prop pitch?

mrowland · Newbie Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 18 City: wichita

Was wondering what pitch would be good for a 3.0 4 cylinder boat?

krieg · Criminal Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 62

Prop selection is all about what you want to get out of your boat. What prop is on the boat now? Is it the factory prop? What are you trying to get the boat to do?

I have a 3.0L inline 4 Mercruiser that came factory equipted with a 3 blade 19 pitch aluminum prop that I am going to replace with a Mercury High Five 19 pitch. The high five is supposed to greatly improve your hole shot as well as help to make it easier to maintain speed. The boat will loose a little top end speed, anywhere from 1 to 5 MPH, but for me that isn't an issue because we wakeboard behind our boat exclusively.

You can check out the Mercury site and there is a prop selector tool there that can help you with prop selection. You do need some basic info about your boat. You will need to know the WOT, wide open throttle, speed, engine size and gearing, for the prop selector to work.

The High Five's are a little spendy, so if they are more than you want to spend, you could also check out a 4 blade or even another 3 blade and for all the pitch will depend on how you want the boat to perform. Mercury's prop selector will give you a selection of props that will help you get the desired result from your boat. Keep in mind that no one prop will give you the best of all worlds.

Hope this helps.

mrowland · Newbie Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 18 City: wichita

thanks for the reply, now theres a 17 pitch on it. I bought it to wakeboard behind so I would like to get something that would help out with that. I really don't want to spend a whole lot because my dad has a really nice boat but he only wants to go out on the weekend. So me and the wife bought this one for when we want to go out.

JUST-IN-TIME · Posted: Sep 04, 2008 12:24 pm Post subject:

talk to progods.com

krieg · Criminal Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 62

The 17 that is on it may or may not be the factory prop. Props are selected at the factory to give you the best bang for your buck and still operate within the WOT specs. My WOT is 4400 to 4800 and I would think yours would be similiar but check your operators manual to be sure.

Wakeboarding is a relitively low speed sport and usually people add some ballast to increse the wake which causes the boat to loose some of its hole shot. To keep the low end power you would want to decrese the pitch of the prop. By decresing the pitch the engine will spin up faster, making it easier to pull a boarder up. By decresing the pitch you will loose some top end speed and run the risk of over revving the motor. It is the same principal as the gears on a mountain bike or the gearing in a car. Changing the prop alters the final gear ratio.

I would suggest that you take the boat out and see how it perform now. Peg the throttle and see what the top RPM and speed is and then you will have a place to start from. You may not even need to replace the prop....

get_sum · Soul Rider Joined: 04 Aug 2008 Posts: 395 City: Edmond

JUST-IN-TIME · Posted: Sep 04, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject:

opps!

thanks get_sum

mrowland · Newbie Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 18 City: wichita

thanks guys ,all I know is I need a new prop cuz the guy that had it before me must of got into some rocks or something cuzs it all banded up and if I get a new one I'd like it to be good for wakeboarding . I really dont care for top speed, bought the boat pretty much to wakeskate and pull my little girl on her board and tube.