3 Blade Turning Point to 4 ?

[david2027]

I have a 3.0 Mercruiser on an 18.5 foot bowrider. Boat weighs about 2300 pounds plus the usual load of 2 adults and 2 kids. Currently running a 3 blade Turning Point Legacy 14.25 x 19 and WOT is 4200 rpm. I want to bring the rpms up to at least 4400 and i'm considering the 4 blade Hustler 14.25 x 17. Any predictions on engine speed? Will i lose much top end speed?

 

[steelespike]

Re: 3 Blade Turning Point to 4 ?

What is the present speed at wot?You will likely lose top end could be 3 mph.
Rpm could be close to what you want.

 

[jkust]

Re: 3 Blade Turning Point to 4 ?

Kind of an apple and an orange but when I went from a 3 blade alum black max 21 pitch x 14 1/4 to the exact same dimensions alum hustler, I lost over 400 rpm's and a lot of top end. The hustler is too agressive for my (dry weight)2900lb 18 footer with a 4.3 plus 4 people plus 33 gallons of gas and gear in it. (I really needed the optional 270hp v8). The only advantage of the hustler that I found is that you can trim it up way higher than the black max at wot and not blow out. It's not much of an advantage when I never needed to trim that high to get top speed with the old prop. Quite frankly I don't think the hole shot is really any better either for my rig. Like I said, it's an apple and an orange but I am less than happy with my Hustler but it was only 80$ on sale this summer on Iboats.

 

[david2027]

Re: 3 Blade Turning Point to 4 ?

Speed at WOT with the TP is 38 mph. Have a Black Max 14.25 x 21 that would do 41 at WOT and same rpms as the 19p TP but it sucks in the turns. I exchanged the 3 blade TP today for a 4 blade 17p Hustler and when i went to install it, the hub wouldnt fit all the way in even with judicial "tapping". Brought it back and the salesman got another hub kit out, same thing again. He got another prop out and tried both hubs, neither fit.Go figure cause its the correct hub for that prop.

 

[jkust]

Re: 3 Blade Turning Point to 4 ?

Speed at WOT with the TP is 38 mph. Have a Black Max 14.25 x 21 that would do 41 at WOT and same rpms as the 19p TP but it sucks in the turns. I exchanged the 3 blade TP today for a 4 blade 17p Hustler and when i went to install it, the hub wouldnt fit all the way in even with judicial "tapping". Brought it back and the salesman got another hub kit out, same thing again. He got another prop out and tried both hubs, neither fit.Go figure cause its the correct hub for that prop.

My old top speed on gps was 51.8mph with your same black max prop and could get over 5100 rpms if I wasn't careful (when the tank was low on gas with one passenger). Now I can barely hit 45mph at 4800 rpm's with the same light load. With my usual load of 4 passengers and almost always at least 3/4 tank my speeds are way down and wot is really low too. How much of a gap are you seeing. You should be able to lift the prop up just a bit when it is all installed since the hub should have a slight gap. My take on this prop for me is that I need the extra 30hp of an mpi engine to really take advantage of what the Hustler can do since I am several hundred pounds heavier than what a v6 usually pushes. As for the turns, yes my Black Max routinely blew out in any minorly agressive turns. The Hustler won't blow out but the motor bogs a bit since again I think it is too agressive. Funny I have an outboard bowrider also about the same size and literally it can do anything you can dream of throwing at it with no hesitation with a wide range of props. My I/O seems pretty picky.