[limulus]

I have a 2007 Merc 115hp 4-stroke. The current prop is a 14x11 and I get around 5800RPM and 23MPH on a lake that is about 2000' ASL. It's on a 24' toon. Yesterday, I hit something in the water and it took a chunk out of one blade. I didn't see any damage to the rest of the prop or the skeg. I can buy a new Merc Black Max aluminum for around $100 or one of the Solaris SS props from iboats for about $280. I don't think I'll get more than 1-2 MPH with a SS prop and it's probably a waste of $...correct?

[tommays]

If your going to be hitting HARD stuff then stick with aluminum BUT SS will last much better on sand and mud


As far as speed it is hard to say as there are so many shapes in props

[Silvertip]

Probably the best prop you can put on a pontoon is a four blade pontoon prop. These props have blades that are more rounded, have larger blade area and they provide much better boat control in both forward and reverse (which is critical in docking maneuvers). I would not spend the money on stainless prop for a pontoon unless money is not an issue or unless you absolutely need to have the fastest pontoon on the lake.

[limulus]

Thanks. I had not even considered a 4-blade prop. I may look into that because we share a double slip with another 24' toon and I'm serious, there is about a foot between the boats once they're docked.

I'm happy with 23MPH. I have been on Harris a tri-tube pontoon that would do over 40MPH.

[jay_merrill]

I have a pretty slow boat too - it does 28 mph at WOT according to my GPS. I had a 15" pitch, 3 blade, aluminum prop on it and wasn't happy with the performance at less than WOT settings. After asking for and receiving advice here, I decided to go to a 15", 3 blade, cupped, SS prop.

The reason for the advice is that the folks that I listened to felt that the SS prop would be stiffer and would hold the boat on plane at lower power settings/speeds. I think the advice was good because that is exactly what the boat is doing. I also picked up about 100 rpm at WOT and the boat is a bit faster than it was with the aluminum prop. More importantly, the boat is running noticeably faster at reduced power settings.

While I happened to get a very unusual and great deal on my prop (used, right out of the prop shop with a new hub and the blades "cleaned up," for 50 bucks!), knowing what I know now, I would have spent the $345 for a new one. Since I can now run my boat more effectively in the consumption "sweet spot," I am getting a little bit better fuel economy and, over a period of a few years, that will certainly pay off. I haven't gotten too "scientific" about computing fuel consumption, but I am noticing that I am burning less fuel on runs of a comparable distance to ones that I did with the old prop.

[steelespike]

At $4 plus a gallon It would seem a carefull setup with a stainless prop
could save costs pretty quiickly.Especially if the old setup was a little
weak.