Marine Accessories

If you are getting ready to take your bass boat out for a weekend fishing make sure your outboard propeller is in good working condition and that you have an extra outboard propeller on board in case you damage the one on your outboard engine.  Most bass boats have outboard engines on them which will make you bass boat go a little faster and go into areas that an inboard engine will not let you.  Outboard propellers are manufactured by the same manufactures that make props for inboard engines so what you need to do is check with your outboard engine manufacture to see what outboard propeller to choose.

Outboard propellers are made from stainless steel, aluminum and their are some composite but you will choose from either stainless steel or aluminum.  Stainless steel outboard  propellers are the most durable but also cost more than aluminum which is less durable and cost much less but the performance is pretty close.  The main thing you want to do is make sure you have the correct size outboard propeller for your engine so you do not put a lot of strain on the engine and run it at rpm that is to high.

Keep your boat running smooth with a good marine propeller and you will save on fuel as well as not damaging you out drive.  A damaged marine propeller can cause a lot of problems for your boat such as making it hard to get on plain which uses more gas than in boat propeller in good condition and could make your boat run at a higher rpm than it should which will make you use more gas.  It is a good idea to have a spare marine propeller on your boat so that if you damage the one on your boat you can change it and not do damage to your boat.

The best propeller size for your boat and engine combination is based on the recommended operating range at wide open throttle for your engine, which you will find in your engine operator’s manual. The goal in prop selection is to determine what propeller style and size will maximize performance, while allowing your engine to operate in the recommended RPM range. The correct boat propellers will prevent the engine from over-revving, yet allow it to reach the minimum RPM.

Outboard propellers designed for the use on outboard motors and are manufactured for use on that engine and some are the same size as the ones used on inboard engine boats.  When you are choosing a boat propeller for your boat me sure you check the owners manual to make sure you choose the proper propeller.  You should consider purchasing an extra outboard propeller in case you damage your propeller you can change propeller because you do not want to run your boat with a damaged propeller.  The outboard propellers for bass boats are different than propellers for boats with a V bottom.

We all take care of our boat propellers like it is not an important part of our marine accessories list when it is probably the most important.  A damaged boat propeller can damage you out drive and outboard motor because of the vibration it causes because it is not running in a smooth manner.  It is a good idea to carry an extra propeller to use in case you damage one and the extra propeller could be a different pitch.  Turning Point Propellers makes a very large selection of boat propellers at a very reasonable price so it is easy to carry an extra propeller on your boat, one for cruising and the other one for pulling someone on a towable.

A marine propeller is for boat use and is designed that way and their are several parts of the boat propeller that are very important in making your boat perform the way you want it to.  You need to understand what the pitch, diameter, rake, cup and what a propeller hub is.  All of these things will affect the performance of your boat and if you have a twin engine boat you have another issue and that is if the marine propellers are turning in one direction the boat will always want to turn in that direction so you need to have each propeller going in a different direction.  Boat will preform differently with a heavy load and no load or when pulling someone or just cruising.  The most important thing is not to use your boat with a damaged marine propeller.

A single marine propeller is a right-hand rotation propeller, whose projecting blade is rotating from top to bottom and is moving from left to right. As the blade in this discussion rotates or moves downward, it pushes water down and back as is done by your hand when swimming. At the same time, water must rush in behind the blade to fill the space left by the downward moving blade. This results in a pressure differential between the two sides of the blade: a positive pressure, or pushing effect, on the underside and a negative pressure, or pulling effect, on the top side. This action, of course, occurs on all the blades around the full circle of rotation as the engine rotates the propeller. So the propeller is both pushing and being pulled through the water.  If you have twin engines then each propeller will rotate in opposite directions.

The ideal efficiency of any size Marine propeller is that of an actuator disc in an ideal fluid. An actual marine propeller is made up of sections of helicoidal surfaces which act together ‘screwing’ through the water (hence the common reference to marine propellers as “screws”). Three, four, or five blades are most common in marine propellers, although designs which are intended to operate at reduced noise will have more blades. The blades are attached to a boss (hub), which should be as small as the needs of strength allow – with fixed pitch propellers the blades and boss are usually a single casting.

A propeller that turns clockwise to produce forward thrust, when viewed from aft, is called right-handed. One that turns anticlockwise is said to be left-handed. Larger vessels often have twin screws to reduce heeling torque, counter rotating  propellers, the starboard screw is usually right-handed and the port left-handed, this is called outward turning. The opposite case is called inward turning. Another possibility is contra-rotating propellers, where two propellers rotate in opposing directions on a single shaft, or on separate shafts on nearly the same axis

You probably think that if your boat propeller hits something in the water and it is not damaged to bad that everything is okay well it is not because damaged boat propellers can cause a lot of damaged to your out drive as well a your engine.  A damaged boat propeller will cause a vibration that transfers to all moving parts on your power train which in time will damage something.  It is a good idea to carry an extra propeller in your boat so that if you do hit something you can change propellers and not cause any extra damage to your boat.  You can change the performance of your boat by using a different pitch prop so make sure that the propeller that you use will keep your boat in the desired RPM range.