89Mach1

I spoke with whiplash a few months back as we are very similar in setup. I have a 93 32' with 500's and the boat came to me with 27p hydros on it that I feel are wrong for the boat. My steering is a little loose and no hydraulic steering so I think that plays a good part in my situation but I'm running about 46-4700 rpm with 27 hydros at 75mph and if I remember correctly he was running about the same rpm/mph with 28 hydros. Unlike whiplash I think I could get my rpm up to about 48-4900 spinning the 27 hydros but I can't trim out enough and tab up enough due to my steering being loose and the boat feeling like its on ice at anything over 70 mph. Come spring the steering issues will be addressed and I'll retest the hydros but from whiplashes recommendation I purchased a set of 28 bravos to test as well and probably have labbed by bblades.

WHIPLASH

1st- I do have the hydraulic external steering so that does help stabilize.
The Hydros appear to be stern lifting and as such are great rough water props as they keep the boat more level when jumping waves. That also means more boat in the water and slower. I have a local prop tuner (used to build but but is semi retired and just repairs with some tuning) who took the hydros and they actually measured 29 1/2 and 30 pitch although marked 28. He3 told me this is common with Hydro props. This explained why I can only get 47-4800 rpm's out of these. I bought a set of 27 hydros that turned out to be labbed by Hydromotive themselves. I bought these while I was having Bblades do the Bravo's last winter. They actually run the same rpm (51-5200)and within 1 mph +/- of the Bblades labbed Bravos. The Bravos are still somewhat better as they seem to be bow lifting getting more of the boat out of the water.
I was hoping to get something different out of the 27 Hydros but as they are pretty much the same as the Bblades props, and I don't need 2 sets that do the same thing, I plan on selling the 27 Hydros come spring if you know of anyone interested. They seem to work best on Fountains (or any other hull with a notched transom) as I loaned them to someone with a 31 Sonic and they didn't work well at all on that boat.

Wildman_grafix

Good info, I had also heard a 28 hydro is closer to a 30 bravo.
My set up is 28 hydro's with HP500EFI on a stepped hull. I can spin mine to 5200 at a GPS 83.

Does the mid range cruise seem better with Bravo's?

WHIPLASH

The midrange cruising is better with the 28 stock hydro's (but remember they are really 29-30) but the labbed Bravo ones are better midrange than the labbed 27 hydro's. Being fair, the 28 Bravos were labbed specifically for my hull and power and the Hydros I bought labbed that way. I called Hydromotive for info but the serial # is too old for them to look up and all he could tell me was it was them who tuned them. To compare I guess I'd have to either have the 27 or 28 hydros labbed to my boat but I'm satisfied with the Bblades job on the 28 Bravos and don't need to spend any more $ on prop work. I'll pocket that for more gas and on water time!

kswarren363

Currently have Bravo XR drives. I hope to get a few seasons out of them before upgrades. I boat on a small lake in central il where the roughest it gets is 2'- 3' waves. So I very rarely get the boat all the way out of the water. So if im not airing it out and easy on the throttles i think they should make it a few seasons.