New 2024 AR220 owner with question about engine idle at dock

[mtudb24]

I did a search and noticed only a exact match on the Scarab forum. I don't pick up the new boat til mid April, but just trying to get all the info I can before the boat hits the water.

Coming from outboards my whole life, we always warmed them up at the dock while we loaded the boat with gear etc. Knowing that jet boats don't really have a "true idle" and always have some slight fwd thrust, is this something I can still do while its tied up at our dock on the canal? Or is there too much thrust that would cuase pressure on dock lines and cleats?
Below is a picture of my dock and we have about 150-175yds of canal before we hit the lake.

Thanks

 

[Dave burke]

You’re right that there’s not a true idle but there’s minimal wandering in my experience. So you should be able to run the engines a bit if you want although I don’t warm mine up for very long at all. I’ve never seen any posts suggesting that warming up for more than a few seconds is necessary or even a good idea.

 

[mtudb24]

You’re right that there’s not a true idle but there’s minimal wandering in my experience. So you should be able to run the engines a bit if you want although I don’t warm mine up for very long at all. I’ve never seen any posts suggesting that warming up for more than a few seconds is necessary or even a good idea.

And that could be as all my outboards have always been 2 strokes (250hp, twin 150's, and current single 150hp). They always enjoyed a few minutes of warm up before heading out onto the lake.

Thank you for the reply. Much appreciated.

 

[AlpharettaRK]

Dock lines and cleats will be fine if you want to warm up, forward push at idle is real but very minimal. But I think you’re good to idle to the main lake and let er rip.
cheers

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I do a slow warm up run at first like 5 mph then after 30 seconds I increase the speed to about 15 mph and stay there for a minute and then slowly increase the speed to the desired pace , and then drive it normally the rest of the day.
one more point of interest on this in my honest opinion is not to rev the engines hard , out of the water like on a trailer or lift. if you look at the number of valves these engines have and the cams and timing chains quickly revving an engine with no load on it is asking for trouble because if just one valve floats it could end in disaster especially rapid repetition of this . I run my engines with the water off after I flush them foe maybe 20 seconds and at the end I carefully bring up the R P M's slowly and not very high so any excess water will go out the exhaust knowing that you do not get it all out so why risk dropping a valve or hatching a timing chain.

 

[sunbyrned]

I find that if I’m in neutral or moving slowly, that’s when I suck up debris, so I make it a point to always turn it off if I have to stop for some reason. If your area is free of debris then you’ll probably be fine but thought I would add this to the conversation.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Congratulations on the upcoming arrival of your new boat!

While it is true that the Yamaha jet boats are always pumping water, the amount of movement when idling is minimal. @Leojay aka Capt Leon made this video on how to find exact neutral. I’ve done the same thing with my boat to get as close to true neutral.

Capt Leon has quite a few very helpful videos on his youtube channel about his Yamaha boat.

As far as warming up goes…. Everyone has their thing and it works for them and their success can’t be argued with. I have always allowed my gasoline engines to warm up some before I take off, this isn’t just to warm up the coolant but also to allow the engine oil to warm up as well. There are pilot water outlets on the side of the boat that indicates that you have good cooling water flow, this water is coming directly from the oil coolers. Once you have been running the engines hard and come to a stop you will find that the pilot water outlet is warm, again, that water is coming from the engine oil coolers, the main engine cooling water comes out under the boat just above the jet pumps.

I have the same engines in my boat that are in yours, at the first start up of the day when I launch I leave the engines idling after I’ve tied up at the dock while I go and park the truck / trailer so the engines usually idle for 5 minutes until I get back to the dock. When I get out of the no wake zone which adds another 5 minutes, I’ll push them up to 2-3000 rpm for a bit then slowly increase on up to cruise speed for a bit before running harder. Once I feel like the engines are good and hot I’ll run it as hard as I want.

There is an engine break in procedure in your owners manual that should be followed as well. This is a screen shot of my owners manual.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I find that if I’m in neutral or moving slowly, that’s when I suck up debris, so I make it a point to always turn it off if I have to stop for some reason. If your area is free of debris then you’ll probably be fine but thought I would add this to the conversation.

Yes and for the class of 2024 the worst thing for sucking up junk is if you are in shallow water and backing especially at a boat ramp where boats are stirring up trash all day long. As you back you are throwing up trash from the bottom and sucking it in the intake , my reverse move will help get rid of the trash but you have to be in 5 feet of water or more.
You can back the boat up and then turn off the engines and quickly place the controls in forward just before you kill the engines so the reverse buckets are up , then drift backward pushing water through the nozzles backward and pushing out the trash before it gets sucked into the impeller area.

 

[AlpharettaRK]

2 questions about the reverse move. On boats with electric throttle do the buckets just stay where they were when you shut off the engines? On twin jets can you keep one idling in reverse while you shut off the other to force out the junk and not risk forcing water into the shut off engine?
Thanks

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

2 questions about the reverse move. On boats with electric throttle do the buckets just stay where they were when you shut off the engines? On twin jets can you keep one idling in reverse while you shut off the other to force out the junk and not risk forcing water into the shut off engine?
Thanks

On the electric shifters I have to hold it in forward as I kill the engine and make sure the F is displayed. and I have heard of doing twin engines one at a time using the opposite engine When I came up with this there were no electronic shifters just mechanical ones , but it would not take long to test it on your boat and see what works easiest.

 

[biffdotorg]

Below is a picture of my dock and we have about 150-175yds of canal before we hit the lake.

Thanks

The best part about your situation is, you have 150-175 yards of no wake zone to warm up. Those engines will idle tied to the dock, or put into forward with the same amount of load on the engines. So you have a built in warm up routine forced upon you, as you literally cannot get out of no wake mode till clear of the channel anyway.

This is a non issue.

 

[sunbyrned]

Yes and for the class of 2024 the worst thing for sucking up junk is if you are in shallow water and backing especially at a boat ramp where boats are stirring up trash all day long. As you back you are throwing up trash from the bottom and sucking it in the intake , my reverse move will help get rid of the trash but you have to be in 5 feet of water or more.
You can back the boat up and then turn off the engines and quickly place the controls in forward just before you kill the engines so the reverse buckets are up , then drift backward pushing water through the nozzles backward and pushing out the trash before it gets sucked into the impeller area.

Beautiful! I’ll give that a try. Where I put in, I have trash, limbs, bodies, you name it and it never fails to suck something up. Luckily I can spit it out when I’m in the open water, but I look like a fool. Ha!