# HB Pro Tunnel w/ Jack Foreman Prop



## commtrd (Aug 1, 2015)

I have a 2017 HB Pro with F70 lifted another 3" higher on the jackplate. Jack built m a 3 blade wheel and I got the same results you are seeing. Tops out about 5600 rpm and it seems like the motor is really struggling to turn it. Maybe too much pitch. Anyway I am running a Powertech 4 blade prop now and it works so much better. I can turn 6200 rpm and can run full lift just fine also. I need to send that prop back to see if he can doctor it up to work better.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

Well I kinda told him I would like to see more RPM's but he said all I can do is raise the motor. Kinda his way or no way type guy haha


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## commtrd (Aug 1, 2015)

Well I did that (well Mac did it for me) and the rpm's stayed exactly where they were to start with with that prop. Pretty happy with the 4 blade that's on there now. Good hole shot and top end, reckon it's a pretty good compromise. Dropped pitch down to 12". I think if the prop Jack made had 11" pitch that it would work fine. Lots of cup in those blades. The F70 seems to like to rev to be happiest...


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## sjrobin (Jul 13, 2015)

The F70 has to turn a prop to 6200 rpm to perform throughout the range, whether it is hole shot, speed, cruise, etc. It is true the prop can be unloaded slightly with a tunnel at the top of the tunnel but it would have to be kept at the top when operating and water intake would be inconsistent. Very limited operating range.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

Jack told you what would happen if you raised it more, those props don’t lose grip even with the motor higher. My prop is even with the bottom of the hull and I can run 32-33mph all day and the only way to hit 5500rpm is if I trim it way out.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

commtrd said:


> Well I did that (well Mac did it for me) and the rpm's stayed exactly where they were to start with with that prop. Pretty happy with the 4 blade that's on there now. Good hole shot and top end, reckon it's a pretty good compromise. Dropped pitch down to 12". I think if the prop Jack made had 11" pitch that it would work fine. Lots of cup in those blades. The F70 seems to like to rev to be happiest...


I still don’t know why you didn’t or haven’t had Jack tweak that prop instead of going to a 4 blade but...


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

DeepSouthFly said:


> Well I kinda told him I would like to see more RPM's but he said all I can do is raise the motor. Kinda his way or no way type guy haha


It’s your money and boat, he will take some pitch off if you ask him to. None of us are propsmiths so you’re asking the wrong guys!


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> It’s your money and boat, he will take some pitch off if you ask him to. None of us are propsmiths so you’re asking the wrong guys!


My money and boat? What you mean? Anyways, he told me that HB doesn't rig the motors on the tunnel hulls high enough and that's why he is kinda done with them. haha I don't really disagree with him either. I told him my RPM's and he said I'm pretty much right where I need to be and I'm trusting him cause I know he knows more about it than me for sure. Not saying he is wrong at all. He said to raise my motor more so I can run shallower, it won't change my RPM's, but I don't really have to run that shallow where I'm fishing. I just want the motor to perform how it's supposed to. Other than the RPM's not being at 6000 it still jumps on plane quick. I'm just topping out around 29 mph.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

I'm just asking for opinions guys that's all


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## commtrd (Aug 1, 2015)

I do need to send the prop back to Mr. Foreman that is my own fault for not doing it. Just too busy with all the other stuff I am into every day. One good thing is the blades are very thick so it would last a long time before getting worn down.


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## EdK13 (Oct 3, 2013)

DeepSouthFly said:


> My money and boat? What you mean? Anyways, he told me that HB doesn't rig the motors on the tunnel hulls high enough and that's why he is kinda done with them. haha I don't really disagree with him either. I told him my RPM's and he said I'm pretty much right where I need to be and I'm trusting him cause I know he knows more about it than me for sure. Not saying he is wrong at all. He said to raise my motor more so I can run shallower, it won't change my RPM's, but I don't really have to run that shallow where I'm fishing. I just want the motor to perform how it's supposed to. Other than the RPM's not being at 6000 it still jumps on plane quick. I'm just topping out around 29 mph.


