I'm looking for advise on getting my 18ft jon boat to track staright. While boondoggin and or pullin plugs the thing will not hold a staright line. Makes for a hard day. It has a 80 h.p mercury jet and 5 h.p kicker. I don't know if it's the weight or the hull itself? Any advise?
Thanks Bill

Make sure every thing is balanced and weight is distributed evenly.While boondockin make sure your self and others stand in the center of the boat,which will then change while fighting the fish.Balance and weight distribution is the key.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE
If on the anchor try runnin sea sock's out the back!!!!!! And chalk with the kicker motor.Let others know to keep movement to a minimum.

I run a 16 ft. Smokercraft john and balance is the key try a extenion handle on your kicker so you can center yourself in the boat that helped me when free drifting as far as pluging can't help ya.

I do run and kicker handle extesion, I'm thinking i'll modify it a little shorter for a comfort level. Maybe this is a dumb question or may not matter but which side of the boat do you run your kicker on? Mine is on the right and my buddy said it doesn't feel right to him? My searay is also on the right? Are there any differences. Thank guy's for the post.

Bill

Where do you have your gas tank and battery(s). I'd personally run the kicker on the opposite side, because in a smaller, lighter boat like that 50 pounds extra on one side will make you feel out of wack all day long.

Other things that could be screwing with you are: You may have too much bow weight or rearend weight, either will make the boat track differently. Perhaps the boat is too narrow, I prefer a 6' wide bottom on a 18 footer. One thing you can do is while on the river loaded down ask someone next to you if the boat looks flat on the water, if it doesn't make adjustments to compensate. Also, if you have your kicker mounted too far to the outer edge of the boat you'll likely be able to turn one way better than the other and especially in reverse, you'll be able to back only one way. Try and get the kicker as close to the big motor as possible, remember a boat steers best from the middle.
Keith

My boat is apx. 5ft across on bottom, but as you were saying the weight thing is proably the cause. I've moved my kicker towards the center alittle more and also changed from a long shaft to a short shaft? Not know it shaft length will make a difference or not. But as for my fuel tanks, one goes all the way along the rear and the other (6 gal) sits on the oppisite side of my kicker. I'm thinking that there's just to much weight in the rear of the boat causing the nose to ride alittle heigh.I try to keep the guy up front but you know how that goes. maybe I needed to more the fuel tank up front? Might be difficult? That's for the info guy's!

Bill