JasonSmith

No offense to your friend, but if he is that worried about spinning them in he really don't belong behind the wheel until he gets some training on what can & will happen.

offshorexcursion

Glad some props are on the way. My friend Ryan got a call back from Brett at BBLADES also so thats good.

I agree that the props spinning in are not worth it. I have run them in on both my 32 caliber and 33 outlaw and did not notice any gain. I actually drove the 32 caliber with them in since the day I bought it because thats how it came. I did not even know that it was normal for them to spin out. So I switched them years later and loved the handling much better and actually went 1mph faster gps then before. Only once though but hey conditions might have been better who cares, I put over 200hrs on that boat in 2 years.

Spent one day with them in on my 33 and I ran the exact same speed. Even during a race against a new boat in town that had surprise engines under that hatch. I ran hard on perfect chop mid 90's like always. (yes I won the race!)So I switched back. YES DOCKING IS MUCH EASIER out especially on a really windy lake michigan.

Knot 4 Me

Thanks for the info. He can spot the boat on a dime today. His only concerning is losing manuverability around the docks as there is not much room between the next dock in front of our slips and also the shoreline to the North. We can catch a pretty wicked crosswind out of the South/Southwest and giving up control for just a MPH or two won't be worth it in those situations. We'll try it both ways and he'll have the final call. We found on the Sunsation F-4 with staggared drives turning in that trimming the drives up a bit really helped with control around the docks. He has to trim up now so his props won't hit the lift bunks so he may find that the boat doesn't lose too much manuverability with them turning in. We won't know until we try it.

Knot 4 Me

John (JaayTeee), thanks for taking time out to talk to Mike. Hopefully we can post some mid-80's speeds soon!

Jeff

JaayTeee

Must have been the conditions then.

If you're going to do comparisions you have to test
back to back ( run it one way, pull it out, flip props run it again), and what I've found by doing that is that
"in" ( on a 33 O/L) is worth a little over 1 mph vs. "out".

offshorexcursion

I am a liar! Sorry guys. Just found out my props were lab finished by mercury racing. They have 5 letters stamped in side of them. Ryan borrowed them to test on his boat and agreed they were stock. Then he talked to brett at bblades and he said your numbers are way off, "are you sure they are stock". well after looking hard and measured the thickness, we were wrong. Just thought I would admit to my mistake. The good news is that whoever labbed them at mercury did a great job! Prob was brett when he used to work there!

Knot 4 Me

Prop testing tonight. 28 Maximus and 29 Hydros.

offshorexcursion

Sounds good, how did they work?

Knot 4 Me

Get to the lake only to find out he had no hub kits. His existing props have solid hubs. Marina only had standard shaft kits as did the boat dealer next door. So we are waiting on some hub kits.

Knot 4 Me

Finally got some prop testing in last night. Quick recap. 2003 33 Outlaw with 500 EFI's, 12" neutral boxes, XZ drives (1.50), 30" Bravo I 4 blades (non-labbed). Boat new, according to owner, ran 78 - 80 MPH. At 280 hours last season, boat had slowed to about 75 - 77 MPH so boat goes to Brad Smith in Joplin for a refresh. Motors are now 605 HP 522's. No other changes made. After the new mills were installed, boat ran a best of 80 MPH at 5,300 - 5,400 RPM with the same 30" Bravo I's. So, first up last night were a set of 15 1/8" 29 pitch Hydromotive PX-5's turning out. Boat planed quicker and cruised at a lower RPM. We expected not to be able to turn the Hydros to 5,400 but spank our azz and call us Julie, they turned 5,400 RPM. Best speed was again 80 MPH but consistantly around 78 MPH. WTF? OK, let's turn them in. Boat did not want to plane as easily, cruise RPM's went up, max RPM was only 5,100 - 5,200, with a best speed of 77 MPH. Also, the hop at WOT was more pronounced with them turning in. Now to a set a 15 5/8" 28 pitch Maximus. Brand new out of the box from Merc one ear on one prop has the tip bent over with deep scratches. Obviously inspector 7 was having a bad day. Pictures sent to Brett at BBlades and he says to run them. Immediately you can feel a slight vibration before leaving the marina. Boat did not want to plane like it did with the Hydros and once it rolled over, it was like someone threw the anchor out. The motors would not rev over 3,500 RPM. It just sat and bogged down. Was this because of the damaged blade on one prop or are the drives so deep it cannot pull this large of diameter of a 5 blade? Don't know. However, we do know this boat is not running near as fast as it should and we now have more questions than before running the 5 blades.