Best store for boat prop advice?

[wiperhunter2]

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

[liketrolling]

A guy I have fished with about 5 times his boy owns I think this place
[https://www.utahpropdoc.com/

I’m going fishing Monday with 2 guys that know him real good . so I will tell you for sure Monday night,
call him then if it sounds good, I can go fishing with you pick your prop up and take it to him.](https://www.utahpropdoc.com/)

[wyoguy]

@wiperhunter2

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

A Roc in SLC is the best as far as I’m concerned, they can tell you over the phone what you need, and if they have one. Sell new and rebuilt.

[wiperhunter2]

@AFDan52

Hi Curt , hey buddy I have been using Perfect Pitch Propellers in Smithfield. Neil does great work and is very good to work with , he is very knowlegdable about most props . He is fast and I think reasonablely priced . His E-mail is
neal@perfectpitchpropellers.com . He will usually answer your E-mail even on Sunday.

Thanks Dan, I’ve talked to Neil before when first got this motor but I think I’ll contact him again, now that I have some more info.

[lakepowellnut]

“wiperhunter2” pid=’ wrote:

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

I’ve seen this topic come up frequently on other boards and Mercury’s prop calculator tool is a go-to for many. I know I use it frequently. It’s a good starting point to narrow your selection. The cool thing is it covers more than just Merc’s. To avoid costly purchase mistakes, I look to this calculator.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/propellers/selector/#!/step-one

Formerly the boat-guy on this forum.

Be safe out there!

[Bassin_Blitz]

@wiperhunter2

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

You need to reduce pitch not diameter, Bear lake is close to 6000 ft willard is 4200 ish for every 1000 ft you would drop 1 inch in pitch so you would want to go with a 15 1/2 by 11 assuming you are already set up correctly.

https://www.boatpropellerwarehouse.com/product/29662/aluminum-15-1-2-x-11-evinrude-johnson-rh-propeller-767620

[wiperhunter2]

@lakepowellnut

I’ve seen this topic come up frequently on other boards and Mercury’s prop calculator tool is a go-to for many. I know I use it frequently. It’s a good starting point to narrow your selection. The cool thing is it covers more than just Merc’s. To avoid costly purchase mistakes, I look to this calculator.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/propellers/selector/#!/step-one

Formerly the boat-guy on this forum.

Be safe out there!

Thanks Lakepowellnut, I’ll take a look at that. If you are interested in getting your old username back, send me a PM.

[wiperhunter2]

@Bassin_Blitz

You need to reduce pitch not diameter, Bear lake is close to 6000 ft willard is 4200 ish for every 1000 ft you would drop 1 inch in pitch so you would want to go with a 15 1/2 by 11 assuming you are already set up correctly.

https://www.boatpropellerwarehouse.com/product/29662/aluminum-15-1-2-x-11-evinrude-johnson-rh-propeller-767620

Thanks for the info Bassin_Blitz, I was hoping someone would know which one(pitch vs dis) was the correct way to go. I was thinking a smaller dia prop would turn faster and give me higher RPM. That info will help me decided what I need.

[JSTLRKNG]

@wiperhunter2

@Bassin_Blitz

You need to reduce pitch not diameter, Bear lake is close to 6000 ft willard is 4200 ish for every 1000 ft you would drop 1 inch in pitch so you would want to go with a 15 1/2 by 11 assuming you are already set up correctly.

https://www.boatpropellerwarehouse.com/product/29662/aluminum-15-1-2-x-11-evinrude-johnson-rh-propeller-767620

Thanks for the info Bassin_Blitz, I was hoping someone would know which one(pitch vs dis) was the correct way to go. I was thinking a smaller dia prop would turn faster and give me higher RPM. That info will help me decided what I need.

Bassin_Blitz is exactly right, but get it ported when you buy it if you want to fish high altitude lakes. Yellowstone is at 8K. You probably wouldn’t get on plane without it being ported, could be wrong. Remember, you lose 3% of your horsepower on a naturally aspirated motor for every 1K increase in elevation. Hard to spin up to the power band without the cavitation you get when ported.

