Sounds like a ride along from the dealer will be required. My SHO is very smooth and quiet. I really like it.

Ha! I just looked up Laird Hill to see where you live. To say you're in the heart of Skeeter country would be an understatement! What are you, 10 miles from the factory?

You'll get this worked out. I'm sure of it

I live 4 miles from the factory, Main reason I wanted to stay with skeeter. I have had two mercury four strokes a 90 and a 60. This one seams to vibrate a lot at idle in gear. It vibrated the same way the first time I fired it up.

the Skeeter "Slap"

You got something wrong going on, every boat I've been in with a SHO has been super quiet at idle.

Only logical answer is to sell it and get a Ranger...

Also known as, the Skeeter "hop." As Bass Elite guys so eloquently put it.

Mine is very smooth...if yours is causing that much vibration I would certainly take it back to the dealer.

Ok I see guys that dont know how to drive a boat properly on the lake all the time porpoising and there is no problem with the hull designs just how they are driving the boat. Get boat on plane with trim all the way down and dont start trimming up until boat is completely on plane and flat, then around 40mph start trimming the motor equal to throttle....meaning 3/4 throttle then 3/4 trim and so on. Then when you are slowing down start trimming the motor down "before" you start coming off the throttle. So trim the boat down flat and then start letting off the throttle and this will keep the boat from porpoising during the slow down. It all has to do with the trim position at the speed that you are going....low speeds... then low or no trim. Hopefully this will help!

Every 250 SHO I've driven is VERY smooth.

Maybe the prop is whacked?

That sounds weird and not normal. I just bought a new Legend V20 a month ago with a 250 SHO and mine is super smooth. The only time I've had it porpoise is when I'm slowing down and I'm trimmed up too much, which is easily corrected by trimming down.

I get on plane with it trimmed all the way down then trim it up while throttle is full until I'm at the speed I want. It's super smooth.

Sounds like to me your motor height is wrong and you're over trimmed. The boat you came out of was smaller and probably required less speed to get on plane and stay there.

I've got an FX21 with the 250 SHO, 15 1/8", 25 pitch T1. I start out trimmed down and jack plate down. After breaking over, I trim up to my desired RPMs. Then begin raising the jack plate and tweaking the trim to find that "sweet spot". On my boat, the jackplate's at 12 or 13 and I'm about 7/8 trimmed up at 6,000 RPMs.

The vibration...I don't get. Sounds like a bent prop or prop shaft, or that SHO's just more of a beast than the 115 and you aren't used to it.

RedRanger can help you out. He knows a lot about Skeeters.

At first during this thread I was thinking maybe your jack plate could be the problem or you have just not figured out the trim sweet spot yet. However, after reading several of your posts, it sounds like you might have a different problem than just the jack plate or trim. I could be wrong but that is just how I feel. The reason I said this is because you said you felt a lot of vibration at idle. That's uncharacteristic with SHO's. I would contact your dealer and tell them the problems you're having. They'll point you in the right direction.


In the end it could be you're just trimmed up too high. But check with your dealer before you do anything drastic.

Give it more gas!