Power question on my challenger 180SE

[scotticj]

I just purchased a 2007 challenger 180se. I took it out this weekend and had several friends and family with me. When my wife and i first took a round in the water we got speeds of 40+ miles per hour. We then had several of our guests join us, up the the 8 max the boat says it can carry. When we went back out, the boat was totally slow, would only get up to 14 mph at full power at 8000+ rpm. Is this normal, would the weight of 8 people in the boat drag the boats performance that much?? That would be very disapointing...or does that sound like something wrong with the jet system of the boat?

 

[thor7000]

Is it the 255HP engine?? If so then it sounds like something is wrong, even with that many people on board you should get more then 14 mph!! (unless all 8 people weigh in excess of 400 lbs each)!! lol

Check your wear ring and impeller, I would suspect they are your problem...good luck

 

[RFoster130]

Yeah if you are getting full RPM, it is sucking air past somewhere. Cavitation issues are much more pronounced if the boat is under a heavy load. Start by checking your wear ring.

 

[chlarson23]

I just posted pictures of my wear ring and impeller last night and I have pretty much the same problem, check yours out and see it they look worn out or busted up like mine do. i posted it under WEAR RING, so you can search and find it if it's not on the first page.

 

[scotticj]

I checked out the impeller and the wear ring just sliding under the boat and peering down the intake with a flashlight, it looks pretty clean. I also peered into the back of the jet at the output and it looks pretty clean. Is it safe to assume that it is possible to bend the impeller blades? Just critically thinking here in my head and if there is clearnce then the impeller should never really touch the wear ring right? So if you bent the impeller it would dig into the wear ring and slice it up?? that would lead to crappy power?

 

[thor7000]

I checked out the impeller and the wear ring just sliding under the boat and peering down the intake with a flashlight, it looks pretty clean. I also peered into the back of the jet at the output and it looks pretty clean. Is it safe to assume that it is possible to bend the impeller blades? Just critically thinking here in my head and if there is clearnce then the impeller should never really touch the wear ring right? So if you bent the impeller it would dig into the wear ring and slice it up?? that would lead to crappy power?

I would suspect that something was sucked up and got jammed between the impeller and wear ring, best way to really check is to pull off the pump and have a close up look. Other problems could be the ride plate or the carbon seal...check to see if there are gaps between the ride plate and the hull, if so get some 3M 5200 sealant and fill all the gaps. If you bent a blade on the impeller it means something big went through it, therefore the wear ring would be trashed....!! the wear ring is somewhat designed to take the damage and save the impeller when that happens. Somewhere your getting air sucked in causing the poor performance.

 

[logans runner]

I had four good sized buddies in the boat over the weekend with full fuel and I still hit 51 mph no trouble probable talking near 1000 lbs

 

[timhood]

I've had up to 7 in my '08...4 adults, 2 teens, 1 kid. I didn't go for top speed then, but easily passed 30 with plenty of throttle left. You definitely have an issue to address.