New King of Lacassine
 

First, please understand that I have no dog in this fight. I was asked by a friend to test this rig and give my opinion, on Friday I did. Monday and Tuesday, I was used as a consultant to test the same outboard on a prototype hull for a manufacturer from Arkansas, that I did also and gave him some changes to make to his hull..Thanks to Gerald and Kyle at Lake Area Marine, I was able to test the new Tohatsu 40hp 4 stroke this past Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. It is a beast. It is a 208 pound, 3 cylinder, EFI, 53 cubic inch, 2.08:1 geared, stump pulling beast. We tested it Friday on an AlWeld 1548, nice boat, performed flawlessly. Has a tremendous hole shot, great top end, strong water pump system, and is nice to look at. Has a nice long tiller, shift in the tiller handle, trim in the tiller, key switch in the tiller, very ergonomic. Makes 25 pounds of water pressure at WOT, was pushing the AlWeld in the low to mid 40's with my big butt in it, on the 6150 rpm rev limiter. We dropped 2 mph adding another man, not bad. We could have put a race prop on the motor and produced big high numbers that are totally useless to the average hunter or fisherman, that was not our goal. The boat handled very well, I like the design with ribs under the floor but not up the sides. Boat is .100 gauge, stout, AlWeld has finally built a nice looking, FAST hull. As for new 40hp Lacassine motors, this is it. Lake Area has a load of these coming in mid-April. http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps87a23b67.jpgHere's a pic of the rig, and a video of the hole shot with a 16 pitch prop.

and a top end run

i like that a lot

This is the second 4 stroke I have tested that I would run as my personal motor. It reminds me of the introduction of the Mega's, we would tell our passenger to hold on and then we hit the throttle. If he was not hanging on, he rolled to the back of the boat. This motor is the same way. You rally have to drive one to understand. It planes the boat in less than 15 feet, that's stout.
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yea it looked like a 2 second plane time on a non race boat lol

Looks like AlWeld has stepped up their game also. That is a nice stout boat. I like the 1552 they build, looks like a floating living room.

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Thanks for posting this! That's a nice looking boat! The only thing I don't like is the short transom. I believe I would go with a tall transom and 1552.

What prop were you running......painted black yamaha prop?

Yes, we ran a 16 pitch black painted Yamaha on an empty boat. I think the 15 pitch would be ideal on a boat loaded for fishing or hunting

I can't see the Videos (work filter) but it looks the motor is set back a little. Does it have a jack plate?

I saw these new hulls sometime last year and immediately wanted to swap mine out for one...the hull alone would save alot of weight on my rig and give some extra room....that boat looks fun!

Yes, we had the standard 6" setback to enable us to raise and lower the engine height.
As for the short transom, yes it is. I too like the 20" transom, but, I tested what was available. I can say we never had any backwash come over the transom when stopping, that seemed unusual. on an empty boat.
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Danny, did u put a hook in the hull? If so how much was needed and how far in front of the transom did you put it? I need a hook on my 18' tunnel. Trim tabs lug it down pretty bad.

This one had trim tabs. Didn't seem to lug the boat down at all. It took very little down adjustment on the tabs with an empty boat.
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Danny, you have any idea what this hull weighs?

Thanks for the report.

I do not. Lake Area would have that info. My best guess would be low 400's.
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That's pretty neat that it performs that well and has a fairly light weight. Looks like a winner.

