Tempest Plus is the Bomb!!

[A&M]

A big thanks out to Papascott, Larrym, and Propman! I mounted a new Tempest 19 I got locally for under $400, and man what a difference the right prop makes! Top speed is now 50 at 5800rpm. That 150 Merc never sounded so good. I still have to have someone drive the boat while I check out the cavitation plate, but if I have to raise the motor I'll have to have some pitch added to the prop. Not the end of the world if I have to, but its so much better than it was, I actually have a hole shot now!!! Thanks again!

[squig69]

i was hoping it would work for my ride too but i have to drop it down to a 17p, the 19p is too much for mine

[A&M]

Originally Posted by squig69

i was hoping it would work for my ride too but i have to drop it down to a 17p, the 19p is too much for mine

You must have a deeper V. My Fisher Hawk 186 has more of a modified V.

[squig69]

yes sorry, mine is am alumacraft trophy 185. was hoping for the same results you had. cheers

[4JawChuck]

Great prop for just about any use requiring bow lift, I have a 24" version and in my experience you can aerate the prop quite a bit before it cavitates...you can see spinning blades looking over the transom on my boat so they grip well for a multipurpose prop.

Not to throw a wrench into the party but the boys over at FastBoatsCanada did some prop testing with assistance from a local dealer, everything from thru-hub to overhub to Cleavers to choppers on a variety of different boats. The one prop that stood out above all of them for top speed, holeshot and general purpose usage was not a Merc prop...it was a copy of the Yamaha T1.

Scorpion made by Solas, go figure huh?! It was never even considered a contender in the test but it won every measurement on a variety of boats except one lightweight Hydrostream which liked the chopper marginally better although only for top speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_WuaAM1ZE

Now I have to try it, darn it.

[staylor]

Chuck- I did a quick search on "solas scorpion propeller reviews" and found a BWB magazine test from a few years back- testing a pile of props on a bass boat w/225 Evinrude. At best the Scorpion finished in the top five. Tempest and Trophy from Merc did quite well- along with the BRP Rakers. Well enough so that the Rakers and Trophy Plus were faster than the Solas- and the Tempest was only .1 mph behind.

Magazine testing is nice- but rarely done on aluminum walleye boats. You should try a Scorpion and let us all know how it runs- although it's a 15.12 diameter and may have clearance troubles on some motors- and does not appear to be available in the mid-range pitches that work on most of the boats here.

I recall trying out one of my OMC choppers- a 27 pitch SRX on my Starcraft w/150 Opti. Being kind to the famous SRX chopper, it was a clunker on the Starcraft- even after taking around a 1/4 mile to get it on plane. But on my 18 ft Baja bass boat style hull back in the '80s the SRX was my fastest prop.
The on-line article from bwb is at http://www.bwbmag.com/output.cfm?id=1083529
Doug

[A&M]

Thanks 4JawChuck, I'll look into the Scorpion but for now I'm very happy with what I have. Thanks for the info though.

[4JawChuck]

Originally Posted by staylor

Chuck- I did a quick search on "solas scorpion propeller reviews" and found a BWB magazine test from a few years back- testing a pile of props on a bass boat w/225 Evinrude. At best the Scorpion finished in the top five. Tempest and Trophy from Merc did quite well- along with the BRP Rakers. Well enough so that the Rakers and Trophy Plus were faster than the Solas- and the Tempest was only .1 mph behind.

Magazine testing is nice- but rarely done on aluminum walleye boats. You should try a Scorpion and let us all know how it runs- although it's a 15.12 diameter and may have clearance troubles on some motors- and does not appear to be available in the mid-range pitches that work on most of the boats here.

I recall trying out one of my OMC choppers- a 27 pitch SRX on my Starcraft w/150 Opti. Being kind to the famous SRX chopper, it was a clunker on the Starcraft- even after taking around a 1/4 mile to get it on plane. But on my 18 ft Baja bass boat style hull back in the '80s the SRX was my fastest prop.
The on-line article from bwb is at http://www.bwbmag.com/output.cfm?id=1083529
Doug

Your 150 could turn a 27" pitch prop?

[staylor]

Originally Posted by 4JawChuck

Your 150 could turn a 27" pitch prop?

The SRX is a chopper- so getting it on plane involved bumping the throttle to 5000 rpm and just waiting for the prop to hook up. Once it hooked up, I expected revs to be low with that much pitch- but I was primarily wanting to get some data to calculate slippage. I figured if I could show 10% slip or less then it might be worthwhile to get a Merc big ear chopper in the 22-23 pitch range. As it ended up I was getting around 20% slip at around 5000 rpm. This told me the chopper style prop was not going to work too well. But what the heck, let no good prop go untested! My only regret was that I used to have an old Land and Sea hub that would slip on over the chopper to convert it to a thru hub- but sadly I had sold it along with another chopper a few years back. I really didn't expect too much from the SRX on a Starcraft. I had a similar experience with the same prop having too much slip when I tried it on my previous 21 ft Checkmate w/225 Evinrude Vindicator- just too much boat for the chopper.

Having this little experiment not work also saved me money- since I was also looking at a Ron Hill 4 blade semi-cleaver- which was also a hubless prop. After this test, I decided that I wasn't going to get much better than my 21 Tempest modified by Rich Boger, or my 21 and 23 Trophy Plus modified by Mark.
Doug

[4JawChuck]

No surprise the chopper didn't work, a cleaver would have been even worse for slippage. Without a pad and light weight hull those props wont work.

For our style boats a thru hub is the only choice, too much drag for an overhub or cleaver. What the guys over at FBC found out was the Scorpion worked as well or better than those style of props even on hulls that can use the choppers and cleavers.

if you have a chance to compare one to a Tempest you will see more cup, larger diameter, smaller blade area, higher rake...the prop proved to be noticeably more efficient with less slip than all the others and can run higher transom heights without slipping....all of those are attributes of modified Tempest Plus props done by well known prop shops.

Just saying, I know these guys personally so it was eye opening to hear their first hand experiences, its my next purchase for the boat once I find a good deal on one.