Chris Sunkin

I ran 21 pitch cleavers on my Velocity 30 race boat (long ago) It had a high X and the pad bottom. It's really more about the boat than the drive. Since you see it infrequently anymore, my guess is that prop technology has evolved to the point that there's better choices.

Rookie

Are you turning them in or out? I just swapped my TRS drives from out to in. Got the stern lift I was looking for and still could carry the bow. Boat ran flatter and flew more even when airborne. 25" mirages. old '86 Panther hull

My boat also hated the hydromotives, was really loose and squirrely with them. actually scary

White Knuckles

My drives are turning out. Good suggestion.

Rookie

WK, Just a friendly reminder that you can not just swap props on a TRS you actually have to swap the drives over. It takes its not a bad job. I did it by myself but those are some heavy a$$ drives.

Westcoast

Rookie
What props are you running?
what power....?

Rookie

I am running 25" Mirages, not plus's. I was running merc 425s. The best I ever ran was 73mph on GPS around 5200rpm, but I had trouble getting on plane in 2 footers. I then took them to the local prop shop and told them my problems. They put them back to true 25", balanced them, added cupping and them thinned the blades a little to get my rpm's back up. Now I run 72 at 5200 and can get on plane wtih minimal blow in any water conditions. And gained about 4mph in my cruise speed.

I am now upgrading my power to about 615hp/side and will use these props just to get a base line for my new props. so they will be up for sale this spring. I basically had the props in and out of the prop shop, tweeking these props to run on my TRS Scarab Panther. I am fortunate to have a local shop to let me test and tweek until I was satisfied at no extra charge. They also gave me Mirage+ 23"s to use while they were working on mine.

Panther

I used to have a Panther with TRS drives. Turning the drives IN made docking a PITA and the boat rode on the keel and would handle crappy in rough water. The boat would land on it's side from prop torque didn't feel comfortable in quartering seas. Although it gained 1-2 mph by doing it I wound up switching it back.

I was first running 25" Mirage props to 5300 rpms and the boat ran 74 mph but had some cavitation issues and didn't carry the bow to well. I then switched over to 25" Mirage Plus props and it solved the cavitation problem and lowerd the RPMS to about 5200 but I was able to run 76 on a good day.

I also tried nose cones on teh TRS but thats when I started breaking lowers. I'd usually blow a lower (mostly the counter lower) every other year (Ocean running). I removed the nose cones and didn't have any problems with the drives again.

If I had to do it all over again I would probably run a 23" prop and turn 5600 rpms to save the drive a little. Turning the RPM's saves the drives a little.

Panther

Oh yeah...when the drives were turning IN the props had a lot less slip. It was about a 100-150 rpm difference and it would load and unload the drives/engines a lot harder upon re-entry in rough seas.

Westcoast

Good info...thanks for posting

Rookie

Thanks Panther, I always like to hear other peoples experience to compare things I have tried. I had the bad handling characteristics you talk about when I ran the 4 blade hydromotives, ran right on the keel, bow steered, bounced from chine to chine and would land on its side some time.

But when I put the mirages on they handled much better, but the Rake and cupping were changed to change the whole characteristics of the boat. I can now carry the bow and get the stern out of the water. These are not stock props and results will differ.

It is a different ride when spinning in. It took me about 2 hours to change them over not to bad for a free performance check. Those S.O.B's are heavy and I suggest involving a friend.

Panther what power were you running, 420's?? And any more info on the nose cones? Brand? Performance gains? Handling? I was thinking of the nose cone thing but hearing your problems with lowers I am a little concerned. It does make sense, when you epoxy a nose cone on you basically are insulating the front of the drive where the gears are located. Keeping the heat in and the cold out. Less thermal transfer.
Thanks,
Jason