Prop manufacturer

ronfl

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My first attempt at putting on a new prop and I'm leaning toward an OEM Mercury Black Max for my 150 Optimax. Is there really much difference from one manufacturer to the other. I've always been in the mind set of OEM are high quality believing the manufacturer would want the highest quality on their equipment out of production. Just looking for good, bad and ugly on OEM and aftermarket?
 
If you stick with the Mercury props you won't have to worry about buying a different hub kit. With the 150 you might want to look at stainless though.
 
If you stick with the Mercury props you won't have to worry about buying a different hub kit. With the 150 you might want to look at stainless though.
Is it worth the $$$ to go stainless when your pushing a 4,000 lb pontoon with a 150? Will it help performance or fuel consumption enough to spend 2 1/2 times as much? I just want to get the Optimax running WOT around 5,600 rpm. Now I have a 15P and only can get WOT to 4,800ish. Need another 600 to 700 rpm.....going to a 13P.
 
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How big is your boat?
 
25 footer. Yup, you might need a 14p or 13p.
 
Just about every 150 hp tritoon I'm seeing has a stainless prop on it.

My next door neighbor has the 150 Verado on a Harris tritoon, and he's running an Enertia 14 pitch prop. It has a 2.08:1 gear ratio.

The 150 Optimax Pro XS has a 1.86:1 gear ratio, so it would need a different pitch prop. The Pro XS motors are also often underrated on horsepower.
 
Bahamas is correct. All pro xs motors are underrated. Carbon fiber reeds and a host of extra goodies for more torque and hp. I also run Enertia 15x15. Love that prop

Todd
 
Bahamas is correct. All pro xs motors are underrated. Carbon fiber reeds and a host of extra goodies for more torque and hp. I also run Enertia 15x15. Love that prop

Todd
My Optimax isn't an XS! And it's on a two toon 2550 RCW. Have a new 16" 13P prop coming. Dropping from a 15P I hope to gain about 600 to 700 RPM WOT. I can't currently get it above 4900 rpm and all I've read says this motor needs to be over 5600 WOT. The Mercury prop site says the 13P is what I need?
 
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Put on the new prop a Black Max 16" x 13 P. Went from the 16 x 15P hoping I could get the max RPM up around 5500 to 5600. With the 15 P I could only get the motor up to 4800 RPM. Well I took the boat out for a quick cruise on a little chop with 4 adults and some wind and only seen 5200 RPM. Was hoping for a few more RPM :-(... Will take her out again on a calm lake and see if I get any more... Thought I read that each degree of pitch would add 300+ rpm ? Well with 4 people and a chop 5200 may not be to bad.....
 
Ron: Every boat test I see on Mercury outboard powered pontoons use the Enertia stainless steel prop. That prop is simply the standard of the industry for these boats, and they're available every 1" of pitch.

The Enertia could probably get you exactly where you want to be.

Your Bennington R model boat is high line boat, and it deserves the best performance you can get out of it.
 
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Ron: Every boat test I see on Mercury outboard powered pontoons use the Enertia stainless steel prop. That prop is simply the standard of the industry for these boats, and they're available every 1" of pitch.

The Enertia could probably get you exactly where you want to be.

Your Bennington R model boat is high line boat, and it deserves the best performance you can get out of it.
Agree but I don't want to buy 2 or 3 $400 props to get there! I just want the Optimax to run up to it's sweet spot in performance. With the 15 P prop I couldn't get it to 5,000 RPM. Would like to see it around the 5,600 the manufacturer's recommend for this motor.
 
Ron: Every boat test I see on Mercury outboard powered pontoons use the Enertia stainless steel prop. That prop is simply the standard of the industry for these boats, and they're available every 1" of pitch.

The Enertia could probably get you exactly where you want to be.

Your Bennington R model boat is high line boat, and it deserves the best performance you can get out of it.
Mercury test / Mercury engine........of course they're gonna use an OEM Mercury prop. Go to Yamaha's site and they'll use there OEM prop. BRP / BRP props. Guess that makes em all industry standards

Lets use Kaydano's latest 150hp speed reports for reference. Aluminum Blackmax @ 41 mph vs Stainless Enertia @ 41 mph. I'd have to agree......pretty "standard" performance from the Enertia.

It's a solid performing prop in the smaller pitch ranges, but nothing special about it.

I've seen no outstanding performance figures here on this site nor locally that set the Enertia apart from the rest of the props on the market. It's just another decent prop to choose from.
 
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I hated the Black Max though. Blew out a lot. The Enertia sticks to water big time and I can dial in the trim because I have much more room to adjust. The Black Max had to be trimmed in tight to the transom or it would blow out. Far as I know there's no "performance numbers" that explain that, just a real-world observation.

I did get 41 mph with the Black Max on my first couple WOT runs, but after that it was 39/40. Never hit 41 again. Enertia hit 41 pretty easily. So, there's a little gain there.
 
The Enertia only goes down to 14P. If he's hitting only 4800 RPMS with a 15P, going to a 14P won't even get him close to the lower end of the power band at 5250 RPM. I just don't think the black max has enough blade area especially since you have a 25 footer to hold or hook up the power of the 150

I'd say Spitfire, but then again, they don't make it for hte large hub gearcase the 150's have. Only up to 115hp.

You could always look at the mercury mirage. it goes to 13P and its one of the prop mercury recommends for pontoon boats

Todd
 
41 mph is 41 mph lol. A good stainless prop WILL stay hooked up better than an aluminum prop.

I agree with Todd. The Mirage is a good Mercury prop.
 
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The Enertia only goes down to 14P. If he's hitting only 4800 RPMS with a 15P, going to a 14P won't even get him close to the lower end of the power band at 5250 RPM. I just don't think the black max has enough blade area especially since you have a 25 footer to hold or hook up the power of the 150

I'd say Spitfire, but then again, they don't make it for hte large hub gearcase the 150's have. Only up to 115hp.

You could always look at the mercury mirage. it goes to 13P and its one of the prop mercury recommends for pontoon boats

Todd
The new black max 13P got me to 5200 rpm WOT. I would like to see another 300 to 400 RPM...... Just don't want to buy another prop!
 
You're gonna need to drop some diameter to gain that many rpm's.

Or you could try raising the engine a hole or two on the transom. That may free that 16" up a bit and gain a few hundred. It's free too lol!
 
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Well I for one am not convinced that the 'higher end' props are any better. In fact I've proved just the opposite on my tritoon (see my post on props and power....very long thread).

I actually damaged my propon Torch Lake (MI) 2 weeks ago on some rocks. Glad I ended up staying with my stock prop for that trip vs. having a new one damaged. I ended up buying the exact same model and size prop that I had on there, again in polished stainless steel. Just put it on last night actually.

Again, go to my thread and see all of my stats on all the different props I tried....including two different sized Enertias that everyone raves about. To be fair they might be the greatest thing on someone else's boat however I have to now wonder if a cheaper prop (mine is $100 less money than the Enertia) isn't just as good. It was in my case. I do wonder if that Enertia was offered in a 15.5 diameter (like mine) vs. the 14.5 diameter (same 17P) if it would have been better on my boat.
 
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+1 on the Mercury Mirage Plus............It's what came on my boat and I am very satisfied w/it...................On the other hand, I went to Mercury Marines Propeller selection website and put in my parameters and just about every other prop EXCEPT the Mirage was suggested.....................go figure!
 
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