Ballistic Prop
 

I've read some posts stating that the Ballistic props are fast, but they are seldom discussed. Anyone have experience or thoughts on these?

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

They are made by Michigan Wheel and are not considered a performance propeller. The are not a very high tolerance propeller.

Julie

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

I ran a 21" Ballistic on my FourWinns Liberator with a 460 Ford. Worked better than any other I tried. Went to a 540 Ford and up to a 25" Ballistic and never looked back :D .
On the 21" Liberator they work great. Had an extra after I sold the boat and sold the prop to another Lib owner who was pleased with it.
Not sure what Julie means by a "high tolerance propeller" but the blades do seem thinner as compared to other props.
Like most people would say "It depends on what works best on your boat". They're all different.

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

I runa ballistic on a 20 ft bowrider boat with Volvo drive (SX) and SBC. It is OK, I don't love it but too cheap to mess with it to date. It seems o cause more bow lift than other props on the same boat. Maybe Julie knows scientific reason that might be. If Julie says it so I trust her, they know props better than I can walk and I have sen repeated proof that they truly want to help and are not just "business hunting"

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

The Ballistic prop works well on some boats. As others have experienced sometimes it's the best prop for the application.
What Julie was referring to is the fact that from a technical quality control standpoint it's not very good.
But if it works well on a boat you can't argue with that!

Matt

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

What she meant by "not a high tolerance propellor" is that no 2 are exactly alike, When you buy a Merc prop or a Herring prop you can bet that is you buy two they will be exactly alike, when you buy something from Michigan wheel you could by 5 of them and no 2 would run the same RPM.

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

Yes, quality control and the standard or what's acceptable to release into stock, for the consumer, are not as tightly kept by Michigan Wheel. It is said that "each blade will be within one inch of pitch of the other. So in essence you can have a propeller stamped 21P that can have a 20P blade and a 22P blade and any combination you can think of with these 3 pitches. I hope this makes sense.

Julie

Julie

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

I've had experience with Ballistic props on boats ranging in size from 18 to 24ft bowriders on Volvo SX drives and Merc Alpha drives. I've found the props to perform great, they are better than Volvo stainless props, performance wise, and about equal to Merc's laser 2 prop on the Alpha. I found on a 21' bowrider with a 350mag alpha, the prop was faster than a mirage plus. Actually the ballistic's tended to gain 3mph min. over any other stock oem prop tried on the speedo's. They provide good bow lift, you can use more trim...hense more speed. They would without a doubt be my choice if you had a Volvo SX drive.
I have NOT found them to vary in performance prop to prop. I put the same size ballistic prop on 2 seperate but identical 21' bowrider boats and the performance was the same.
For the money they are tough to beat.
Again, these were all boats that ran under 60mph. Not hi-performance, hi-powered boats...so results might be different in that application.
What's funny is one prop reworker who has advertised here has a mod to the Merc mirage props which looks very much like a Ballistic. Maybe the Ballistic design was on to something?

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

Actually his propeller is patterend after a Power Tech propeller called the OFX. GREAT HOLE shot with this propeller.

The Moral to the story is the best prop made...is the one that works best on your boat!

Safe Testing!

Julie

Re: Ballistic Prop
 

I run a 25 ballistic on a 19 ft 1988 powerplay [24 degree v-bottom alfa-drive with sternjack best prop by far to any props tried 383 stroker small block chevy with small 142 blower 800 holly double-pump 80.9 on gps any time 88.1 at 6100 rpm on nitrous very much a performance prop great handling also!!! what a rush!!! [1.5 gears original drive]325 hours!!!