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Picked up a nice dry Viper today. Solid as a rock, bought it from a former Hydrostream employee. He gave me a great deal on it.

I am going to put a jack plate on it because I am running a 90 HP Merc inline 6 and the bolt pattern is different from what is on the boat (BIA). I do not want to re drill it.

Should I go with a 3 or 4 inch? I will be using a Vance Mfg. plate.

Thanks, Ron

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never had a Viper but had 2 Vectors and the less plate the better from my experiences,but I d see what Chet or Sonic say they have Vipers

Chet is running a 4" plate on his if I remember right.

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I have a bob's convertable set at 2.5 but the inline is lighter so I would bet you can get away with a little more setback if you need to.

I bought my vking from Pete, nice guy.

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I've come to believe that the less horsepower you have, the closer the engine should be to the boat. In the case of an inline, I feel it should be on the transom.

transomstand wrote:I've come to believe that the less horsepower you have, the closer the engine should be to the boat. In the case of an inline, I feel it should be on the transom.

That's interesting. I would assume due to the weight you would want more setback and wouldn't think horsepower would be a factor.

I tried for months to help set up a buddies Ventura with an inline. Same package I had years ago. Never could get the boat to air out, and duplicate the same speed. I even sent him the prop I used in 1977, but the thing just wouldn't get up. We never had a chance to test it (he finally just installed a V-6), but by the end, I was convinced it was the set back holding it down.

When we ran inlines, the slower speeds required a lot of positive trim to fly the hull, you had to stand the boat on the back edge of the pad to go fast. Adding set back seems to just drive the pad deeper, and slow it down.

In a V-6 application, it's overcome by the added lift from the increased speed. My boat runs very, very flat now compared to the inline days.

I always thought this was a textbook example of how to fly a Stream with an inline, lots of trim, standing on the rear edge of the pad, and no set back.

T-Stand,
Great info. I don't have much experience with the inlines so it helps. Really the only reason I'm putting a plate on is so I don't have to drill more holes. The transom is so nice on this boat and the splash wells don't even have stream cracks in the gel. I don't want to hurt it and I know plates mean leverage.

I may just go with the 3 inch. It is the shortest they have at Vance and I like the way they adjust.

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Great Post.