1900 SR3 Performance Issues

[tonyt]

Hi there. I am new to this forum but not to boating. I purchased a used Maxum 1900SR3 2005 last year with only 50 hours on it. It was pretty decked out with dual batteries, upgraded stereo, wakeboard tower, etc. It also has a 4 blade prop on it. Not sure of the pitch. I am disappointed with the performance of the boat and wanted to see if anyone else has similar problems. It is very poor with the holeshot if there are a couple people in the boat and pulling a skier. It is the 5.0 engine so I thought it should be pretty good. It also seems to struggle to get on plane and unless you bury the prop, it tends to porpoise easily in choppy water. It also doesn't seem to corner very well in that it leans over a fair amount and is not crisp in it's turns. I had an 18' Seaswirl Sport prior to this and they are night and day in performance, even with the smaller engine (4.3L) in the Seaswirl. The other day, we pulled a 3 person raft (adults) with 4 adults in the boat and the top speed WOT was 7 mph on the GPS. After a while, it did finally get on plane and then it got up to about 20. It's top speed is around 40 mph. It was recently tuned up and runs well but I am very disappointed with both the holeshot as well as it's cornering capability. Any thoughts or similar problems? It is a beautiful boat and has all the creature features we like but I am so frustrated at this point, I am considering selling the boat to get one with better performance. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Brianm]

Tony,

First, welcome to the MOC! Sorry to hear you are having problems. I have a 2008 1900SR3 with the 4.3l and am VERY pleased with the performance. I pull skiers / tubers (big guys) with no issues. Gets on plane real quick and have no problems yanking the big boys up. With just the admiral and me, full fuel, calm conditions, I get to about 53mph (GPS) at WOT (4400-4800). I have the stock prop - 3 blade alum 14 x 23p. She cruises comfortably at about 35-37mph at 3200-3400rpm. Turns are sharp, crisp and level. Overall I consider it a great performing boat.

I am by no means an expert so can't really help you out other to suggest checking to see if you are propped right, engine is tuned and you aren't holding water in the foam, weight distribution.

Good luck.

[Captain's Cove Maxum]

Hi Tony
I have an '06 1900 SR3 with the 5.0 MPI.
My speedo tops out at 56 mph (1/2 tank of gas and just me on board). Not as accurate as a gps but I have to blink the tears out of my eyes at that speed!
It doesn't pull out of the hole like my buddy's Malibu Sportster but it gets up and goes pretty quickly. No problem pulling a wakeboarder, skier, and 3 person tube. It has a stainless Mercruiser prop (3 blades not sure of the pitch).
It does porpoise if my passengers aren't evenly distributed but as long as I have some weight in the bow, I can trim it so that it doesn't bounce.
As for the turns, it does cavitate a bit in a hard turn but as long as you keep the revs up, it digs in and performs quite well.
My boat has more than enough top end but when I compare it to my friend's ski boat ('98 Malibu Sportster 325hp Indmar) the hole shot is pretty weak. However, his boat rattles your fillings if the lake is rippled.

I guess you can't have everything!

From your description, I wonder if there is something wrong with the prop choice given that the engine has just been tuned. You didn't mention the revs in your post. Is it revving high? I think it should have more giddyup than you describe.

Good luck!

[racer2c]

Sounds like a mis-matched prop to me. I have the 1800 with the 4.3 v6 and I pull adult wakeboarders with no issues and a boat load of people and that's with the stock 23" prop! Pulling 3 on a large tube with 3 in the boat shouldn't be a problem at all. Does it have a stabilizer wing or trim tabs? One or the other will help tremendously. If hole shots are the priority, try the infamous High 5 prop. If a decent hole shot, top end combo is the goal, I'd revert back to a stock 3 blade about 20" or 21" pitch.

[waterdog]

I know this is old, but I just bought a 2005 1900SL (first boat) with the same issue, a poor holeshot performance. 4 persons were on the boat, no skier etc. It has a 4 blade, 21 pitch, stainless prop on it now. Is it the wrong type for a 4.3MPI boat? Also, it was a saltwater boat for the first 5 years and has black bottom paint. The paint is rough, does it also affect performance a bit? Thoughts ????

[jrsick]

hey waterdog, hope you are enjoying the boat. First thing is to check RPM at WOT. If it is in 44-4800 range then you are propped OK. Let us know your WOT RPM and we can work from there.
-Rough bottom most definitely affects performance. By "rough" do you mean "looks bad, needs repainting", or "rough to the touch and creates additional drag"?
-How is your engine trimmed? For pulling skiiers I find it best to be trimmed down just past halfway between zero and full down.
-How does your engine respond to power inputs? If you set 3000 rpm initially does it stay in that range or does rpm climb significantly as you accelerate? If it climbs then you are putting strain on your engine and need a smaller pitch prop.

I have a 17P prop for watersports and a 19P for cruising. I have to pay attention to rpm with the 17P but have great performance, and this is with the 3.0 engine. I set the RPM at 3600 for pulling skiier and the rpm stays there the entire time. RPMs stay the same but I accelerate as blade flex is reduced (aluminum blade). Your boat will easily out-perform mine after a little fine tuning.

Others will chime in also, we are great at over-analyzing!!

[Stbartram]

I also just bought at 1900 SR3 4.3 MPI and of course the used boat dealer i bought it from asked what am i going to be using it for. i said skiing and he said the 19 pitch 4 blade VenSura prop that is on it will be great for that. so first day out on the water with my ski the boat couldn't get me up at all. very disappointed. for the most part all i want to do is ski and wakeboard. i tried a 4 blade 18 pitch prop its better but still no good. the prop guy said will just try a 17 pitch next than. i herd about the mercury high five and i want to try it but my prop guy does not seem like thats the answer. is 4 blade right for what i am doing would 3 be better or should i find a way to test out the 5 blade. i would like my top speed to be close to 40 but hole shots are all i really care about.

