My Johnson ain't what it used to be. . .

I thought that might get someone's attention.

No, I ain't suff'rin' from E.D. nor ennythin' lahk that. What I do have a problem with is mah 25HP Johnson 2-smoke. Seems that when the wife an' I took our LT-15 out to run around a bit on Lac du Lanier up here nawth of 'Lanta, Georgia, we could only tease about 24 MPH out of her at WOT.

Now my wife, Meaux, thinks that this is all just well an' good since she was in the pilot's seat yesterday an' was quite content with movin' at 24MPH at the top end. However, I recall, very distinctly, gettin' GPS readings in the upper thirties when we first strapped 25 horses to the back of the 'Hoochee Queen a mere ten months ago. Heck, we even got one reading of 42 MPH! (But that was a-headin' downstream on the Chattahoochee River with a four knot current helpin' to push us a bit.)

I have noticed (as has Meaux) that when the throttle is advanced, there is a lot of free movement before she starts raisin' the rpm's an' spinnin' that propeller as she should. She's currently set up with a console and remote steering, an' I'm jes' a-wonderin' if mebbe I need to git into the throttle-box an' check to see jes' how much play there is in them cables leadin' to the throttle a-fore I go off an' git to tinkerin' around with the motor itse'f.

I did adjust the idle setting screw next to the motor in order to lower the RPMs at idle jes' a little bit, but I jes' cain't imagine that an adjustment there would have an impact of better than ten miles an hour at WOT.

Enny idears, y'all? I would really, really like to git them ten or twelve MPH back in despite of what Meaux has to say about it! Does it sound to ennybody else that there might be jes' a might bit too much play in the throttle advance lever afore it comes to gettin' the ol' girl to move, an' that mebbe that would limit the overall top end speed also too?

 

Brett, I b'lieve that was the ticket. I jes' needed to do a thorough check of all the set-screw connections to the cables an' make sure they were cinched down good an' tight. Obviously, there were a few minor adjustments to make also too, since I had to git the throttle control pushin' cable from the git-go rather than gittin' better'n half-way forward afore enny diff'rence was noticed. Of course, I 'spect I'll have to do a wee bit more fahn tunin' on the water this weekend since a body cain't attain perfection in the garage.

I am right indebted to you, Brett.

Now, CT. I cain't unnerstand a lick of that jibberish you posted. It 'pears to me that you must've been smote in the head somethin' fierce. Quit stutterin' an' come on out with it, mah friend.

As fer the migraine headache you state you get from readin', jes' try not to rush too fast through the words. It's a lazy, hillbilly accent that one is s'posed to saunter through rather than trot or jog. Despite the name, I am only an honorary coon-ass.

I do thank you fer the advice, an' I shall continue to refrain from postin' too often in sech vernacular. However, sometimes the bug jes' bites me awful hard, sorta lahk one of them yaller flies in the Okefenokee, and it is more'n a struggle to resist the temptation. (But I never slur mah words. No matter how many snake bites I claim fer the day. )

 

Keep in mind that the 40+ readin' came from our GPS while we were headin' downstream during a release from the dam upstream. That coulda made fer a diff'rence of ennywhere from 4 to 7 miles an hour on the GPS readin'. So, after review of the data, an' considerin' the conditions, I reckon the best accurate readin' I ever got in still water would put me in the mid-thirties at best when I'm the onliest one in the boat.

So, yeah. The 42 MPH readin' is correct, but it's sorta lahk figgerin' an aircraft's top speed an' includin' a favorable tailwind in your calculations.

An' Brett. . . Don't you go a-thinkin' fer a minute that I ain't seen you hollerin' at us to quit squabblin' over a measly forty mile-an-hour, an' your mention of hittin' 80 MPH with your 9.9! (And on I-95, no less! ) I jes' wasn't in a position to do enny typin' at the time, because I wanted to ask you what kinda prop' you were usin' when you was a-runnin' that boat on the Innerstate! My propeller gets busted all to Hades ever' single time it hits asphalt!