5400 WOT w/17p...Should I be Satisfied??

[SeaKaye12]

Hello All,<br /><br />Mine is a 15' TriHull with a Merc 85. New to me this season. It came with no prop (stolen) so I asked here and bought a used 17p prop.<br /><br />Alls well so far. I had no tachometer until yesterday, so I didn't know what my WOT RPM was; but out of the hole seems a bit sluggish; it takes several seconds for the boat to plane out.<br /><br />Now; I have a tach.A Teleflex. Assuming it is accurate... WOT is 5400 BUT ONLY IF I'M IN THE BOAT BY MYSELF...FULLY TRIMMED UP AND RIDING WITH THE WIND ETC... It struggles to reach 5000 when more heavily laden. <br /><br />The Mercury Manual says WOT range should be 4800-5500. So I'm certainly in range. <br /><br />But; for skiing or tubing with three or four people in the boat...do you think that a 15p prop would be in order?<br /><br />Thanks folks for reading. Chuck

 

[walleyehed]

Re: 5400 WOT w/17p...Should I be Satisfied??

With only you in the boat, you should reach 5700-5800...5500 would be where you idealy want it with a load.<br />The 15 "may not" put you where you need to be with a load, but as you know, the only way to find out is try one.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: 5400 WOT w/17p...Should I be Satisfied??

Do you have ventilation holes in your present prop. they could help you out of the hole a lot, also, if your engine is just a bit too low you could raise it and gain some RPM on top end and get closer to 5,500 RPM.

 

[SeaKaye12]

Re: 5400 WOT w/17p...Should I be Satisfied??

Ventilation Holes; eh?<br /><br />I'll do a search on that...I'm not familiar with that at all.<br /><br />I'll keep the Black and Decker in the box until I learn more.<br /><br />Thanks, Chuck