Propping Lake and Bay 300xs

[XstreamVking]

Them bravo XS props are a lot of prop to turn. Act like a prop 2 inches in pitch bigger than they are. Small hub gives bow lift, but will ventilate a lot on plane off. Contact offshore performance, 489-0884. Donnie has a boat/motor like yours and may tell you what he runs.

[LnB20KP]

I was reading up on them and everyone's saying the bravo xs runs smaller. Ie 27p is more like a 26p

[XstreamVking]

If you can pull a 28p 4 blade to 5800r's, even at 15% slip you will be doing 80+. Run it and see what happens....

[jkrejci]

70 with 2 guys in Kelvar pocket seems a little slow. I have a glass, pocket, 300XS and with a 3 guy tourney load with trolling motor batteries in the back we used to run 74 with a 26P Bravo. I just moved the batteries to the front and we now run 71 with the same load. On my boat the Fury doesn't carry the weight as good as the Bravo but every L&B is different. One of my friends boats runs best with the Fury. I haven't tried the Promax yet but I've heard good things.

[FlatsFury]

From the picture you posted it looks like the v hull model rather than pad hull. I could be wrong, hard to see in photo, but that would explain why your seeing low 70s rather than 80s.

[LnB20KP]

It's a pocket. Bad pic

[jwill350]

Something doesn't sound right. Mine is a glass hull, but it's pretty light. When I had my 300xs on there it would run mid 80's easy with a fishing load. I ran it 94-95 very light several times. I also had a sportmaster on my 300xs. How much setback do you have? Where are your batteries? All mine are in the back. Mine ran the best with pro et's, but txp 4's also ran well. Bravo xs's are good at carrying a load, but they usually aren't the fastest props.

My buddy just put a 250 proxs on his and with a 27 bravo 1 xs it runs 79-80 light, with no setup.

[jwill350]

Nevermind on the setback, I see you have a 10" plate. I'm wondering why yours takes a lot of trim. Mine takes very little to run its best.

[Air&Sea]

Something is way off. I have a 20ft Lake & Bay with a 250xs and a 1.75 Sportmaster. So far my best top end run has been 95.9 mph and I hit the rev limiter at 6300 rpm turning a 32p Pro Et. I turned a 30p Promax to the rev limiter at 93.5 mph. You are welcome to call me to discuss. Cell 561-371-7527 John

[yanko]

So how did it go with the new prop? I have a similar problem except at around 72mph I get a bad chine walk. The boat likes to run pretty low on the jack plate (15-16psi water) but with a lot of trim. It's an 04 Kevlar pocket with a 250xs side console and I removed the 3 trolling batteries from the bow. I've seen 74 mph fighting the chine walk with the steering but not for long. Prop is a 25 tempest at 5800 rpm

[Air&Sea]

So how did it go with the new prop? I have a similar problem except at around 72mph I get a bad chine walk. The boat likes to run pretty low on the jack plate (15-16psi water) but with a lot of trim. It's an 04 Kevlar pocket with a 250xs side console and I removed the 3 trolling batteries from the bow. I've seen 74 mph fighting the chine walk with the steering but not for long. Prop is a 25 tempest at 5800 rpm

No new prop testing yet. Your chine walk is due to the 3 blade prop. 4 blades are much easier to drive, I found a Pro ET, a Bravo xs and a Trophy Plus the easiest to drive in that order. I don't have enough time driving with a Pro Max to give you a good opinion.

If you are running 15 psi on the water pressure your engine is not too low, you are only about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from getting too low on water pressure to cause an overheat. XS's will start to overheat once you get below 11 psi.

Lake & Bay's do need a lot of trim to hang the bow when running in the 70's. It is not until you get into the mid 80's that you have to run less trim. In the 90's you have to be real careful about keeping the bow down or it will blow over on you pretty easily.

Another quirk to driving a Lake & Bay is you need to get up to speed with a lot of trim up and get the bow hanging well before you get to full speed. If you try to get up to full speed trimmed down it will get into a bad hop that you will never get to go away by trimming up. So get up on plane, trim up, lay on it and as you get rolling with air packed under the bow you can trim down.

[1122]

So how did it go with the new prop? I have a similar problem except at around 72mph I get a bad chine walk. The boat likes to run pretty low on the jack plate (15-16psi water) but with a lot of trim. It's an 04 Kevlar pocket with a 250xs side console and I removed the 3 trolling batteries from the bow. I've seen 74 mph fighting the chine walk with the steering but not for long. Prop is a 25 tempest at 5800 rpm

Once you learn how to drive it the chine walk will go away. Four blades will help but, its not going to solve the chine walk issue. I would suggest a Bravo XS or a worked Bravo and some seat time (although the tempest fine just a little harder to drive). Once you learn how to drive it I would then start playing with props. I would also think about getting rid of that poling platform (definitely pick up some mph losing the platform), too big of boat to pole anyways. That boat should run easily into the low to mid 80s with a 250XS with an okay prop. Three of my buddies with labs all with 250s are all in the mid to upper 80's but with sporty cases. They all ran mid 80s with torque masters and wing masters cases. But they run light with no platforms and only one batt etc. I have a white one with a 300XS I'm always running in the upper Keys with several other labs, pm me the next time you are down there.