walleyehed
Admiral
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2003
- Messages
- 6,767
I've been playing for years testing props for most-not all-of the major players in the propeller industry and the last several years I've began to see a pattern with 1 manufacturer and that is Solas. I've ran just about everything Solas builds and I don't feel they have received the credit they deserve.
I had a situation show up with Kansas dept of Wildlife and Parks the first of this month. I had a call from a fisheries biologist saying his opti was running bad. I went down and climbed in and went for a spin. My first though was fuel problems so I put the tiny tach on and found we were at 5250 with a light load. They were running Trophy plus 4-blds on these boats in the lowest pitch available. Based on rpm and prop design I took a shot in the dark, threw a 15P Solas (Rubex)alum on and straight to 5890 and not 1/2mph drop in speed. When we loaded the 250 gal livewell and blasted off, hole-shot was acceptable but I had my cordless there so I opened 2 of the 4 holes up (comes without holes) and was real good with a top of 5700rpm, it was 2.2mph faster than the 17P trophy. eng wasn't even close to rpm band originally, to produce rated HP. I got them a SS Rubex 4 in the same pitch, lifted engine 1 hole and now it's 3mph faster than it ever was with the trophy and the roughness on top-end is gone.
My point??? Solas builds one heck of a good design that I've found to work well in many situations and I'm just flat impressed with this because so many times a design is great at one end of spectrum but not even close on the other end. Solas doesn't have 29 different blade shapes, just 5 or 6. This philosophy got me in a position to sell 22 props to the state of Kansas because they all use the same boat/eng set-up.
I'm just impressed and wanted to share that. 12 years running the solas in many applications and can't find a bad thing to say.
I had a situation show up with Kansas dept of Wildlife and Parks the first of this month. I had a call from a fisheries biologist saying his opti was running bad. I went down and climbed in and went for a spin. My first though was fuel problems so I put the tiny tach on and found we were at 5250 with a light load. They were running Trophy plus 4-blds on these boats in the lowest pitch available. Based on rpm and prop design I took a shot in the dark, threw a 15P Solas (Rubex)alum on and straight to 5890 and not 1/2mph drop in speed. When we loaded the 250 gal livewell and blasted off, hole-shot was acceptable but I had my cordless there so I opened 2 of the 4 holes up (comes without holes) and was real good with a top of 5700rpm, it was 2.2mph faster than the 17P trophy. eng wasn't even close to rpm band originally, to produce rated HP. I got them a SS Rubex 4 in the same pitch, lifted engine 1 hole and now it's 3mph faster than it ever was with the trophy and the roughness on top-end is gone.
My point??? Solas builds one heck of a good design that I've found to work well in many situations and I'm just flat impressed with this because so many times a design is great at one end of spectrum but not even close on the other end. Solas doesn't have 29 different blade shapes, just 5 or 6. This philosophy got me in a position to sell 22 props to the state of Kansas because they all use the same boat/eng set-up.
I'm just impressed and wanted to share that. 12 years running the solas in many applications and can't find a bad thing to say.
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