Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

[phillnjack2]

Ok i have one of these bright red prop Guards it came with the engine when i bought it.
it needed a couple of repairs and they have been taken care of.
Now the promotion of these things leaves you thinking "it cant realy be that good" or can it ?
The makers claim for these to improve handling, !!! well yes i can see that by having the propeller in a
shrouded housing can improve the steering due to the thrust being kept more in one place rather than spinning
off the prop and spreading the prop thrust out instead of backwards .
But a gain in speed ? surely this one is a bit hard to take on board ?

Better fuel consumption, as the boat is quicker to plane and stays on plane at lower speeds ???????

The trim of the boat again they say " is better" with the "PROP GUARD"..

Now this will be the first time ive used one of these on any outboard, i have used hydrofoils and had good results.
Also used the adder rudder and had good results with them on smaller outboards.

Has anyone here had or have a prop guard fitted and what do they think of them ?

any of the good bits or bad bits please, as i dont want to be wasting my time and effort fitting the guard only
to want to fill in the drilled holes on the skeg straight after i try it out.

I will be using this 60hp triple evinrude on a 13ft orkney dory, very similar to a classic 13 boston whaler at
first glance.

At the moment this boat has a tremendous holeshot and is ok on the handling, but nothing special.
I dont mind losing a touch of speed, but dont want drastic reductions or massive fuel consumption differences.

The reason i want to fit the guard is
1st for people protection and
2nd for prop protection..

here is a pic of the guard loosely fitted on my engine.



I just think it would be a safer outfit if the guard was fitted !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




phill......

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

I think they pretty severely impact performance. Definitely try it out because I'd be interested to know for sure.

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

That sure looks like it would do more harm than good as far as performance. Dragging that thing through the water does not seem all that good for anything.

LK

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

As far as safety, When we water ski, it is a hard unbreakable rule that the engine is off (not in neutral, OFF!) when the skier is either getting into the boat or out of it and when drifting close for a pick-up. Here in Pa, USA, swimmers have defined areas on state and federal lakes where no boat may enter.

With the size of that thing, it still would be easy to get an arm or leg into the prop. I really don't see much of a personnel safety improvement with it and I think it would give you a false sense of security.

As far as performance, they are imitating (not very succesfully) a ducted fan. All big commercial jets use them to quiet exhaust and increase thrust. Unfortunately, that prop guard is nowhere near the design of a proper ducted fan and your prop is still a standard prop. I doubt the salesman hype will come true and I suspect that there will be a loss of performance in trade for the dubious protection it gives the prop. If they were so good, every outboard would have them.

I can, however see a benefit if you boat in waters with large rocks where hitting one might knock off one or more prop blades.

Question: Is that light bar on the back of the trailer required under English motor laws or is it personal preference?

 

[Sea Rider]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

SAFT, are only good as prop protectors for swimmers, surfers, etc when engine is on at neutral and boat is close to these guys. Installed 2 new, as they are not kevlar made, broke very fast, on one leg hit sand bed, the other hit a rock while at some speed, driver's bad day. Are real garbage collectors that includes kelp...

Lessens overall top wot rpm because of more leg drag, need to go 1 pitch less to have same rpm as without them. Don't know about use on larger engines though. PG sizes are proportional to leg sizes. Prob with same RPM issues. If for safety issues at slow speed go for them, if not, Stay Away From Them..

Happy Boating

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

seems like they'd be good to protect the prop from rocks being thrown at the side of the motor by kids when it's on the trailer.

The skeg protects the prop in most cases adn the prop won't strike what the skeg hits, unless your prop is bigger than the skeg. If you hit ahrd enough to break the skeg, or worse, the lower unit, the prop is no longer an issue.

I htink it may be good to have for a work boat, or rental, frequently run in shallow rocky water at low speeds. perhaps as a safety measure for a tender of a fleet of, say, small sailboats at a sailing school, or of inflatables.

I don't think they'd work well in weeds, either, and will make it hard to unwind your fishing line.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

seems like they'd be good to protect the prop from rocks being thrown at the side of the motor by kids when it's on the trailer.

The skeg protects the prop in most cases adn the prop won't strike what the skeg hits, unless your prop is bigger than the skeg. If you hit ahrd enough to break the skeg, or worse, the lower unit, the prop is no longer an issue.

I htink it may be good to have for a work boat, or rental, frequently run in shallow rocky water at low speeds. perhaps as a safety measure for a tender of a fleet of, say, small sailboats at a sailing school, or of inflatables.

I don't think they'd work well in weeds, either, and will make it hard to unwind your fishing line.

