Hey all, I'm running a 200SS on a '99 Ranger 185VS hull. The boat has 8' Power Pole blades on it, a 6" Bob's Machine Shop hydraulic jack plate and it used to have 3x12V group 31 AGM trolling motor batteries that I have since replaced with a couple of 36V lithium batteries in parallel. In my personal opinion, boats from that time period weren't really designed to have that much weight in the back end and I have always felt the back end sat kind of low in the water. Part of the reason I changed to lithiums was because the boat would sometimes not want to get on plane with 2 people in the boat unless I had the passenger move to the front deck. In fact, sometimes I used to have trouble getting it to plane out with just me in it until someone here on BBC suggested I try raising the jackplate all the way up when taking off and that tip helped tremendously.
That was running a 15-1/4x22P Suzuki Watergrip prop (it's a 4 blade). Since changing the trolling motor batteries out, I've seldom had troubles with getting on plane, usually only if I have both fuel tanks full, full live wells and lots of human weight in the boat also lol. With the 22P prop, I can get 58-59 mph max speed out of it with good conditions, but probably more like 56-57 average top end.
Back when I was trying props before I settled on the 15-1/4x22P, I also tried a 14-1/2x23P Suzuki prop (3 blade). It also struggled getting out of the hole, but that was prior to swapping the batteries. However, once I was able to get it up on plane, I could get 63-64 mph on that prop. I ended up going with the 22P though because I felt like it got on plane easier, but after lightening the back end of the boat and fixing the hole shot issues, I've always wanted to try that 23P again. Well, I found a Solas Titan HR4 14.5x23P for a decent price so I bought it thinking I would get similar performance to the Suzuki 23P I had tested. I ran it for the first time today and I was sorely disappointed. It turned significantly lower RPMs than the 15-1/4x22P I was running and the best top end I could get was 54 mph and it took quite some time to get there.
So there's the whole backstory. Can anyone give me a suggestion for a prop that I can get 60+ mph out of with my setup, without sacrificing too much in the way of holeshot? I know this motor should be able to push this boat 60+ without issue, but I'm not in a hurry to blindly drop several hundred more dollars on another new prop so advice is sought and appreciated.