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Prop Comparison - Enertia vs. Revolution 4

Keithkz- I have been following your thread and prop trials. Last year when I propped our boat, i went a different route. I called Power Tech and told them I wanted a prop for pulling water sports and cruising. Top end speed was not a concern. At 20 GPH I never cruise at full throttle and I will never be faster than the smaller Benny's with big outboards. He recommended a 4 blade SS. My prop shop in Ohio seconded the recommendation. I have been pleased with the prop. The hole shot improved and at 3200 rpm I increased cruising speed by 3 MPH so now I cruise at 3000 rpm.
 
Yeah 3000 is a good RPM and that's where I normally cruise at.

Well I JUST ordered that 4-blade and he said it would be here tomorrow so stay tuned. :D Have to wonder what that Mercury Rev 4 would have done. Oh well. We'll give the Solas a try.
 
Well if you look at my other post I am going the other direction....I have a powertech 4 blade with 20 pitch on a 22 ft 3 tube with strakes benni with a 150 honda pushing it. I am going to try a solas 15 x 15 aluminum first. The 4 blade gets me 31-33 MPH (GPS) at 5000 rpm. this also works out to high slip. I hope the solas will reduce he slip. I fear I will raise the RPM to 6000, but will end up about the samespeed as the pitch is so much lower. After reading all these posts it seems clear to me that you really need to get the slip number down I to would like to know it 15% is achievable on tritoon. My prop arrives today, and I hope to test it this weekend. The Honda performance bulletin fom 2004 (same as my boat) suggested the 15 1/4 x 15 solas stainless hit 37mph at 6200. Ill be happy is I hit 35.
 
Nice. Yeah I would happy to hit 45....no idea if that's realistic or not but that's my hope anyway.
 
Hey benniglug, It's a lot of money and it sounds like we have the same boat and motor combo, but the 15 x 15p Enertia gets me 39mph@ 6000-6100 rpm. I swear by that prop on a outboard.
 
benniglug said:
. After reading all these posts it seems clear to me that you really need to get the slip number down I to would like to know it 15% is achievable on tritoon. My prop arrives today, and I hope to test it this weekend. The Honda performance bulletin fom 2004 (same as my boat) suggested the 15 1/4 x 15 solas stainless hit 37mph at 6200. Ill be happy is I hit 35.
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Your question is answered in Honda's PB @ 7%. . Yes, 15% is very achievable.
 
Just finished testing the Solas 14.75 x 15P 4-blade......not even CLOSE to be the correct prop. Wow was that guy off by a mile.

RPM's Speed

1000 2.7

2000 6.6

3000 16.2

4000 25.6

Could not check WOT or 0-30 mph time because the boat reved up too many RPM's....like at least 5400 and it just didn't even sound right.

Next.
 
Wow. Did you put it on backwards???

Sorry, bad joke. I know you didn't put it on backwards. Sorry you are having such a bad time with all this.

Question: Do you have a rev limiter on your motor? If yes, you shouldn't have hit 5400 when the top end of your range is 5000, right? So, would that mean your tach is quite a bit off?
 
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Good question. Don't know if I have a rev limiter. I should get my tach calibrated but even if it's off I'm still using the same tach to compare all of these props and I know my GPS is obviously giving me the right speeds.
 
keithkz said:
Good question. Don't know if I have a rev limiter. I should get my tach calibrated but even if it's off I'm still using the same tach to compare all of these props and I know my GPS is obviously giving me the right speeds.
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That is a good question for sure. A timing light with tach should tell you pretty quickly.
 
Yeah I just don't own a timing light and wouldn't know how to do it if I could. If someone can explain to me how to check it I have someone who could do that for me.
 
keithkz said:
Good question. Don't know if I have a rev limiter. I should get my tach calibrated but even if it's off I'm still using the same tach to compare all of these props and I know my GPS is obviously giving me the right speeds.
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Good points. But if your tach was calibrated, and turns out you don't have a rev limiter, it might confirm your original prop was the best one and end the madness. Then I'll carry your torch as I go through this over the next couple weeks.
 
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Here's everything checked so far all together. If someone has a better format to show this please tell me. Spreadsheets are not my forte'.

