Prop Help

Vollmer

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Prop Help:
I am running a Ranger 2080ms with a Mercury 250 Pro XS v8 4 stroke. I just ran it for the first time, and only seeing 50mph and only 5200 rpm (optimal is around 6200). I have on the 4 blade Bravo 1 FS 20 pitch. I think I am plowing a bit. At wot I cannot raise the motor enough to get the prop to wash out. Not even close. It kind of feels like I am plowing.


Wondering what others with this motor, on a big walleye boat are using for a prop, and I am also curious if I need to raise the motor, or if it is possible that the hydraulic lift limiter is set at the wrong point.

FDA25ABE-893C-4C9E-A744-51D8C1F8BBE5.jpg
 


Aucker33

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Was it your first trip out? If so I had the same issues last fall with my 200 verado but as the motor started breaking in it got a lot better. I gained about 5mph after roughly 8 hrs on the motor and that plowing feeling has all but gone away.
 

Velva_zv21

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On my zv18 with the 200 I couldn't get the prop to blow out at full trim, until I raised the jack plate 1". Then the prop would blow out at trim level 4.... which is about perfect cause then you have some trim to play with either direction up or down depending on your changing variables like fishing by yourself vs 5 people in the boat. Do you have the smart gauge that tells you what number your trimmed at any given time? I think you should have plenty of power to turn a 20 pitch however I tried a 21p tempest plus and had the same rpm results as you with my 200 verado, hit a good wave and it rev'd up to 5800 and I couldn't turn any higher R's than that and I went back to my 18p enertia, I suppose I coulda played with the jack plate and the tempest but I was lazy. Do the 250s come stock with that prop ? It was your first time out was ther good chop on the lake to get your boat to float on the chop? Like 2 fters? Since it was the first time i'd give it another go with different conditions, might be too much prop or not unleashed from break in mode, or try raising the jack plate an inch, even my 21 seems like the jack plate likes about 1.5" on the jack from what I've seen so far
 
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Vollmer

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I have about a 2” difference between the AV plate and boat bottom. I think I will raise the motor a hole, then wait until after the 10 hour break in before I get too into it.

The hole shot and control with this prop is unreal. If it gets me to mid/upper 50’s I’ll be happy.
 

Vollmer

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I should note that we had 4 people in the boat, all of our gear, and full live wells, and a full gas tank for this. I wanted to have the boat under a load for break in.
 


Velva_zv21

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Driving around plowing water is a good way to put load on the motor lol. Another thing you could try too is try different vents in the prop, what vents do you have in the prop now? Bigger holes will give you more R's
 
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Vollmer

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Driving around plowing water is a good way to put load on the motor lol. Another thing you could try too is try different vents in the prop, what vents do you have in the prop now? Bigger holes will give you more R's

4 vents
All plugged atm.
 

ndfinfan

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Any one else feel like they are speaking Greek...I took 4 years of German in school...so I'm lost!
 

Meelosh

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Can I get in on this?
Boat specs:
1990ish fiberglass Skeeter
17’
1990ish Mercury 75HP tiller

What prop should I be using?
 


Velva_zv21

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I should note that we had 4 people in the boat, all of our gear, and full live wells, and a full gas tank for this. I wanted to have the boat under a load for break in.

Keep running the boat the way it is set up now and wait till you get to around half a tank and lose the passengers and water in livewell and some gear, make a run by yourself to see if it will blow out. Im just curious if it would without changing anything. If it does then you know you need to change something to find the sweet spot while loaded down. I'd try this first before changing anything.
 

roosterfish

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to many sparkles, it's weighing you down.:;: . Call Moritz and talk to Chopper in service. He will be on the up and up. If you bought it their i'm sure he would let you try different props as they have Demo's on hand.
 

SLE

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My thought would be to get it through break-in and get around 10-15 hours on it. Then see what it does with what will be your lightest load you'd ever run. At that point, you can start dialing it in via prop pitch and engine height. If you don't have a jackplate, a good starting point is to get the prop shaft approximately 3.5" below the bottom of the boat. With your lightest load, you'll want that engine to spin as close to 6200 rpms as you can get. I wouldn't worry much about the PVS plugs, those are only for hole-shot performance and add a little air over the blades to get them to spin up easier from a start. Once up and on plane, the water pushing past the holes seal them off and it does nothing for your top end performance. It's about the last thing to play with prop wise.

