Sometimes I miss being a kid, waiting for christmas morning, getting a new bicycle, waiting for duck season to start... I rationalized it in my head that I needed a few things for my 35 CDI GDSD... a new carb because the stud broke off the black air cleaner cover (plastic cover went flying off driving down the highway), so a single Mikuni eliminates that problem... a Q-pipe because the B/P/S duals I had on it were annoyingly loud (I guess there was nothing wrong with the stock exhaust, don't tell my wife though!), and some Iron Mountain heads, because I'm too lazy to take the valve covers off and adjust the valve lash on the stock heads (lame excuse because I have to adjust valve lash anyway, but at least I'm gaining something this time)... Anyhow, I 2nd day aired that stuff to Alaska from SETX Performance, and BOOM! Its like being a little kid again waiting for the above mentioned...

I dont think I will gain much speed from those mods because my hull is basically scrap metal, but later this summer I'm planning on buying a 1751 excel... just have to buy new furniture first then I got the green light from the boss lady to buy a new hull. I was in the school of thought "a flat bottom boat is a flat bottom boat" type deal when I bought my motor. Lesson learned.

Congrats on the new toys. Did you order the gd reverse plate too? It's a must have....

Dont buy a god damn Excel. Get a godevil SD boat or something.

Havent read anything about them on here, I've driven one from the local dealer near here though. I would probably consider getting a different hull if it werent for my geographical handicaps and shipping the stuff up here.

Reverse plate.... I dont need to go backwards!

Anchorage, Alaska

My buddy has an excel and when I borrowed it I made the mistake of running that barge through the mud, I would pass the same way with my 23 longtail and I wouldn't hardly slow down, but that excel with the 35gdsd came to a dead stop and wasn't going anywhere, I would have had just as luck trying to make it through with a trolling motor. Excels look good but they to damn heavy. That rig doesn't go much faster then my 23 longtail either. On they way to the lease he couldn't even walk away from me. As far as the craftsman ship I only know what I read on here.

If he's in Anchorage, he probably runs alot more stuff like this than soft mud.

Heck, I've seen enough aluminum hulls in Alaska to know somebody up there has to build custom hulls. Granted, most of them were v-hulls and larger sided boats, but they were not assembly line mass produced boats. I'm sure if you take a picture to one of these builders and tell him what you want, they can/will do it.

You REALLY need to use the search function and look at all the negative complaints about the Excel hulls. There are a few threads right now in the "Active Topics" link. Not trying to be an Excel hater...at one point, I was looking really close at their hulls before pulling the trigger on a custom build.

Deadbird I don't run those glacial rivers much, I run sandy/ gravel bottoms and mud. That's airboat territory. No stump ridden areas like down south but rivers like u posted are terror on props. I ate a prop after a 5 mile run on the Knik river(which looks identical to that one). Those who have gotten a custom made hull, how do they compare in price? Might be worth the road trip if I can get the leave from work. I read that post that has the pics of the excel all beat to death, and.. Let's say I'll broaden my horizons a little.

My Uncle J custom hull was cheaper than a similar hull that I priced from one of the manufacturers. Plus my custom hull had a few more features. I'd recommend anyone to look into custom before buying anything.

I emailed them... I hate long road trips, but thats something worth while.

Before, during, and after mods. Its missing the airbox, because the stupid POS stud holding it down broke and it flew off while driving down the highway. It runs too lean right now and needs some tuning, and I'm not sure I set the valve lash tight enough (I set for .006 but it wasnt much resistance on the feeler gauge)... it went from trimmed all the way down 3250rpm WOT to 3800 RPM WOT, and trimmed up to running depth I was running 3650 pre-mod, and now it runs 4100 and usual running depth (a little high for my comfort levels, going to beef up the rest so I dont smoke the motor), 20 mph unloaded by myself before, 25 mph unloaded by myself now.
The prop seems to have a hard time staying in the water now, might have to weld some sort of tab on the cavitation plate or skeg to help hold it in the water...