Flotation pods and repowering

I will be repowering my boat (Xpress H56) in a few years and I'm thinking about adding flotation pods to lift the transom and also allow me to increase HP on the motor. My boat currently has a 115 Yamaha on it and I'd like to stay with a Yamaha. My boat is rated for a 130 and Yamaha doesn't offer a 130 4 stroke. With the 115, a full tank of gas, 3 batteries and an on board charger, the transom sits lower in the water than I'd like for it to, so the pods would greatly improve that. It would also get more boat out of the water when on plane, or at least I think it would.

So, to my question. Have any of you ever added pods to a boat? We do aluminum fabrication daily at our shop so the how to is not a concern. Just looking for opinions on how much it would lift the transom and also some specfics on bottom design. The pods that I have seen in the past have been installed on flat bottom boats. Mine has a Hyper lift hull. I could make the bottom of the pod with the same profile as the hull, but I don't know if that would really be needed.

Also wondering how it would effect the needed setback of the motor. I currently have a 6" jack plate, but wonder if I would need to increase that to a 10-12" jack plate.

With the pods added, would it be possible to get the HP rating for my boat increased? I have been told that going over the CG placard rating will nulify boat insurance. I do not however know if that's a fact or not.

Any advice or information appreciated.

My experience is with a whole different class of boat from yours. I added them to my 16' War Eagle with 50 hp Yamaha tiller for the purpose of being able to get on plane in very shallow water. It worked perfectly for my application. They made the back of the boat ride higher in the water and also provided a neat set of "steps" for climbing in the boat. There is really no bow rise when you gas it from a stand still, the boat just rises out of the water and stays pretty level the whole time. The only negative I've seen is that trimming the motor up, while on plane, doesn't raise the bow any at all. So, in my boat at least, I lost a couple of MPH's at full throttle.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your insight.

What effect does the lack of bow rise have on the ride of the boat in rough water?

How can you legally raise the hp beyond the rated hp? I am underpowered, but I have max rated approved hp on my Pondtoon aka 30hp on a 16 foot boat.

From what I've read there are ways around it. You can file (somehow) for a variance based off design or performance. I have to do more homework to find out how to do that.

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Originally Posted by FurFlyin

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your insight.

What effect does the lack of bow rise have on the ride of the boat in rough water?

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If anything, it improves the ride in choppy water.

Thanks shadboy. This isn't going to be an any time soon project, but it is on the horizon.

When rating boats today several things are considered by builder not least of which is steering single cable, dual cable and on certain boats to go higher in rating it requires hydraulic steering. Long time ago there was a formula from coast guard as a basic starting point. Length vs width of transom plus depth and bow width. But i think the revised that a few years ago. I know that on some boats (cane pole has one ) crappie deluxe they changed hp rating in different years but still same exact Hull. Main thing is sit down with insurance agent and discuss what would happen if you went higher than rated hp. I don’t know any way you can legally change the rating yourself. Figure you would have to go through manufacturer.


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Was going to add them to a 1542 war eagle but was told by manufacturer I would lose warranty because of altering the boat . They offered to do it for 3x what I could do it for .

My boat is a 1998 model, so I have no warranty, but I did completely restore it last winter and am not looking forward to burning the paint off....