If you are running fresh water you will need to remove the cup and lab the 26 to reach the RPM you are looking for. The boat rides much deeper in fresh water than in salt.
Prop it for 5400 and you will not see that with a normal load, fuel and air.
Jim

every boat is a bit difrent . depending on what you have in the boat and weight of boat "full gas tank or very litle gas will make a few 100rpm difrence . also how you trimm the boat do you run it trimmed out to the moon are your tab's all the way up,extension box, all this will make a diffrence.
if you cant push a 26 ptich prop past 4900 rpm a lab 28 will be no good . a lab 28 will be almost like running a stock 26 maybe a 100rpm less this will bring you to 4800rpm again no good. your best bet is to have the 26 prop tweeked. for the best performance of your boat .
good luck
mike

You want the engine running in its powerband.
your max rpm should be right under where the max hp rpm is.

I think its best to test w/ a good standard baseline prop.
Get a 26 B1 and see how she runs... and you gotta run it trimmed properly.
If you may think its not getting enough air, take the engine hatch off and run it. Thats an easy way to check it out.

I'm running the HPI 9049 clamp-ons on my 525, you definitely want to raise your RPM's as others have said. I would shoot for about 5350 with alight load and cool temps! Check out the March 2005 issue of Hot Boat for a muffler comparison test. What kind of speeds are you seeing GPS? Steve You don't have to remove the engine hatch, just raise it a few inches at speed, I doubt that it'll matter, been there done that!

I'm not the prop expert like Clark but I would take some of the cup out along with a bit of pitch. I had a 26 cupped to try and get some bow rise out of the boat and it took RPM away and didn't help with bow rise. But like I said....I'm no prop expert Trial and error......

Why isn't anyone using 3 blades? I am kind of new to this, but I noticed a 200 or so rpm increase as well as more top end on my existing 27'. Yes I know the boat didn't get up out of the water quite as fast, but it was really minimal and I thought Mid range was actually better.

a 3 blade will be faster . but it does not have as much bite in the water for control. on a twinn engine set up you mite be able to get a way with it mostly on cat's

no, you dont have to take the engine hatch off, but make sure the wind doesn't start to lift it up from running 70+. thats alot of air pressure pushing on the hatch.
Again... trial and error.

I didn't notice any control issues, but we shall see soon as it sounds like I will be trying to prop a boat real soon too.

Hit 5100 rpm's today with 2 people and 3/4 tank gas--speed was less than expected 73 on GPS speedo 78 on hand-held the other day did not trust that though. So am I to expect at 5300-5400 75-76 MPH? I am going to run smaller prop to see if I hit rev limiter-than I will try to remove cupping on my 26 4- blade-then I guess it is a 28 lab I will try. Thanks for all the help it is much appreciated... vic



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