29? Wow. Last pro I was on ran nearly 40. But needed about about a foot to run and 14-16 inches to get up in soft bottom as I recall. It was great in Charlotte harbor. And I am sure it was a two stroke. HPXS's do pretty well with the F70. Some crack 40-41 loaded light. I think they designed that skiff to match the motor. Worth noting: Nothing wrong with having more than one prop. AND Foreman will tweak it to suit too. Most prop guys will not. Tough to balance hole shot with speed.. and expectations.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

I think my speed issue is cause of the tunnel. I spoke with a guy at power tech when I was running an SCD4 16 pitch and he said 32-33 is about all I'll get with a tunnel. More drag under the boat. I can hop up in about 12 to 13 inches and run close to I would say 7 to 8 maybe? Speed isn't an issue when I'm fishing in FL but when I make those long runs in LA is when I'll want a little more speed, mainly a higher cruising speed so I'm not burning a ton of gas at WOT.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

DeepSouthFly said:


> I think my speed issue is cause of the tunnel. I spoke with a guy at power tech when I was running an SCD4 16 pitch and he said 32-33 is about all I'll get with a tunnel. More drag under the boat. I can hop up in about 12 to 13 inches and run close to I would say 7 to 8 maybe? Speed isn't an issue when I'm fishing in FL but when I make those long runs in LA is when I'll want a little more speed, mainly a higher cruising speed so I'm not burning a ton of gas at WOT.


I’m averaging about 6.5 miles per gallon with a 3 blade Foreman. With a 2 stroke Yamaha 70 on my Maverick HPX Tunnel and one average sized passenger with a full ice chest, two tackle bags and gear I can run 30mph in light chop and 33-34 in normal conditions. With a F70 you should see much better fuel economy and higher top end if your prop is right for the rig. My same hull with a F70 and a three blade Powertech with less cup can run 37-38 all day long. 
Jack is correct, HB doesn’t mount their motors high enough on the tunnels, I raised commtrd’s F70 3” on his Pro and it could use another 4” to be as high as mine is but the poling platform is too short. Why would they mount the motor on a tunnel hull at the same height as a non-tunnel I will never understand. I know my boat runs fastest about 3/4 of the way up, tabs down some and trimmed out more than level. 3/4 of the way up on my boat is probably 2-3” higher than most people’s motors are all the way up. Keith’s (commtrd) bullet was even with the bottom of the hull trimmed flat and jacked all the way up and that’s about where I would want my motor at the lowest jackplate position. You may have to raise the console to get maximum efficiency and speed.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> I’m averaging about 6.5 miles per gallon with a 3 blade Foreman. With a 2 stroke Yamaha 70 on my Maverick HPX Tunnel and one average sized passenger with a full ice chest, two tackle bags and gear I can run 30mph in light chop and 33-34 in normal conditions. With a F70 you should see much better fuel economy and higher top end if your prop is right for the rig. My same hull with a F70 and a three blade Powertech with less cup can run 37-38 all day long.
> Jack is correct, HB doesn’t mount their motors high enough on the tunnels, I raised commtrd’s F70 3” on his Pro and it could use another 4” to be as high as mine is but the poling platform is too short. Why would they mount the motor on a tunnel hull at the same height as a non-tunnel I will never understand. I know my boat runs fastest about 3/4 of the way up, tabs down some and trimmed out more than level. 3/4 of the way up on my boat is probably 2-3” higher than most people’s motors are all the way up. Keith’s (commtrd) bullet was even with the bottom of the hull trimmed flat and jacked all the way up and that’s about where I would want my motor at the lowest jackplate position. You may have to raise the console to get maximum efficiency and speed.


Yeah no clue why they mount the motors that low on tunnels. Defeats the whole purpose of having that type of hull.


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

I will preface this comment with the statement that I am a dumbass, but what about adding a jackplate? Infinitely adjustable motor height within it's range would do the trick, no?


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

SomaliPirate said:


> I will preface this comment with the statement that I am a dumbass, but what about adding a jackplate? Infinitely adjustable motor height within it's range would do the trick, no?



haha Nah you ain't brotha. I never said it before but I do have a Bob's 6 inch JP. I remember @commtrd 's post a while back mounting a plate to the JP and the mounting the motor to the plate. I'm thinking I might have to do the same thing to get better performance. I wish there was a way I could just re-mount my JP higher on the transom.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

DeepSouthFly said:


> haha Nah you ain't brotha. I never said it before but I do have a Bob's 6 inch JP. I remember @commtrd 's post a while back mounting a plate to the JP and the mounting the motor to the plate. I'm thinking I might have to do the same thing to get better performance. I wish there was a way I could just re-mount my JP higher on the transom.


