need opinions

[lgower]

I have an older bear deck over hull,stainless riging ,0540 with a 6 blade warp drive. its time to repaint the hull, it had somekind of epoxy on the bottom,almost all gone now, I cant decide between poly and a slick bottom product. I have heard the boat handles different after poly,also ads weight. the boat will not run the hill now,did when epoxy was new.I was also told to maybe switch props,whats the verdict,any help will be gladly appreciated, thanks in advance, oh yeah,new to this site,lots of good info,look forward to meeting up with some people,Lee

 

[goldhunter_2]

lee,
first off welcome aboard

for my two cents worth the poly is better we put the frog spit on a friends boats and it's already chipping off. the poly is a little heavier but last longer and with that 540 you should have plenty of power .

I am having the same troubles looking for a prop right now it seems like everyone is trying to sell those warp drives I have had a few people tell me to stay away form them there loud and have to be wound way up to be effective where some others don't. My guess is you may want t look around at a different prop

 

[blackpowderscout]

I like slick bottom but I don't like reapplying it all the time. I finally got me a boat with polymer to be done with it. With polymer, you'll slide way better than a bare hull but not as good as a fresh coat of slick bottom. However, if you do run lots of ground, you won't have to reapply it every few months, or weeks, or days. :wink:

As far as handling different, I would imagine that it does but how much so I can't say. I went with a completey different hulld design than my last so no comparisons in that department from me.

I have never owned one but I haven't been to impressed with warp drives. Lots of people seem to be getting away from them. They work well for some guys too, but it might be that Warp Drive just ain't right for your setup.

I like my WaterWalker signature series. It doesn't have a ton of snap but it pushes like a caterpillar dozer!! Terminator's are strong on 540's too.

Adam

 

[CRACKERSTYLE]

I would recommend only changing one thing at a time. Take the boat apart to paint and while it is apart put some polymer on it. Make sure you spend the extra money to get the wide sheet of polymer, so your entire bottom is covered. If you have a 300horsepower 0540 with a 72" warpdrive you will have no problem running the hill. Try to turn the warp drive around 2850 rpm on the trailer. It will be like nite and day compared to your bottom you have now. I have had the same situation you are in and my boat ran great after polymer with a warpdrive. Now since you changed one thing you can see how the boat runs. If you are still not satisfied then you can sell your warpdrive on this site or airboattrader.com and step up to a new prop. The warpdrive 6 blade 72" has alot of hill power its just noisy and most of the push is from midrange to top end.

 

[FrogNutz]

I've always owned fiberglass hulls with slick bottom, so I'm not able to give an unbiased opinion. But, I've always heard that polymer is great for protecting your hull against damage but if you run dry ground very far it'll start to heat up and become gummy. That may or may not be true. I've just heard that for years. As for slick bottom, if you run dry ground alot you'll be having it re-sprayed atleast once a year. But, it slides like poop through a goose!

Can't help ya on the prop. I'm in the market for the right one as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Put on new slick bottom and try it.

As for props, the Sensenich Q Series has a lot of snap and pushes my old heavy boat around great with nothing on the bottom. This weekend, I took it through Gardeners Marsh and ran totally dry for at least a couple miles. These are very quiet props as well