www.iFourWinns.com

Whoever said that using a Stainless steel prop is not a good idea is a bad, bad person!! Bought a SS prop on ebay.. and it arrived today.

FW recommends a 15.25" x 15p prop on my boat, and thats what I had on there. It was a newly reworked aluminum prop. I was getting 34mph @ 4600RPMs. FW states the boat should go at least 39-40. So I figured I could sacrifice alittle RPMs and go up in pitch a little. So I went up 1 pitch (from 15p to 16p).

Great news: got a new top speed of 37.5mph and my RPMs are around 4500RPMs! And thats with a full freshwater tank, tons of junk on board, facing the wind, and 2/3 tank of gas Methinks with an empty freshwater tank, less junk on board and the wind null or in my favor, Im going to achieve 40mph. Either way, getting on plane was a lot easier with the SS prop - I only had to use 1/2 the throttle I normally would. With the aluminum prop, I used to have to go WOT to get on plane, now I only use about 50% of the throttle. That alone is worth it to me!

Just wanted to share my experience

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Very good! You've gained on BOTH ends!

You have two things here:

1) You did up the pitch, which the engine obviously likes.

2) Who knows what prop that was on it actually was, even thought it was labeled as 15.25 x 15, it may not have been accurate.

3) The cuppling and detailed blade profile is likely a better set-up on the new prop. It allows you to plane quicker (more lift at the rear) and to also go fiurther for each RPM (higher pitch plus more cupping, likely).

4) The benefits of the SS not flexing under load.

All of these points have likely fallen into place to give you a far better prop set-up than what was on before. The only point that you may want to watch is the 4500 RPM that you noted. IS this the MAX that you can get with the drive trimmed for the best top speed? This would be just a bit low. You would typically want to be a hair OVER the recommended top RPM with a fully empty booat and lightest load (low fuel, no water, 1 or 2 people, no canvas up, smooth water). However, I would not say that you are really over-propped at this point.

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Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner