Sorry if this question is stupid, I'm new to surface drives. Just bought a prodigy with a 37efi gator tail. My question is about where the motor should be trimmed when running wide open. Obviously, your rpms increase when you trim up and gives you more speed to a certain extent, but how high is too high? I was running between about 3650-3700 rpms and the motor was sounding like it was under a lot of stress. I figure I could get around 4000 rpms but I'm not trying to tear up a brand new engine. Also, it's not making sense to me how trimming up gives you more speed. In my head, if the motor is down in the water it should be able to grab all the water around it and push the boat, but if it's trimmed up wouldn't that mean it's grabbing less water making it run less efficiently? Maybe I'm over thinking it...

That pretty much cleared up all of my questions. Thank you.

Have you run the boat since asking your question? What RPM's are you seeing at best trim/speed?

I haven't run it yet. I'm going to try this evening. I'll post the results.

Typically most are trimmed right when the prop starts to make a "whine" and you feel you lose push.. trim down a tough till it goes away or push picks up.. It will take tiller time to get it right.

I just ran it. It ran 29mph at 4280-4290 rpms. That's the fastest I could get it to go.

Pretty close to where it should be. Any variance from there is because of boat, load, etc, differences.

Lmao yeah I see that often. I've been in a few surface drives with other people driving them and I'm happy with the speed I'm getting. I honestly don't understand why people spend the money they spend on mods or why they buy those little light ass boats and give up durability and useable space in the boat just to gain 3-4 mph. My boat is an 1851 1/8" prodigy with a 22" extended deck, 2 hatches in the front, built in gas tank, 2 half boxes in the back and prodigys "timber" back deck and I'm running 29mph. I wouldn't give up all the storage and the huge front deck for fishing just to go 32mph... I'd rather wake up 5 minutes earlier or drive my truck 3 mph faster to get to a hunting spot first.

Yeah, you do have a point. I ran it with 3 people and a lab the first day I got it and it was running about 24 lol. I guess I can live with that because I'm not doing anything to the motor while it's under warranty. I mostly deer hunt by myself or with 1 other person so I don't need to carry too big of a load. I usually only duck hunt with 1 other person too so it's all good. If I do have 2 guys with me while duck hunting, we'll just have to putt along to the duck hole lol.

You also have an EFI, which is supposed to be comparable to a Stage 1 motor.
So you will be pretty happy with that motor.