Best out of the box props?

[Toby]

Are the Mercury Racing props the best out of the box? By that I mean the closest to actual pitch and balanced.

[Pulsare2020]

Are the Mercury Racing props the best out of the box? By that I mean the closest to actual pitch and balanced.

That would be an excellent question to ask to several prop shops that have accurate measuring equipment and many years of experience with various props.

[Capt James]

Yes, I and many of my friends run Bravo XS, Promax's, Fury 3's, max 5's etc. They all run really well out of the box. My friend had a newish fury 3 that he got really good speed out of labbed, and it both lost speed and made the boat undriveable. I too had a labbed Bravo FS and it got the same top end speed as a box stock Bravo XS in the same speed, except was 10% slower throughout the mid range than the stock XS.

[musky/ed]

The other side of the coin. On my 1st walleye boat with a Yamaha 250 SHO and a 20" yamaha SDS I was running 5950 RPM at its best setting, but as Most Skeeters do I had quite a bit of porpoise. I purchased a Bravo LT 20.5" to see if I could get any better performance, and I did in a big way. Faster acceleration, less porpoise, 3 mph lower planning speed, 1 mph higher top end, and 6100+ rpm. All this with a 1" higher running height.
I decided to see if I could do better yet and possibly drop the rpm about a 100 or so and called Scott at Mercury racing to see what his thoughts were. He suggested a 21" Bravo LT as it would drop my rpms apx 75-100 and still give me all the other benefits.
Got a new 21" and rpm's dropped from 6100 to 5600, take off horrible and 3 or 4 mph loss of speed. Had to raise engine 1 1/2" to get rpm back but performance was horrible with only a 1/2" of pitch change. I called Scott to ask what's up and he asked to have the prop sent back.
I mentioned I was going right by Mercury in a couple days on my way to a salmon tmt and asked if I could drop it off, he said sure, just come to their Mercury racing bldg.
I dropped it off about noon and the next morning I got a call from him saying the prop was off and they were sending me a new one. It had to be really off for a 500+ rpm change for only a 1/2" pitch change. Never did try the new prop as I sold that boat for a bigger one and used the same 20.5" prop on that with my rpms on that boat at about 5850 and didn't want any lower rpm. It was plain to see that these props are not double checked before selling.