Ayuh,.... That's My 1st thought,... It'll Suck in the weeds.... I'm doubtin' a quick burst of reverse will clear it....

Way to weedy in my water to even think of tryin' such a beast...

 

[phillnjack2]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

First ill answer the question about trailer lighting in the uk.
By uk law and european law every trailer has to have lights, these include indicator (turn) ,side lights and stop lights.
the trailer lights are supposed to by law be at the very end of the trailer, no over hang is allowed.
With a boat trailer yes the light board is supposed to be behind the engine/outdrive etc, and if you only have
the lights each side and a gap in the middle then a cover is neded for the propeller, most people buy a
bright orange or yellow prop bag.
this is also a requirement if there is no complete lightboard across the back for safetey reasons !!!!!!!.
( i know a bag isnt exactly going to stop it hurting if you hit the prop, and why are you near the prop anyway)
if someone runs into the back of my boat and hits the prop they will be seriosuly hurt ...by me for being to
close and ruining my day and possibly ruining my prop ....

Now the prop guard will help to protect the prop a bit,especialy from floating wood and debris etc, but my
main concrern is more of in a accidentle situation.
it easy to say it wont happen to me, but that how accidents happen,none of us think its gonna happen and i
hope it dont happen to anyone here.
BUT i have a small boat and its not very high sided by any means,. and if someone should fall over board when
even going slow this could be avoided (pic below of driver whe fell off his own boat on just tickover speed) .

I dont mind losing upto 5mph if the safety issue is there for people. yes someone could shove a leg in from the
rear,but i never back up if anyone is in the water, this is just a pure no no. (but an accident ????)

In the uk we had a 10 year old girl get killed at the world famous princes lake 2 years ago due to a total tosser
backing up a mastercraft.
He ran over the girl and chopped her to bits, said he didnt realise he was that near to her, this was at a
young girls birthday treat event, and her little friend got chopped up infront of her and her friends and family.
she fell off a banana boat ride and he backed up, he was one of the clubs "professional boat drivers" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That boat was inboard tournament ski-boat and should of had a guard fitted.
i do honestly think every outboard made should have a prop guard from new.
mercury ,omc,tohatsu,suzuki,honda have all made prop guards in the past, so why not fit them from new to
all outboards.
the military use them !!!!

i realy want to avoid anything like this happening to anyone on my boat or anyone who pops up in the
water while im in gear.


that must of realy hurt

phill...........................

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

Ok i have one of these bright red prop Guards it came with the engine when i bought it.
it needed a couple of repairs and they have been taken care of.
Now the promotion of these things leaves you thinking "it cant realy be that good" or can it ?
The makers claim for these to improve handling, !!! well yes i can see that by having the propeller in a
shrouded housing can improve the steering due to the thrust being kept more in one place rather than spinning
off the prop and spreading the prop thrust out instead of backwards .
But a gain in speed ? surely this one is a bit hard to take on board ?

Better fuel consumption, as the boat is quicker to plane and stays on plane at lower speeds ???????

The trim of the boat again they say " is better" with the "PROP GUARD"..

Now this will be the first time ive used one of these on any outboard, i have used hydrofoils and had good results.
Also used the adder rudder and had good results with them on smaller outboards.

Has anyone here had or have a prop guard fitted and what do they think of them ?

any of the good bits or bad bits please, as i dont want to be wasting my time and effort fitting the guard only
to want to fill in the drilled holes on the skeg straight after i try it out.

I will be using this 60hp triple evinrude on a 13ft orkney dory, very similar to a classic 13 boston whaler at
first glance.

At the moment this boat has a tremendous holeshot and is ok on the handling, but nothing special.
I dont mind losing a touch of speed, but dont want drastic reductions or massive fuel consumption differences.

The reason i want to fit the guard is
1st for people protection and
2nd for prop protection..

here is a pic of the guard loosely fitted on my engine.

View attachment 184460

I just think it would be a safer outfit if the guard was fitted !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




phill......

No

No, Yes

Not really, but on the ones we have sold and installed it didn't hurt either.

I used to distribute PropGuard and only had one moron ever whined about it after the fact. I told him he would lose some top end, he did and then cried about it.

No, the trim is not better and no, it's not any worse.

Here's the truth. They will tend to keep people from putting their tender bits in a prop and they will protect a propeller to a small degree. They also increase the surface strike area when they do hit something which actually increases the likelihood of a strike and will certainly increase the risk of blunt force trauma. We just sold to puts to a marine law enforcement agency and they them on there. Since they Insist on it we will do. But, I would never put one on one of my own engines as the downside outweighs the upside for my boating habits...So, consider my opinion a big 50/50

 

[phillnjack2]

Re: Prop Guards ...what are the pro's and cons of fitting one of these ?

