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A New Lease
On Life
Boger
Kustom Propeller Teaches Our Mercury Trophy How To Perform
Article and Photos by Wayne Lavender and Greg Terzian
Propellers
- they are what makes our boats move. There are so many styles and
literally thousands of configurations available. Selecting the right
propeller is crucial for achieving maximum performance from a boat, and in a
race situation selecting the right propeller is mandatory for success.
Sometimes we use specific propellers depending on the conditions we run our
boats in. For example, if I normally run a cleaver-style propeller and I
intend on taking extra passengers for a ride, I might switch to a round ear,
or "chopper" style blade for the added lift that is characteristic of a
round ear blade. Since a cleaver is better suited for boats with a
high-horsepower-to-weight-ratio that generate their own lift, I would run
the cleaver with a light load when top speed is crucial.
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Left:
Boger-worked
Trophy with its aggressive cupping.
Middle:
Boger Trophy
at left, stock Trophy at right.
Right:
Close-up
shows thinner, polished blade with double-cupping. |
It is common knowledge that stock propellers -
even performance propellers - can benefit greatly from added tweaking.
Since each boat and setup is different, having your propeller tweaked for
your rig can yield very rewarding results. The question is, how much can be
gained? Well, that's not an easy question to answer, and every situation is
different.
For this
test, we'll focus on a slightly larger rig - our Progression 24 LD/Mercury
Pro Max 300 setup. Before this test took place, we needed to determine the
best starting point for this setup. Since our lower unit test, we have added
more setback to this rig, which helped run our engine in cleaner water when
in the rough. Although 3-bladed propellers theoretically produce more top
speed than their 4-blade counterparts, we chose the 4-bladed Mercury Trophy
as our propeller of choice. The Trophy is a fantastic all-around
performance propeller, yielding great top speed with exceptional control and
tracking ability.
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Left: Progression 24 LD/Mercury Pro
Max 300 test platform.
Middle:
Stainless Marine setback unit and hydraulic lift plate.
Right: Boger-worked
Trophy yields incredible stern lift. |
Through some research, we discovered Rich Boger of
Boger Kustom Propeller
was well known for his ability to extract every last amount of performance
from a Mercury Trophy. We presented Rich with our test, and he accepted the
challenge. What was our challenge? We wanted what almost everyone wants -
more speed. We also noticed that our Progression was "squatting" a little
too much in the water at speed. We reasoned that more speed would be
granted if the stern could run higher. So, we sent Boger Propeller our
baselined Trophy and briefed him on our situation.
We began
the long process of baselining our Trophy 13.75x25P propeller. All
propellers are different, and no two propellers will perform in exactly the
same way. We ran three Trophy propellers of the same size and finally found
one that ran within a tenth of a mph as our Boger test propeller. It should
also be noted that a Mercury 14.5x26P Chopper ran the same top speed as our
test Trophy; however it did not have the control characteristics that the
Trophy provided.
Rich
Boger, a very knowledgeable person regarding propeller design, informed us
that the manufacture of our propeller was, unfortunately, actually
consistent with many propellers - each blade was different! Our 25P Trophy
had blades of varying pitches with variances of as much as two inches. In
fact, the propeller was so inconsistent from blade to blade that it could
not be blueprinted. Although we informed Boger that we would send him
another propeller, fresh out of the factory, Rich accepted the challenge of
working with this propeller - we were impressed.
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Article Information |
| Rich Boger of
Boger Kustom Propeller reworks our Mercury Trophy propeller
for more lift and speed. |
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Created: |
| September 30,
2001 |
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By: |
| Greg Terzian |
| Wayne Lavender |
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Category: |
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Product Evaluations |
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Manufacturer Website |
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www.bogerprops.com |
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