What's yall's experience regarding "setting up" your boat again after making the switch?

I don't know what others have experienced and my boat isn't what I would consider fast in any way..
But honestly I lost a little top end until rearranging some other tackle and putting more weight in the back again..
Holeshot is ridiculously better though!!
I have not tested different props like I did before the battery swap just have the two I kept from testing the first time
Suppose there could possibly be a benefit of running one that might have been too much before, but I dont want to go buying and selling props again

I am a pretty good resource for set up questions on go-fast boats. I've owned a few.

In this heat you may not realize any speed difference on top at all. You should notice a much better holeshot if you replaced 280# in the rear of the boat for 100# lithiums.

With regard to motor height, I would raise the motor 1/4" at a time and run it until you start to see the speed drop off. Lots of variables in play here. Hull, lower unit shape, prop design, water temp, air temp, etc.

Your boat will run better with 180# gone until you put your 300# partner in the passenger seat and fill the gas tank & livewells. The bottom line is you have to run the prop deeper in the water to get a better bite for more hull lift the heavier your are loaded. My last Bullet/Merc 300 was 10 mph slower completely loaded compared to me solo.

In other words, your boat will run faster right up the point it won't.

I have a Phoenix 920 Pro and swapped out 3 group 29's, a group 31 X2, and a dual pro charger for Ionics, 3x50's, a 125 and their charger. Lost pretty close to 200#'s. The rear end floats about 2" higher and I get on plane in about half the time. Didn't loose or gain any top end but I have a hydraulic jack plate and found I need to run it about an inch deeper.

Makes sense. I lost about 2 mph adding poles, a heavier trolling motor, and adding a lead acid battery to run electronics.

I wonder if I might get some of the speed back. I know the holeshot would be better, but it really isn’t too bad with the added weight.

How has the overall handling been effected with the weight savings in the stern area? Does the boat “feel” lighter in the steering and the boats ability to turn and change directions quickly? Is it more responsive ?

I have an Alpha 211 and I removed 177 pounds worth of batteries. Yesterday I noticed that my holeshot with and without livewells full was night and day better. I just felt like I couldn't get the boat to lift and just the overall sound of my engine sounded different. Almost sounded like it was out of the water at times. I'm running a 25 four blade Fury. The boat did feel light....but I got out of the throttle at 58MPH which was about 5k RPM's. Don't recall feeling any different in the steering though.

LOL I have an Alpha 211 and a 350# buddy that likes to fish with me (one of the reasons I wanted lithium's so badly)
with him in the boat, livewells full and 90+ out I literally made him lay up on the front deck just to get up out of the water
24p 4 blade helped that a lot and the lithium's were an even better solution.. but it is still slow with him in it especially right now when its 90-100 out I can only get about 66mph with all the weight in the heat on the 4 blade
when it cools off some it will run 70 with him in it and the 3 blade

I could get more speed out of my boat if I took some tackle out. I take way too much.

I don't open her up much but prior to switch to lithium's she didn't get squirrely till i got up in the low 70's, now it gets a little loose a few mph lower but nothing that's not manageable. Taking all that weight out the back caused you to loose a little bow lift and makes the rear end a little loose.

+1

This, my boat runs nearly 70 in good conditions but in this summer heat I do good to get low 60's. I'm still on lead acid batteries but when they are done; if I don't change boats this spring, I'll change to lithium on the rig I currently own, if not the new rig will have them. I still think I've got more top end on my ZX200 after talking to the folks @ Steve's Prop Shop. My ZX200 has the 3 or 4 degree negative wedges to get better hole shot and I was told by them that if I took those wedges out I'd definetly gain some top end. I think I'm going to take them the whole rig and have the prop worked and have them remove those wedges.