Weedless Wedge 2 vs Kipawa Prop

I’ve been wanting a little more speed, control and efficiency from my Minn Kota trolling motor. I have a Terrova 80# on an 1875 Lund Impact XS and ordered a 3-blade Kipawa after market prop in hopes of better performance. For just $35 I figured it would both be a cheap experiment and that having a spare prop onboard would be a good idea anyways.

I went to a small lake in near dead calm conditions. Ran the exact same track in the same direction twice with each prop. I carted my research in the attached image.

I found three things:
1. The Kipawa prop (as advertised) did produce more speed at each power setting than the Weedless Wedge 2 that came stock on my Minn Kota Terrova.
2. The Kipawa reduced drift and boat pivoting at low power setting (less than 1 1/2).
3. With the Kipawa prop on Spot Lock made less corrections and kept me in a tighter radius.

I’m not sponsored or otherwise compensated…just figured some other folks might appreciate seeing the results of my tests.

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Interesting and much appreciated. I may have to look into this. Thanks

I also run a kipawa on my motor guide 105 pound thrust. It is the 350 model and I really like how my speed stay more consistant with this prop. When I cat h a big gust of wind this prop seems to stay pulling better than the factory prop

Broke the stock blade on a 80# Terrova. Replaced with the Kipawa. No test data here but prop works very well. Can’t beat the price.

-J.

Good info, thanks!

Just dont use it near any vegetation! It sucks that stuff in and wads up in a blink.

Art Green wrote:

Just dont use it near any vegetation! It sucks that stuff in and wads up in a blink.

Good to know. I’m not in the weed very often. Mostly open water. More concerned with rock. And the Kipawa seems to have a lot more ability to flex then the MK Edge.

-J.

Now you need to do a power consumption test, bet it used more power form the batteries.

bigcrappie wrote:

Now you need to do a power consumption test, bet it used more power form the batteries.

At the same power settings, it will use more power, but you don’t need to use the same setting to achieve the same speed. Better boat control in the wind lets you use a lower setting while using it to steer the boat when trolling with the kicker also.

Jon Jordan wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Art Green wrote:</div>
Just dont use it near any vegetation! It sucks that stuff in and wads up in a blink.

Good to know. I’m not in the weed very often. Mostly open water. More concerned with rock. And the Kipawa seems to have a lot more ability to flex then the MK Edge.

-J.

I have a Kipawa on my Terrova and as Art said, keep it out of the weeds. I agree that it probably does flex more than the MK stock props, but it does seem to wear more than the MK. I just got the Kipawa this year and it has about the same amount of scuffing/wear on the blades as the MK weedless wedge 2 prop from 5 years of use.

bigcrappie wrote:

Now you need to do a power consumption test, bet it used more power form the batteries.

I have not seen an increase in battery consumption-been using Kipawa for 7 years.
My batteries still last all day and have much better boat control at lower power settings. 1.5 vs 3 with the stock prop, level 3 instead of level 5. You get the picture. I was skeptical of battery life when I first got the Kipawa.
My initial purchase was for use in current situations and have not been disappointed.

If you want to improve control. Get a Lee lock

I’d be concerned about more wear and tear on the motor. Wouldn’t running at lower speeds with more blades put more torque on the motor?

The Kipawa is a smaller diameter than the WW2. I’m sure this is intentional to compensate for additional resistance incurred by the third blade.