3 or 4 Blade Propellers for SMALL Boats?

my name is Ryan wood and this is our what outdoors [Music] on today's episode of our word outdoors I'm gonna answer the question is a three or four blade propeller better for a small boat now there's a lot of information science and superstition out there on this topic but it's mainly geared toward larger boats with very powerful outboard engines I've got here my little 15 foot Carolina Skiff and a 25 horsepower Yamaha motor and I'm gonna see if the conventional wisdom holds true for a small boat so what is that conventional wisdom between 3 and 4 blade propellers well rumor would have it that if you're using a three-blade propeller your top-end speed is going to be better and if you want to improve your hull shot otherwise known as your ability to get that boat out of the water and up on plane then a 4-blade propeller might be better for that purpose but that often comes at the sacrifice of a little bit of top-end speed in my case here I'm pretty happy with my top-end speed and I'm okay with losing a couple miles an hour on the top-end if that means this helps this little boat jump on plane quicker all right I've got my Carolina Skiff in the water today and we're playing around with some different propellers the standard propeller that came with the boat is a three blade and I'm looking for a little more hole shot or the ability to get up on plane and I've heard a four blade is the thing to try so what I'm gonna do now is I've got the three blade the baseline and I'm just going to run it down this column canal here nice sunny day here in Florida and see what kind of top-end speed and engine RPMs I get and then we'll switch out props and do the same thing with the four blade so here we go three-blade propeller [Music] so let's go ahead and take the original three-blade propeller off and replace it with my new 4-blade propeller you get the motor to a good height where it's comfortable to work at and you can see it alright to switch out a boat propeller it's actually pretty easy unless of course your prop is stuck on the hub and then you're in for a bad day I'm gonna take a gear puller and a lot of curse words to get through that one but hopefully this guy isn't stuck and get the job done with some pretty basic tools just need a pair of needle nose pliers for the cotter pin wrench or a socket a mallet to take the old prop off and a wooden block to keep that from spinning and last but not least very important want to get some good marine grade grease so that that prop shaft doesn't get gummed up and that's how you prop it stuck so a very important step we'll show you that in a second alright so let's take this old boat propeller off so I'm gonna use my needlenose pliers and Bend the cotter pin back down and pop it out okay so that cotter pin is out and now that nut should be free to remove you always want to do this operation while your boats in neutral you don't want to be putting any torque on your hub shaft trying to get the prompt nut off but pretty simple just use a wooden block shove it under the cavitation plate and with your wrench that prop nut should come right off all right I've got the prop nut and the washer off gonna save those for later when I put the new prop on and a couple taps on that and that old propeller comes right off fortunately this time not stuck that's good so here's the old propeller still in pretty good shape but I want to see how the performance of the boat changes with a 4-blade propeller so like I said a very important step when changing out a prop is to make sure you got a fresh coat of marine grease on that prop shaft so before we do that when it takes a paper towel and take all the old nasty grease off and taking a grease gun I'm going to apply some new fresh marine grease to the splines of the hub shaft and let's go ahead and spread that around to get a nice even thick coat okay I've got my brand new 4-blade propeller here shipped right to my doorstep let's go ahead and take it out of the box and get it on there all right there we go 4-blade propeller let's slide it on the hub shaft so an important thing to remember is many propellers come with a hub spacer and unfortunately I was unable to get the old spacer off of the original three blade prop so I ended up picking up another spacer a little brass guy right there and let's pop that on there okay and now the threads are at the right height to secure the propeller to the hub shaft okay securing the new propeller is basically the same steps as removing the old propeller but in Reverse so to put it back on first step is to take the washer and the prop nut and put it on the hub shaft when it gets past the point that I can no longer hand tighten anymore and the propeller is spinning I'm gonna go ahead and use my wooden block and secure it under the cavitation please okay now I can get a wrench on it and get it nice and snug okay and my last step is to pop in that cotter pin with pair needle nose pliers and Bend up the tab [Music] alright that shiny new 4-blade propeller is on and just took me a couple minutes to switch it out let's dump the boat in the water and see how my performance has changed ok I've now installed the 4-blade propeller and I'm going to run it through the same sea trial and see how fast the boat goes and what the on plane performance is let's fire it up now it's rather difficult to quantify holeshot by engine RPMs or top speed but the boat definitely seen the jump on plane faster with that four blade prop all right so our C trials are complete we did the same run with a three-blade propeller as a 4-blade propeller and would you have it the superstition is true if you want more top-end speed three blades is the way to go and if you want more hole shot or the ability to get up on plane you might think about a 4-blade propeller it did cost me a couple miles an hour off the top-end but that's what it's made to do is get you out of the water quicker so hey if you enjoyed this episode please hit that subscribe button down there at the bottom of your screen and ring that little bell to get notified of the latest episodes my name is Ryan wood and we'll see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Ryan Wood - RWood Outdoors

Views: 186,175

Rating: 4.7036214 out of 5

Keywords: RWood Outdoors, Ryan Wood, 3 blade vs 4 blade boat propeller, prop, bass boat, small boat, ski boat, carolina skiff, yamaha, outboard, engine, how to change a boat propeller, remove boat propeller, do it yourself, tutorial, hole shot, top end, top speed, boat maintenance, skiff, jon boat, best propeller for my boat, choosing a boat propeller, solas, 3 blade, 4 blade, improve hole shot, performance, mercury, evinrude, suzuki, tiny boat, flats boat, Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Motor

Id: Gm3BvqKr_tY

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020