Actually, Robert & Chip, I think you're onto something here, but I think you two could stand to learn a thing or two from those nice NASCAR folks.... ever see how they always travel around the track in a line? Well...
As you've noted, install the front receiver, then connect a large tractor trailer to the front of your tow vehicle - a Peterbuilt or Kenworth should do just fine. Then all you have to do is push that truck really fast with your tow vehicle until it's up to speed, then you can just draft behind it! No wind resistance whatsoever, and I guarantee you'll have fantastic mileage!
Towing mileage
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ManassasPaul
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Draft & DirectHits
I agree with drafting behind a big truck. When I was very young, my dad showed us how to draft behind a truck by pulling up within a few feet at highway speed and turning off the engine on the family van (one of those old chevy vans with the all steel interior and the engine between the front seats, I think they called it FC for forward control), the van stayed with the truck for the moment or two my dad allowed us to stay so close. Luckily the truck did not use its brakes during that. In the case of pushing the Mac26 down the highway, drafting might reduce the need to steer the pushed trailer as well.
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I am not going to start defending DirectHits here. I had a great improvement with them in my previous tow vehicle. I would very much like to know if they make a big difference in the 50hp outboards in terms of MPG, top speed, need to re-prop for even more top speed, and smell and smoke reduction in two strokes. My 50hp was the Suzuki with coil over plug the ignition wires were so short there was no room for directhits, or I would have tried them. I also wonder if the timing will be able to be advance a little more with the tighter timing control of the DirectHits which would allow more efficiency also, in my tow vehicle the engine computer handled the timing advance automatically.
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I am not going to start defending DirectHits here. I had a great improvement with them in my previous tow vehicle. I would very much like to know if they make a big difference in the 50hp outboards in terms of MPG, top speed, need to re-prop for even more top speed, and smell and smoke reduction in two strokes. My 50hp was the Suzuki with coil over plug the ignition wires were so short there was no room for directhits, or I would have tried them. I also wonder if the timing will be able to be advance a little more with the tighter timing control of the DirectHits which would allow more efficiency also, in my tow vehicle the engine computer handled the timing advance automatically.
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ALX357
- Admiral
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- Location: Nashville TN -- 2000 MacGregor 26X, Mercury two-stroke 50hp
....another way to increase your towing mileage.... get another small trailer to tow behind the boat behind the Taurus, and mount a huge commercial building sized attic box fan on it, raise the Mac's mast and sails, (wing and wing, you need a spin-pole and jibe preventer rigged), and run the fan with one of those cigarette-lighter inverters, and a long extension cord from the Taurus, draped over the Mac's decks, and to the trailed fan. 
you be just sailin' down the Intercourse, 
only have to give the Taurus enough pedal to keep the boat trailer from actually having to push it up the hills, which would actuate the trailer brakes and negate the advantage of the fan-powered sails. I know it sounds like a stroke of genius, but hey, that is what i do ...
Never mind the engineers' nay-saying ..... something about the fan also pushing backwards.... i bet they never even tried it.
you be just sailin' down the Intercourse, only have to give the Taurus enough pedal to keep the boat trailer from actually having to push it up the hills, which would actuate the trailer brakes and negate the advantage of the fan-powered sails. I know it sounds like a stroke of genius, but hey, that is what i do ... Never mind the engineers' nay-saying ..... something about the fan also pushing backwards.... i bet they never even tried it.
I have an electrical engineering degree, but I'm still having real trouble getting my head around the 500 amp claim.
Simply put, wouldn't that burn up a plug in no time? Wouldn't that turn your spark plug into 2.5 of these?
Yeah, I know we're talking instantaneous, but how often does that spark occur? It wouldn't take too many miles before the electrodes would be gone...
How about the rest of the ignition system driving that current? For example, the driving side of the coil only sees 12 volts, while the spark side sees, what, about 10,000? The school I went to told me that as voltage goes up, current goes down (for the same power), and visa versa... So, to get 10,000 volts out of 12, the 12volt side has to see much much larger current. So, if you're getting 500 amps on the 10,000 volt side, how many are you getting on the 12 volt side?
Yeah, I know the capacitor is what is supposedly driving the high current. But, the capacitor doesn't "create" the current, if has to be fed the current... How does it get that much energy to store?
If I had all day, I could store enough energy in a capacitor to deliver a 500 amp spark, and I could do that with very low current. But, your car doesn't have all day. It only has the time between sparks. So, to deliver a 500 amp spark, you have to pump all that energy into the capacitor at a rather high rate. I'm not sure the rest of your ignition system can handle that...
Sure, sure, you can skew things in your favor by really cutting the duration of the spark, thereby cutting the energy, but how much room do you have to play with? There are other factors here too. There are limits to how fast the spark can be...
I just don't buy it, and won't (pun intended)...