The Bravo is a decent prop overall and pretty popular in the walleye boat arena when it comes to the bigger 20 and 21 ft boats. The others that are popular are the Tempest and Rev 4. All things being equal I always found my tempest to be the fastest. They have a lot of bow lift, are naturally more efficient being a 3 blade, and are aggressively cupped. It'll be the worst of the three for hole-shot, planing speed, and bow control however. A Rev 4 will turn hardest. It's basically a 4 blade version of the tempest. It's a big wheel with aggressive cupping and rake. They are normally a little slower on the top end because they turn so hard but will handle better and be a little quicker accelerating out of the hole. I had a DAH Modified Rev 4 which was my main prop, it was the best handling prop of no less than 10 different props that I had tried on my last boat. It did give up nearly 5 mph on the top end to a DAH modified Tempest Plus. The Tempest was really just my smooth water tourny prop but it was smokin fast. On that boat, I found the Bravo to be a touch slower than the tempest, but with significantly better handling and holeshot. It wasn't as good as the Rev 4 but was it also didn't suffer the speed loss nearly as significant as the Rev 4. Time will tell, the new boat was outfitted with a 21P bravo which I was impressed with in stock form last fall outside of being a little under-pitched as I was running up against the 6,500 rpm rev limiter of the Verado. I tried a "new" to me prop guy over the winter, Croxton Performance Propellers, and hopefully he's got it dialed in, I'll know in the next few weeks when I get to this seasons maiden voyage. Certainly looking forward to it!
 

Vollmer

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My thought would be to get it through break-in and get around 10-15 hours on it. Then see what it does with what will be your lightest load you'd ever run. At that point, you can start dialing it in via prop pitch and engine height. If you don't have a jackplate, a good starting point is to get the prop shaft approximately 3.5" below the bottom of the boat. With your lightest load, you'll want that engine to spin as close to 6200 rpms as you can get. I wouldn't worry much about the PVS plugs, those are only for hole-shot performance and add a little air over the blades to get them to spin up easier from a start. Once up and on plane, the water pushing past the holes seal them off and it does nothing for your top end performance. It's about the last thing to play with prop wise.

The Bravo is a decent prop overall and pretty popular in the walleye boat arena when it comes to the bigger 20 and 21 ft boats. The others that are popular are the Tempest and Rev 4. All things being equal I always found my tempest to be the fastest. They have a lot of bow lift, are naturally more efficient being a 3 blade, and are aggressively cupped. It'll be the worst of the three for hole-shot, planing speed, and bow control however. A Rev 4 will turn hardest. It's basically a 4 blade version of the tempest. It's a big wheel with aggressive cupping and rake. They are normally a little slower on the top end because they turn so hard but will handle better and be a little quicker accelerating out of the hole. I had a DAH Modified Rev 4 which was my main prop, it was the best handling prop of no less than 10 different props that I had tried on my last boat. It did give up nearly 5 mph on the top end to a DAH modified Tempest Plus. The Tempest was really just my smooth water tourny prop but it was smokin fast. On that boat, I found the Bravo to be a touch slower than the tempest, but with significantly better handling and holeshot. It wasn't as good as the Rev 4 but was it also didn't suffer the speed loss nearly as significant as the Rev 4. Time will tell, the new boat was outfitted with a 21P bravo which I was impressed with in stock form last fall outside of being a little under-pitched as I was running up against the 6,500 rpm rev limiter of the Verado. I tried a "new" to me prop guy over the winter, Croxton Performance Propellers, and hopefully he's got it dialed in, I'll know in the next few weeks when I get to this seasons maiden voyage. Certainly looking forward to it!

What boat/motor are you running?
 


sierra1995

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Can I get in on this?
Boat specs:
1990ish fiberglass Skeeter
17’
1990ish Mercury 75HP tiller


What prop should I be using?

i bought a 15p 3 blade apollo SS last year. was running a 15p aluminum but it always blew out easily in heavy waves or loading. otherwise my tiller handled fine, saw 36 one time for GPS speed with the aluminum. I would imagine that ill pick up holeshot and top end (maybe 37?)
 

SLE

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What boat/motor are you running?

New rig is a 2018 Yar-Craft 219TFX W/350 Verado, previous rigs were a 2013 Yar-Craft 186 FSX W/200Opti, 2011 Skeeter WX1900 W/200HPDI, and a 2002 Yar-Craft 1895 Storm SC W/ a 2006 225Opti. Lots of prop & engine height testing on those first three. Hopefully I learned a thing or two and the 219 will be dialed in much quicker .
 

dblkluk

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What does the dealer say? That's who i'd be checking with first if I dropped a pile of coin on a glitter boat and it was handling like a dump truck.
 

eyexer

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My guess is your motor is too low and your going to be down to at least an 18 pitch when your done. When your up on plane and running hand someone handle the steering wheel and you go back and look and see if the cavitation plate is showing. You should be able to see it out of the water when up on plane. If not your mounted too low
 

Velva_zv21

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With the zv18 I always wanted to try a 19p tempest after trying the 21p and it being too much. ...i'm pretty sure I could've turned 6000 rpm with a 19p tempest, ther was something about that tempest that I really liked how the boat would grab while turning, hole shot was about the same as the enertia. And the tempest threw a rooster at WOT. Always fun when you can throw a rooster. Top end speed between 18p enertia and a 21p tempest was a +1 mph increase besides the 1000 rpms that I lost, figured I could raise the motor to get more r's but instead took the tempest off and then went back to stock and didn't mess with it anymore
 


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