Now is a good set of answers to my questions from TOHATSU GURU.
He sold them so must know a fair bit about them !!!!!

im now thinking the propguard will be brilliant while its on the trailer as people will more than likely keep away from the red danger area and thats about it.

I can understand what you say about it also being a larger area to hit !!!!!! that makes goos sense
Performance drop yes i would expect a 4 or 5 mph loss of speed as its got to be a drag.
Handling on the turns i think could be either way.
I think it would be a good thing in a weedy area though as the weeds would flow over it rather than get caught in the prop
and wrapped around the propshaft !!!!!!

I have this guard as it came with the engine when i bought it, but i dont think i would be inclined to pay the high prices for
these plastic guards.
I do know its not strong when its off the engine as i trod on it and broke it in a couple of places.
But apparantly it was fitted from when the engine was new and the original prop is totaly undamaged.
The engine was used by a sea cadet group who used to take load of children out to learn about seamanship.
maybe they had to have a guard for safety reasons and insurance etc.

I shall give it a try and give an honest opinion on it as soon as the weather gets a touch better.
ill do a zero to 30 test ,zero to 40 test and a few turn tests etc and also see what the top speed reduction is.
and ofcourse time to plane and plane speed.

thanks for everyones answers to my few questions,
each one has been good and has put me in the "mmmm dont realy think its gonna be any good" bracket.

But i will try it and give honest results.



phill

 

[phillnjack2]

Well I have tried it, I gave it every chance possible to see how good or bad , pro's cons etc. here is my honest opinion of them.
The prop guard is the worse possible thing you can attach to your motor, it steals an incredible amount of speed away and also causes terrible cavitation on the turns.. now I tried this and every height possible including putting on a 4 to 7 inch jack plate. I used 8 different prop sizes and 4 different types of props. The steering when these are fitted surprised me as I expected it to be better especially when slow,NO this is not the case it makes steering terribly bad even when just trolling speeds.. at planning speed the boat took far too long to respond to any input... different trim settings did not make any improvement at all.. the boats planning time went from zero to 20 mph in under 3 seconds to 8 seconds when the guard was fitted. The only thing it did any good was slow the boat down when pulling back the throttle..... Now as for protecting the prop ha ha that is the biggest joke of all.. I managed at one point to get the boat up to 38mph with this fitted (usually 45mph without this crap guard). on a semi tight turn I hear a strange noise and stop the boat to see what has happened. a plastic bag is caught up in the guard and bending the guard out of shape !!!! I go back to the ramp and pull the boat onto the side and walk in to clear the plastic bag, this I did and inspected the guard and everything fine. I then manually turn the boat round to head out again and my leg touches the guard and breaks the guard in 2 places !!! ok so its tilt the leg up and take the guard off till we get home.. I repair the guard by plastic welding after finding out exactly what this piece of **** is made from. I reinforce the guard in a couple of places that look vulnerable and re-fit the guard for the next trip and test.... same thing again crappy handling, so I get a friend of mine to drive the boat and ask him what he thinks.. at first he did not know the guard was on the motor but asked if my steering was ok because the boat is not responding like it should do. it is only then I say I have a guard fitted to protect the prop.. so anyway we now set off at a steady slow pace and he is not happy at all with how the boat handles. we make sure nothing else around and he gives it full throttle to get on the plane and test it out... with the 2 of us in the boat it was even worse... we done 1 hour of testing and then went into what we know is a weedy area, the water is 8 feet deep but with some weeds that we normally drive through at around 20 mph.. we go through at around 8mph and hear a bad grinding noise, we tilt the leg up and see just 30% of the prop guard is still attached....... my opinion on these is this 1. they are stupidly dangerous in the handling they take away, 2/ they rob you of so much speed and make the motor 25% heavier on fuel, 3/ the time to plane is terrible with one of these fitted, 4/ they are far too weak to be of any use at all if you were to strike an object under water. 5/ and this is the worse part about them, they give a FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY.... there is no way I would have another if it was given to me as I consider them dangerous. anything that hinders a boats steering cannot be considered good......my advice would be DO NOT FIT ONE OF THESE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.....

 

[Sea Rider]

Yep, are useless, totally screws the combo performance previously achieved when no PG was installed.. The only way to bump up wot rpm loss is dropping 0.5 to 1 full inch from current installed prop. Add the cost of it to the initial PG prurchase and will traduce in a bad investment.

Happy Boating

 

[QBhoy]

Pros: you could cut about in red speedos and lathered in sun tan oil at the beach and get away with it, baywatch style

cons: everything else in relation to performance and hydrodynamics