prop help

[cwhite]

I am thinking of switching to a 4 blade and I was looking for advice on what to get, brand, pitch and so on. I have a skeeter 176zx with a 150 mercury optimax thank you in advance

[merc1997]

just from my own experience some boats really run great with a 4 blade and others suffer.  you will have to decide that.  i really am not familiar with what brand of 4 blades are out there right now.  i am familiar with the mercury trophy.  as with all props, the pitch that will work for you will depend a bit on the diameter of the prop, amount of blades, and the amount of rake in the prop.  if your boat has lots of natural lift, you can run smaller diameter and more pitch.  if the prop has to do a lot of lifting with your particular hull, then you need more diameter and will have to run less pitch than you would with a smaller diameter.  normally, you will run a pitch less on a 4 blade than what you are running on a 3 blade.  4 blades will, most of the time, hold the boat up better in traffic and turns, where a 3 blade will drop off and have to pick back up.  if you run lots of traffic and turns, a 4 blade might be the ticket for you. 

hopefully, you can try a few to see the difference in ride and drive before you purchase one.  some boats just become rockets with a 4 blade for some reason.  i have seen identical boats, same year and motors that one ran the best with a 4 blade and the other ran the best with a 3 blade.  bottom line is you can try a lot of different wheels before finding the best one for your rig.

bo