Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › Prop Manufacturers
Bass Cat Boats.
Im new to picking out an upgraded prop for my boat. I have received several recommendations from this board and BBC and I appreciate it. What is the main difference in props with the same number of blades and same pitch. Example is I have been told that a Tempest Plus 23p prop may be the best all around prop for my boat. I can get a Quicksilver 23p 3 blade for less. Now, I know that you get what you pay for. Im more curious about what performance differences there are? I cant afford to go out and buy a $500.00 prop if I can get a different brand and save a little money.Please educate me on my lack of knowledge. I figure reputation and quality of materials probably comes into play a little bit and of course personal preference.Thanks,Brian
There are lots of properties with a propThe three obvious ones are number of blades, pitch and diameterBut there is also rake (how much the blades are swept back), progressive pitch, blade thickness, cup, blade shape, thru-hub exhaust/over-hub exhaust, etc…Very difficult to compare A and B based solely on pitch or number of blades.There are certainly good props and bad props. Ive never found anything from Merc to be lousy, for example, but I have seen a case here and there where another prop works best. There is a world of information about how props work and what effects their efficiency. Hull shape, straightness of the pad, center of gravity on the hull, engine height, gear ration of outboard, torque/power curve of the motor, etc…I used to know the dean of the school of Engineering at Mississippi State University. One of the worlds top experts in computational fluid dynamics. I learned pretty quickly to NOT ask him a question about propellers (airplane or boat). Hed hit the whiteboard with a computer standing beside it and he thought everyone was fluent in partial differential equations.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
I guess theres no simple answer. Im just looking for a good all around prop with importance of hole shot. Top speed is not a priority. I dont have a need for 65mph+. Ive had a previous boat that would do mid 70s at the drop of a hat. I pleasure fish and may do a small fruit jar type tournament here and there. I have read your posts since you returned and congrats on the beautiful boat. Your numbers are very nice. Ive got a 1994 Pantera 2 with a Mariner 150EFI. Take care and hope you get your cat where you want her performance wise. Did I mention she shore is Purdy!Thanks for your reply.
You cant go wrong with a manufacturers prop, IMHO. Most manufacturers run and test the stew out of their motors and they know what makes them perform best. I have almost always run merc props since I have never had any other brand of outboard. I tried a predator prop once, but nothing else that was not mercury. Not that there are not good props by other companies… I dont want to spend a fortune testing them.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
Sorry, I am not really a prop expert in this case. 99% of my past experience has been with over-the-hub type props, mostly choppers, but also a cleaver or two for drag racing. I can remember when the tempest hit the streets and it seemed that everybody fell in love with em. Seems like there was a successor to that as well, but I am not sure. Then along came the fury and most seem to like it extremely well. I, too, like the fury.The things you have to balance are low-end torque to get the prop spinning, vs hi-end horsepower which is what spins the prop to drive you to to top-end speeds. If you dont have the torque to spin the prop up, you bog and dont go anywhere. If you pitch the prop so your motor can spin it up easily, then you lose top end speed. It is a real balancing act. For my astro to hit 84 I was spinning a 28p small-eared chopper. With a light load it would fly although hole-shot was pretty pitiful. Add a heavy fishing partner and hole shot almost became impossible, and top speed might hit 60 or so. There are a ton of variables and the art of choosing the right prop is making and accepting trade-offs to get where you want. We did a lot of skiing behind that astro, with a 22 or 23p prop. But top end was not exactly scintillating. To get top end, I gave up hole shot and load carrying.I think the first step has to be to ask yourself “what do I really want this boat to excel at?” In my case, the 25p trophy plus and Fury are pretty close and seem like they can pull stumps. I will keep one or the other (probably the fury, but I want to test both some more to get a real feel for each) and sell/trade the trophy to get a 27p fury which the mercury prop selector suggests given my speed with with 25p fury. But when a heavy fishing partner shows up, I will be running the 25p so we can get to the holes pretty quickly (just not as quickly as I can by myself with a steeper prop).I loved the 2.5l blocks as that is all I ran until I ended up with this 3.0 liter elephant of a motor. But with lots of testing and keeping notes, I figure you can slowly hone in on the right prop. I was fortunate to have a local prop shop where I could make test runs and then exchange. Some places used to have mercury “blue props” that they kept specifically for this purpose. Leave a deposit, take and test, return and get your deposit back. And they obviously hope that when you find that “magic prop” that you will order it from them (which makes sense since they did go to some expense to help you do this.)But if you are looking for a quick fix, you are most likely going to be disappointed. About the only quick fix I have found is where you find someone with the same boat and motor combination and try what they are using if you like the numbers they are reporting. But even that is not 100% accurate as you can find multiple copies of the same BassCat model here, each with a different “best” prop.It can be a lot of fun doing this, but it can also be quite aggravating… AND time consuming. Prepare to get conflicting results since weather changes affect horsepower and torque as well. What works well one day might not get up on plane the next day (an extreme case to be sure, but I have seen it happen a couple of times.)2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
I dont believe the quicksilver was intended for use on a bass boat-. If I were you I would search for a used tempest.
Quicksilver is the older propeller series and they were originally bass boat propellers. The newer restricted engines wont perform well with over hub propellers we have tried. QSS Series propellers can be really good for many applications.
© 2026 Bass Cat Boats