Simply put, wouldn't that burn up a plug in no time? Wouldn't that turn your spark plug into 2.5 of these?
Yeah, I know we're talking instantaneous, but how often does that spark occur? It wouldn't take too many miles before the electrodes would be gone...
How about the rest of the ignition system driving that current? For example, the driving side of the coil only sees 12 volts, while the spark side sees, what, about 10,000? The school I went to told me that as voltage goes up, current goes down (for the same power), and visa versa... So, to get 10,000 volts out of 12, the 12volt side has to see much much larger current. So, if you're getting 500 amps on the 10,000 volt side, how many are you getting on the 12 volt side?
Yeah, I know the capacitor is what is supposedly driving the high current. But, the capacitor doesn't "create" the current, if has to be fed the current... How does it get that much energy to store?
If I had all day, I could store enough energy in a capacitor to deliver a 500 amp spark, and I could do that with very low current. But, your car doesn't have all day. It only has the time between sparks. So, to deliver a 500 amp spark, you have to pump all that energy into the capacitor at a rather high rate. I'm not sure the rest of your ignition system can handle that...
Sure, sure, you can skew things in your favor by really cutting the duration of the spark, thereby cutting the energy, but how much room do you have to play with? There are other factors here too. There are limits to how fast the spark can be...
I just don't buy it, and won't (pun intended)...
Last edited by DLT on Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Lou Camilli of DirectHits reply
..Robert,
We have always had marine applications and yes the 2-stroke applications really like our technology.
All we need is the make and model of the spark plug and we would sell the spark plug and the S80 DirectHit.
Lou
Louis S. Camilli
President Enerpulse, Inc
[email protected]
I would also ask about the spark plug wires. The low resistance wires help deliver more energy to the spark. There are two "sizes" of DirectHits S80 and S100 I think, where the S80 is for smaller applications. The spark plugs they provide will be resistorless, and if possible they will send the special Brisk type that is described on their web page http://www.directhits.com/Brisk.html
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DirectHits work for me. The 500Amp thing is the top of the capacitor discharge spike, it can be that high only for a very very short time. The result is more precise timing of the start of the fuel burn and that makes the engine run smoother and allows timing to be advanced a little bit and timing advance gives quicker response and more torque. The quicker start of the fuel to burn allows it more time to burn so it burns more completely and you therefore can get better economy.
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I would like very much for someone to post their results with a 2 stroke on the Mac26X before and after the DirectHits. (I already proved to myself that they work great in the tow vehicle)
Outboard testimonials:
http://www.directhits.com/jrogers.html
http://www.directhits.com/britton.html
Technical Information:
http://www.directhits.com/technical.html
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Chip Hindes
- Admiral
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- Location: West Sand Lake, NY '01X, "Nextboat" 50HP Tohatsu
Claims about high voltage, high amperage sparks, total electrical energy discharge are a whole lot of pseudo scientific, pseudo engineering marketing BS, which totally ignores the fact that on any late model vehicle (or boat) the stock ignition system and spark plugs, if working properly, don't need it.
Capacitor discharge is located at the spark plug
The DirectHits are located at each spark plug. The ignition condensor at the distributer that is referred to in the previous post is not where the DirectHits is.
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The car companies use high resistance spark plug wires and resistor spark plugs to reduce radio interferrence. They sacrifice 99% of the spark energy in order to keep down the noise, only 1% gets to the spark gap. DirectHits allow the use of non-resistor plugs without the radio noise problem so 50% of the spark energy is delivered to the gap for a livelier spark.
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Most car companied and Suzuki Marine are adressing this problem by puting an ignition coil directly over each spark plug. Car companies are driven to keep costs down, so they may not use the best stuff. As Chip said, the engine will run without DirectHits. I think the new higher price of gasoline will get more research going for even better ignition systems.
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Actually, I think the marketing effort on the DrectHits is very poor, or there would be a lot more of them out there. DirectHits have been availble at NAPA auto parts in the past, I don't know if they still are.
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The car companies use high resistance spark plug wires and resistor spark plugs to reduce radio interferrence. They sacrifice 99% of the spark energy in order to keep down the noise, only 1% gets to the spark gap. DirectHits allow the use of non-resistor plugs without the radio noise problem so 50% of the spark energy is delivered to the gap for a livelier spark.
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Most car companied and Suzuki Marine are adressing this problem by puting an ignition coil directly over each spark plug. Car companies are driven to keep costs down, so they may not use the best stuff. As Chip said, the engine will run without DirectHits. I think the new higher price of gasoline will get more research going for even better ignition systems.
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Actually, I think the marketing effort on the DrectHits is very poor, or there would be a lot more of them out there. DirectHits have been availble at NAPA auto parts in the past, I don't know if they still are.
