BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos Optimax Mercury

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

Many people have run airguides off the motor pickup without issue. The instructions for the airguides were written to sell more product (stabilizer tube and pitot) and before motors had a built in pitot.

I like the idea of a shut off for the airguide. Does anybody have a recomendation of where to get one?

The fin you are referring to is a trim tab (just like on an airplane). For some reason, my motor does not have one either. Must-ski motors told me that the 200 HO just didn't come with one for some reason. I'm sure you can get one to put on your motor, but I doubt if your dealer will just give you one. It's worth a shot though!

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

Funny you should mention it. There IS a Miller product in one of the photos. You need to click on each of these and do the closeup so you can see important details such as beer brands. Ironically enough, I was drinking MGD most of the evening, once I ran out of Corona. Then we moved into the Bud and Miller Light. I try to keep a variety of beer on hand to suit all tastes. Either that or it is all left over from the last hangar party... party

My engine manual says that you leave the trim tab centered if you have no torque steer issue, such as applications with hydraulic steering with zero feedback. Does this mean that perhaps I just don't need one at all?

Jim should be able to tell you what valve to use because he has them installed on his boat so that he can change what line he is getting pickup pressure from.

I thought there was a thread somewhere - maybe it was on screamnfly - that talked about the fact that the shaft pickup is a bit different in performance from the standard hull mounted pickups. I thought someone said the shaft pickups read somewhat high or something.

So can I run all three speedos (four, actually, because the Smartcraft system also picks up speed off the shaft pitot) to the same shaft pickup? Will this result in any loss of pressure? How do I interconnect them, then? Jim?

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

I'm going to give it a shot without the trim tab, since I too, do not have one. If I notice that it is noticeably harder to turn one direction than it is to turn the other, I will try to get a hold of a trim tab for mine. You will be just fine without one with hydraulic steering. It's just nice to be able to fine tune it sometimes.

Glad to hear you are not a die hard Anheuser Busch fan. I was told that there are 5 types of acceptable beer: High life, free beer, more beer, cold beer, and of course High Life. I think this is a good rule to follow.

There was brief mention of the motor pickup here. I believe it was Jim that brought it up, but I could be wrong. It stated that since the pickup on the motor is deeper in the water than a standard transom mounted pitot, it will read higher at rest due to the higher static pressure. This can be compensated on the airguides by turning the adjuster.

There shouldn't be any loss in pressure with all of them on the same one, unless you have a leak in the system. If you only run one line to the front, you may end up pushing water further up the tube due to there being more air to compress in three gauges vs. one though. And this could make it easier to get water into one of the gauges. Also, if you do happen to plug the one pickup on the motor, all of your speedos are out until you can clear it.

On the I-commands that I am getting, I have a GPS antenna and a paddlewheel that I can use for speed pickup, then I am mounting the airguide to the pickup on the motor. Triple redundancy.

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

http://www.hydrodyners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=498

Here is a little dissertation that I did for the engine mounted pickup. It is superior in all respects. If you blow up the picture you will see that I have one pick-up (airguide) with the accumulator and one without. I have also used pickups other that airguide with no difference.

The one with the accumulator is the least satisfactory because of the lag when accelerating. The best I can figure out the accumulator is there so that water will not get trapped over the transom inside the tube which DOES screw up the readings. Two things cause this to happen. High speed and no accumulator. It is easy to get it out by disconnecting the hose at the speedo and blow.

The engine mounted pickup does not do this.

Pressure is pressure and I believe you can run many speedos with the motor pickup. Multiple hoses will add volume which needs to be compressed with increasing speed and may cause some lag. I would try it and see how it works. My opinion is that it will be fine. I would run one hose forward to the indicators and tee off there. This will minimize the volume.

The shut off valves should be available at the hardware store. I would use the 90 degree off valve. Try the plumbing department. Mine is a fuel selector valve because I only read one boat mounted speedo at a time. My daughters boat has the two boat mounted pickups tee'd together to one speedo. That works too.

jim

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

You will need the trim tab with any steering system and maybe a torque tamer from Bob's Machine as well.

jim

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

Jim

I will try to copy and scan my airguide installation instructions if there is anything useful there. You are calling the tubes "accumulator" tubes. This suggests that they accumulate water, as you say. I thought I've heard them referred to as "equalizer tubes' as well, which suggests a different function. I think my instructions actually talk about what these tubes are intended to do, but I don't remember. If course, they don't necessarily do anything - I agree with that. My recollection is that they are intended to absorb the shock of sudden pressure changes to keep the speedo needle from "bouncing." This would have the result of causing slower reaction during acceleration, as you've observed.

I wonder why my engine would not come with a trim tab if it is required. Interesting. They find more ways to nick the customer on these things.... It is unbelievable.

RiverRat does make a good point about redundant pick-ups. Also - is there some speed reading differential between port and starboard mounted pickups when the boat turns? I've always wondered. Do you see speedometer which is connected to the pickup on the outside of the turn read higher than the inside-turn speedo during a turn? If so, does this argue in favor of having left and right pickups? Your thoughts on this would be great.

Good stuff, isn't it? It is nice to have folks to bounce these things off of.

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

Mark,
It sounds like you are planning on pulling a lot of swivel skiers with your question about the pickups on the left and right side of the boat. i.e. Please give me 13.69834 miles per hour. Besides, one of our rules in shows is the straights are for the skiers, the drivers own the turns. In other words, the driver will do everything possible to give the skier the speed they need (not necessarily want) on the straights, but the driver gets the corners to ensure spacing stays just right between boats. Most people just ride behind the boat on corners any way, so speed is not an issue (unless you make drastic speed changes like dropping to 5 mph with a slalom ski, or crankin it up to WOT with a wakeboard).

So basically, I haven't paid enough attention to notice if there is or isn't a difference between the two sides in a corner, especially since out of the last 3 years of driving, I think I've had one operational speedo about 3 times. Unless you are doing a really tight corner, the 3-4 feet between pickups wouldn't make a large enough difference in your turn radius to cause a significant difference in the two readings.

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

Trim tabs have sort of gone by the way side since hydraulic steering came about. It can actually be harder to steer a boat with hydraulic steering when a trim tab is on the motor. On the big V6's most of them are on high perf boats where the tab is out of the water and the prop is semi surfacing most of the time. All Evinrude HO's do not come with one and I think all the big block Optimaxes do not come with one either. RAJboatdude can probably confirm this.

 

Re: BanoDyne - Engine Mounting Photos

The speed will drop to zero if the boat is turned sharp enough to bring the outboard pickup out of the water and I have seen this many times. It is not an issue for the skier because you would rarely turn this tight with a skier except in a 360 and you won't have time to look in that move.

In the 10 years that I have run all three pickups the motor mounted speedo clogged once when I hit a submerged branch in a river. The boat mounted speedos have clogged 100's of time in that same time. I doubt that would be an issue in your nice clean northern lake.

The equalizer tube is sort of a necessary evil if you run fast enough to get water up into the tube in the boat and it gets trapped. It totally screws up the readings because there is so much lag. This will not be an issue for a recreational skier but it is for Pam. On her starts I try to get her up to speed in about 30 feet and pull back to an rpm that I know will hold it. It is nice to have an accurate speed at that point.

The motor gear case has a built in chamber that acts like the equalizer. At least mine does. Since the pickup hole in the motor is way bigger ther is not much lag.

I maintain the same speed in the turns in a tournament and in practice because I have no other acts to space out on.

jim