First, I have nothing to gain or lose talking about this motor, the truth is the truth. Those of you that know me, know I would not sell my salvation for an outboard motor. I was asked by a friend I highly respect to test this unit and give an opinion, I did.
Oh yea, it is definitely THE new motor to run Lacassine or any marsh with. I have not been this impressed with a 4 stroke in quite a while, but this is a different animal. I really like the 25 pounds of water pressure, that was lacking on the 2 stroke line of tohatsu's. Their water system was sub par. Not so with this motor. 25 pounds of water pressure gives you enough pressure to pump mud and keep going. It also has a high temp shutdown, almost idiot proof. The gear case is nice and streamlined to run through the vegetation, really a well thought out unit.
These come with factory trim. And for those of you that never fished Lacassine with a motor that does not kick up, it is easier than you think. I have been doing that for over 10 years now. You have enough power to stop, put it in reverse to blow the vegetation off the lower unit, hit forward and get on plane in 10' distance. Power, used correctly, is a wonderful thing. You might want to run a line and install a water pressure gauge where you can see it while you run through the marsh. You really don't have time to keep looking back at the indicator to see if it's squirting. A 0-30 pound water pressure gauge is a lifesaver, or just extend the line from the indicator to just in front of where you sit, so you can watch it while running. You really don't want to spend much time looking back at 40 mph.
Another advantage is the EFI. no more carbs to clean or plug up. I have run an EFI 4 stroke motor for over 10 years and never had a single problem with the fuel system. We tested this motor for 3 hours Monday afternoon, doing hole shots and top end runs. We burned almost a gallon of gas and ZERO oil! These things start like your truck, pump the fuel bulb turn the key and go, no choke, no high idle, just click and go. If you have any performance or specification questions about the boat or motor, give me a call. I do not hide from anyone, my number is 337-499-6801. I also do not sell or profit from either, so I can't give you any prices or ordering info, that's not my area of expertise. I am simply a test dummy:D
I am awaiting a call with the weights of both the 1548 and the 1552 AlWelds, I will post the numbers as soon as I get them..
Danny

wonder how that animal would run on my 16x42 Southfork Tunnel...was thinking Gator Tail and starting over with a new boat but may have a change of heart now

Everyone knows how good the old Merc water pump systems were in the marsh. Any idea what kind of pressure those were pumping? To me those were successful more because of the amount of flow, not pressure. You can increase the amount of pressure by restricting the amount of flow somewhere. With that being said, when you restrict the flow you may lose the ability to pump some solids (mud, vegetation, etc.). Just a thought.

Tohatsu claimed they were running on that volume theory also. Their 40/50 would pump 8-9 pounds in clear water. They quickly pumped zero in mud and vegetation. My 4 stroke Merc pumps 27 pounds at 6200 rpm. It very seldom plugs in the marsh. I run factory trim and seldom have to stop and hit reverse to clear the motor. I have run both, I'll take the 27 pounds any day over the 8-9 pounds.
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That's pretty cool. I want one

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

CC got all the old SC members postin'

They are sweet....only bad thing is the price.

They are all high. This one is about the same as the TLDI. Not often something new and really improved comes out for the marsh fishermen, stirs a bit of excitement. We have an impoundment full of water, plenty of fish, and now a new motor to go almost anywhere in that impoundment, what's not to be excited about? This thing reminds me of the stir caused by the Mega back in 93, that caused many broken hearts.
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too bad they didnt make it in a 25 version also, like say an updated mega in new skin.....I still need a 25 for miami. Its not much more for a new one over what their asking for used mega's, zuk's and yamaha 3cyl's..


Sent from an Apple Tree..

We have all focused on the motor, but tell us more about the boat. What makes it so fast?

That boat hull is exactly what I am looking for. Front and rear cast deck with open middle. I was looking at the alweld site for more info. Is that rear deck simply a large hatch?

You need to go look, really nice looking well built boat.

I just bought my 3rd Alweld last October and haven't seen a flatboat I trust more or think is better built. im not rough with it but they have seen a fair amount of choppy waves and never has the hull been dented by them like some boats will.

its the weight, look at the weights on these boats. they are built solid as a rock but also light weight so they draft very little and get almost completely out of the water at speed so there is very little drag. basic johns are 250 lbs and the bass boats with decks are around 700-750 lbs. look under the custom boats section to see the basic hull weights in each boat length and you can see how light weight they are.

on the avenger it is, but on the sportsman its like a hatch lid on a closed in deck with splashwell

You won't see that boat onAlWelds site. It is a design built for Lake Area called a marsh special or something like that. It is a simple 5 degree design with trim tabs built onto the boat. Runs well.

Ok thanks I will have to talk to LAM

Horsepower to weight ratio. The motor makes close to 50hp, let's just say it's a very healthy 40, and the hull weighs less than 500 pounds, that's less than 10 pounds per horsepower, gotta go fast. Figure your current pounds per horsepower ratio, you will begin to understand. We were running an empty hull, if we had brought a 17 pitch prop, it would have run even faster. We were bouncing the rev limiter with a 16.
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My guess is the hull is the 1548VV, I bought one last year from LAM