Merc. fat shaft????

[CCM]

I am running a 280ss with a fat shaft sportmaster on a Stroker bassboat and I am getting fustrated with the prop selection or the lack there of. I am thinking about changing it to regular shaft, does anyone know of any reason not to do this? Will the small shaft flex enough to hurt performance? I don't run the boat hard in ruff water anymore but I do run the motor very high on occasion. I am going to buy a new shaft from Mercury, how many hours will it run before breaking is a possibility?

[Skatin]

I broke one of my shafts but I'm running 300's with cleavers. Motors only have 75 hrs. The higher pitch prop the more side load. If I had it to do over again I would have gone to the fat shaft before I lost one of my best props.

[CCM]

Thanks for the input Skatin, but it's not the story I really wanted to here. :(

[Ted Stryker]

Same ol' story that your gonna hear about most things... Here it is, some people have run them a bazillion miles without trouble while some others break prematurely... I've heard that if the shaft stays "score free" around where the the thrust washer fits, it will live longer... Use a proper fitting thrust washer and keep the prop torqued tightly to prevent this... I was told that is were a lot of them break if the thrust washer has put small gouges around the shaft, in affect creating a fault line... I was also told that it is a good idea to go with a CLE shaft in a Sportmaster because it is steel instead of the Sportmaster's original stainless shaft... The only Sportmaster that I ever owned was a small shaft on a 260 Mercury and I had zero trouble... The rest of the stuff that I typed is what I've heard, not concluded from experiance...

[Hot Shot Merc]

One its stronger and two it makes the case worth more.The fat shaft doesnt require a thrust washer for use.With the flo torque props you can use either small or large shaft hubs in them.I personaly would rather have a fat shaft.If nothing else for just the piece of mind that it should last longer ;)

[Ted Stryker]

On second thought, you Fatshaft SM is complete junk... It will probably break next time that you take it out, possible causing tens of thousands of $$ in damages and enviromental clean-up... You should sell it to me so I can take it out of public circulation for safety reasons... It's not too late.. ;)

[CCM]

Gee Ted I really appriciate that! I'll pay the shipping too! :rolleyes: I realize the fatshaft is better and makes the whole motor worth more, but I'm just getting frustrated with not being able to try different props. The truth is I'm not very brave when it comes to trying stuff that might brake parts so I will probably stay with the fatshaft.