10-06-2021, 04:55 PM
I had a 17" a 19" and a 21".
17 was for the Berry and over 7,000'. The 19 was my all around prop and worked most places. The 21 was for Powell.
My boat was probably underpowered (4 cyl I/O) for the area but that was harder to change than the prop was, which I could do in about 5 minutes and for a lot less money.
I also throttled back, a lot, most of the time. With the 17 on Willard I could get up on plane and then throttle back to 2,800 rpm and still be cruising right along on plane with 4 people on board sipping gas compared to the 4,400 I could have been running WOT. I could camp 3 days, pulling tubes, fishing, cruising and burn 20 gallons.
When shopping for props, many places have used "loaners" that you can take to test out and when you have it figured out which works best for you then you buy a new one of those.
When I had the Shamrock we towed it to a marina and they tried several props before finding the right combo of pitch, diameter and cup for it at the altitude it would be running rather than the sea level it was coming from. I will say that the prop decided on was not a slow speed prop by any means, idle was over 5mph, so no matter what, you were coming in hot. When you stood on it, that 351 Cleveland would push to 50 with 4 on board, no problems. Economy? Not so much.
17 was for the Berry and over 7,000'. The 19 was my all around prop and worked most places. The 21 was for Powell.
My boat was probably underpowered (4 cyl I/O) for the area but that was harder to change than the prop was, which I could do in about 5 minutes and for a lot less money.
I also throttled back, a lot, most of the time. With the 17 on Willard I could get up on plane and then throttle back to 2,800 rpm and still be cruising right along on plane with 4 people on board sipping gas compared to the 4,400 I could have been running WOT. I could camp 3 days, pulling tubes, fishing, cruising and burn 20 gallons.
When shopping for props, many places have used "loaners" that you can take to test out and when you have it figured out which works best for you then you buy a new one of those.
When I had the Shamrock we towed it to a marina and they tried several props before finding the right combo of pitch, diameter and cup for it at the altitude it would be running rather than the sea level it was coming from. I will say that the prop decided on was not a slow speed prop by any means, idle was over 5mph, so no matter what, you were coming in hot. When you stood on it, that 351 Cleveland would push to 50 with 4 on board, no problems. Economy? Not so much.