Opinion on Prop for my 2025 24LXXSB

[Scott1]

Hey guys,
I had my older Bennington dialed in but it was a Mercury. I know have a Yamaha SHO 250. I'm not very familiar with Yamaha props. My prop is a Saltwater series ll
15dia by 15 3/4 Pitch. with 75% tank full, everything on board as normal and one person I was touching 6200rpm at 44mph. With 2 adults I was still hitting 2160rpm.

I'm not sure what the next size pitch Yamaha prop is, I need to investigate that. I have a Mercury Enertia 17P (With proper FLO hub for Yamaha), I'm wondering if I should try that? It doesn't say DIA on the prop. I'm thinking even if I drop 300 rpm I'll still be good with a more loaded boat?

Thanks

 

[Vikingstaff]

Hey guys,
I had my older Bennington dialed in but it was a Mercury. I know have a Yamaha SHO 250. I'm not very familiar with Yamaha props. My prop is a Saltwater series ll
15dia by 15 3/4 Pitch. with 75% tank full, everything on board as normal and one person I was touching 6200rpm at 44mph. With 2 adults I was still hitting 2160rpm.

I'm not sure what the next size pitch Yamaha prop is, I need to investigate that. I have a Mercury Enertia 17P (With proper FLO hub for Yamaha), I'm wondering if I should try that? It doesn't say DIA on the prop. I'm thinking even if I drop 300 rpm I'll still be good with a more loaded boat?

Thanks

Since you have the hub, I would at least give that Enertia a try since you already have it sitting around. I have a 16p Enertia on my 200 HP Mercury Verado Pro. I would think with your 250 SHO, a 17p SWSII or Enertia would be it depending on Diameter…at most an 18p???

 

[Potomacbassin’]

I started a long thread about my prop journey so it might be a good read for your situation. But I would highly recommend you trying that Enertia and comparing.

FWIW my spare is a 16p SWS2 prop and my engine is a modded F250.

 

[Scott1]

I started a long thread about my prop journey so it might be a good read for your situation. But I would highly recommend you trying that Enertia and comparing.

FWIW my spare is a 16p SWS2 prop and my engine is a modded F250.

Does the Yamaha SDS on it SWS2 props make a big difference compared to running a Mercury Enertia?

 

[Potomacbassin’]

Noticeable yes. Yamaha's SDS is the best in the game, soft and butter smooth. But the Mercury hubs aren't bad, I have a Flo Torq (can't remember which one, 3 or 4) and it's very light on clunk but does have a little more prop chatter than the SDS. A Rubex hub is 3rd on the list, again not bad but no SDS.

Honestly though, the difference in performance between an Enertia and SWS prop more than makes up for the hub. User results may vary tho!

 

[JDB]

i Have now tried several Sharrow props ,Merc Enertia, Enertia Eco, several SWSII and one SWSII HP.

The SWSII or SWSIIHP beats them all IMO and the quiet engagement SDS is a plus.

Best cruise efficiency + top speed came from the SWSII for me and I hated the clunk on the Mercs.

JD

 

[Potomacbassin’]

JD out of curiosity which hub did you run on the Mercs?

 

[JDB]

That's a great question and TBH I didn't know there were different options on the plastic rubber parts but this is what I have left from the testing so I may have misplaced one box but I can study the pieces closer if there is some useful info on them.

 

[carlosclarkmd]

I feel silly talking about props already and my boat hasn't even arrived from the factory.. but.. I've been looking at the Sharrows and they have some pretty impressive data! I'll have a Mercury 200 hp 4 stroke V6. Has anyone used the Sharrow on a Mercury 200?

 

[Jack M]

Sharrow just came out with a lower priced option for 200 hp and under.

 

[Potomacbassin’]

That's a great question and TBH I didn't know there were different options on the plastic rubber parts but this is what I have left from the testing so I may have misplaced one box but I can study the pieces closer if there is some useful info on them.View attachment 37006

This answers my question! I have a Flo Torq 4 on my Merc blade and it's not bad, but definitely not comparable to Yamaha's hubs.

 

[mtudb24]

Sharrow just came out with a lower priced option for 200 hp and under.

I feel silly talking about props already and my boat hasn't even arrived from the factory.. but.. I've been looking at the Sharrows and they have some pretty impressive data! I'll have a Mercury 200 hp 4 stroke V6. Has anyone used the Sharrow on a Mercury 200?

The original Sharrow's are about $6K and as Jack said, they have a new version for 200hp and under outboards. Price tag is still just under $2K.

Sharrow's rarely give you any top end speed. Usually they are 1 or 2mph slower at the top end (f you read all their performance reports on their website).

