CDMA
05-21-2001, 10:55 AM
Well it works!!!! Finished up some stuff Friday night and dragged the boat out east where I boat Saturday. Spent all of Saturday doing a few unexpected things. The throw on the old Morse shifter wasn’t long enough so we made a longer arm. That problem was cured. A couple other minor things and about 5 pm we dropped it in. Got about ½ an hour of easy run time in. Nothing to crazy and just got a feel for it. I started off with a 23 P mercuiser cleaver and by the end of the day it was clear that it was too much prop. Thanks to one of the all time great Donzi guys, PaulO, I was able to get a 21 P cleaver that night. It was a late night and still was really unsure about that alpha conversion especially since this is the first 18 I know of to run Lh steering with a Rh drive. Early Sunday morning the boat went back in and I put about 3 hours on it. All I can say is what a difference. No GPS reading yet but it feels A LOT faster than last year. Using the wild ass guess I am thinking 5+ mph with no engine changes at all. The 21 cleaver pulls up to about 4700 rpm and the Lh steering works just fine. I have no tabs yet and while I have not been in the boat alone yet with 2 people in the boat and the cleaver the boat runs almost perfectly level. I still may need the tabs when I try running alone but the necessity that some say to have a right hand helm with a right hand prop isn’t all that bad. Now I know this will cause some disagreement but the Alpha is far superior to the Volvo WITHIN it’s power restraints. If you want to run 400+ hp I think the alpha is cooked but for a stock or near stock SBC the alpha just is better. It doesn’t shift as nice for sure but the trim, power steering, control; one finger on the wheel at 60+ is all worth it. I cannot stress how pleased I am with the conversion. It is the single best thing I have yet to do to my 18. The x dimension is also very noticeable. I think it definitely picked up a few mph there and also it handles very different than PaulO’s old 18 with a stock x alpha. For example, I expected this, when you were running in Paul’s old 18 you could trim the bow to the sky. Literally you could lever so much of the boat out of the water with the drive. My trim has ¼ the effect of his. While I can notice a running altitude difference not nearly as much as his had. However this said I think I still gained speed even with less trim. In hindsight I do not thing my actual x went up the full 2.5 I was shooting for maybe more like 1.5 –2 but it works great. No ventilation getting on plane or turning.
I can not stress the difference. With the exception of the shifting everything is better. The boat is much more in control and while it still can get away from you it is more fast now than just scary. Much more confidence inspiring…
Regrets…. Would have like to go up a little higher on the x but that is my fault. I am running the trim through the old tilt switch for the Volvo. That is unacceptable. Way to far away. Kill switch-hits my knee. And oh yeah countless hours.
So time to enjoy it a little. Work on my trailer maybe a new engine and admire my ugly mug in my beautiful paint. Also would like to try a mirage and just see how much difference the round ear hub makes….oh and some detailed gps readings so we can see the numerical gains of a volvo – alpha conversion with nothing changed to the engine….should be interesting.
I am happy to talk to anyone interested in such a conversion.
Chris
I can not stress the difference. With the exception of the shifting everything is better. The boat is much more in control and while it still can get away from you it is more fast now than just scary. Much more confidence inspiring…
Regrets…. Would have like to go up a little higher on the x but that is my fault. I am running the trim through the old tilt switch for the Volvo. That is unacceptable. Way to far away. Kill switch-hits my knee. And oh yeah countless hours.
So time to enjoy it a little. Work on my trailer maybe a new engine and admire my ugly mug in my beautiful paint. Also would like to try a mirage and just see how much difference the round ear hub makes….oh and some detailed gps readings so we can see the numerical gains of a volvo – alpha conversion with nothing changed to the engine….should be interesting.
I am happy to talk to anyone interested in such a conversion.
Chris