It wasn’t bad to do, I did it all in my driveway with the front end loader on my Kubota and a lifting strap with Keith keeping the motor from spinning. 1/2” aluminum plate from this website pre-cut. 
https://www.cut2sizemetals.com/aluminum/plate/apl/
I’m sure Keith will send you photos of how I bolted it on the JP, the length of 1/2” bolts and dimensions of the plate.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

sjrobin said:


> The HB Pro is designed to pole quietly in shallow water so that the person on the bow can cast at fish and the person on the platform has the best angle for pushing the skiff and reduced height to get closer to the fish. The best poling skiff poling platform height is as low as possible and still have a little room for the engine when tilted to pole. All tunnel skiffs and most tunnel boats(not racers) will not generate the speed of non-tunnels due to loss of water to propel the boat forward.
> The tunnel on the Pro or any other HB will allow planing a few inches more shallow than a non-tunnel. What more do you want and why? Buy a larger skiff with a larger motor if you need to go fast. The Marquesa is a better La / Florida skiff. The best shallow water tunnel boats are not fast and burn more fuel due to higher operating RPM.


I had a Marquesa and I couldn't get shallow enough in it. I'm just trying to get advice or opinions on how I should go about rigging my boat and motor to get peak performance out of the JF prop. This is my first tunnel so I'm in the middle of the learning curve.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> It wasn’t bad to do, I did it all in my driveway with the front end loader on my Kubota and a lifting strap with Keith keeping the motor from spinning. 1/2” aluminum plate from this website pre-cut.
> https://www.cut2sizemetals.com/aluminum/plate/apl/
> I’m sure Keith will send you photos of how I bolted it on the JP, the length of 1/2” bolts and dimensions of the plate.


I remember when y'all did that. I was keeping up with that thread. I'll check into that. Preciate it.


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

For what it's worth my tunnel is slow as shit. I get 32mph with one angler, light load, a tailwind and a prayer.  I think it's just the nature of the beast. But it sure is fun scaring the life out of guests running over the top of sandbars.


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## Jason (Feb 9, 2016)

My experience is the same as yours when I first went to the prop Jack built. Where I would start to cavitate with my last power tech prop Jack's prop was too deep. Bumped the jackplate up a couple inches and the motor came alive. I now run the prop as high as I have water pressure and the boat runs great. I gained 5-6 inches in height over my last prop and could go higher if I had more transom to work with and a Bob's low water pickup. Grip at the wheel is the least of my worries even with the tiny pocket tunnel on my Mitzi


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

The only time I run my jackplate all the way down is when making slow maneuvers around the dock, the rest of the time it’s halfway to fully jacked. Those heavily cupped props like to pierce the surface, grabbing water and not blowing out at higher settings is what they do best.
I don’t think a tunnel effect top end as much as people think, maybe 3-4mph but I guess to some that’s a lot. It sure is nice to be able to just run and not be freaking out all the time about knocking my lower unit off on sand bars, reefs and other obstructions.
Keith has some photos of us working on his Pro, I might but will have to dig some. I know I drilled two new holes at the bottom corners of the new plate and bolted through the Bob’s then used clamps to hold the motor against the JP and drilled through the top holes through only the new plate, bolted up then finished drilling and bolting the bottom motor mount holes through both plates. It took longer to get the tools out than do the install. Use a shop vac to suck up aluminum shavings to keep everything clean and I always use Tef Gel on all stainless to aluminum. I bet Keith will tell you his plate has zero corrosion around the bolts.


