Being new to the "big boat world" having grown up fishing out of 10-14 ft aluminum boats with small outboards (9.9-25hp)...what is the theory behind the stainless vs alum prop debait?
Thanks!
Being new to the "big boat world" having grown up fishing out of 10-14 ft aluminum boats with small outboards (9.9-25hp)...what is the theory behind the stainless vs alum prop debait?
Thanks!
Welcome Ben......
On the larger, higher horsepower motors the aluminum blades will tend to flatten out where the stainless blades will hold their shape (and their pitch).
What Al said, plus if you hit something with an aluminum prop, you are more likely to only shear a blade off....whereas if you do the same with a stainless the prop might hold up a little better but you could end up with damage to your lower unit or prop shaft
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."
When Al says that he means the aluminum will actually flex when under power.
So if I'm reading all this correctly...you'll gain some speed with a Stainless prop...but you'll have a larger chance of problems with the lower unit if you hit something. Is this correct??? If so...speed isn't an issue with me. If my wife is along she doesn't like to see the boat opened up anyways!!
along with speed I would imagine a SS prop would just handle better than an alluminum prop. If you want your boat to perform to its potential get stainless, if you are one of these guys that just barely get their boat going fast enough to get on plane then alluminum may be for you.I wouldnt let a the fear of tearing something up keep you from buying a SS prop, odds are if you hit something that hard its going to do damage no matter what kind of prop you are running
You do have a point...if you hit something at 50+...it really doesn't matter. But I can't see spending a couple hundred dollars for stainless if all it's going to gain me is a couple mph. When most lakes around here are only a couple miles at best...arriving a few seconds sooner really doesn't matter to me. I'm going fishing to get away from the hurry up enviroment of daily life.
What kind of boat/motor do you have? If its capable of 50mph, I would get a SS prop. I wouldn't trust the alum, it could bend and cause some trouble, plus, your lower units gonna be shot if ya hit something on plane.
Steven Shamblin
2003 Triton TR-22 / Evinrude 225H/O
I just recently purchased a 1996 Javelin 379SDC with a 115 HP Johnson Faststrike. Is your thought process that if it gets bent that the vibration on the bearings is going to ruin the lower unit anyways?
My thought process is that if you hit a stump or log while on plane, its gonna hit the lower unit too. That will damage the lower unit, but my not touch the prop. I've hit the blades on a SS Renegade prop on concrete, and as long as you ain't turning alot of rpm's, you should be ok. To me, the proformance gained is worth the small change of hitting ONLY the prop in an accident at any type of speed.
Steven Shamblin
Don't get me wrong, I have a stainless prop on my 150 Mariner, and I would never put an aluminum on it. The only reason I talked about the stainless not "giving" is because when I go on vacation, there's a guy who stays next to us and for the past three years....and probably this year...he's hit rocky shoals with his motor
and sheared the blades off his aluminum prop....last year he took all three blades off and had to be towed in! I just think that if he had a stainless prop instead of aluminum there would've been some damage done to his lower unit, prop shaft, ect.
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."
1stlakegetaway, Welcome to the BBC
Like everyone before me has said you get better performance with SS.
Last year I was just moving ever so slowly and I hit a rock at Pawtukaway Lake up here in New Hampshire. (nick named Rockaway Lack) now I know why.
I thought it just bagged the bottom of my boat, BUT I did hit the pro which is SS and it bent my main shaft of the prop. I wasn't going fast at all so I <U>personally </U>disagree with flathead266.
I had to have my lower end repaired, parts and labor came to about $800.00.
If you can live without going fast my suggestion to you is be satisfied with aluminum.
I can't do it without SS so I am more careful now than I ever was before.
I also hope you enjoy the BBC Boards as well as I have. There is a lot of informative fishermen & fisherwomen here that will help you out anytime you need it.
That's kinda of what a few locals have said here. I know a couple of guys that put aluminum on whenever they haven't been on a lake before and SS when they have for the same reasons.
Just seems to me that if it might save me some cost later...and it's going to save me now (because what I have works great) I should stick the money on something else for the boat that I can "see" if you know what I mean...electronics etc...
Thanks for everyone's input!
What kind of prop does it have now? I would probably keep my money and buy me a nice Loomis combo, but the moneys gonna disappear with either of my ways.....
Steven Shamblin
Well let me just chime in on this one. Go stainless, run 'er like you stole 'er and leave the wife at home. You ought to see my lovely bride of 25 years in the passenger seat of my single console Stratos 285/150 Johnny Rude when I am skint back and flying. I love it when her cheeks bulge out like a leaf blower was shoved in her face. Makes me sort of chuckle.
Alright, all BS aside, Stainless is the only way to go for anything above 50HP, just don't hit anything.
The Buccaneer - Scaring the living crap out of the old lady
SS man, aluminum for river runs or something. They make a big difference.
Eat, Sleep Fish
1997 Hydra Sport LS205 - 1998 Johnson FastStrike 175
Defeated, Tennessee
Where Smallmouth is King
One more thing. Since stainless is much more rigid and durable than aluminum they can be made with thinner blades. The benfit of thinner blades is that they require less energy to spin them since they are more hydrodynamic (streamlined).
The downside of SS props is that they are significantly more expensive than aluminum models.
You already have the alum prop, right? Run it till it is too banged up and then buy a SS to replace it. Or, go ahead and buy a SS and put the alum away just in case you need it later when someone steals your nice new SS prop
"We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans. With a capital "A", huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world."
John Winger
my alum prop got banged up pretty good the first time i went out. first time loading a boat and i was comming in (edit)-eyed so had to bail out and turn around real quick and clipped the trailer with my prop. banged it up pretty good. now i need to look for a new one. glad it was an alum one to start out, i figure if it was a ss one my trailer would have suffered more. don't want to speed the money but i figured if a small hit on the trailer can do the damage it did then i should really think about a ss one. i would not want to be stuck in the middle of the bay with my rinky dink 46lb tm to get me back in. go with the ss is my opinion.
QUOTE (Winger): You already have the alum prop, right? Run it till it is too banged up and then buy a SS to replace it.
Winger's advice is good, then you use the AL for an emergency prop. SS props for the mid-range motors are a lot more affordable than for "top end" motors.
As you can see, I don't even have a prop...not sure it would even be safe for me to run a boat with a prop any more....
Good Luck,
Gerald
__________________________________________________ _______________
2008 ChampioN 198
Reply With Quote
