3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I am running a 23P Mirage Plus on a 25 ft Outlaw 454MPI/Bravo 1. I get 70 at 5000RPM's with lot's of gas and a full boat on the Speedo. BEst yest is 74 with just me and low fuel.

Will I gain anything by going to a 4 blade Bravo 1. My hole shot is OK, could be better with a tuber. I am satisfied with my Top end.

I am asking as my other boat is boning out and I need to use the Baja for a time to pull the kids.

Will I get any benefit?

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

The 4 blade should bring you out of the hole a little quicker if you don't over prop but you will drop a mile per hour or two on top.
While you are tinkering you might check your speedo, I think it is off at least 5mph maybe as much as 10. I don't have an Outlaw but I think a 25 with a 502 is a 65-67 mph boat. Unless you have a great running 454 you are going to have to shave a little off of that.
Sorry, just my thoughts. :D

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

boatfreak,

I appreciate the feedback. I do plan to get a GPS, but I have run with some other boats claiming those speeds and stayed with them? The Merc Prop Calculator says I should be getting 66

I have 385 HP. Some 454's only get 365 or 375. I think some 496's actually get less, like 375. The deal is this, the speed is nice, but I ain't crushing any waves, so in my eyes, it's not just how fast, but how fast in the rough!

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

Here is a web site for an automated prop calculator. I tend to agree that you are most likely going about 60-63 MPH because with 10% slip it says 65 MPH and a vee bottom baja has More like 15% slip at best. And you maybe at 18% At 15% slip it says you are going 61.7 so you need a GPS spedo.You can only achieve 10% slip with a 4 blade and an efficient hull like a cat. Check out the web site it s

http://www.rbbi.com/folders/prop/propcalc.htm

I have a friend with a 272 Baja with a 502 MPI and my boat has a GPS spedo so he asked me to clock him and it
was 60 MPH on the nose and his spedo said 67 so water pickup spedos are very generous to make people happy.

Bye the way if you do go to a 4 blade you will need to go down in pitch for sure to a 22 but I do not think you will be able to turn it 5000 rpm. maybe 4800 rpm.

Good luck

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

NJ Dave,

Thanks. I just talked to Curtis Propeller. They suggest a 22 also. He said it will be about the same RPM's.

Now the question is do I want to lay out $400+. Decisions decisions

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

My last 3 boats had speedo's that were all 7mph off. When i had friends on the boat i would leave the GPS off so it looked like i was going faster. :D

You will get a better cuise and handling with the bravo, but top speed will suffer a tad as stated above by boatfreak. Best thing to do is borrow one before you buy one.

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

A friend of mine has a 2001 25 outlaw with the 502 MPI. He only see's 64mph on his good days.

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

a 4 blade bravo 1 prop will be better for pulling, it will have less slip than the 3 blade prop, if the 3 blade is working ok for pulling skiers, ect. then save your cash, also the 4 blade will have about 2 mph less top speed

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

$400 is about the cheapest thing you will ever be able to buy for your boat. if you think thats steep, much awaits you :cool:

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

Talk to Darin at Houston Propeller. He is an expert with Mirage props

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I just bought a 22 bravo from Curtis prop. Before I bought it he sent me a demo 22 bravo I. You might want to try it first.

I have a 242 Formula with 454 mag. I tried the 23P mirage+ and could not spin it more than about 4200/4300. The 22 bravo I works great. Same top speed but boat handles better in the waves and jumps on to a plane. Cruising speed (3200rpms or so) is higher than my stock 21P mirage.

My top speed on GPS is 55. The VDO speedo is more optomistic than the GPS by about 5mph at speed

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

What ever you do don't use Huston Propeller. They are a rip off. I called Darin
about lab finishing 2 new Bravo 30 pitch props for me & he said $400.00 each. I gave him my credit card info so when he got my props he could charge it. Well I called Eliminator Boats to see if the could recommend anything to me and they said the only person they use is John York from York Propeller.
He does all the work on their race boats and customer boats. So I called him and he will lab finish props for $150.00 each and guaranty an RPM increase of 200 at the same pitch which equates to about 4-6 MPH and he said that every year that Powerboat Magazine does there prop shoot out at Mercury marines
lake X he wins hands down. So I sent my props to him. I later find out that Darin at Huston Propeller charged My credit card $800.00 and he never received my props. I called them up and his wife jerked me around for 5 days and when she finally credited my card back she gave me some bull s_it excuse of a bank charge of 2% that she had to charge me. All I can say is that $400.00 from Huston Propeller or Mercury Marine is too much to pay. Call
John York and he will hook you up. Good Luck!

