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Stainless Prop Question

Aluminum props will flex a little under load where sst props will not. SST props will give better performance and of course the durability of sst. The Reliance is a factory Yamaha propeller. A good fit for the F200 I4.
 
Vikingstaff said:
It actually surprises me that a F200 would even come with an aluminum prop. In my mind that is a cheap move by the dealer. I’d be very frustrated with my dealer if they did that to me with that motor.
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One thing to keep in mind is that some people boat in shallow, rocky or log-infested waters and in that case, an aluminum prop would be the desirable option. When hitting an obstacle, aluminum will bend or shear easier than stainless, potentially sacrificing itself over other more expensive parts in the lower unit.
 
Dealer has been great. with this build, the aluminum is standard, I guess the 225 is where it switches to SS. Im just curious if the money for the new prop is worth the upgrade...
 
kozzy said:
Dealer has been great. with this build, the aluminum is standard, I guess the 225 is where it switches to SS. Im just curious if the money for the new prop is worth the upgrade...
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It’s nice they are otherwise good to work with. However, unless for reasons mentioned above by Randy (Goldenrod), they should be doing it standard at 150HP and above. The aluminum is costing performance and flexing at that point and above guaranteed. :(

IF you are looking to increase performance, a SS should make a big difference with your 200. :cool: However, if you are not too overly concerned with top end speed at WOT, then it doen’t matter.

That said, if not concerned with performance, then spending money on a 200HP is a greater wasted cost than the SS prop. :D
 
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goldnrod24 said:
One thing to keep in mind is that some people boat in shallow, rocky or log-infested waters and in that case, an aluminum prop would be the desirable option. When hitting an obstacle, aluminum will bend or shear easier than stainless, potentially sacrificing itself over other more expensive parts in the lower unit.
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I hear you there, but then why drop the coin to get a 200HP if you boat in waters where you cannot safely open it up anyway? “Things that make me go Hmmmm....”. ;)
 
I dont care about WOT, 1-2 MPH gain means nothing to me. I do care about performance. I can open it up plenty where I boat. I got the 200 to make sure I am not underpowered with I have a boat full of people, or I am pulling the kids on a tube..I will look into see if I was a supposed to get the SS prop for sure. I have no problem upgrading either, I just want to make sure its worth the money.
 
If you are trending towards watersports and large crowds on the boat, get a 4 blade SS. We lost a little top end but the kids have had 10 people on the boat and pulled the tube.
 
I was going to be a spare, since it was aluminum, but since im buying one, I thought of the upgrade. I am going to look more into a SS prop. Si the prop marcher on the Yamaha site pretty good and recommending the correct prop when filling in the questions online?
 
The turning point propellers are great for performance and reasonably priced. I had one on my previous Bennington and was very pleased. Their website has a guide to help you get the best prop for your application.
 
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Chris Z said:
Randy, the holes are number top to bottom as #1 to #4. If I understand you correctly you went from hole #1 to #2 taking the motor from its lowest position up .5". And in doing so you noticed no appreciable differences in performance?
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I pickup about 1.5 MPH by moving the motor. You can see where it was and where it is now. So if numbered top to bottom, I went from 2 to 3. I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words. :)
 
goldnrod24 said:
One thing to keep in mind is that some people boat in shallow, rocky or log-infested waters and in that case, an aluminum prop would be the desirable option. When hitting an obstacle, aluminum will bend or shear easier than stainless, potentially sacrificing itself over other more expensive parts in the lower unit.
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“Potentially” is the key word. When I had an aluminum prop on my 90 Yamaha, I hit a submerged log, and it destroyed my prop, but also bend my prop shaft and tire up the gears in the lower unit. Aluminum props don’t always save the day.
 
I used to go through an aluminum prop every year. Switched to a stainless, and I scarcely put a scratch on it in 13 years' use.

Propellers are not provided by Bennington. So you can see where dealers will often try to pass off a cheap propeller on a customer that has no idea what the potential of their boat is. There's about a $500 difference between the Reliance propeller and a Yamaha OEM aluminum propeller. But any good dealer's responsibility should be to get any boat running at 100% of its capability.
 
