Hewescraft / Rotax

[smitty]

http://www.hewescraft.com/products/river-runner/

So depending on where you are and what you do, this just might be the bee's knees.....

[d4570]

I saw one of these at the Great Falls boat show, looks like a winning package.
I HAVE a Hewes with the sport jet and love it but your talking about 30% more HP then mine and better gas mileage.

[broncobran68]

Sport jet turns a 7.25" impeller to a max of 4500rpm (5650 engine rpm through 1.25:1 gear). What is the rotax pump like? 6.3" impeller @7500 rpm? I'm thinking these may be two different animals.

[Susitna907]

I'm curious about a few things..
I know that these same Hewescraft boats can come with a 200SJet..
From what I've heard, the SJet pump handles dirtier/siltier water and trash better then these Rotax driven pumps.
Does anyone know if that's correct or is it just folks who own SJ's talking fluff?
Does anyone KNOW what kind of intake/pumps these Rotax engines are tied into?
How are their tolerances and longevity by comparison?
Lots of folks talking about these little motors, but I'm hardly hearing anything about the pumps..
Thanks..

[rockdodger]

Pacific powertrain in the sponsor forums has a post about these. Not a lot of detail but maybe they can answer questions.

[Snake River]

Susitna907 I will try and address the questions that you have asked. First of all the pump/engine assembly that we are supplying with the Rotax package is the same one that the fiberglass boat industry has used for many years now with great success, and is not the same pump assembly that comes in the units that are scavenged from personal water craft. Several fiberglass manufactures used Sport Jets in their boats but have since replaced them with these engine and pump assemblies.The pumps that have been used by the fiberglass industry have been very dependable, and have worked quite well in waterways that are full of silt and trash. As far as ingestion of heavier debris we have redesigned the intake and intake grate to have 15 bars with 3/8" spacing to help keep any large debris from reaching the inside of the pump. The pump comes with a new BRP designed heavy duty stainless steel impeller and a wear ring that are specifically designed to meet the demands of our OEM customers, not the same light weight impeller used in watercraft applications. We have developed a 1" billet intake block, cast aluminum suction housing, and steel stomp grate all of which will come as part of the package that we will supply to the OEMs. Please keep in mind that everyone working for us and involved in this project have come from the welded aluminum jet boat industry, and we have kept the tough demands of our industry in mind in all of our developmental work. Our prototype research was conducted on the Snake and Clearwater rivers using a shallow water hull design, that now has several beauty marks on the bottom from running in skinny rock infested water.

[steelheadfreak]

Susitna907 I will try and address the questions that you have asked. First of all the pump/engine assembly that we are supplying with the Rotax package is the same one that the fiberglass boat industry has used for many years now with great success, and is not the same pump assembly that comes in the units that are scavenged from personal water craft. Several fiberglass manufactures used Sport Jets in their boats but have since replaced them with these engine and pump assemblies.The pumps that have been used by the fiberglass industry have been very dependable, and have worked quite well in waterways that are full of silt and trash. As far as ingestion of heavier debris we have redesigned the intake and intake grate to have 15 bars with 3/8" spacing to help keep any large debris from reaching the inside of the pump. The pump comes with a new BRP designed heavy duty stainless steel impeller and a wear ring that are specifically designed to meet the demands of our OEM customers, not the same light weight impeller used in watercraft applications. We have developed a 1" billet intake block, cast aluminum suction housing, and steel stomp grate all of which will come as part of the package that we will supply to the OEMs. Please keep in mind that everyone working for us and involved in this project have come from the welded aluminum jet boat industry, and we have kept the tough demands of our industry in mind in all of our developmental work. Our prototype research was conducted on the Snake and Clearwater rivers using a shallow water hull design, that now has several beauty marks on the bottom from running in skinny rock infested water.

Id be more concerned with shallow gravely rivers, as this is more conducive to the smaller boats these motors are going in. The Snake and Clearwater are "clean" rivers. I think most are concerned with rivers like the Fraser, Skeena, and a thousand Alberta and Alaska rivers. Lots of silt, sand and gravel being pumped. I think the powerplant is bang-on but a more robust pump and impellers may be needed. Only time will tell. Keep it up though as the sportjet does need some competition and a 4S motor in my mind is the way to approach it. Good stuff guys!

