No offense to your friend, but if he is that worried about spinning them in he really don't belong behind the wheel until he gets some training on what can & will happen. :eek:

Glad some props are on the way. My friend Ryan got a call back from Brett at BBLADES also so thats good.

I agree that the props spinning in are not worth it. I have run them in on both my 32 caliber and 33 outlaw and did not notice any gain. I actually drove the 32 caliber with them in since the day I bought it because thats how it came. I did not even know that it was normal for them to spin out. So I switched them years later and loved the handling much better and actually went 1mph faster gps then before. Only once though but hey conditions might have been better who cares, I put over 200hrs on that boat in 2 years.

Spent one day with them in on my 33 and I ran the exact same speed. Even during a race against a new boat in town that had surprise engines under that hatch. I ran hard on perfect chop mid 90's like always. (yes I won the race!)So I switched back. YES DOCKING IS MUCH EASIER out especially on a really windy lake michigan.

Thanks for the info. He can spot the boat on a dime today. His only concerning is losing manuverability around the docks as there is not much room between the next dock in front of our slips and also the shoreline to the North. We can catch a pretty wicked crosswind out of the South/Southwest and giving up control for just a MPH or two won't be worth it in those situations. We'll try it both ways and he'll have the final call. We found on the Sunsation F-4 with staggared drives turning in that trimming the drives up a bit really helped with control around the docks. He has to trim up now so his props won't hit the lift bunks so he may find that the boat doesn't lose too much manuverability with them turning in. We won't know until we try it.

John (JaayTeee), thanks for taking time out to talk to Mike. Hopefully we can post some mid-80's speeds soon!

Jeff

Must have been the conditions then.

If you're going to do comparisions you have to test
back to back ( run it one way, pull it out, flip props run it again), and what I've found by doing that is that
"in" ( on a 33 O/L) is worth a little over 1 mph vs. "out".

I am a liar! Sorry guys. Just found out my props were lab finished by mercury racing. They have 5 letters stamped in side of them. Ryan borrowed them to test on his boat and agreed they were stock. Then he talked to brett at bblades and he said your numbers are way off, "are you sure they are stock". well after looking hard and measured the thickness, we were wrong. Just thought I would admit to my mistake. The good news is that whoever labbed them at mercury did a great job! Prob was brett when he used to work there!

Prop testing tonight. 28 Maximus and 29 Hydros.

Sounds good, how did they work?

Get to the lake only to find out he had no hub kits. His existing props have solid hubs. Marina only had standard shaft kits as did the boat dealer next door. So we are waiting on some hub kits.

Finally got some prop testing in last night. Quick recap. 2003 33 Outlaw with 500 EFI's, 12" neutral boxes, XZ drives (1.50), 30" Bravo I 4 blades (non-labbed). Boat new, according to owner, ran 78 - 80 MPH. At 280 hours last season, boat had slowed to about 75 - 77 MPH so boat goes to Brad Smith in Joplin for a refresh. Motors are now 605 HP 522's. No other changes made. After the new mills were installed, boat ran a best of 80 MPH at 5,300 - 5,400 RPM with the same 30" Bravo I's. So, first up last night were a set of 15 1/8" 29 pitch Hydromotive PX-5's turning out. Boat planed quicker and cruised at a lower RPM. We expected not to be able to turn the Hydros to 5,400 but spank our azz and call us Julie, they turned 5,400 RPM. Best speed was again 80 MPH but consistantly around 78 MPH. WTF? OK, let's turn them in. Boat did not want to plane as easily, cruise RPM's went up, max RPM was only 5,100 - 5,200, with a best speed of 77 MPH. Also, the hop at WOT was more pronounced with them turning in. Now to a set a 15 5/8" 28 pitch Maximus. Brand new out of the box from Merc one ear on one prop has the tip bent over with deep scratches. Obviously inspector 7 was having a bad day. Pictures sent to Brett at BBlades and he says to run them. Immediately you can feel a slight vibration before leaving the marina. Boat did not want to plane like it did with the Hydros and once it rolled over, it was like someone threw the anchor out. The motors would not rev over 3,500 RPM. It just sat and bogged down. Was this because of the damaged blade on one prop or are the drives so deep it cannot pull this large of diameter of a 5 blade? Don't know. However, we do know this boat is not running near as fast as it should and we now have more questions than before running the 5 blades.

My question is why are you trying to run 5 blades instead of 4 blades? Is the prop height above 4"?

