BIG prop story, just for fun

Eric Canto · May 25, 2016

Recently bought a used pleasure/ski boat. It had the original aluminum prop on it that had been beat to a pulp. I ordered a new stainless prop but needed to at least test the boat in the meantime. I just could not bear to run a prop that ugly so I pulled it off and went to work on it. Put all new edges on it, thinned the leading edges, squared the trailing edges and put some good cup in it. The guy I bought the boat from said it would just reach 40MPH with only two people in the boat. With the same prop just worked over, it ran 51MPH with six people in the boat. The funny part is bending cup into that full size aluminum prop is easier than bending cup into a 1667!

SayMikey · May 25, 2016

Did you have to use the BIG pliers. Or the Big Balls

Eric Canto · May 25, 2016

I actually made a cupping tool just for this prop

DalePowellJr · May 25, 2016

Lol that's a funny story. I too did something similar once, but I used a ball on the back of a truck lol. Still worked.

Ken Webb · May 26, 2016

Prop mods 101.

Dale Lewis · May 26, 2016

That's a great story. Hope you cancelled the order for the stainless prop,lol

moparbarn · May 26, 2016

Back when custom props & prop shops were few & far between, a trailer ball was used routinely. That, & a BFH ! Ask Fast Foley or Dickie Tyndall, I'll betcha they both bent a bunch that way (-; We didn't have many choices...."You want a speed prop or a skiing prop?"(2 blade or 3 blade), aluminum or bronze were the available choices for Joe Average.

AgafonovRoman · May 27, 2016

Funny story. Thanks for that.

John Beardslee · May 27, 2016

I first started doing props at a place in Kalamazoo, Michigan called kilowatt lake, a back water of the kalamazoo river. When we were testing I used a crack in a stump that the prop would slide into and a L shaped jack handle that would fit in the prop shaft hole and twist the props and use the trailer hitch ball to add pitch/cup. Those old stainless props from Michigan Wheel were hard to bend! I loved it when I started running toy boats and could buy a 100 props and work them all over the place for such a small amount of money. Of course it took a lot of years for Tom Prazenka at Octura to warm up to a guy whow as cutting his prized props all to pieces. But it eventually happened and we became great friends.

Thanks, John

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