Has anyone tried a 5 bladed prop on their 280? Was discussing this the other night and wondering if it would boost my cruise speed over a 4 blade.

Also my concern would be, how much more stress would that put on my bravo?

I am no prop expert, but I think you would need to run a shorty lower (-2" ?) to justify a 5 blade prop. Otherwise, you will have a lot more drag with the extra blade.

shore ment to tell you im not runnin the mirgae it has the q series 4 blade and supposed to run real sweet on it but when i dip it ill let u know fully

I ran a 32 pitch hydromotive 5 blade but my x is 2" higher. Cruise speed is a lot better than a 4 blade but a 32 bravo is just a little faster on my boat.

SS,
i currently run a hydro Q IV on the boat. I've run a couple sizes of Q IV's, but never a whole different prop. There is a lot of debate over which is better for this boat, the Q IV or the bravo. I guess both have their plusses and minuses. I don't really care much about losing top end if i can raise my cruise speed. 95% I'm either at cruise or idle. That 5% wide open isn't worth sacrificing the 95% to me.

has anyone run a 5 blade at the standard x dimension? I don't want to get into changing stuff around.

The 5 blade when pitched properly will bring up your cruising speed and give you much better rough water bite,just dont limit yourself to the Hydromotive,not bashing because they are good but you should look at other options,I did and the end result is a much better end result.

i plan on trying out a bunch of different options. I have no real complaints about the hydro's, but i'm not married to them either.

So does anyone think a 5 blade would be harder on the drive than a 4? Intuitively, i would say it would. But i've never really discussed this or read about this before.

If it is, i'm going to abandon the idea because i'm already going to be pushing the limits of the drive.

The 5 blade is actually easyier on the drive because you have more smaller blades beating on the water rather than 4 bigger blades and more oportunity to break loose in chop or rough water conditions,the 5 Blade propellor is the way to go and there are several different options available to you and hopefully you can try them rather then have to put out the money and buy them because as I found out it gets very expensive at 500.00 and 600.00 bucks per blade. I have spent alot over the years but it was worth it.Good luck.

Thanks bill! I'm definitely gonna give a 5 blade or two a shot.

What Bill said makes sense but I also know that the 5 blades will bite harder when you land, and if you're timing is off, your are much more prone to twist a prop shaft. I've known quite a few guys running herrings on OL's and Donzi ZR's that have done this. I know that it's a different set-up but in my opinion the 5 blade will be less forgiving.