socalstone

Who has demos/loaners/rentals?
Teague has B1 demos but no Mirage Plus.

Already bought the wrong prop once. Don't care to do it again.

Any leads?

RaggedEdge

Try a call to Brett at BBlades, they have a demo/trial program that is reasonable and the support to get you where you need to be with your prop purchase.

articfriends

What props are you wanting ton try? There are several bd members with large collections of props who may let you try them out if they have a spare that didn't exactly work for them that may be what your wanting to try. Your welcome to try any prop I own once my season is up in about a month. It sounds like your wanting to try a mirage plus,let me tell you this,when I first added a blower to my 272 when it had a 502 and I was trying out props initially I tried running a std 27 mirage plus,a 25 merc 3 blade and a labbed 27 merc 3 blade, the blowout was awful,with a blower motor it just about broke prop loose at any speed and was virtually undriveable. Guys were telling me how I would get the most speed from a 3 blade but my slippage was ariound 30% plus 3 blades just wouldn't hold at all as soon as motor made boost,Smitty
30 merc labbed
32 bravo merc not labbed by merc
28 bravo merc labbed
28 cutdown bravo merc slightly tweaked
std 32 bravo
26 bravo merc labbed w/b-blades bravo cup
std 26 bravo
when I ran my boat normally aspirated last year which is about 650 hp at 5400 I ran 73-74 mph w/std 26,the merc labbed picked that up to about 76 mph at 5500-5600

socalstone

Thanks...
Yeah I wanted to try a Mirage+ 29 and maybe 27.
I have a 30B1 that bblades labbed, but it needs to be tweaked further- still way too tall.

I'm looking for all the bow lift I can get.
Also looking for the best top end- mainly to see what the best is.
Then would decide for best all around.
I tried a stock 28B1 and that is the best so far.

articfriends

You'll be disapointend with the 29 and 27 3 blades,you'll never get the bow lift your looking for besides the otherproblems they'll cause. Where are your rpm's with the stock 28 compared to where you want to be? Sounds like poss your 30 cut down some more will probably get you where you want to be with some "baja" cup from bblades if your stock 28 is already maxed out (I'm guessing). I finally got off my wallet and ordered a imco shorty thurs to try,my boat seems more spooky then ever at high speeds,I'm hoping the 2" will settle it down,Smitty

BenPerfected

Smitty,
Where is your propshaft today in relation to the bottom of the boat? I have a friend with a single engine boat that is also searching for more speed via x-dimension. At your speeds, the IMCO lower efficency alone should be an improvement. If possile, start by setting up with the -2" IMCO lower and a 2" spacer to get a base line...then 1" spacer...then no spacer. It could all be done in a day. I wonder if IMCO has any spacers you could rent? Just money...
Ben

articfriends

Your method sounds the most scientific way to do it however I'm running a maxworx bravo drive which has a fixed piece on the upper that sticks down .250 so a normal spacer doesn't fit my boat. I have 1" spacers one of which has been custom machined to fit with my drive. I'm looking for high speed handling more than overall top end,my boat is getting bow AND transom lift at high speed and I'm thinking that the shorter drive height will help with that but hopefully it will still air out the bow. I'm going to record prop slip at different gps speeds before I make the switch and if it becomes unacceptable or it won't carry the bow I'll bolt the spacer on. My current prop c/l is about 7 1/2 " below keel/pad. If everything becomes screwed up I'll buy a 2# spacer and have it bored out to clear my tower end and start from square one,Smitty