I have a 99 380. Send boat back to the factory in the winter of 2000 and had 30" of back rake taken off of boat. Back end settled down in water and the boat rode better. Also had the bottom blue printed at the time. Spring of 2000 put pro-chargers on my stock 502's boat ran 87mph. Kept blowing drives because motors make to much torque. Have enough of that sh!t. Spring of 2001 brought two 500 efi's with xz drives.
I now run 30" lab finish props and the boat will run 82mph with two people in it and a little over a quarter tank of fuel. Going to refreshen the motors this spring as it is about time. Outside of doing routine maintainance like sea water impellers, oil and fuel filters thee motors are trouble free.
Anybody know where a pair of 525's are?

I thought about five blades, but have heard many times that they destroy Bravo I drives. I really don't want to put money into rebuilding BI drives for a mph or two.

Wildman, how's the boat handle at 87mph. I've considered upgrading power as my motors are bone stock with only 167 hours on them. So I could probably get rid of them pretty easily. But I just don't think this is the hull to put huge power into. But it would be fun to run with the "big boys" in a Powerquest.

At 87mph the boat chime walk all over. That is one of the problems with the pad on our boats. It is not a true V. PQ did this so they could get the speed out of the boat with less power and also raising the X dimesion. Right now I run out of trim and blow out the props in rough water. If it is smooth or just a little choppy it is great but get in rough water and she chime walks (82mph) even with the tabs down. Too far down and it starts scrubbing speed off.
Remenber that the prop is the clutch in the drive train too much bite with the blades and things are going to twisted with the amount of torque apply. I would like to carry the nose a little higher but every time I trim out I blow the props out. I think if I had a lower X dimesion it would help or I could add spacers to the drives.
I just turn 60 and my days of running fast are over. It's all about looking good now and how many babes I got on the boat.

I have ran the 5 blades on the stock drives for 3 years now, but I never do a hole shot and i never cram down the throttles i ease into it and have enjoyed them. Like I was saying i would at least test drive a set first.



Rich.

It's all in how you throttle. But I've not heard that 5 blades are faster than Bravos. At least Max's. The real advantage is the hole shot and mid range cruise efficiency. I will be testing a pair of BBlade labbed Max's this spring.

I'm with Wildman. I don't need to run 87/88. If I can hit 86 on the rare occassion I'm feeling frisky (or more accurately when my wife is not on board) and gain 5mph in the cruise band I will be thrilled.

I don't need to run 88 either, at least not with this boat. But I currently only run 70 or so. So if I could gain 3-4mph with just props, I figure it's a pretty cheap gain. At least compared to engine mods.

Doubt you will see 3-4 mph. And you definitely will not see better fuel economy with labbed props - Bravo to Bravo. Been there tried that. I had a 340 PQ with HO's. I tried about 5 different types of 4 blades. Ended up going with 28 stock Bravos because they were hands down the best overall. Not the fastest, but the best. (That was before 5 blades came out. ) I did try a set of Merc labbed 30's. I got a couple clicks on the top end, but lost almost 5 in the cruise band. And they were not as good out of the hole as stock props.

I would give Brett a call. They have a killer loaner program like Throttle Up did when I was going through this.

And keep us posted...if you get that 4mph!