the boat's hull is in good shape and your load is balanced, you sould not see any problems below the mid 50 MPH range. Above that speed bad things can happen very fast and you need to fix the problem before trying to go faster. Trying to "drive through it" is a good way to get hurt.

[blakjack23]

Quote:

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I heard that there

are no worries with ranger boat, but others beware???

---

Did you happen to hear this from a Ranger owner? Thats good stuff

[hitthebricks]

Hydro, Is there a rule of thumb for setting the motor height. My boat walks whenever I open it up and start to trim it a little. thanks HTB

[Deitz Dittrich]

any high performance hull will or can chine walk. If your doesnt you are not getting the full performance out of the boats top end speed. As stated its not fun. I have a Triton 186PDC with a 150.. and my boat will only do it if its just me in the boat, livewells empty, low gas tank, and no wind. I just avoid all that... But you can like stated with slight turns of the wheel, stop the chine.

[hydro]

HTB, There is no hard rule for setting the motor height. Mine is set so the propshaft centerline is about 3 1/2" below the pad on the hull. Be careful if you try to max out the height since there is a point when the top water pickup holes will start to suck air. A water pressure gauge will monitor this if you want to do some experimentation.

There is another thread on this forum about prop selection with a lot of good comments.

[hitthebricks]

Hydro, I checked out the distance for the prop shaft below the keel and found I have 9", would that much cause a loss in speed or chine walk. HTB

[hydro]

Yes to both, but there is a lot to consider. What type of boat?, What shape of hull? How fast are you going when it happens? How much does the boat weigh and where in the boat is the weight? How much horsepower are you working with?

Everything works together and you have to pick off one variable at a time to get a reliable fix.

[hitthebricks]

I have a 200 Merc Opti with a 21" Merc Tempest Plus prop on a Crestliner 2050 Sportfish and it starts to walk at about 48mph depending on how I trim the motor. The top speed is about 53mph with just me and a few fishing poles in it. I was expecting a higher top end but maybe thats all that tub will do HTB

[hydro]

Let me guess, your hull is a shallow "Vee" at the transom, right? If it is you are probably at the limit of your hull design. At 50 MPH the water is getting pretty hard and there is nothing down there to balance the hull on. Naturally it will try to wobble a bit at that speed.

[finspat]

I am in the ESPN Bass masters classic North Star Series.

As a non-boater

I have ridden if a few boats other then my brothers.

I find and found no boat rides them same , but there is this wobble, sometimes it was less and sometimes it was more.

I have come to the conclusion it is up to the driver

of the boat, I just want to learn more about these boats

(bassboats)I am amaze of the people who spend many thousands of dollars and go zooming on the lake and are clueless!

My last tourney, was a nightmare!

this boat was going side to side kinda fast, much faster then other boats!

Then I was told that is chine walking!

So i dont have a boat, just like to know this,

thanks for all the info!!

Fins

[hitthebricks]

Hydro, your probly right on every account! I still would like to get more top end if I could without loosing control because the keel is trimed out too much. I'll give the motor height a try and see what happens and let you know the results. Thanks HTB