Back In Touch

[WI-RiverRat]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, but I've been around boats for about 40 yrs and I was a member over a PDB forum for a long time.
Sorry to hear about John 6x6 Larson - I remember his many posts.

My Bennington is a puzzle. We've had it for years and the motor runs well, just over 400 hours on it. For a bunch of years I had a Quicksilver 14x11.5P prop and could barely max out 4600rpm and 21-22mph @ WOT. So early this year the Flotorq hub spun and it was just time to buy a new prop. Local dealer guy swears by Merc Black Max 14x13P - I didn't believe him but came back home and tried it. Dang if he wasn't right! Went up in pitch, but the rpms went up and speed went up. Now getting 4950+rpms and 24-25mph @ WOT. Still not in the sweet spot for the motor, would like to get 5500rpm and would like more speed. Local guys think 23-25mph with my setup if pretty good, All over the forums and boat tests, I see boats similar to my with similar engines doing 28-30mph

One of the prop sites gave me 24% slip which is higher than you'd like but I kinda believe it based on the speed. All the speeds are from gps.

So what direction? Smaller dia and more pitch? What about stainless on a pontoon? Some swear by them others, swear at them... I do have a deal on a 14x12P Merc Vengance for $125 which seems like a steal. Would it be worth picking up to try?

Glad to be back!

Thanks in advance,
WI-RiverRat

[DWRAT]

what motor do you have?

[WI-RiverRat]

Thanks for asking.

2001 Merc 115 HP 4 Stroke
Can't believe I missed putting that vital piece of information in my post

[Bamaman]

You could try that stainless prop to see how it does. It might do fine. You're not far off getting the boat to its potential. It's just tough to get two toons without strakes up on top of the water where they perform well.

Nice to see your YamaMerc is still running good.