I will look into the SS prop, if I get better performance, better hole shot, and better speed I will def want to upgrade.
 
kozzy said:
I will look into the SS prop, if I get better performance, better hole shot, and better speed I will def want to upgrade.
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If you get the proper SS prop, you will without question get better performance with a Yamaha 200HP.
 
CAVU said:
This weekend I finally swapped out my aluminum prop for a new stainless Reliance 17P. I have the Yamaha F200 HP 4 STROKE 2.8L 4 Cylinder 25 IN. We have a 22ft SSRFBXP with the SPS hull. At speed the the engine runs smooth as silk.
There seems to be a new shimmy or vibration when at idle in gear both forward and reverse not evident with the aluminum prop. The top speed seems to have also diminished with the stainless propeller.
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Be sure you have the correct forward thrust washer.
The wrong one can allow contact and feel exactly as you describe.
 
so you lost top end speed, what did you gain? and why did you go with the 17P prop?
 
So I am going to get an SS prop, I was looking at the Yamaha Reliance. I did the prop selector, it gave me 2 choices, both 14.5 diameter, but different pitches, one 14 and one 15.
How do I choose? Again, please forgive me, all my other boats were twin engine cruisers with BIII out drives, same props on them all.
After using this boat this weekend, I seem to loose a lot of speed with more people on the boat. WOT I was getting 42 with 2 people, yesterday I had 4 adults and 2 kids, and that dropped to 35-36 MPH max. Again, I dont run WOT all the time, but i want to make sure I am getting the best performance out of my motor. I do plan on pulling my kids in a tube as well, as soon as the water is a little warmer. As I have said, I currently have aluminum, but i dont know the diameter or the pitch of it.
 
I believe for your 200hp go with the higher pitch. I have a Yamaha 150hp on a 22 ft with SPS tritoon. It has a 14.5 diameter with 15p and I get about 5800 rpms @ WOT and have currently topped out at about 39mph.

If you go with the smaller pitch you won’t get the thrust when you’ve topped out at WOT, with a 200 HP you will probably top out at 6000 RPMs with a 15p which is about right and get more thrust than with the 14p.

What you don’t want to do, is go too high in pitch, and top out your WOT RPMs in the low 5000’s, it means you are taxing your motor too much.
 
Here is what I have right now, I called the dealer and asked what they put on. I currently have an aluminum 17P prop. With 2 adults on the boat, I topped out at 42-43 MPH. Yesterday, with 4 adults and 2 kids, I topped out at 35-36 MPH, RPM was 5600-5800 it looked like. So those are my numbers. My dealer puts standard aluminum on 200 or less, they do SS on 250 or more. If I can get better numbers, I want to upgrade to the SS prop So you are thinking a 15P prop SS? I am waiting to hear back from some others as well, the dealer is supposed to be calling Bennington directly to get their recommendation on a SS prop with my exact boat and motor combination. My big this is I dont want the boat to lag when I have loaded with people.
 
kozzy said:
Here is what I have right now, I called the dealer and asked what they put on. I currently have an aluminum 17P prop. With 2 adults on the boat, I topped out at 42-43 MPH. Yesterday, with 4 adults and 2 kids, I topped out at 35-36 MPH, RPM was 5600-5800 it looked like. So those are my numbers. My dealer puts standard aluminum on 200 or less, they do SS on 250 or more. If I can get better numbers, I want to upgrade to the SS prop So you are thinking a 15P prop SS? I am waiting to hear back from some others as well, the dealer is supposed to be calling Bennington directly to get their recommendation on a SS prop with my exact boat and motor combination. My big this is I dont want the boat to lag when I have loaded with people.
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I would definitely choose the 15 over the 14 with 200HP. I believe Yamaha recommends stainless on anything 150hp and over. The performance bulletins on Yamahas website should give you an idea how 200hp should perform on A Bennington. Just find one close to your configuration. It will tel you on the performance bulletin what prop they used.

https://yamahaoutboards.com/en-us/home/owner-resources/all/performance-bulletins

From my understanding the aluminum props tend to flex at the higher horsepower larger loads which would reduce your thrust.

Hope this helps.
 
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