New 208

[egor]

Just got the first few hours of break in on my new 208 with a Suzi 150? I have a few comments/questions to shorten the learning curve.
1. I have seen posts about someone having to remove the trolling motor to load up on the trailer. I had this problem as well, the trolling motor hit the roller, I found I needed to pull the truck and trailer up higher on the ramp to get the right angle. I think I need to tweek the position of the winch and post to get it right. I'm sure a little practice will correct this problem.
2. The boat seemed to need about 3100rpm to maintain plane, this was into and with current on the icw. I do not have trim tabs. Is this pretty typical and do most of you with this size boat run trim tabs?
3. I was not picking up bottom on the simrad go 5 that came on the boat, unless I was at idle speed. I saw when I got back that the transducer was completely above the bottom of the hull, I assume that adjusting it down will correct this. Should I be able to read bottom at speed with this boat? I will likely upgrade the machine, but trying to spread out costs.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[yessnoo]

I can't speak from experience on your particular hull but my SV2100 with a 200 etec requires somewhere around the 3500rpm range to maintain plane. I would say that number for your boat seems pretty normal.

As for the depth sounder...if set up correctly it should read bottom at most speeds. It depends on a couple of things. The transducer should be mounted with a clean hull in front of it...no livewell pickups or anything should be forward of the transducer line. Also it shouldn't be mounted close to chines if possible. More than likely from what you are explaining you should just be able to lower the transducer...that being said our options for mounts are limited so even when setup correctly at certain speeds there may be a cavitation that prevents proper operation. Mine doesn't like when I am accelerating but not quite on plane for some reason.

Congrats on the new boat!

[Juan]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new Sea Pro. I'm not sure I understand the trolling motor issue... unless the foot is mounted dead center of the bow and the trailer was backed in way too far when loading. In a perfect world, the trolling motor foot should be well above the roller on the winch post and the bow eye should be just below and behind the roller. If set up correctly, the depth sounder should read at any speed. As you mentioned, sounds like it's too high. There should be adjustment screws on the sides of the transducer...loosen those and lower the transducer so that it's just barely below the hull.

[985crabs]

Tape a yardstick to the bottom of the hull in such a way that 2 feet are flat against the hull and 1 foot sticks out behind the transom where the transducer is. Lower the transducer to where it sits comfortably on the protruding yardstick. Tighten it down.

Congrats on new Sea Pro. Post photos.

[egor]

Thanks for the info, As far as the trolling motor issue, I think I had the trailer too deep when loading, it was a busy ramp, and I was alone, so I couldn't experiment. But I'll find the sweet spotI. I'll get some pics as I spend more time on it. I bought this boat after going to look at the bulls bay. I found it was priced nicely between the bulls bay and tidewater.

[gnrphil]

Jun 26, 2018 18:36:12 GMT -6 egor said:

Thanks for the info, As far as the trolling motor issue, I think I had the trailer too deep when loading, it was a busy ramp, and I was alone, so I couldn't experiment. But I'll find the sweet spotI. I'll get some pics as I spend more time on it. I bought this boat after going to look at the bulls bay. I found it was priced nicely between the bulls bay and tidewater.

With my limited experience of loading at a ramp I'd say yes you were too deep, just had the same thing (albeit without a trolling motor) yesterday, nose was too low while loading.

Congrats on the new boat and welcome to the forum.  jamesgarrett, a member on here has the same boat. seaproforum.proboards.com/thread/4393/purchased-sea-df200a-week-factory

[egor]

Jamesgarretts posts helped convinced me to buy the sea pro. I guess, just because sea pro is just recently back in the game, there is not a lot of info on the new ones. Everything I have read indicates that they are committed to providing a good boat and service. 

2nd time out, much better experience loading at the ramp. After moving the transducer even with the bottom of the boat, I still didnt get a bottom reading anything over idle speed. Next time I will try to lower it about 1/4-inch below the bottom.

I lost my "A" though,literally. The A decal in SeaPro. Any ideas how I can get a replacement. Im sure the dealer can, but they are an hour away.

[Simple Man]

Jul 1, 2018 19:27:06 GMT -6 egor said:

.....
I lost my "A" though,literally. The A decal in SeaPro. Any ideas how I can get a replacement. Im sure the dealer can, but they are an hour away....

. The more things change, the more they stay the same! No telling how many chrome S, E, A, P, R, or O's are laying on the bottom of our inland and coastal waters!

Congrats on the new boat and keep working on the bugs. All new boats have them, you'll get them ironed out quickly.

[Juan]

You can buy a full set for both sides from their web site ($169), but I'd send them an email of that picture of the missing letter and ask them to send me a replacement and then stick it on with 3M 5200. It looks like there wasn't much adhesive holding it on. I'd pull on the others too and do the same to those if there was any flex.

[freezerfiller]

I can't believe they didn't fix that!

[egor]

I got a response from Jamie Martin a few hours after emailing a picture telling me that replacements were on the way. The new decal arrived a few days later. They took care of it. I am very satisfied.