your Challenger top speed

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60mph glass water me & my father both 190 pounds full tank of fuel..
Hair straight back baby..!!!


You know last Saturday I was testing my rebuild carbs and I did a few WOT runs and my dearmometer was showing 60+ MPH. I dismiss it as i did not had my GPS with me so I could not confirmed but now I see is actually possible. This was on a lake with smooth water and only me and ¾ of gas. I did not think my little boat could go that fast. Now I have to go next weekend and confirm this with the GPS. Best part is that one of the engines is toping out at 6500 rpms so I still have a little more to go. Love this boat.
 
'06 Challenger 180 CS, with my wife and me, tops out at 40mph on spedo and GPS. Doesn't go any faster when I'm alone or with full tank of gas... I wasn't hitting 40 for a while, but I put in a full tank of 93 octane and the speed improved.

I have zero cavitation at take-off and get get a wakeboarder up in a flash, but I'd like to do something about the top-end. I have bottom paint, but I can't believe it is robbing me of that much speed.

Tach never hits 8000. In fact, I thought the computer limits it to 7650 or something like that, no?
 
I do not believe it maters on how much horse power you have or how much torque your engine can deliver. let me try and explain this cazy thinking. If your boat came stock with lets say 2 rotex engines in them that were 110 hp each and your able to get rpms up around 7000 to 8000 and you have a impeller with a 15 - 20 pitch. I do not thank it would matter if you were able to get 200 hp out of each engine with the same rpms and the same prop your top speed should remain the same. I belive you would need too call someone like dave at impros. he is a expert at this. If Iam not mistaken you probly can get 10 more mph out of a twin engine boat without having to bad of cavitation. If any one would know dave at impros should.:cheers:

:agree: HP is pointless without factoring in all aspects. I have the twin 85HP engines and my boat with 135 compression will still hit 48-50 on GPS and the tach shows about 50-55 sometimes but those tachs are realitivly off, it is only an approx. speed. I plan to change my impellers and wear ring to see if I can gain some speed. I don't need bottom end I don't ski or wake board and it pulls a tube out of the hole fine right now so new stuff can only help.
 
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Speedo shows 51 mph with wifey and me. Its got a solas 17/23. I think I'm getting probably 45-47 at most.
 
Cwhogan!!!

:rofl:hey, i have an 06 as well, my top speed on gps is 44 and thats with 3 peolple on board and a puppy! my tach gets to about 7850, im just under 8000. i dont think its governed... make sure you check your SC's washers! you can check for slippage if you have the manual! it will tell you how! also what do you mean by bottom paint? sound kinda cool!
 
:rofl:hey, i have an 06 as well, my top speed on gps is 44 and thats with 3 peolple on board and a puppy! my tach gets to about 7850, im just under 8000. i dont think its governed... make sure you check your SC's washers! you can check for slippage if you have the manual! it will tell you how!

Wouldn't I have even lower RPMs if it was slipping? I guess I should look into checking on that anyway.

also what do you mean by bottom paint? sound kinda cool!

I'm sure someone else could better describe bottom paint, but my understanding is that it is commonly used by people who dock their boats in a slip and is most common in salt water. It is a special paint applied to the hull (at or just above the water line) that will kill any organisms that try attaching. It might not kill them, but it kind of rubs off, which makes it hard to attach too. Unfortunately, it doesn't rub off so easily that it will simply come off completely. I guess it has to be scraped or stripped. It might protect metal parts from corrosion as well. Not sure about that one.

The problem I have is that it is not as smooth as the gel coat and I think it is reducing my top-end.
 
I just bought a 1998 Challenger 1800 with (well, as the previous owner said, twin 90 hp motors, but they're the 787 rotax's and they're the original motors, so they're 110hp, right?) and with me, my wife, my brother, and his wife on it, I had it at 45 mph (according to the GPS) at about 7100 rpm. Not bad. I was expecting a little more, but I imagine I'll get that when I'm on it myself, half tank of gas, and flat calm water. Pleased with it though...

Adam
 
I was able to do 41 mph in my 06 c180 and I had 8 people on board and a wake tower and a bimini top up. When Im alone I do ~47mph by gps.

Running a 14/19 solas and a filter cone intake.

KH
 
I just bought a 1998 Challenger 1800 with (well, as the previous owner said, twin 90 hp motors, but they're the 787 rotax's and they're the original motors, so they're 110hp, right?) and with me, my wife, my brother, and his wife on it, I had it at 45 mph (according to the GPS) at about 7100 rpm. Not bad. I was expecting a little more, but I imagine I'll get that when I'm on it myself, half tank of gas, and flat calm water. Pleased with it though...

Adam

I just picked up a '98 challenger 1800 last weekend. In as-purchased condition, 4 adults (avg weight 180) on board, 1/4 tank gas, and rough water I did mid 45's GPS. I know the impellers/wear rings are worn because if you even semi-quickly increase the throttles both engines cavitate. Also, there's zero increase in speed from like 5/8 throttle/6000ish rpm to full throttle/7200ish rpm. And the boat pulls like crazy to the right that I have to turn the wheel 90° to the left to stay straight...quite a few issues to fix over the winter.

I have no idea on compression but the port engine has "about 5 hours" on it and the starboard has "about 20", but it looks original to me (SEADOO tag still on it).
 
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My 97' Challenger, 115 hp goes about 47mph with me and full tank of gas.

16 month old thread

What modifications did you do to your Challenger to get 5 extra HP? And how did you measure the HP?

My Challenger 1800 reads 63 on the speedo... but 51 on GPS. Well actually, right now its top speed is 0 since the port engine is blown :rolleyes:
 
My 08 Challenger 180 SE was topping out at close to 55 when it was new. Last year I was at 42. I had the wear ring replaced and the supercharger rebuilt over the winter. I wanted the impeller replaced too, but the shop didn't do it and said it was fine. Now my top speed is only 46, with just me and a full tank of gas. Everything else runs fine, any idea where my speed has gone?
 
When we were out on ours with the dealer and he blew the motor, according to the speedometer on the dash we were doing 52mph with only 4 hours on the boat. This was the '08 Challenger SE and after the dealer blew it up we upgraded to an '08 Speedster 200 310hp.

What did he do to blow it up? Was there something wrong from the factory?
 
I have a 1997 speedster with twin 717's with just over 100 original hours .... my speedo shows as high as 60 Mph ... but these speeds are never accurate...best run on GPS so far has been 54mph ... and the engines and both are in beautiful shape ..new impellers etc.
 
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