[Ahusk]

Just so you know it is designed to spin the pump to 8100. A sportjet it is not. It won't lift the load.

In a light sporty boat they are awesome. Performance is much better than any sportjet I have ridden in.


My testing has been in actual shallow rivers. The pump holds up to rock fine as long as the impellar does. The factory impellars in the jet skis were built of tinfoil. Apparently the new ones are not. Standard Skat-Trak stainless ones hold up to the occasional rock ok. I would keep the plastic wear ring as a fuse but that's just me. If the grate is only 3/8 spacing I would like to know what the suction area is. With 5/8 spacing, 7 bars and factory jet ski sized intake I can blow my pump out anytime I want. With 15 bars at 3/8 the intake must be huge.

Side note. I am sure someone will come along any minute and tell me any drawbacks I have perceived in the 200 hours of actually running one of these is because of poor construction of my boat. Maybe so.

[Susitna907]

Susitna907 I will try and address the questions that you have asked. First of all the pump/engine assembly that we are supplying with the Rotax package is the same one that the fiberglass boat industry has used for many years now with great success, and is not the same pump assembly that comes in the units that are scavenged from personal water craft. Several fiberglass manufactures used Sport Jets in their boats but have since replaced them with these engine and pump assemblies.The pumps that have been used by the fiberglass industry have been very dependable, and have worked quite well in waterways that are full of silt and trash. As far as ingestion of heavier debris we have redesigned the intake and intake grate to have 15 bars with 3/8" spacing to help keep any large debris from reaching the inside of the pump. The pump comes with a new BRP designed heavy duty stainless steel impeller and a wear ring that are specifically designed to meet the demands of our OEM customers, not the same light weight impeller used in watercraft applications. We have developed a 1" billet intake block, cast aluminum suction housing, and steel stomp grate all of which will come as part of the package that we will supply to the OEMs. Please keep in mind that everyone working for us and involved in this project have come from the welded aluminum jet boat industry, and we have kept the tough demands of our industry in mind in all of our developmental work. Our prototype research was conducted on the Snake and Clearwater rivers using a shallow water hull design, that now has several beauty marks on the bottom from running in skinny rock infested water.

Thanks for that response. Good info. Much appreciated.
Man, I tell ya, if you ever want too test a Rotax driven pump in silty, gravelly, leafy, rock bumpin', dirty water, give me a call. Where I live, that's about all we have.. I could put that Rotax pump to the test quite easily and in a hurry..
Up here in the AK, too most of us, clean water only comes out of a kitchen tap or a lake..
With that being said, those are some of the reasons the SJ and Hami 212's are so popular up here. They handle what I call "trashy water" better then most. I've got good friends who own welding/fab/boat shops and from they're own and their customers experience, that seems to be the general consensus. To include my buddy's who run the inboard jets.
Granted, Kodiak, AT, Scott, etc.. pumps do well, but in an "all around setting" for the rivers up here, these other 2 appear too last the longest, seems too be more forgiving..
That is why I used the 200SJ as a comparison regarding this thread...
A 230+hp quick spinner coming in around 300# with a quality jet has certainly got my eyebrows raised for a project i'm contemplating...
Do you have a ballpark on the $$ for such a setup ready to be shipped?
Thanks again..

[Susitna907]

Pacific powertrain in the sponsor forums has a post about these. Not a lot of detail but maybe they can answer questions.

I finally saw that. Thank you..

[Snake River]

Due to contractual agreements with BRP we are only allowed to offer these packages at the OEM level in Canada, and the US.

