Z1, 320 or 340hp

[talltigeguy]

I am a go bigger on horse power guy. It apears you are in Montana which means alititude. You will have less horse power at altitude, as much as 20% less above 5,000 feet. You can compensate by repropping, but if it were me I'd go 340. My boat screams at Mead, 3,000 feet,compared to my local lakes that are around 6,000 feet. Good luck on the new purchase.

Mead is only around 1200 feet. No wonder you noticed a difference! Lake Powell is around 3600 feet. Utah Lake around 4500 feet.

I would not hesitate to get the 320 if you are not going to be at much altitude. Get it out for a test drive at a lake near the same elevation as your favorite. Find a fat sack and put 500 or more extra pounds in it and see how she gets out of the hole. If you are going to be wakeboarding much, put 1000 pounds in it and see how it behaves.

[empty_boat]

what engine?

First of all let me identify myself as the Tige dealer in Helena Mt. It has been our experience that the 320 works very well in this boat because most people don't overload the boat. At lower elevations in Montana like, Fort Peck, Great Falls area, and some of Western Montana this works just fine. If you are running at Hebgen, Clark Canyon, or Georgetown (all at or over 6000 ft) you want all the horse power you can get. You lose about 10% of you available horsepower every 1000 feet of elevation. Fuel injection make sthe engine run better at higher elevations but can't make up for the lower air pressure, you would need a supercharger for that. Canyon Ferry sits at 3800 - 3900 and the other lakes in the Helena area are lower. The 320 works fine in these with smaller families or average loads of about 6 - 8 people and you stay under 4k elevation. If heavy ballast becomes necessary you can always propl down for more torque but you will sacrifice some top speed. Still the boat will run at 40. The boat surfs well without too much ballast. It has the most "rocker" of all the Convex V hulls from Tige. The pocket is strong but not huge like a heavy loaded 24' boat. I like this boat and am considering it for my demo for next year because it lighter to tow behind my class c motorhome.

On a side note, I was at the factory in Texas from Sun-Wed of this week for Tige U sales training. We had the opportunity to run a Z1 with a 5.0 Efi 275 hp PCM. The boat ran very well. We were in it with 6 men, 2 of us were over 250, a few at 200 and 2 at about 180. It was very impressive, of course we were virtually at sea level, but it ran over 40 top speed and surfed fine.

However after 25 years in the boat business, I have NEVER heard anyone complain about too much horsepower. It is cheap to buy when you buy the boat, it costs a lot after the fact.

Tom
Montana Boat Center
800-443-6408

[Kito]

Thanks Tom. I spoke with one of your salesmen a couple of days ago about a z1 or a 22ve. He said you will be receiving an 09 z1 and 22ve in several weeks so I'm planning on stopping in and talking to you further when they show up. Thanks for all the great info.

[NHarp1]

I have a Z1 with 320 H/P and seems to get out of the hole just fine. Horse power has never been an issue for me. This spring I will try it with some ballast to get even better wake for surfing. 320 vs 340 not sure if you can even tell without having 2 boats to actually compare against. Good luck

[dogbert]

If you're wondering about which engine, I'd take a look at the torque curve instead of the HP rating.

Anyone got the specs on both the MP and PCM engines?