# Boat won't plane



## Johnnyrose (Jun 11, 2010)

Can anyone give me an idea on how to get my 12' river jon to plane with just me in the boat? I have a 5hp B&S transom steer motor on it and it just doesn't seem to be able to plane the boat out no matter what I do with the manual trim pin. Any ideas?


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## DocWatson (Jun 11, 2010)

Don't take this wrong, but how much do you weigh ??


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## shamoo (Jun 11, 2010)

I dont think a 5 hp has enough umph to plane a 12 ft. jon.


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## KMixson (Jun 11, 2010)

5 HP on a 12' jon seems kind of small to get on plane. You might want to try taking it out on the water with just you and a life jacket to check it out. Change the trim setting if it still will not plane. Take no fishing gear, trolling motor, coolers, gear, or any other non essential items to test it. If it planes, then start adding weight to it to see when it stops planing. If it will not plane while empty, it will not plane loaded. If it will not plane your only other option is to get a bigger motor.


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## bassboy1 (Jun 11, 2010)

If there was a way to operate the motor while sitting in the middle of the boat, you might get it to plane. On a 12 footer, 5 hp isn't going to get you enough speed to counteract the bow rise of the weight of motor and operator in the stern.


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## Outdoorsman (Jun 11, 2010)

I agree a 5 hp. on a 12 ft boat with an adult would be a little under powered to get up on plane.

The idea of operating from the middle of the boat would help. Check out a tiller extender here...

https://www.cabelas.com/p-0029965017444a.shtml 

Or maybe a hydro foil fin (if the come small enough for a 5 hp)…if not maybe you could make your own from the picture…

https://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0078273021191a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=fin&Ntk=Products&sort=all&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1

Also if you have an external gas tank you could get a longer gas line and put the tank (weight) in the middle or front of the boat...


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## Froggy (Jun 11, 2010)

How would you make these fins yourself? piece of cut sheat metal, like the sell at HD and cut it?


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## thudpucker (Jun 11, 2010)

Yeah, trade me your Jon for my 'V' ! I think this little 12 will plane with your Five.
I weigh 260 and with all the stuff in the boat it would plane with my 6 Hp johnson. 7 Mph the GPS said.


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