HOWEVER, where they shine is mid range cruising speed and fuel economy. On a 21 foot Grady white cuddy cabin with a 200hp outboard, they were 9.6mph faster at 3000 rpm cruising speed (12mph vs 21mph) and 33% better fuel efficiency (about 3mpg to 4.mpg)

I can understand the appeal for Charter boat guys in large center consoles and walk around cuddy / express boats when your getting huge gains in range and cruising speed etc, but its a lot of gas you need save to offset a set of $12-18K propellers.

Boat test did do a test on a G3 with a 300hp Yamaha. It was slower by around 1mph in top end but fuel efficiency and all cruising speeds were much better then a std prop.

 

[JDB]

Sharrow Props are essentially a Stern Lifting Design and that's not what we are looking for on a pontoon.

Where you see them really shine in a performance report or boat test is in the cases where they are able to lift the stern and get a heavy boat on plane at a lower mph and then show numbers that are worst case scenario for prop A (because the boat hadn't planed yet) vs Best case scenario for prop S.

JD

 

[mtudb24]

Sharrow Props are essentially a Stern Lifting Design and that's not what we are looking for on a pontoon.

Where you see them really shine in a performance report or boat test is in the cases where they are able to lift the stern and get a heavy boat on plane at a lower mph and then show numbers that are worst case scenario for prop A (because the boat hadn't planed yet) vs Best case scenario for prop S.

JD

These were kind of impressive numbers for mid range cruise on a pontoon. And your right about stern lifting heavy boat, std props make their best efficiency typically only at WOT or near WOT which is very rarely run for more a few moments here and there, the Sharrow hits max efficiency as soon as the boat planes.

Would have to go through a lot of gas to make up the cost of a $2000 prop in the fuel savings.

 

[JDB]

The "Traditional 15.75 x 15" prop they were using must have been the worst performing prop they could find bc compared to an swsII the sharrow was inferior on all data points except one.

Either 5 mph or 10 mph it was slightly more efficient.

All other data points it was inferior to the SWSII.

So the fuel savings you are talking about just became and extra expense or waste on top of the price of the prop.

JD

 

[LaurencetheAdventurer]

Every season I have damage to my prop that requires repair AND RE-ALIGNMENT/BALANCING on my Benny SS Enertia Prop - being a river lake fed by multiple sources, and heavy use, there is a lot of stuff that floats around. Cost has ranged from $150 to $350. I carry an extra. One year the dealer used a more reasonably priced repair service, but the prop was not balanced properly and my performance went down that year. Detail to consider.

 

[mtudb24]

The "Traditional 15.75 x 15" prop they were using must have been the worst performing prop they could find bc compared to an swsII the sharrow was inferior on all data points except one.

Either 5 mph or 10 mph it was slightly more efficient.

All other data points it was inferior to the SWSII.

So the fuel savings you are talking about just became and extra expense or waste on top of the price of the prop.

JD

No idea what prop they used to compare? Could be a shit show of a prop and with no specs on what a SWS II prop can do on this exact setup, I can't comment.

Maybe you have data points on this exact boat for a SWS II prop that we aren't seeing?

I can only go off the graphs that I found, and the Sharrow was definitely better then the prop they compared it to in mid range speed and fuel economy.

 

[JDB]

No idea what prop they used to compare? Could be a shit show of a prop and with no specs on what a SWS II prop can do on this exact setup, I can't comment.

Maybe you have data points on this exact boat for a SWS II prop that we aren't seeing?

No Data points on the exact boat but on my 2010 Bennington 2275FSI ESP with a 250 Yamaha, The Sharrow Props (They Tried Several) were Not Even Equal To the SWSII.

Eric with Sharrow was in my boat on my lake doing the testing.

He has the numbers and I have the numbers and they refunded my 5k.

Our Testing concluded in March of 2023 after he flew down with several props for a final try.

JD

 

[Potomacbassin’]

Out of curiosity did you have to sign an NDA? Rumor for a while was you could get a refund but only after agreeing to some paperwork. That's all fine and well, but not exactly a sign of confidence in the product. OTOH, at least they gave your money back.

 

[mtudb24]

No Data points on the exact boat but on my 2010 Bennington 2275FSI ESP with a 250 Yamaha, The Sharrow Props (They Tried Several) were Not Even Equal To the SWSII.

Eric with Sharrow was in my boat on my lake doing the testing.

He has the numbers and I have the numbers and they refunded my 5k.

Our Testing concluded in March of 2023 after he flew down with several props for a final try.

JD

That's good to know. You have real world data that we aren't privy to. We can only go by the data we are given and from the graphs, the sharrow looked ok for mid range performance on a toon. Hell, I was pissed when I had to buy another Merc Enertia back when they were only $500. Now they are near $800-$1000 bucks.