[mcoffey]

A 17 should launch that thing and yank you along with it. Be careful of the RPM though, you will over-rev that motor and could blow it if not careful.
They say going to a 4 or 5 blade allows you to go up a pitch and still keep similar performance. So if you tried a 4x18, that may be the performance you get out of a 3x17.
It is worth a try if your prop guy can loan you one to test with.

[Stbartram]

Every one is telling me to get the original prop than figure it out from there. would that be helpful? i can not even find what the original prop was for my boat (2007 1900 sr3 4.3 MPI)any one know?

[mcoffey]

According to parts catalog here:
http://www.maxumcustomercare.com/

It came with a 4 Blade, 19 Pitch and 14 Diameter Stainless Steel prop.



220 M MPI/A1 (4.3L)

Part No Description

1090869 OUTDRIVE UNIT, MERC ALPHA 1.62:1

1715139 PROP, SS 14X19X4, RH

1837940 S/D, MERC 220HP 4.3MPI AL 1.7" 14P

[CountryME]

TonyT, I'm not sure what kind of performance you are looking for out of your 1900. It is not a Ski Nautique, it's a bowrider with an outdrive and will not perform the same way as a ski boat. That said, my 2000 4.3L Carbed 1900SR with a stock 3 blade 21 pitch prop can drag my 230# "beautiful size" butt out of the water on a wake board. I did add nauticus smart tabs to it and that significantly improved the time on plane with the stock prop. You may be over propped, but adding smart tabs will improve your all around performance at 1/3 the cost and if you still aren't happy, you can keep going down the new prop route. Let us know how you made out.

-JP

[Stbartram]

jrsick do you have 3 or 4 blade props? ( the 17 and 19)

[QUOTE=jrsick;25315]hey waterdog, hope you are enjoying the boat. First thing is to check RPM at WOT. If it is in 44-4800 range then you are propped OK. Let us know your WOT RPM and we can work from there.
-Rough bottom most definitely affects performance. By "rough" do you mean "looks bad, needs repainting", or "rough to the touch and creates additional drag"?
-How is your engine trimmed? For pulling skiiers I find it best to be trimmed down just past halfway between zero and full down.
-How does your engine respond to power inputs? If you set 3000 rpm initially does it stay in that range or does rpm climb significantly as you accelerate? If it climbs then you are putting strain on your engine and need a smaller pitch prop.

I have a 17P prop for watersports and a 19P for cruising. I have to pay attention to rpm with the 17P but have great performance, and this is with the 3.0 engine. I set the RPM at 3600 for pulling skiier and the rpm stays there the entire time. RPMs stay the same but I accelerate as blade flex is reduced (aluminum blade). Your boat will easily out-perform mine after a little fine tuning.

[jrsick]

Both props are 3 blade aluminum.

[tonyt]

Hi guys,
Been out of here for a bit but thought I would share an update. I have a 5 blade prop on it now and it pulls out better than the old 4 blade. What I don't like about it now is the handling. Even when going straight in fairly calm water, it tends to lean whenever it wants too. We work on having a good weight balance. Not sure if it is because of the tower and being top heavy or the Bimini catching wind, but the boat just starts to lean by itself. When you slow down a bit, it will self right. I had a sport boat bowrider before and it handled 10X better. I always feel like I'm going to lay it over, even when returning to the skier. Very frustrating. It may be going on the market in the not too distant future if I can't figure this out.
TonyT

[mmwjr]

9 years since your previous post and you still have the boat guess you have been either real tolerant of its handling or haven’t used it much.

[shrew]

Are you trimming the drive out? hard listing while on plane can be a symptom of the drive trimmed in too far. The bow digs in and the boat starts to flop to one side or the other.

Once this behavior occurs, trying trimming the drive out. If the drive starts to ventilate, click in back in until it stops.

[Shane]

I’m having the same problems as you originally posted and have the same boat. Did you ever find the perfect solution? I currently have a 3 blade 15 diameter 17 pitch aluminum prop.

[SSweet9C1]

Hey new member here,
We have a 2006 1900SR3 with around 300 hours on it. It has the carbed 4.3 Merc Alpha1

Similar to what others have posted, the thing is gutless. We bought it used 3 years ago, and really enjoy boating with the kids. Mostly we just cruise around (freshwater lake in the finger lakes region of NY) with occasional tubing..
It seems to get up to RPMs OK at WOT, ~4500 tops out (on speedo) around 30, but I can get better numbers. With bimini and 2 adults and 2 kids (under 10)
If we want to plane either one adult or both kids need to be in the bow, and nobody in the back seats... No idea what the pitch of the prop is... It is the one that came with it when I bought it (not that it means anything) 3 blade.
I grew up riding in/tubing behind a friend's boat that was an early 90's four winns 19' with the 4.3 carbed merc, it was about as similar a boat as you could get other than the styles of the times... lol that thing had way more guts than mine has now..
Where do I start?
Thanks
Jon

[JGMID21]

I have a similar issue with a 2005 1800 SR3. Did you resolve and if so, how?

[SSweet9C1]

JGMID21
Yes actually, I took it to a local boat mechanic about a month ago and he gave it a tune-up, I told him the issues and he said it had a 23* prop on it and was supposed to have a 19*

So $140 in a new aluminum prop and the thing jumps up on plane like it's supposed to!
lol
Hope this helps...