20' Toon' with a Johnson 28spl

Rancherlee

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
621
Decided to leave the 87' johnson 28spl on the pontoon boat for now instead of taking the 70hp Johnsuki off my fishing boat. I need a new prop for the 28spl as it still has the "shipped from the factory, light weight boat, 9x12" prop on it with a few decent dings in the blade. I bought the pontoon from the original owner and he said it was the " prop that came with it new in 1987 " Needless to say the motor lugs bad. I hooked up my Multimeter with a tach lead to the bottom plug wire and I was turning 4000rpm on the nose with 3 adults and some fishing gear while moving 14mph on the gps. The toon' is a 20' Kennedy with an open deck (NO furniture, only railings and captains chair/console). Its rated for a 70hp max, has octagon shaped pontoons, and weighs 700# with no motor. My local dealer has no used props for me to try since the Spline drive non-thru hub propped motors are pretty rare so I need to order a new prop. My options are 9x12, 9x11, 9x10, 9x9 and I'm thinking I may need to drop all the way down to the 9x9 to hit the high end of my 4500-5500rpm window.

Also, what kind of prop slip should I expect with a pontoon, I'm assuming more than a aluminum fishing boat but you know what happens when you ASSuME.
 

steelespike

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Messages
19,069
Re: 20' Toon' with a Johnson 28spl

Yes a 9" pitch would put you in the 4,600 range.You might try to find a 4 blade pontoon prop would help.Not an expert but I would think that slip on a pontoon would be higher than a light fishing boat.
 
Top