Prop slip was so high with the 4 blades we wanted to see if 5 blades would help. I have not had a chance to measure prop height but we know others running a similar setup (JaayTeee) had good luck with 5 blades. Given how the 5 blades reacted the drives appear to be too deep even with neutral 12" boxes. So that means investigating other options with 4 blades. I did not have a long enough straight edge last night to get a measurement while the boat was on the trailer swapping out props. Of course my buddy that owns the boat nor GSC who built the boat have a clue what it was setup at from the factory.

I think your drive height or prop height or x dimension needs to get raised. You should also try cutting edge props out west. Bblades has a monopoly right now but have not been giving good results for anyone I know. All bblades cares about is their rip off test program....almost like blockbuster! JUST wai till they start giving late fees and charging your credit card for the props when you don't send them back fast enough!

My boat is 29 ol and have a similar setup. I have big power, imco boxes, and -2 shorties. Here are two pics of my prop height. The one with the tape measure is with the drive all the way down. The one without the tape is with the drive on the same plane as the bottom of the boat. I think it is a little high for my boat. Pics are from the inside of the drive. I don't mean to high jack but want to see what you guys think. I figure it at 2 1/2 to 3".

What is the actual prop height? Its never been mentioned.

As stated above, the owner does not know and I have not been able to measure it. It appears to be too deep for 5 blades and too shallow for 4 blades. Hopefully I can get a measurement next week.

Is the 2nd pic. with the drive trimmed up ?

I try to measure with the propshaft parellel to the bottom
of the boat, never-the-less, those are pretty high.

I see 5 blades in your future;)

Yes the second is with the drive parallel with the bottom. Again I don't want to high jack this thread but I have been following it and you and others that have been posting seem to have good input.

I bought a set of 29 p-5's that are labbed. I hope to try them this weekend as well as some stock 32 bravo's.

Please let me know if I should start another thread and I will.

I started the thread and I have no problem with you posting questions about your setup. The more input we get on setups the better.

If they are stellings all the way up - he is probably at 4 inches +/- 1/4 inch. either way, 30 Pitch bravos should get you close.

Keep us updated this week.

I think your too high!! My guess would be somewhere around 4-4.25 for your 29 using 4 blade bravo's

Fleg? You have been MIA so long I am surprised you still know what prop height is!

LOL!

Welcome back man!

If you are referring to me, they are neutral imco boxes and there is no way they are at 4". If you look at the pics they don't lie, but I also think 30 or 32's will be the way to go.

Indy, show us a wide shot from the side that shows the bottom and drives so we can get a better idea of how high up you are.

was talking about the 33

Here's a couple shots.

Still pretty hard to determine what the height is by looking at those shots!!!

Going by the pics you posted I'm guessing your at 3"!! If it where me I would bring them down to 4-4.25" I'm at 4.25 on my 32 and it runs well where there at!!!

It really doesn't look much different than mine in those pics.

Mines at 4.25" measuring on inside of drive.

Was out on the lake Monday and there were 3, 33 Outlaws running around. My buddy's which has the boxes and 2 others with no boxes. I know one of the boats is a 496MAG HO boat. Not sure what power the other has. Anyway, both non-box boats carried the bow significantly higher than my buddy's boat with the boxes. Probably can't tell much from this pic as it was taken with my iPhone and I did not zoom in but it gives you an idea how wet his boat runs. Makes you think he should just ditch the boxes. The other pic is another buddy with a 303 Formula. Gives you and idea just how bow down the Baja runs.

It's not a matter of carrying the bow. JT's 33 runs flat as my 29 and we're both 90+mph boats.
The idea is to keep the drives in good water and put the angle of thrust as flat and close to the bottom of the boat as possible.
When you start carrying a lot of bow you get a rougher, less stable ride.

Well, it does matter to a degree as more wetted surface = more hydrodynamic drag which scrubs speed. I'm not saying it needs to ride way up like a pad bottom boat but it really rides too far nose down IMO. The "Baja Hop" also does not help it at WOT. I just don't believe Baja or GSC did any dialing in of the boat. Just tossed boxes on it and said, "here you go".

My boat loves the boxes. Remember I run 95+ mph full of fuel gear and 6 people with only 30" 4 blades. These boats run well his should get there also!

I have no hop at all speeds. You will just have to dial her in better then!

I believe we will get him running better. Just going to take time and trial and error. I couldn't believe there were 3, 33's out on our little 5,000 acre lake on Monday. I teased my buddy that 33 Outlaws were like Rinker's out there. :lolhit:

His has a mild hop with the 4 blades and a significant hop with 5 blades. Any combination of tab or drive adjustments to eliminate the hop slows it down. But the hop is also slowing it down. Frustrating.

This is the running attitude that you want to try to
achieve

like this too

....but not like this idiot:drink:

I thought I had the 09 Shootout video of you loaded on YouTube, but I can't find it in my videos.....