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baldbaby2000
- Admiral
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- Location: Rapid City, SD, 2005 26M, 40hp Tohatsu
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I believe this is true and probably a requirement. It seems possible that if you give up that requirement you might get a little improvement. I know from experience that resistive wires or plugs cut down radio interference significantly (they create a low-pass filter effect). A lot of compromises are made on cars; for example, you can increase performance at the expense of increased pollution.The car companies use high resistance spark plug wires and resistor spark plugs to reduce radio interferrence.
MPG on our Suburban pulling the 26M is anywhere from 7 to 11 mpg.
You can also increase performance by sacrificing dependability and longevity...
Yes, like any product, cars are a compliation of compromises. Is there room for moderate improvements in any area? Almost certainly, yes.
Can you significantly enhance one area with absolutely no detrimental effect? Not Likely.
All that aside, another consideration here is the economics. Run the numbers. For my v6 Explorer, they want $255, to replace what? About $20 dollars in parts. Ok, so for my next tune up, I install their $255 and save $20. It just cost me $235.
Lets say they are good for 50,000 miles. That's extremely doubtful at that high current. But, lets go for it - we need some number. Alternatively, you can use how long you plan to keep the car, since you'll surely get no resale bonus from it...
Ok, I just spent 1/2 cent per mile. I get about 17 MPG. At about $2.50/gallon (which is higher than what it costs around here right now), that means it costs me 14.7 cents per mile. If this increases my milage by a whole MPG, which is again very doubtful, then I'd get 18 MPG, or 13.9 cents per mile. Ok, I just saved .3 cents per mile, after the cost of the DirectHits. Over 50,000 miles, I saved ~$150. But, how long is it going to take to recover that? For me, probably 3 years to rack up 50,000 miles. So, now I saved $50 per year.
Now, they seem to be claiming 5-10% MPG boost (look at the jeepsunlimited.com review), which is between .85 and 1.7 MPG for me. So, my numbers are not too far off.
That's nothing to sneeze at, but it's not enough to justify the risk of damage that appears to be very real, at least to me...
You also need to look at the time value of money. That $235 really costs more over a three year period... Its closer to $300 over three years... That means I'm actually saving less...
50,000 miles is also a rather high number in my opinion. I probably should have run this at 25,000. But, hopefully, 50,000 will generate less argument...
Obviously, some of you pay more for gas. We all likely will, in the next three years.
But, I'm just too skeptical about their claims to hand them $255 for what appears to be modest savings...
Yes, like any product, cars are a compliation of compromises. Is there room for moderate improvements in any area? Almost certainly, yes.
Can you significantly enhance one area with absolutely no detrimental effect? Not Likely.
All that aside, another consideration here is the economics. Run the numbers. For my v6 Explorer, they want $255, to replace what? About $20 dollars in parts. Ok, so for my next tune up, I install their $255 and save $20. It just cost me $235.
Lets say they are good for 50,000 miles. That's extremely doubtful at that high current. But, lets go for it - we need some number. Alternatively, you can use how long you plan to keep the car, since you'll surely get no resale bonus from it...
Ok, I just spent 1/2 cent per mile. I get about 17 MPG. At about $2.50/gallon (which is higher than what it costs around here right now), that means it costs me 14.7 cents per mile. If this increases my milage by a whole MPG, which is again very doubtful, then I'd get 18 MPG, or 13.9 cents per mile. Ok, I just saved .3 cents per mile, after the cost of the DirectHits. Over 50,000 miles, I saved ~$150. But, how long is it going to take to recover that? For me, probably 3 years to rack up 50,000 miles. So, now I saved $50 per year.
Now, they seem to be claiming 5-10% MPG boost (look at the jeepsunlimited.com review), which is between .85 and 1.7 MPG for me. So, my numbers are not too far off.
That's nothing to sneeze at, but it's not enough to justify the risk of damage that appears to be very real, at least to me...
You also need to look at the time value of money. That $235 really costs more over a three year period... Its closer to $300 over three years... That means I'm actually saving less...
50,000 miles is also a rather high number in my opinion. I probably should have run this at 25,000. But, hopefully, 50,000 will generate less argument...
Obviously, some of you pay more for gas. We all likely will, in the next three years.
But, I'm just too skeptical about their claims to hand them $255 for what appears to be modest savings...
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richandlori
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How the heck this this come about.....
The cost of Gas, is just one more "cost" of life. The less you worry about some things you can't control, the happier you will be. At least we have a boat that can be used without GAS.
I would save the cost of "hype" product, put it in my ash-tray (what else is it used for besides change) and pay for gas that way.
The cost of Gas, is just one more "cost" of life. The less you worry about some things you can't control, the happier you will be. At least we have a boat that can be used without GAS.
I would save the cost of "hype" product, put it in my ash-tray (what else is it used for besides change) and pay for gas that way.