Cheaper alternative to the $5000 Mercury CNC propeller

**davemvegas** · 02-17-2019, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by WILDMAN

I can't name names, but I sold a customer a pair of 34x15.5 Hill cleavers this week. He has twin 400's on a 28ft cat, (not DW or Skater) and just ran 123 first time out with 38 lbs of water pressure. He said raising the motors should give him another 2-3 mph. He said they may be faster than his CNC props which ran 124 with almost no water pressure. He is VERY happy!

I am going with the mystery 28ft boat "Spectra". Did i win a custom paint job? Or do i have to mow your lawn for being wrong?

**WILDMAN** · 02-17-2019, 07:26 PM

Bring your lawnmower to Port Orange, Fl. I have 68,000 sq ft of St Augustine grass for you to mow!

Originally Posted by davemvegas

I am going with the mystery 28ft boat "Spectra". Did i win a custom paint job? Or do i have to mow your lawn for being wrong?

**Flightplan** · 02-19-2019, 05:28 PM

Great thread. Thanks for all of the testing.

**WILDMAN** · 02-20-2019, 02:30 AM

I have a pair of the Hill 5 blades coming this week to try on my 25 Liberator with twin 300xs motors. 32x15's. It will be interesting to see how hey run

**Trimmed Out15** · 02-20-2019, 06:26 AM

Think you will have to change your motor height to run these?

**Greg G** · 02-20-2019, 08:02 AM

Thanks for posting your findings Randy. The Hill 5's may be the answer a lot of folks were hoping for.

**WILDMAN** · 02-20-2019, 09:12 AM

I'm sure I'll need to adjust it a little. May even need to lower them due to the tail lif. I'll raise them until it runs about 10 lbs at top speed.

Originally Posted by Trimmed Out15

Think you will have to change your motor height to run these?

**WILDMAN** · 02-20-2019, 02:31 PM

I just got the new 32x15's today. I may try to run them tomorrow on my 25. I need to get someone to test on a 300xs 21 Liberator for comparison. Not sure if the 300xs can turn these, but they are cut to 15".

**Chaz** · 02-20-2019, 03:27 PM

Are they:

Broached splines, welded inserts or flo~torque hubs .... ???

**WILDMAN** · 02-20-2019, 07:48 PM

I'm not sure. They are not flo-torq. There is a fiberglass sleeve that rides on the shaft. the splines are behind that

**WILDMAN** · 02-21-2019, 02:04 PM

I just ran the 32x15 Hill 5 blade on my 25 Liberator with 300xs motors. No problem turning them and awesome acceleration. Too small for this boat. Ran 108-109 on the limiters at 6400. That's 9$ slip. Higher slip is most likely due to the smaller diameter. I put the 34x15.25 on the RH motor to see the slip difference. At 108, the 32x15" was 6350 rpm and the 34x15.25 was at 5700. Don't know if it was lifting the back or not. Still had 25-30 lbs of pressure, but did seems a little squirley at top speed. We also ran it on a 21 Liberator with a 300xs. It ran 96 with a 5 blade 31" Drag 5 at 5700. The 32 5 blade hill ran 99 at 5600. Too much prop and ran 5% slip.
The main purpose of this prop test was to see if the 300xs had enough torque to turn the Bigger cleaver. No problem at all. It did give the 21 Liberator 3 more mph but we still need to test on more boats.

**David** · 02-21-2019, 08:27 PM

I'd like to see the cleavers tested on JR's Allison.

**JR IN JAX** · 02-22-2019, 05:10 PM

Randy,
I got my engine hoisted off today which is quite a project due to my hydraulic hoist being on the back patio behind gates and my Jet skis.
I pulled the negative trim shims off and unbolted the Hydraulic jack plate from the transom and moved it as high as it would go [3/4 " higher].

The engine is bolted to the plate as high as it would go so I am almost ready to do some prop testing.

I still have one last task to complete that should not [hopefully] take real long, I got one of my top 5/8" thru-transom bolts hung halfway through the plate and I need to see if I can get behind the gas tank to drive the bolt back out [through the plate]. I have a 15' endoscope camera to look behind the tank.

I'll try and get it finished in the morning and we can do the testing when you get time.

Thanks,
JR

**JR IN JAX** · 02-23-2019, 06:24 PM

With the help of my air hammer and a 30" long chisel for it, I got the bolt driven back outside the transom and through the plate. It is good to go and the propshaft now appears to be even with the pad. I am going to drop it in the river tomorrow after church for a test.

**JR IN JAX** · 03-12-2019, 05:02 PM

I am a Happy Camper since I met Randy at his combination Home/Toy factory and he set me up with one of the new 5 blades. I was really concerned that my boat would not come out of the hole but when I took it to Randy's test-tank [Lake Ashby]. It came out of the hole with just a surge or two and much faster than anything I had tried on the 300XS. With a 20 Knot crosswind and whitecaps at 79.5 @ 5000 RPM [6300 Redline] my A Boat was trying to eat-my-lunch.

I still had plenty of throttle left but was suffering from extreme "Pucker" in that crosswind. The midrange would cause a denture-wearer to swallow their teeth.

If I can get the "Pucker" cured, I am sure 100 GPS is easily possible and my great fuel mileage will get better still. There was almost a 10 MPH GPS increase over my 32 Drag 4 copy at the same RPM.