4-blade prop?

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:50 am

ric wrote:

Mercury in my opinion makes the best props on the market for sterndrive. Volvo Penta doesn't really make anything specific although their 4 blade SS is quite good (not as good as a MC 4 blade SS though).

FYI. Mercury nor Volvo make their own OB/SD props. They are outsourced to Asian countries for manufacturing.

ric · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:54 pm

Cap'n Morgan wrote:

ric wrote:

Mercury in my opinion makes the best props on the market for sterndrive. Volvo Penta doesn't really make anything specific although their 4 blade SS is quite good (not as good as a MC 4 blade SS though).

FYI. Mercury nor Volvo make their own OB/SD props. They are outsourced to Asian countries for manufacturing.

Virtually everything cast or forged for VP or MC is made in an asian country. The chinese don't have the EPA like we do in the USA/EU that bans most of GOOD treatment processes. If VP made their gearsets in the USA they'd fail after a few outings.

schoolsOut · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:01 pm

kd4pbs wrote:

My two cents:
If you're going to upgrade the prop, and you would rather have hole shot, quicker time to plane, etc. then get a 5-blade prop. I went form a 3-blade SS to a Mercruiser high-5 on my Yamaha sterndrive powered Chaparral. I only lost 2 MPH top speed but everything below that makes the boat feel like it has another 100 HP. 4 blades in the water is better than 3, but since 5 blade props are available, why not go for that?

Matt, Thanks for your two cents. I am glad you brought that up. I was looking into the high-5. One of my concerns was that I read it had poor reverse performance greatly affecting its usability around the dock. Have you noticed that? I am looking forward to the increase in power out of the hole as well as at cruise speeds, but I also welcome maneuverability at low speeds.

Walt · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 6:35 am

schoolsOut wrote:

kd4pbs wrote:

My two cents:
If you're going to upgrade the prop, and you would rather have hole shot, quicker time to plane, etc. then get a 5-blade prop. I went form a 3-blade SS to a Mercruiser high-5 on my Yamaha sterndrive powered Chaparral. I only lost 2 MPH top speed but everything below that makes the boat feel like it has another 100 HP. 4 blades in the water is better than 3, but since 5 blade props are available, why not go for that?

Matt, Thanks for your two cents. I am glad you brought that up. I was looking into the high-5. One of my concerns was that I read it had poor reverse performance greatly affecting its usability around the dock. Have you noticed that? I am looking forward to the increase in power out of the hole as well as at cruise speeds, but I also welcome maneuverability at low speeds.

5 is better. Step up 2" in pitch over your present prop and that should put top end and RPM about the same.
Hole Shot- wicked improvement
Handling at all speeds- Wicked improvement
Cruise/economy- eh, it's a boat.
Prop walk when docking- a little better than a 3 blade
"idle" maneuvering- about the same

Hope that helps

rpengr · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 7:15 am

ric wrote:

Virtually everything cast or forged for VP or MC is made in an asian country. The chinese don't have the EPA like we do in the USA/EU that bans most of GOOD treatment processes. If VP made their gearsets in the USA they'd fail after a few outings.

I'm sure these 115 gear manufacturers in the USA would disagree:
http://www.iqsdirectory.com/gears/?gclid=CKmGm8eom7oCFcbm7AodhnwAZQ
What processes do you think are not available here? Cad Plating? carburizing? Chromate? Tell me what you think is banned, and I will find a dozen sources in the USA for you. It's all done here, but American companies have to control there disposal and protect their workers.

The outsourcing to Asia is about price, not improved quality.

schoolsOut · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 8:01 am

Walt wrote:

5 is better. Step up 2" in pitch over your present prop and that should put top end and RPM about the same.

Walt, step up or down. I thought I would need to drop down to a 17" or 18" from my current 19" 3-blade to keep my rpms in the recommended range. Is that what you meant? There is actually a used 17" high 5 on craigslist in my area. I could check it out. Thanks again for the input.

kd4pbs · **Joined:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:34 am **Posts:** 350

I have never noticed anything but positive increase in performance of all areas except top speed. Mine is a 17" pitch high-five (if I remember correctly), and it's bolted to the back of a Yamaha stern drive with a carbeurated Chevy 350 in the engine compartment pushing somewhere around 260 HP. For a 6400 lb. heavy 24' pocket cruiser style boat and a single-prop in the water, you'd swear it's got a lot more twist than it does. :mrgreen:

Edit:
I just looked at your boat info. I originally had this on my old boat; a 1987 Galaxy Weekender 2100 cuddy. Pretty fast hull, and a 2 barrel carbed 5 liter Mercruiser pushing somewhere around 230 HP. It ran wonderfully on that boat too; well matched for the power and the load. I'd try a 17" pitch on that to start with, especially if your primary concern is quicker planing, hole shot, handling, and tubing. That boat would yank my old, fat as$ up on a wakeboard (230 lbs) in no time flat.

ric · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:24 pm

There's a lake test I Can pull up where Stingray took a 20ft bowrider with a 4.3gxi and tested virtually every prop made. They did pull tests and top end tests. The high-5 won everything from zero to cruise by tons of seconds in pull/ski tests. The fastest top end prop? 4 blade Mercury Vensura at around 62 mph. The 3 blade MW ballistic, MC LaserII and the VP 3 blade SS were next in line around 60. They were pushing the engine around 5400rpms for maximum power, a little beyond "recommended".

My Stingray was the same hull and engine but in a cuddy. My best GPS was around 52mph with a 3 blade aluminum. Almost 10mph slower.

Every hull is different but in the end you'll get similar results. Aluminum props? Minimum 10mph slower than any SS at WOT and drastically slower in pull/ski tests to plane.

Basically the best piece of advice in the article was: Don't buy aluminum. Ironically I just purchased an Alpha 4 aluminum prop and it's considerably noticeably better than my 3 blade aluminum. I can't wait til I put a Rev4 or Hi5 on it.

deafwish · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:38 pm

ric wrote:

Aluminum props? Minimum 10mph slower than any SS at WOT and drastically slower in pull/ski tests to plane

Where do you honestly come up with this stuff, Ric? :lol:

Good to see you've now realised that these alloy (not pure aluminium) props are not steel; like with your magnet test some months back!

ric · **Posted:** Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:27 am

I have no idea what that prop was. It had rust spots on it and magnetic. Wasn't aluminum. Wasn't SS. The part # didn't find anything on google.

I never make stuff up. I read. I'll start posting my sources once and a while. Here ya go:

http://www.stingrayboats.com/products/r ... 03_06.html

Basically, the High 5 prop murders everything but top speed. Who cares about top speed.

schoolsOut · **Posted:** Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:04 pm

You guys are great! Thanks for all the info/feedback. I am going to try to get ahold of this 17" highfive on craigslist. Looks to be in good shape from the photos and description, but you never really know until you see it in person. If I can get it for about 1/2 list price I will give it a go. If not, buy a new one in the spring. I can't wait to see and feel the difference. Damn fall. I should have done this months ago.

ric · **Posted:** Thu Oct 17, 2013 8:18 pm

They're always around. Wouldn't mind a 17 high 5 on my boat for my local lake and my 18 4 blade for river runs. There can be 10 people on my boat at times, even the 4 blade won't do it.

www.iFourWinns.com

4-blade prop?

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