Advice Please! Chine Walk - Ranger

[JoeLanghans]

Can you guys help me out with this please?! I have a Ranger Z519 w/225 Pro xs, 6" manual jackplate with a Fury 24p prop. It starts chine walking around 73 mph and up if there's any kind of movement in the water. Also, the bow of the boat is sitting up pretty high at high speeds. Can't figure out what I need to tweak. Thanks!

[bassmonkey]

I have a 2014 with the same motor and prop. Mine has a 10" jack plate that is set flush ( inside and outside plates are even). I can drive it wide open, trimmed all the way up, and with no hands on the wheel. Zero chine walk. Distribution of weight in the boat plays a role in how these boats drive and ride as well. Too much weight on one side or the other will make it more difficult to drive at high speeds.6" jack plate might be too short for optimum performance. Ranger customer service is awesome and can most likely answer all your set up questions. Hope this helps.

[JoeLanghans]

I have a 2014 with the same motor and prop. Mine has a 10" jack plate that is set flush ( inside and outside plates are even). I can drive it wide open, trimmed all the way up, and with no hands on the wheel. Zero chine walk. Distribution of weight in the boat plays a role in how these boats drive and ride as well. Too much weight on one side or the other will make it more difficult to drive at high speeds.6" jack plate might be too short for optimum performance. Ranger customer service is awesome and can most likely answer all your set up questions. Hope this helps.

Thank you bassmonkey! Do you have a 10" slidemaster, was it factory installed? Also, what speeds are you able to run with your setup?

[bassmonkey]

10" Slidemaster. Factory installed. The motor is mounted in the 2nd bolt hole from the top. I can get up to 70-74 depending on load and conditions. Setback makes a difference in terms of drivability. You can raise your plate 1/4" at a time to find the sweet spot. Raising your plate will lower your bow. It is possible you are over trimming a little. Your rooster tail should not be higher than the top of the cowling as you look back at wide open ( carefully of course). It's hard to tell without seeing or driving it though. I hope you get it dialed in. These are fun boats to drive.

[JoeLanghans]

Thanks dude, need to get this fixed! Funny thing is that I had a 10" Slidemaster on it... Boatmasters told me it was too much for a 19 foot boat. A little annoyed now...

[norcalracer]

Make sure you have NO play in your steering!! Hold the wheel and have a buddy try to move your OB side to side. If you have excessive play in the steering it will chine walk like crazy.

[JoeLanghans]

Thanks norcalracer! I hope it's not a steering issue, don't think it is, 2016 boat...

[Stratos278]

Hey Joe, you should join the Ranger Bass Boat Owners group on Facebook (if you haven't already) and ask your question there. Lots of folks there are willing to help you out. Just be sure to give as many details as possible, you should get some good answers.

[JoeLanghans]

Thanks Jim!

[Jimboat]

Can you guys help me out with this please?! I have a Ranger Z519 w/225 Pro xs, 6" manual jackplate with a Fury 24p prop. It starts chine walking around 73 mph and up if there's any kind of movement in the water. Also, the bow of the boat is sitting up pretty high at high speeds. Can't figure out what I need to tweak. Thanks!

Joe, Here's some more info on Chine Walk and how to fix it...

Chine walking is predominantly characteristic of vee-hulls, with deeper Vees (more deadrise), hulls with deep or narrow running pads and hulls with a Veed pad or hulls with no pad. These bottom designs are just more inherently difficult to balance at higher speeds.

Here are some established steps toward minimizing chine walking:
1. Check & adjust steering. There should be no play in the steering mechanism. And a dual-cable or dual-hydraulic setup should be used for high performance hull setups. For cable setups, be sure that you have all of the slack adjusted out of it, so the cables are slightly pre-loaded against each other. Same for hydraulic, ensure it's adjusted so there is no play in the wheel and carefully bleed the lines to remove all air from the entire system.

2. Use solid mounts - Stock rubber motor mounts allow for too much slack movement between steering wheel and engine. Solid mounts are much tighter and provide much better steering control at high performance speeds.

3. Clean Hull Lines – make sure that any non-designed irregularities such as hook, rocker, bumps or other notches in the running surfaces are removed or faired away. You can use a long straightedge to visually inspect your running surfaces and fair out the imperfections.

4. Weight balance of hull – Although this is a tricky thing to optimize for all speeds (since the dynamic balance of a hull shifts significantly throughout the operating velocity range of the boat), the onset of the chine-walking phenomenon usually occurs at a particular speed for each hull and you can focus on correcting balance at that bothersome speed. Try to situate movable payloads close to the static center of gravity (CofG) – both longitudinally and laterally. This can often be a trial-and-error experience, but you’ll see the results of weight balance changes immediately in the handling of the boat. Optimize portable equipment, batteries, oil tank and fuel tank positions. Also situate passengers for the best weight balance. An equally balanced passenger/driver load will help allot, so if the driver’s seat is positioned much to one side, add weight to the passenger seat to help balance the load and make learning to drive the boat much easier.

5. Motor height – You can adjust engine height to minimize the instability. This is easiest to do with a hydraulic jack plate. Remember that as you raise the engine height, a low water pickup may become necessary in order to ensure that the engine gets enough water pressure. Test your rig at different speeds, weight distributions and water conditions to find the best height for each. Often, as the engine is raised on the transom, the reduced lower unit drag can have an improved effect on instabilities such as chine walking. Engine setback can also affect stability, although it is more difficult to experiment with.

6. Propeller selection - The right propeller design can change the balance of a hull as well as make or break its performance. Rake, diameter, pitch, cup and blade number, can all influence the Lift and drag generated at the aft-end of the hull. Most high performance vee-hulls will handle well using medium-rake, large-diameter propellers. High-pitch propellers can make the boat more difficult to drive and ultimately contribute to slower achieved top speed simply because they are more challenging to drive. More blades will also usually improve handling. Propeller testing is also time-consuming, but can really pay off in overall performance and stability.

7. Seat time (experience) – Chine walk on a vee hull can usually be controlled by the driver as he gains more experience and skill with his setup. Unfortunately, there is just no substitute for experience! Drive your hull in different conditions at lower speeds until you are completely comfortable with your ability to “sense” and “correct” for motions of the hull to conditions and speed changes. Then gain more experience at a slightly faster speed, in the same way. Work you way up to higher velocities slowly, under good control. With familiarity, you will develop a sense to predict your hull’s motion and you’ll soon be able to react accordingly to correct it prior to it getting severe. The correct driver input to balance a vee-hull or a pad-vee hull at higher speeds is very minor if the adjustments are made quickly, immediately at the onset of motion (“timing is everything”).
"Timing is everything" - When you sense the onset of chine walking, reduce engine trim and/or throttle. When the motion subsides, you can increase trim and throttle smoothly as the hull drives right through the previous chine-walk speed barrier. Steering adjustments need only be small, but should be made in a timely manner in the opposite direction of the hull bow movement. When the left bow drops or the bow moves left, steer slightly right. When the right bow drops or the bow moves right, steer left. This steering input is done swiftly and in short motions. With practice you will be able to make these small steering inputs "before" the motion actually occurs. Turning the steering wheel slightly into (against) the torque of the propeller as soon as you “sense” the onset of lateral imbalance (side-to-side rocking), can help drive through the chine walk stage too.

8. Minimize Trim Angle - This was mentioned above, but worth saying again. Use as little positive trim as possible. More trim (higher running angle of attack) causes the onset of instability to occur earlier and with more drama. A high-flying attitude is harder to balance. When chine walking starts, it is not likely that you can simply "drive through it" without first reducing trim slightly.

Here is an article on Chine Walking.

[mark poulson]

When it happens, drop the nose until it stops. Having more hull in the water will stop it, until you can figure out what's causing it.

