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pitch and prop questions

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Sit2turn and Jolly, Jolly Roger
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my turkey honey hole .
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fowbish

Well-known member
I have a four blade Power Shift. When I got the boat the indicator marks were just ahead of the rear line of the hib. The guy that I bought it from had moved it to there. I had to take it off to replace the broken drive belt, and lined them back up with the rear line. What is the easiest way to increase the pitch and get them all the same without the hour it took me last time. Another thing is that I am really thinking about getting rid of this one and going to a either a 3 blade Master Blaster or the Sensenich super wide. I know that there has been several threads on this, but I just want ya'lls input. By the way my boat is a 20X8 Air Ranger with a502.

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Dang, nice fish

The Whirl Wind prop is also extremely easy to set pitch and make adjustments. The Sensenich prop isn't bad either. The powershift takes time and patience.

You know my opinon on the props. Both are great. I run the Whirl Wind on my personal boat.
 
I am leaning to what you said. I just spent about 30 min messing with this one and got frustrated. Not just the prop but the day in a whole, needed a break so I thought I would ask everyone. How long would it take to get a prop if I ordered one?

That fish weighed 55lbs after spending 10 hours in a bucket. Not a bad night ended up with those on the ground plus that other bucket 3/4 full.
 
Trick I learned from a buddy, take a 2x4, about 18" long and cut a notch in it to make a "fork" to help you twist the blades.

Works well on a Warp Drive, might want to use extra caution on the hollow composite blades.
 
I may have misunderstood something but I seem to remember Waterthunder saying to get the most out of those superwides ya really need the 2.68 gearbox and the Franklin Belt drive doesnt offer that ratio.

Just thinking out loud.

Scotty
 
To get the low sound that is true becaus eyou want to turn it slower. If you have enough torque franklin makes a 2.3 ratio but even if I didn't buy it I would still pitch the prop on down and see how it does. may still work for you but if not you can always start savin for the 2.3 belt drive.
 
The 2.3 is best on that boat for the super wide blades however Whirl Wind makes a super wide blade that is for the 2:1 ratio.

Either way, I readjusted my whirl wind in about 5 min. It is so easy.
Lead time is normally only a few days to your door. Lead time on most of the sensenich props I have bought recently is about 2+ wks.

We only put the belt drive on the AirRanger. We love the belt reduction unit and have hundreds of them running with no problems. We have not had the same luck with the Gear Boxes.
 
I took two pieces of tape and marked a spot in the middle for the index mark. I measured 1/16 of inch increments. I placed the tape on the blade and moved the props to the desired marks. Works for me.
 
The Prop is the heart of your airboat ---- if the blades are not set correctly the boat will not run correctly. and it can and will cause vibrations --That leads to all other kinds of problems. I know that on our 540/ 550hp+ -- Turning a 3 blade Maxims . When I Move the Trailing Edge 1/8" it will change our max RPM by 250rpm's. Plus greatly effect the top and low end performance of our boat. So when I adjust our prop pitch I go from a clamped down carpenters square to the transom and measure to the trailing edge of the prop tip. and record all settings . This takes time checking each blade three times. But it is the heart of our airboat and i want it running at top performance.
 
I have found that setting powershift blades can be very agervatin at times.you may want to invest in a protractor wrap drive sells them and there are some digital ones on the market as well I have found that the whirl wind marks are dead on and the other props do better with a protractor jmo.
 
Adjusting these props ain't nowhere near as bad as the alternative. Try dialing in a boat with a 10 or 12 blade Warp Drive. It took forever and the blades were allot harder to get dead on.
 
we use a digatal protracter and have found that just by using the lines on the hub you can't necesarily go by that we have found them out by 3 degrees.
 
Agreed stan, whirlwind has the best hub out there and the others marks are not reliable or accurate enough to use alone. a protractor is a definite must have for easy accurate adjustment. yes there are other ways but a protractor is quickest for accuracy. I M O.
 
Anybody got any info on where to get the digital angle finders/protractors? I've been using one with a needle and it is not the most accurate in the world when trying to be precise.
 
I bought the one above I wouldn't recommend it because you cant set the prop flange at ZERO. The best one to get is the Mitutoyo or the SPI the SPI sells for $149 in MSC catalog. These you just set the gauge on the flange and zero it then put the gauge on the blade and get your degrees of pitch it is way simple to operate.
 
Seems crazy to have to go to all that trouble when it would be easy for them to put in on at the factory.

It also blows my mind why they wont seal off the blades to prevent moisture or water getting in and casuing vibration or even worse.

Silicone is notthe correct answer!!!
 
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