WWW.PTPROP.COM makes a nice stainless with very little slip.

j

[Bduck]

Curt, I have dealings with Neil at perfect pitch propellers too. He is a standup guy and will work with you to try out a prop. When I bought my boat it came with a SS 20 pitch which is great for sea level. He put me into another SS prop but a 15 pitch. RPM’s came up significantly along with speed both at Bear L and Strawberry. Of coarse SS is much more pricey. :shy:

[wiperhunter2]

@Bduck

Curt, I have dealings with Neil at perfect pitch propellers too. He is a standup guy and will work with you to try out a prop. When I bought my boat it came with a SS 20 pitch which is great for sea level. He put me into another SS prop but a 15 pitch. RPM’s came up significantly along with speed both at Bear L and Strawberry. Of coarse SS is much more pricey. :shy:

Thanks Rodger, when I first bought this motor, a couple of years ago, I talked to neil about builting a prop for me. I decided to give it a year to see how the one I had would work. It has been ok at Willard but when I went up to BL a few weeks ago, it was really bad. I could hardly get up on plain and the RPM was down about 2000. Normal I’m at 5500 at Willard at BL it was 3500. I can’t even image how bad it would be at Jordanelle or The Berry. Since this is new info, it might help me get the right prop and if he will let me try it out, all the better.

[Bduck]

I used Willard as my lowest elevation plus it helps being a couple of miles from house to see where rpm’s were with the 20 pitch. All is based on sea level performance utilizing a standard day condition which is barometric at 29.92 @ 59°. Yamaha top end rpm should be 6000-6200. I was getting 3800R’s and 33mph. New prop put me at 6000R’s and 40mph depending once again standard day condition. I hit a good day that particular day. Bear L I drop back maybe from 5700-5800 speed varies a little, Strawberry I hit approx 5500 with speed varying again.
First you need to know where the manufacturer specification top end rpm should be. Then you can figure or get help to figure the prop size to help achieve this with your current info at elevation.

[N.E.T.O]

@wiperhunter2

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

Props…been there done that way too many times!

Although my current boat is a simple 16’ Aluminum boat, I’ve owned 7 or 8 larger/faster/bigger/better family and fishing boats as that was our favorite family activity before my kids all grew up and moved away. We literally went boating/waterskiing every weekend in the summertime (or spring and fall on warm days) for about 15 or 20 years in a row. It always amazed me when buying a new (to me) boat how the prior owner NEVER had the right prop on it!

Here is what I found out about re-propping a boat after having to do it to every single boat I ever owned: It’s not a science. There is no chart anwhere that will tell you what pitch or diameter you need to get to gain speed or gain power. There are general guidelines that might help. Like, if you want to go faster, get a higher pitch. If you want more power, get a lower pitch. You can also thow some diameters and rake designs in there. Don’t forget prop material! Stainless and Aluminum act differently. The only way to find out if a prop is going to do what you want it to do is to try it out on your boat, on the body of water that you are trying to optimize it for. Period.

There used to be a great shop called Jacks Prop Shop here in Salt Lake. For a small deposit, he would loan you a few props all at once to try out. Most of the time I ended up buying the perfect prop from him (used or new) but in those instances that I couldn’t find one that didn’t work, there was no pressure to buy. Of course it helped that he knew me by name and had a revolving door just for me installed in his shop! Seems I visited him at least half a dozen times per summer.

My boating friends and I always wanted more power to pull up a water skiier (back when people used a slalom ski, not a surfboard) or more speed if we were going to Powell or Mead, etc. I usually ended up owning at least 2 and sometimes 3 props for each boat I owned…not counting the repairs I had done on numerous occasions.

Your best bet is to go to one of the shops mentioned above (Jack is no longer in business), and ask if they will work with you to find a prop and let them know you might need to test a few, but will likely only buy one. Hopefully you can find someone that will work with you otherwise it could get expensive and you’ll end up with 3 or 4 new props that are worthless to you and one good one.