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I have a Baja 260 which is similiar in size and weight to your 25 Outlaw. I have a good running carb 502 and my best speed is 64.5 GPS with a 24 pitch Bravo 1 four blade prop. My boat likes the four blade prop. It has a great hole shot and makes the boat run level without porpoising on flat water. I tried a 23 pitch Mirage + and it porpoised bad. I needed to use the tabs to get on plane and it would blow out when trimmed up just a little past neutral. I have a 21 pitch Mirage + as a backup prop and the only time I use it is if I want to pull tubers. It makes a better wake for tubing than the 4 blade. I don't know why but, that is my experience. If you pull tubes a lot you might want to stay with the 3 blade and just put the tabs down. Good luck.

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

[QUOTE=MACDAD260] I tried a 23 pitch Mirage + and it porpoised bad. I needed to use the tabs to get on plane and it would blow out when trimmed up just a little past neutral. QUOTE]

I had the same experience...porpoising with the 23 mirage plus in calm water.

I have not however tried a "regular" non plus 23 mirage. But I think those are no longer available

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

That's BULLSH%T! That's not even ethical let alone legal. I'd be checking with my card company on that one. With the profit margin in lab bing props, come on it's all labor, they don't need to do that. I had a company charge me 15% restocking fee for returning a set of shotgun silencers that would'nt work for me, do you think I ordered what I needed from them? hell no!

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I had the same boat as you,and ran a 22" Turbo Vector three blade.I bought a 22" Bravo and the boat just hated it,way too much stern lift,lost about 4 mph I even had the prop worked on don't waste your time on a 4 blade.

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I appreciate all the feedback. Still lots to think about. I don't want to demo a prop and be held to having to buy a prop.


Still need to give it some thought.

Thanks!

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

Hello NetGain,

I have a 23' Sea Ray with a 385hp 454 Mag. I started off with a 23 pitch 3 blade Mirage, but now run a modified 24 pitch Bravo 4 blade. I really prefer the 4 Blade. The boat handles much better. Does not blow out on turns and comes on plane better. My speed Sunday with a full tank of gas measured 63 mph (steady on gps), with just under 5,000 rpm. I think with a lighter load and more favorable water/wind, it will hit 65. That is about the same as it did with the 3 blade.

My 4 blade was re-worked by Darin at Houston Prop. I have no complaints on the quality of his work. He seems to have a lot of work and his prices are not cheap, but the quality is good. I told him that I wanted to add some RPM to the 4 blade because when I first tried it the RPMs were low. He took some pitch out of it and got it just right. I am sorry to read in previous posts that a member had such bad luck with them. But hey, the board is a good place to air both good and bad experiences. Reading posts have helped me tremendously with my boat.

I know that Sea Rays aren't generally discussed on this board, but I must say that I like my boat and it is a bit of a "sleeper". Most 230 OV's run small blocks. This one surprises people, as you can imagine. It even has factory installed Captains Call exhausts.

Anyhow, my vote is for the 4 blade. Get the right pitch to get your WOT rpms right.


Hudson

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

yes,I gave up a little on top to get the holeshot and cruise speed. All single geared vehicles are a compromise. Just decide if you want top speed or other,and borrow a 4 blade.

Re: 3 Blade or 4 blade Prop?
 

I'm new here but I figured that I'd stick my 2cents for what its worth in being as I just sold a 98 24' outlaw with a 385 horse 454 so that I could purchase my 292 formula,,,but anyway, with the baja 23pitch mirage 3 blade prop at 4700 rpms the boat would run an honest 62 to 63 mph(depending on water/weather conditions) and thats flat all there is in that hull/power setup. 4 blade 22 mercury prop gave me the same rpms, lost app 1mph but picked up holeshot.