mph ?

I have a 16.5′ Ranger cherokee with a 115 evinrude v4 intruder on it. Currently I have a 17 pitch aluminum prop and can only get about 40mph out of it max. I can get out of the hole great but it seems thats all i got. The boat is aluminum and I feel it should go faster than that. Other boats with 115’s are getting 50mph or more. I want to get a SS prop but was wondering what to get. Any tips or advice would greatly appreciated, Dan

i don’t have any personal experience with that boat, but my experience is a 115 should be running a larger pitch then that, like an 18 or 19. where are your rpms at, in relation to max rpms for the motor? that will really tell you what you can do with the prop.

I usually run about 56 or 57 full throttle. I hope someone can give me a little advice on what to look for or expect from a certain pitch. I’m looking at a 19 right now but any other recommendations would be nice. The thing is the boat weighs 1130 dry and i’d have to think 1500 or 1600 wet.

Dan,
Hope the fishing is good down there on your end of the stick, and say hi to your dad for me.
What is your max. RPM for your motor at wide open throttle?
Also, is your boat maxed out for HP?
Also, what is your current wide open throttle RPM for your current prop? You might want to run your boat down to the river and buzz your rig around to find this out-then, you can start playing the prop game.

Good luck!

Jeremy

Raising the motor may also help, maybe even a jackplate, a stainless prop can also be tweaked to help with some more preformance.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to track down some more cherokee owners, I’d start looking at Bass boat central.

Without knowing much about the boat or motor, I’d say you are getting close to peak performance. I’ve yet to see any boats with a 115 on them push 50MPH. I got 48 out of my Crestliner one morning, going down river with a slight tail wind. Never, ever again did I come close to that. I still question my GPS and eyes that morning.

You certainly could step up to a 19 pitch stainless, but you will sacrifice a few hundred RPM’s. This could equate to 2-4 mph top end though. I suspect your hole shot will be close to the same. Again, purely guessing.

Do you have a prop shop that will allow you to test some out? That is probably the best way to find out.

I had a similar setup, a 98 Cresliner Fishhawk, 1750 with a 115hp Evinrude Intruder. Ran a 18p Raker prop. GPS speed on the best day was about 45mph. Usually ran about 43 mph average. Boat Speedo was “happy” a few mph, when I first bought the boat I saw 49 oonce on that, but since I got GPS, found out it was way off.

Thanks for the replies. I think i will go with an 18 pitch stainless. They say the optimal rpm’s are between 56 and 5800. So I guess I’m right on there. Does anybody have any experience with moving the motor up or down. In a series of 4 holes the motor is mounted on the second from the top. One reply said to move it up will this help? On plane going full throttle it really sprays waves out the sides. Thanks again, Dan

I agree 100% with Kooty. That Cherokee hull is darn close to the hull on Kooty’s C-liner. His post is dead on. If you could occasionally tickle 45, that would be pretty good. 40-43 would be average in most situations.

On the prop. I’d definately try a 4 blade prop. That will give you more bow lift. More boat out of the water, less drag = and additional 1-2 mph.

You can try lifting the motor, but if you feel the overall control of the boat is good, leave it. (Meaning if you like the way the boat hooks up in a turn or responds to sharp left / right turns.) You may lose some of that bite with the motor raised.

To squeeze out that last bit, lighten the load and run on 1/4 to 1/2 tank of gas. Get rid of everyting you don’t need on that trip. Move the anchor and other heavy items out of the bow storage and lay on the floor as far back in the boat as possible. If you have a bow mount, get a removable mount and take the motor off when not needed.

Now remember….all that screwing around will get you 2-3, maybe 4 more mph. The question is – are you in a hurry?

-J.

Again thanks for all the advice but i found out the culprit. I was back by the motor and looked at the prop and holy moly one blade was cracked half way through. It was bent about 2 or 3 inches forward. I could feel the vibration the other day. Well I ordered a SS prop today and hopefully by wednsday I’ll be up and running again. Dan

Dan,

That’s still a shot in the dark! Personally I would never buy a prop without running it first. And I usually test out 4-5 props on a boat before finding the right prop. Hope it works out.

In the prior post you said “usually run about 56 or 57 full throttle” I’ll assume you meant RPM and not speed. That would put you right in the meat of the rpm range you want to run. Tyically when moving from aluminum to SS you can run the same pitch or one pitch lower. Going up to an 18 will cause your rpm’s to drop by 100-200 r’s. So, you may end up with the same overall speed, but lose out on some hole shot. Let us know how it turns out.

-J.

Thanks for the input Jon. The guy i’m going through is willing to experiment with a few props. He recommended a 18 pitch to start. the thing is I probally run closer to 6000 and I want to run 5800. In my opinion it cant hurt because that old prop was beat up and needed to be fixed or replaced. I dont need to 50 mph i’m just looking for better performance. Dan