RPM’s Prop Size Speed(mph) WOT (RPM/Speed)

1000 Quicksilver Thunderbolt/15.5 x 17P: 4.4 4400 @ 39.3

Mercury Enertia/14.5 x 17P: 4.5 4500 @ 40.4

Mercury Enertia/14.75 x 16P: 4.2 4700 @ 38.3

Solas 14.75 x 15P (4-blade) 2.7 N/A – maxed at 5400

2000 15.5 x 17P 10.6

14.5 x 17P 10.1

14.75 x 16P 10.2

14.75 x 15P (4-blade) 6.6

3000 15.5 x 17P 23.3

14.5 x 17P 21.7

14.75 x 16P 21.7

14.75 x 15P (4-blade) 16.2

4000 15.5 x 17P 33.6

14.5 x 17P 34.4

14.75 x 16P 32.2

14.75 x 15P (4-blade) 25.6

0-30 times: 8.6 seconds for the first 3 props.
 
Not sure why it gets all screwed up on here.....it was all neat and lined up when I copied it and pasted it but after I hit Post it gets all screwed up.
 
keithkz said:
Not sure why it gets all screwed up on here.....it was all neat and lined up when I copied it and pasted it but after I hit Post it gets all screwed up.
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I had the same problem. Never could clean it up.
 
I've had this problem with other software before, so I tried to clean it up for you. Looks like half of the problem is from using a font where some letters are wider than others, like the P is about twice as wide as a "space". The other half of the problem is the forum software seems to remove extra space in certain places. I switched fonts to Courier and used the dots to keep the spacing...

RPM’s....Prop......................Size..................Speed(mph)...WOT (RPM/Speed)

1000.....Quicksilver Thunderbolt...15.5 x 17P:............4.4.........4400 @ 39.3

.........Mercury Enertia...........14.5 x 17P:............4.5.........4500 @ 40.4

.........Mercury Enertia...........14.75 x 16P:...........4.2.........4700 @ 38.3

.........Solas.....................14.75 x 15P (4-blade)..2.7.........N/A – maxed at 5400

RPM'S...Prop....................Speed (mph)

2000....15.5 x 17P..............10.6

........14.5 x 17P..............10.1

........14.75 x 16P.............10.2

........14.75 x 15P (4-blade)....6.6

3000....15.5 x 17P..............23.3

........14.5 x 17P..............21.7

........14.75 x 16P.............21.7

........14.75 x 15P (4-blade)...16.2

4000....15.5 x 17P..............33.6

........14.5 x 17P..............34.4

........14.75 x 16P.............32.2

........14.75 x 15P (4-blade)...25.6

0-30 times: 8.6 seconds for the first 3 props.
 
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In every case your original prop is faster in the midrange. I think this means you should get better cruising mileage (at 2000-3000 rpm) with your original prop, but I don't know if that correlates to more torque for a fully loaded boat (which would be my scenario). I'm thinking graphs of your data would all change drastically if you recollected all your data with a heavily loaded boat. I hope to make the chart you did, eventually, and I will include both light and heavy load numbers so we can see what that change looks like. I really hope not to have to go through 4 props like you did though!

Your original prop was only slightly slower at top end than any of the others, but quite a bit better in the middle RPM range. Hate to say it but your original prop may be the best "real-world" prop, unless you really do want to get the max speed you can out of it.

Auto parts stores loan a lot of strange tools. You might call around and see if any of them have something that would display RPMs, then go use it on your boat to check your tach.
 
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Wow thanks for cleaning that up....looks great!

I have a friend who has a laser tach.....you just put a piece of reflective tape on the flywheel and then with the engine running you point the laser at it and it tells you the RPM's. I have no clue how I would then calibrate my tach if needed.
 
It would be nice if you could just get something to clamp on one of the plug wires with a digital readout, kinda like a timing light only not something you have to aim at the flywheel the whole time. Then you could run the boat on the lake at WOT instead of in your driveway. But, it might not make a difference how/where you do this. I had a timing light years ago (I got it for my wife for Christmas along with a grease gun as a joke, turns out I was the only one that thought it was funny) but it only flashed. There was no fancy RPM readout or anything.

I would take him up on the laser tach though. You don't have to calibrate your tach, you just want to see if it reads the same as the laser. If doesn't, then you know you've got to dig further. If it does, then you can eliminate this as a possible problem. It would be worth trying if it was me.
 
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I have one of those timing lights with the built in tach. It's from the "old days".
 
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