Greetings... I’m in the process of buying a 2020 Nitro Z20. As you probably already know, I got lucky I found this one at a dealer as they are hard to come by right now. Anyway, I’ve had many Bass boats but I’m upgrading from a 19’ center console aluminum Ranger. BIG DIFFERENCE! I’ve read a lot of comments on Nitros chine walking. I’m familiar with it and prepared to dial my motor in if need be to calm the walking if there is any. Any 2020 Z20 owners on here with the new Merc Pro XS 250 that can give me any advice at all before it’s maiden voyage? Thanks in advance.
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I am not a go max-fast fisherman. That being said, I have not seen anything recent about Nitro's with the current Z-hull walking. I don't recall when Nitro introduced the current Z-hull, but my Z18 is very stable. I am on and read several Nitro forums and have not seen chine walking as a problem. I think you will be happy with it. It pops up on plane quickly and doesn't require much trim to get it going.
I have a Z19 and it will chine walk a little if I over trim at high speeds. Once I am on the "sweet spot" it is very stable. I have heard of some of the faster Z20 and Z21 boats chine walking, but once getting the motor height dialed in for the load you carry, it is minimal and can be controlled. I think most high speed (65+) boats will chine walk if over trimmed or if the motor height is not right. You may find more info at the the Nitro board at Bass Boat Central. It gets more traffic than this board does. Nitro Boats
Allen Dronsfield
Well-Known Member
Hi Brett, this is my Nitro Z20 Pro 2019, I have had and still have chine walk issues. I even took it to BPS in Gainesville, they had it on 2 different occasions. They lowered the motor one hole the first time, chine walk got worse. The second trip Tracker told them to put it back in the original hole and hey just wrote it off and sent me home. You are right about tuning the jackplate in, being sure cavitation plate is no less than even with the pad. This puts me at about 2 1/2" on my atlas scale. My chine walk kicks in at 68 mph with me alone in the boat. They test drove this boat at 78 mph when it first came off the truck. I have a 225 Pro XS 4.6, it is so quick on a hole shot almost comes out on a plane. These new hulls are very sensitive, I even communicated with KVD, he explained that it is common and that I should learn to slightly twitch the steering wheel to correct it, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I spent a lot of time looking at you tube videos on chine walk, funny as it is there weren't many videos on Nitro's when I looked at them. Tracker and BPS claimed that the Talon weight could probably be most of the problem. I raised the Talon plates to have less resistance this did help a bit. I also watched a very informative you tube video about moving your weight around in the boat to balance it. My is working better after weight balancing until I put a couple of my large friends in the boat then it goes to hell again. If I have the 325lb guy sit on the center box or step it balances out better and runs stable.
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