[WRB]

You have lots of good advice. I will add that 73 mph with your rig is cooking at top speed and probably over trimmed kicking up a rooster tail with high bow lift. Back it down to 70 mph and enjoy the ride.
Tom

[Rod Martin]

I started with a 18'6" boat, 175 hp motor. Broke the boat and received a 20' as replacement but had the 175hp on it. Chine walk was a problem and was only able to make low 70s. After replacing motor with a 250XB, changing set back, I went from none to 17" back and everywhere in-between . Using 2" spacers, a 10" jack plate and a 51/2" plate. at the same time I went thru as many as 20 different props to settle on 10" setback with a 4 bladed mercury prop and low 80s for the boat. This was not the fastest, but was the most stable for me with my abilities .
But most of all the time I put in driving while doing all the testing was most important.

Good luck with your boat



Sure miss that boat

[WRB]

The OP has Z519 Ranger w/225 hp, top speed for this boat is well under 75 mph with tricked prop no fishing gear regardless of the Jack plate set back. Be honest guys!
Tom

[JoeLanghans]

The OP has Z519 Ranger w/225 hp, top speed for this boat is well under 75 mph with tricked prop no fishing gear regardless of the Jack plate set back. Be honest guys!
Tom

I would smoke ur boat dude... don't devalue my boat on here or discount its performance. You don't know what it can do. This is a brand new 519. I don't get the bow lift till 75 mph. Called Ranger, they told me I need to put the 10" jackplate back on. I'm clocking 73 with. I rooster, 25 rods and all compartments full, including toads in the well
Thank you very much to everyone besides Tom for the great advice, I really appreciate it, solved the issue!

[scott h]

The OP has Z519 Ranger w/225 hp, top speed for this boat is well under 75 mph with tricked prop no fishing gear regardless of the Jack plate set back. Be honest guys!
Tom

I would smoke ur boat dude... don't devalue my boat on here or discount its performance. You don't know what it can do. This is a brand new 519. I don't get the bow lift till 75 mph. Called Ranger, they told me I need to put the 10" jackplate back on. I'm clocking 73 with. I rooster, 25 rods and all compartments full, including toads in the well
Thank you very much to everyone besides Tom for the great advice, I really appreciate it, solved the issue!

Seriously, 75mph is flying for any boat, your saying you can run 75 all day long tourney loaded? With a stock 225? Id love to see that. But the best part is with experience you can drive through the chine walk.

[JoeLanghans]

Lol, coming from the dude that has "Buzzbaits in February" in his signature...

[scott h]

Lol, coming from the dude that has "Buzzbaits in February" in his signature...

Im not sure what that means there hotshot this thread wasn't about my signature, why you want to attack that seems off topic. When it comes to boating experience I can assure you I have plenty. You came on here asking for advice and got some great input from a few different folks, some of them I know personally. One thing for sure is coming on here asking those kind of questions exhibits your experience level or lack there of, anyone with alot of time behind the wheel knows how to set their boat up and anyone with plenty of wheel time knows you can "drive" your way through and out of chine walk.It is not a bad thing to ask for help if you need some advice but blasting guys for questioning your alleged top speeds is pretty silly, now if you happened to post a pic of your gps while at that top speed there would be no question what you claim is accurate but as said above 75 mph tourney loaded is quite a feat for any boat. I'd buy a 519 with a 225 running 70-73 mph tourney loaded and propped correctly but excess of 75 is pushing it even for a 20' with a 250. The only question I have is if your boat is chine walking like you say it is how do you reach 75 mph and still maintain control and smoke other boats while slapping side to side?

[JoeLanghans]

Hey Scott, I am able to run 72-73 mph gps on glass without a chine walk or high roostertail, the bow lift is the annoying part. The 75 is an exagguration. I have a feeling it's not sitting on pad right. I called Ranger and they told me I need to go back to the 10" jackplate. It also underperforms on handling bends and corners even slowing way down. I'm just frustrated cause I've never experienced this issue before with other boats I've owned, just made the switch to Ranger and getting use to it. Maybe I am pushing it the max...

