How to Select a Propeller for a Bass Boat
Choosing the right propeller for your bass boat depends on several things, including where you fish. Generally, your propeller should be the most efficient for the type of work the boat does. If a relatively small boat, like a bass boat, is heavily laden with fishing gear, a few people and a moderately heavy motor, the question of the propeller's pitch becomes critical, more so than if the boat is simply a convenient runabout. Like all boating decisions, it begins by putting the boat in the water with its normal load of people and gear. Then you go boating.
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Instructions
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Invite your fishing buddies on a combined fishing/research trip and tell them to bring the gear they normally bring. Pack along the stuff you normally carry -- coolers with beverages and food, tackle boxes, extra rods --the goal is to load your boat as it will normally be loaded. Fill your fuel tank as well: Gasoline adds 6.3 lbs per gallon.
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Push the throttle forward and watch your tachometer. When your tachometer shows you engine is approaching its "red line," or the maximum speed recommended for the engine (found in your motor operator's manual), your throttle should be at or near it's "wide-open" position. If this is the case, the pitch on your prop is correct and the new prop should have the same pitch.
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Keep watching the tachometer in case you engine tries to go past the red line. If it does, your prop's pitch is too low and you need a propeller with a higher pitch. If your current prop has a pitch of "12," try a prop with a pitch of "14" and see if your engine stays under the maximum rpms. Each 2-inch advance in the pitch of a propeller increases your engine's efficiency by between 200 and 400 rpm, allowing the engine to reach it's maximum operating speed by the time the throttle is wide open.
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Change to a propeller with a lower pitch if your motor doesn't reach its maximum operating speed when the throttle is wide open. Each 2-inch reduction in a propeller's pitch results in a increase of about 200 rpm. A quick look at your tachometer when you're operating wide open will tell the tale: If you're 400 rpm below your motor's maximum operating speed, decrease your pitch by 2 inches. If a 2-inch reduction doesn't bring the motor up to the red line, reduce the pitch by another 2 inches.
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Tips & Warnings
Pay close attention to the locations where you fish. If you fish on mud flats or heavily weeded shallows, a two-bladed propeller is less likely to produce a storm of bubbles -- some call it "prop wash" -- than a three- or four-bladed propeller when used in shallow water over a flat seabed. Three- and four-bladed propellers are more suited to open waters.
To find your current propeller's pitch, look at the hub. There are two numbers like this: "9/12" stamped into the metal. The second number is the pitch, which you can change. The first is the diameter of the prop, which you shouldn't change because it changes the weight -- and the strain -- on the propeller shaft and motor.
References
- Photo Credit propeller image by cico from Fotolia.com