[dpruden]

I purchased a 18 foot hewescraft with the rotax supercharged. This is my first river boat so take my experience with a grain of salt lol. I have only ran on a lake as of now . Ice just came off about a week or so and i am still nervous about taking it on a river until get more experience and let the water clear up abit. First time out I had the whole family in there all 1500 pounds of us. it pulled us out of the hole fairly good. Top speed with that weight was around 35 miles an hour on gps turning around 7500ish rpm , it is a bit of a high revving engine but its really quiet. In the motor compartment at that speed all you hear is whistle from the supercharger. Spent most my time on and off the throttle on break in and was burning around 8 gallons an hour. Second time out I had about 800 pounds of people in the boat . Was getting 42 to 43 mile an hour at top speed definitely got on plane a lot quicker. There was a lot of trash in the water and had to clean the grate couple times but so was everybody around me . This time out was still up and down on throttle but was burning less fuel this time . Burnt around 6 gallons an hour. Chalk it up to less weight I guess . With the little time on it and my limited experience I really enjoy it . It is really quiet seems to have good power. The motor does rev higher than what I expected but gallons per hour seems comparable so far, still a hard pill to swallow when gas prices hit 1.50 a liter around hear . You have to pay to play lol. Hope this helps.

[Crawdad Johnny]

Good info so thank you for sharing. Would appreciate hearing how it goes over time. To me, it's a very interesting power plant.

[Snake River]

Congrats on the new boat , I am sure that it will give you many years of enjoyment.

[Snake River]

Ahusk, I am sorry that I did not respond to your previous post I just missed it. Our intake opening is 9.78 inches wide and 15.347 inches long with a little over 150 square inches of opening. We have worked with the folks at BRP to optimize the size of the opening, so that it will accommodate the 300HP engine when it becomes available in about a year. In our testing we did not experience any cavitation with our new design under heavy acceleration. With that said everyone that I have talked with who has used a fabricated housing, including us when we offered a fabricated housing, has experienced cavitation issues. While these issues in some cases may be attributed to the boat, we found during our testing that the issues were generally centered around the fabricated suction housings. Enjoy your boat to the fullest.

[dpruden]

Well me and my dad went up williston Lake for a 4 day fishing trip with two other boats. Fully loaded with 8 jerry cans of gas and camping gear "we brought way to much stuff " the rotax was burning about 7 gallons an hour doing about 27 mph average. Coming back with all the fuel burnt and food and booze gone lol was averaging 5.5 gallons an hour. On a side note does all gas gauges work like crap on boats or are you supposed to read it while on step . going down the lake the gauge would say full or close to it but when stop low level alarm would beep. My dad was freaked as he thought we were going to not have enough gas to get home. It has a 34 us gallon tank so I stopped to put fuel in it only took 15 gallons. Then I had a hard time convincing him it was a 34 gallon tank. It got so bad he was calculating if we ran on the kicker to get home we would have enough. It was actually kind of comical watching him sweat . Now if people wanted to know the performance part of this. The other two were sportjets one an older 175 in 16 foot and a 20 footer with a 200 sportjet newer boat. I might have burned a little more fuel it was close . All boats unloaded did some top speed testing we were curious , the rotax would pull away over the 200 but mind you it is bit bigger boat. the 175 was quite bit slower than both of us. All in all it was great time and recommend anybody to go up there to fish .

[Snake River]

dpruden fuel gauges are effected by several different factors such as belly tank or cross tank, positioning of the fuel sensor, baffles in the tank, and attitude of the boat. Hewes uses a belly tank, and if the sensor is in the front of the tank with the nose of the boat in the air it will read low. You boat is not utilizing the sensor that is supplied with the fuel pump, and we are looking forward to a more accurate readings with our sensor though it will be effected by all of the other variables just like anyone else's sensor. What size Rotax engine do you have in your new boat? Thank you for your purchase and may you get many years of enjoyment out of your boat.

[dpruden]

Its the 240 horse version. we were quite nose heavy as that was where we put the jerry cans. It wasnt a real big deal just wasnt sure how to read it. I let one of the guys who own a sport jet kingfisher try it out and the two things he couldn't get over was how responsive it was and how refined it was. It is like a harley compared to a sportbike motor. Two different ways to achieve the same goal.

[Ahusk]

What is your cruise rpm? The fuel burn numbers, even light, seem high compared to my experience. I don't calculate in gph but mine gets close to 4 mpg usually.

[dpruden]

Cruise rpm is about 6grand at 25 to 26 mph. I was going by the hour meter and how many 5 gallon Jerry cans we burn which seems to be fairly close to the gph meter on it.