However, based on your post and your current prop size of 15.5" diameter and 13 pitch, and wanting more power/RPM’s (not speed), sounds like you might want to try a 11 pitch prop (usually props are odd numbers…13, 15, 17, 19, 21, etc.) , same diameter to start with. Although I have to admit I’ve never seen an prop pitched that low. That SHOULD give you more RPM’s, and sometimes at no loss of speed, depending on the power curve of the motor and how it’s loaded and set up. Sometimes a smaller diameter works too for that, but I’ve seen more cavitation happen when doing that. Sometimes the lower pitch gives you too many RPM’s, so they can then CUP it for you to make a 1/2 size (ie: 12 pitch) which sometimes is just right. Sometimes shifting the weight around (heavier stuff up front…ie: batteries) is just as good as a re-prop, and sometimes people just have to take out a bunch of weight that is usually not used to get some power back. And sometimes, it’s not the prop at all…it’s the engine…or the gears in the lower unit! (High altitude gears/low altitude gears, etc.). I’ve seen a lot of V8’s that are really only V7’s, etc. Outboards can have a dead cylinder and most people don’t even know it.

Hope this helps. It can get frustrating, and time consuming, and sometimes you end up just using the same prop you started with…sometimes that ends up really being the best prop. Watch out and don’t get one that gives you TOO MANY RPM’s, that is just as bad as too few. Sometimes a prop that you didn’t think would work will be the magic prop even though it defies the rules!

One other last thing I found out when trying props…try it the way you are going to be using it. If you usually have 8 people on board trying to pull up a slalom skier…test it out that way. Fishing at Bear Lake with 2 people and gear aboard?..try it out that way. Good Luck. Props and Wheel bearings were the two main reasons I was happy to sell my last big boat!

Randy

[Anglinarcher]

@wiperhunter2

Looking for a new or rebuilt prop for my 90 HP evinrude. The one I have does alright at Willard but not so good at Bear lake, the RMP’s are not going up as high as they should, especially at BL, so I was thinking that a smaller prop would do the trick. My prop is a 15 & 1/2 x 13, I was thinking a 15 x 13 might do the trick.

You will find that most boat dealers have about as many opinions as there are colors in the rainbow. I often use to hear, give this one a try.

I now suggest the following web site. If you fill in all of the information, it will give you a correct diameter and pitch, then you find something locally that fits inside that direction. It takes a lot of information, but it is the best way to save money and time by not just testing what a shop has in stock.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/propellers/selector/#!/step-one

[TubeDude]

Hotspotter.

What?  No GPS numbers?

[catchinon]

Crap, TD, I did it again. Still under the delusion that we are supposed to share. No GPS numbers but I’ll tell where I caught them. In the water. Within 1000 yards of the bank. Consult my other reports if you want more details.

[TubeDude]

‘catchinon’ pid=‘1105591’ dateline=‘1600639331’ wrote:

Crap, TD, I did it again. Still under the delusion that we are supposed to share. No GPS numbers but I’ll tell where I caught them. In the water. Within 1000 yards of the bank. Consult my other reports if you want more details.

**Sheesh.  Now I won’t even bother to go.  Everybody in Utah will be there.  Poor fish don’t have a chance.

Waytago, sir.  You know Utah Lake and those poor catfish are not sustainable fisheries.  Next thing ya know they will be listed right along with the Junies.**

[MSM1970]

Still waiting for the GPS and time of day, moon phases, depth and how to hold my mouth correct!

will I need a launch ticket or just get in line?

[catchinon]

Well Mike you saw how many other boats were out there this morning. Can you spell zee-row?

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I took my own advice and went out this morning and caught a 32"er.

[MSM1970]

‘catchinon’ pid=‘1105675’ dateline=‘1600803855’ wrote:

Well Mike you saw how many other boats were out there this morning. Can you spell zee-row?

---

I took my own advice and went out this morning and caught a 32"er.

I was surprised that why I test drove down there,  even BLK slept in.