[WRB]

The OP has Z519 Ranger w/225 hp, top speed for this boat is well under 75 mph with tricked prop no fishing gear regardless of the Jack plate set back. Be honest guys!
Tom

I would smoke ur boat dude... don't devalue my boat on here or discount its performance. You don't know what it can do. This is a brand new 519. I don't get the bow lift till 75 mph. Called Ranger, they told me I need to put the 10" jackplate back on. I'm clocking 73 with. I rooster, 25 rods and all compartments full, including toads in the well
Thank you very much to everyone besides Tom for the great advice, I really appreciate it, solved the issue!

Apology works!
You have no idea what my boating background is or bass fishing skills for that matter.
FYI, the fastest clocked Z519 like yours was 75.5 mph according to BBC boards, that is what I based my input on and having owned 75- 80+ mph bass boats.
Your Ranger is a wonderful boat, enjoy it.
Tom
PS, my fastest ride was a blown fuel flat bottom @ 152 mph back in the late 60's, been driving fast boats a long time.

[mark poulson]

The OP has Z519 Ranger w/225 hp, top speed for this boat is well under 75 mph with tricked prop no fishing gear regardless of the Jack plate set back. Be honest guys!
Tom

I would smoke ur boat dude... don't devalue my boat on here or discount its performance. You don't know what it can do. This is a brand new 519. I don't get the bow lift till 75 mph. Called Ranger, they told me I need to put the 10" jackplate back on. I'm clocking 73 with. I rooster, 25 rods and all compartments full, including toads in the well
Thank you very much to everyone besides Tom for the great advice, I really appreciate it, solved the issue!

Apology works!
You have no idea what my boating background is or bass fishing skills for that matter.
FYI, the fastest clocked Z519 like yours was 75.5 mph according to BBC boards, that is what I based my input on and having owned 75- 80+ mph bass boats.
Your Ranger is a wonderful boat, enjoy it.
Tom
PS, my fastest ride was a blown fuel flat bottom @ 152 mph back in the late 60's, been driving fast boats a long time.

Tom, where did you make that 152mph run?

[WRB]

Off topic; The lake Perris, drag boat races. The Mortican was a twin 427 injected Chevy engine Stevens hull and changed* to a single engine Hondo hull with blown 392 Chrysler, Buzz Coats was the regular driver and I made a few passes to check out the new set up. Buzz was killed driving that boat after changing to a Ed Pink engine. Those fuel flat bottoms were a hand full, Ray Caselli was killed after Buzz driving Panic Mouse, another Hondo hull.
Tom
* the drag race association outlawed twin engine boats.

[mark poulson]

Off topic; The lake Perris, drag boat races. The Mortican was a twin 427 injected Chevy engine Stevens hull and changed* to a single engine Hondo hull with blown 392 Chrysler, Buzz Coats was the regular driver and I made a few passes to check out the new set up. Buzz was killed driving that boat after changing to a Ed Pink engine. Those fuel flat bottoms were a hand full, Ray Caselli was killed after Buzz driving Panic Mouse, another Hondo hull.
Tom
* the drag race association outlawed twin engine boats.

Thanks.

[Gary Dobyns]

Joe I don't know where you live but you said Boat Masters so we may not be that far apart. I'm in Yuba City. I play with plenty of Ranger Boats and have helped with set-ups and chine walking with many anglers for many years. Honestly, I enjoy the hell out of playing with boats. I keep a bunch of different props to play with as well. So If I can be of help let me know. Please shoot me an email at GaryD@Dobynsrods.com and we can get hooked up.

[JoeLanghans]

Thank you Gary, I'll send you an email.

[kb]

Joe take Gary up on his offer I think it will get you dialed in.....If you have a 519 Ranger running 73-75 with a 225 my first thought would be that there is nothing wrong with this boat and set up......actually it sounds like it is running very well and since you say this is a new boat for you my guess is with a little adjustment to the driver you will have the rig you want......the chine walk can be driven out of a boat and at those speeds you are getting the boat out and running on very little running surface... Gary is a good boat driver and will be able to help you run straight!!!

kb

[WRB]

This is what sets Gary Dobyns apart from nearly every other pro bass angler, his dedication to the sport of bass fishing and willingness to help every angler goes beyond personal gain. Who wouldn't take advantage of this offer? Gary you are the man!
Tom