Re: I need feedback on Hill props
At Hinton, West Virginia 1976, there were 700 entries at the Kneeldown Nationals. Vern Kargus had the only three blade propeller there and he won his class of about 22 boats. On my way home from Hinton I stopped at the OPC Nationals in Dayton. I was helping the only kneeldown drivers I knew, John Rinker and Lee Sutter.
Lee won the MOD 50 class with a three blade on his QUICKSILVER gearcase. This three blade was made by splitting two blade props at the hub and welding them together. Lee never worked for Mercury but was always a TOP RACER from the Seattle area.
Seattle had fast boats, and great engine and propeller people. The late Jerry Walin the Evinrude driver who had the speed record of 131 MPH was from Seattle and was good friends of Lee's.
Lee had been living in California at that time and we frequently talked props and measured props (This can't be Chad posting becasue he wasn't born until August 2, 1977.)
Anyway, I asked Lee how did he figure the pitch with three blades? He said THEY JUST PUT THE BLADES ON THE same PITCH BLOCK AND WELDED THEM AND they picked up speed. I wasn't convinced, then, but thought about it.
I helped John Rinker and John ran second the first heat. I said, "John, if you'll start on the inside you can win this SE Nationals." So John starts on the inside gets to the first turn first and blows over breaking his back. Years later, as John and I were talking, I was telling him I always blamed myself for him breaking his back.
John told me, that breaking his back was the best thing that every happened to the Rinker Boat Company. I asked, "Why?" John said he could not run PRODUCTION while hurt, so he had to have an employee run the production end of the business. When John got well, he worked on DEVELOPMENT, new models, new molds... John and I are still good friends.
Back to three blades...I then saw Sutter at Beloit at the SST World Championships and asked again about two blade and three blades. He convinced me to go home and weld up some props.
By the 1977 Nationals more than 50% of the winning boats were running three blades. Later that year I welded up some two blades into four blades and they were faster yet. THE KNEELDOWN DRIVERS IN APBA STOCK VOTED FOUR BLADES OUT. THAT RULE IS STILL IN EFFECT in Stock but Mods, OPC, AND PROP still have an open propeller rule. Most Pro and Mods run either four or five blades.
At Kankakee, Illinois, 1998 or 1999 the SST 120 class had about 20 boats. The water was like glass and Gary Pugh of Pugh Boats works, just beat the field by half a lap in a five lap race. I thought, well GLASS WATER and only 10 boats in the final, Gary is running a three blade. I went to watch them weight Gary's boat after the race and to snoop at his prop scale. To my surpris, Gary's prop was a FIVE BLADE.
The fastest SST 120 RACE BOAT in America had a five blade when everyone else had a four...
I do know this, Chad Hill has been around props all his life and personally tests almost every design he sells, if his web site says something, he'd probably right.
Myself, props are still a big mystery, really. My dad used to rub my props with lipstick, and then pound on the with a big hammer and a block of lead. We frequently learned how to slow a boat down, and we seldom were able to make slow props go as fast as fast props.
I guess if it was easy, they would only make one prop....
I might add that ENGINE TORQUE may effect the number of blades. I was talking to a guy in Florida. He's run his friends four blade and it was four MPH faster than his three. He then bought the same size from SOLAS which is what he'd tested and it was 2 slower than his. Then, he tells me his friend's had been modified "JUST A LITTLE"...
You don't buy a hunting dog's brother, same for props buy the one that works.
The COOL thing about E-Bay, if you do buy the wrong prop, there are ways of selling them now days..
