Another Prop question

[g33b0]

So many props to choose from..........acme 422, 668, 1868?

I have a 98 Air Nautique dd with gt40.......we wakeboard, surf and skate, as well as tube and just cruise........I am not worried about top speed or anything like that............what is the best prop for mostly wake boarding that won't have a problem pulling 220lb wakeboarder out of the hole.......... 800lb ballast, around 5 people plus gear in west texas.....

[79nautiquenick]

I won't be 100% able to give you a good answer by my experience but hopefully I'll be able to give you an idea. In my 79 ski nautique I have the old 13x13 prop and would weight it down with roughly 1200lbs of ballast along with just a driver and gear and it performed ok but took more throttle than I liked and was sluggish coming out of the hole.

Now in my 07 236/230 with the zr6 engine and the acme 1235 which is acmes low pitched prop for lots of ballast for my boat. I weight it down with about 3k worth of weight for wake board. It takes off like a rocket ship, I like the prop but I wish my rpm was lower at cruising speeds. My top speed is 32-35, I plan to order another prop for the days I know we will just cruise more than board.

If I was you and your some what happy with your hole shot for wakeboard go with the 668 if that's your boats "in between" prop gives you best of both worlds.

I hope that helps you out with choosing prop sizes. And also shoot acme a email and tell them how much weight you put in the boat and what board sports you do. They normally can help you out choose the correct prop

[TRBenj]

422 (12.5x15.5) would be the stock sized equivalent of the original 13x16 OJ. If you only care about wakeboarding, surfing, etc and tend to run extra weight, then going to a prop with less pitch will increase revs across the band and improve performance with that heavy load. It may cost you some fuel economy and top end speed when running unloaded. The 668 is larger (more cup) than the 422 and would do the opposite, so I would not consider it for your situation.

I cant comment on how far you want to prop down, but in order of least extreme to most extreme changes are listed below:

Acme 1442 (13.25x15 3-blade)
Acme 654 (12.5x15 4-blade)
Acme 470 (12.5x15 3-blade)
Acme 1868 (12.5x14.25 4-blade)
Acme 1458 (13x14 3-blade)

You can expect to turn 200rpm higher with the 15" pitch props than the stock size (422/13x16 OJ) and closer to 400-500rpm higher with the 14" pitch options.