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## commtrd (Aug 1, 2015)

Works great! No corrosion around the bolt holes. I did not have the means to take the motor loose from the jackplate and support it all properly so none of the rigging got messed up. Helps to have the tools to work with to do this safely. BTW still maintaining good water pressure to the powerhead. The aluminum plate dimensions were 14.5" X 17" X 0.5". Plate needs to be 6061 grade which the alloy is not prone to corrosion. Cuttosizemetals.com. HB beefed up the transoms of the new boats to handle the extra weight of 4 strokes and it seems plenty tough enough to handle the slight extra height on the jackplate. Real happy with the modification.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

commtrd said:


> Works great! No corrosion around the bolt holes. I did not have the means to take the motor loose from the jackplate and support it all properly so none of the rigging got messed up. Helps to have the tools to work with to do this safely. BTW still maintaining good water pressure to the powerhead. The aluminum plate dimensions were 14.5" X 17" X 0.5". Plate needs to be 6061 grade which the alloy is not prone to corrosion. Cuttosizemetals.com. HB beefed up the transoms of the new boats to handle the extra weight of 4 strokes and it seems plenty tough enough to handle the slight extra height on the jackplate. Real happy with the modification.



After you did this, better performance? Huge difference? I know you could run shallower for sure but as far as holeshot and RPM levels, better?


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## POCtied (Oct 19, 2016)

bump for an update, about to do this to mine and will need to add spacers to the platform as well to avoid killing my cowl cover...again


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## Redfisher80 (Jul 17, 2017)

Back to Jacks prop......it is by far......the BEST skiff prop to compliment what our skiffs were meant to do......run shallow and get us where others can’t.....safely!

I have an 18’-4” canyon bay with trans cav plat on my 60 Zuke.....results with Jacks prop are truly unreal! Like everyone one on here says, he is a simple man that knows props, even he will say, “I use common sense to keep things simple, it’s not rocket science but I have tried just about every combination of props out there!” He knows his stuff!

Like Smackdaddy mentioned above, I run the motor half way up to all the way up with no pressure issues....every other prop I tried would blow out far before I got even close to all the way up.

With Jacks 12.5” x 14 pitch with quadruple cupping, I too lost 2mph top end but gained so much more, better holeshot, better bite, ability to run jacked with out the worry of hitting anything.....the boat will run in way less than I can draft in now. I am at 5,800rpms @ WOT, if I trim it out while jacked I can get the rpm’s to climb to 6,100, right where the Zuke loves it. 

Good luck with your setup.....
I am sure you will go back to Jacks prop soon!

Redfisher


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

POCtied said:


> bump for an update, about to do this to mine and will need to add spacers to the platform as well to avoid killing my cowl cover...again


If you have the same set up ( HB Pro tunnel) you def need to raise the engine to get better performance. IMO they don't rig that boat to run as shallow as it can. There is too much skeg under the tunnel so it is almost pointless to have it. You def need to do what smack and commtrd did to get the best performance.


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## POCtied (Oct 19, 2016)

DeepSouthFly said:


> If you have the same set up ( HB Pro tunnel) you def need to raise the engine to get better performance. IMO they don't rig that boat to run as shallow as it can. There is too much skeg under the tunnel so it is almost pointless to have it. You def need to do what smack and commtrd did to get the best performance.


Yes, definitely not rigged to run shallow, I stripped the skeg and 1/4 of the cone of paint on the first weekend out running. Unfortunately the platform needs to be raised as well, so I'll be having some aluminum cut and hopefully the Bauman prop is up to the task, but I'll likely be on the phone with Foreman putting in an order after the first day out at full height.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

DeepSouthFly said:


> If you have the same set up ( HB Pro tunnel) you def need to raise the engine to get better performance. IMO they don't rig that boat to run as shallow as it can. There is too much skeg under the tunnel so it is almost pointless to have it. You def need to do what smack and commtrd did to get the best performance.


The tunnel pro and non tunnel pro are rigged with the motor at the same height. It’s comical to go to the trouble of adding a tunnel and selling the boat for an additional cost with a tunnel if the motor, transom and platform aren’t raised to offset the tunnel height.


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## DeepSouthFly (Sep 7, 2016)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> The tunnel pro and non tunnel pro are rigged with the motor at the same height. It’s comical to go to the trouble of adding a tunnel and selling the boat for an additional cost with a tunnel if the motor, transom and platform aren’t raised to offset the tunnel height.


Agree. It makes no sense.


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