Land & Sea | Engine Development

[XstreamVking]

They made good quality stuff. I still have my "dual action" foot throttle from about 1978.

[David - WI]

Yeah, the problem with all hi-perf stuff is finding customers that are actually smart enough to use them. Probably 85% of the guys who bought "dual-plug heads" couldn't tune a Vespa scooter... and they blew (expensive) stuff up!

[David - WI]

In case anybody comes looking for Torque Shift info after I die:

[David - WI]

Attachment 544885

Attachment 544886

I don't know what has all been posted to S&F in the past; anything redundant I can delete.

[Instigator]

I always believed I was the R&D department for Land and Sea.

Got one of their first jack plates after being on the waiting list and the nylon slide bearings went out of it almost instantly.

They doubled the length of them which cured it after they fixed mine :-)

The turbo shift propeller was a cool toy, but that’s all it ever was for me.

On a fast outboard if you have the motor even close to surfacing the only way it will shift is if you run up trim.
Your motor would be on the limiter if not.

I bought it to pull slalom skiers thinking I could Pull them in the boat, pull in the rope and then light it up and go for a ride but it didn’t work that way.

Pulling skiers the only way it would upshift was to run up trim which then hosed down the skiers!

The aluminum hub was the weak link.

The blades had round pins that inserted into holes in the hubs that allowed the blades to rotate, at that pin, which changed the pitch.

The hubs cracked at that hole.

I only got my second failure covered by them by cornering their president in their booth at IMCO and he didn’t want to!

Sold it to the guy that bought my 21’ Laser who immediately cracked the hub (3rd time).

I refunded his money and the threw the prop in the trash!

I think their catalogs were the best part.

[XstreamVking]

Still using my Land & Sea jack plate too......worked perfect since 1979.

[FUJIMO]

...the shift propellers worked well on a single engine MerCruiser 502 EFI Magnum Bravo installation we tested. only lost 1 m.p.h at wide open throttle, compared to the mirage plus we were using then, but was a lot of fun. ran like a jet boat. wide open as soon as you hit the throttle, went right to the maximum rated engine r.p.m. & then shifted a bit later. this needs to be perfected in the future. think it would sell. can't be installed on anything that leaves the water or is at a high x-dimension...

[David]

I think with some finite element redesign, and better materials, the shifting prop could work. Mine was a hoot.

[Instigator]

Mine was on my 21’ Lazer cuddy (420??) cabin w/a box stock 225 JohnRude.

We timed it from idle to 70 in 10 seconds!

Was an absolute blast as a toy but that was it.

Again, 3 cracked hubs in no time.

Cool thing was you could tune it too.

Had cams you change to alter shift points.

[BUZZIN' DOZEN]

[WaterZebra]

I never understood how a pressurized carburation box would work with reed intakes? The carbs had all kinds of external air jets, etc. If it had been EFI? Another story. Perfomance advantage? No. Too complicated for my taste. Good for expos and boat shows I guess?