Lightning E.T. Prop Experience on a BCB

A good friend of mine ran the Lightning E.T. on his Alison Bass Boat with a Merc 250 Pro. He swore by it. He claimed that the holeshot was amazing in comparison to his Fury 3.

BassCat likes to call me the “elephant ear fan” so I will offer my perspective here. All of the over-hub props have a couple of characteristics that are important to us.(1) hole shot will suck unless you have mega-horsepower and a very lightweight boat hull. If you have seen a drag boat (say an allison or STV racing hull) come out of the hole, it looks like they are shot from a cannon or else off the deck of an aircraft carrier. But for normal boats, the props ventilate badly, and hole-shot can be measured in 10s of seconds if you are not careful.(2) once you get up on plane, they can absolutely fly on the right hulls. BUT, and note the capital BUT, they are touchy. Change the load a bit and speed can go in the toilet. My last boat liked a small-eared 28p chopper. It would run 85 with just me all day, every day. If I added one passenger, it would drop to 60-65 max. Run the jack plate down some (mine was manual then as now) and I could get a good bit of that back, but not all.Other things of note: forget 20-25mph running. Not going to happen. My boat would run 40 and up, or else not at all. Those props have long blades since the hub is way small. They flex every time they slap and then lose contact with the water. You will likely contribute a blade here and there to the local water system, unless you reach the point where I did and CAREFULLY examine the blade roots every time before you go out, looking for stress cracks. They have a noticeable harmful effect on the lower unit. All that extended radius water slapping causes bearing carrier chatter, where the carrier very slightly moves as each blade contacts or loses contact with the water. Over time, that will wear both the outer surface of the carrier, but much more importantly, the inner surface of the gear case. And the more it wears, the worse it chatters, and the faster it wears. Doesnt take a lot before you get o-ring failure and water intrusion. And now you need the entire gear case. Or you can experiment with some of the racing carriers that have a much wider contact area with the gear case.In short, if you like to fish, the through-hub props are much more useable. If you like to tinker a LOT, and dont mind the terrible hole-shot, then an over-hub prop might work for you. Note that I ran choppers for 10+ years. Today I am a pure Fury 3 fan. I dont mind working on my boat or motor, but all the fiddling with the gear case stuff is pretty boring (and NOT inexpensive) stuff. If you have never tried one, you should. Some things you might like. No big clunk when you put the motor in gear because the prop is sitting in a big bubble of exhaust gas and doesnt get much traction (hence the terrible hole shot). Personally, after a lot of experience, I am happy to leave my lower unit be with a conventional thru-hub prop providing my link between motor and water. Having said that, theres nothing wrong with trying one, just be prepared for “why on earth did I spend $500 bucks plus for this?” Choppers were much more interesting on the 7500 RPM and up racing motors. Where you have a boat capable of 80mph and up. Where that is ALL you care about.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

I agree. There are a LOT of conventional thru-hub props around. Some like 4-blades since they seem to be easier to drive, if a little slower. I like the Fury. Incredibly strong blades, particularly for their thickness. Now with the Fury 4, you can get both if you prefer. As far as speed goes, I also agree. Im not going to try to run down an Allison, Bullet or Stroker. But if a Triton, Ranger, Nitro, Skeeter, etc try to slip by, they can dream on. For Bass Cats, I simply give em a friendly wave.Was at Lay yesterday and it appeared to be a Bass Cat convention. That was all I saw except for one wakeboard boat making the area just outside the mouth of Beeswax Creek completely unbearable. Ran up to Yellowleaf to try to get out of the wind. Passed two cats fishing on a couple of ledges I hit sometimes. One sitting in the mouth of yellow leaf. We ran further up in there to escape the wind and as I dropped off plane another cat was doing the same. We fished opposite banks. A couple more sightings on the way to the ramp and when I get there, a pretty new Sabre pulls up behind us to load up as well. Had something like a “bass militia” set of decals on it. Also I assume someone sells Pro XS decals for the Cowl that come in different colors? This one was a sort of lime-green boat accents with the Pro XS in the same color…BTW an amusing thing from late last week. We were running up river and were getting fairly close to where I wanted to fish. We ran up on a Triton with a 250. He decided he wasnt going to let us get to where he was going first (we were not headed to the same place anyway) so he gunned it and up came his rooster tail. I followed him not particularly wanting to pass and then turn off in front of him. So I followed about a mile until we reached where I wanted to fish. I noticed that we were running about 64-65 (GPS), although my highly accurate precision speedometer said 71. In any case, we headed back about 5 or so and I was running a little later than I had planned, so we were running about 70 or so. Same Triton pulls out from a creek about a half mile in front of us and heads down river as well. We blew by him. At the dock, he said “I thought I was running faster than you when you couldnt pass me going up river.” I told him “I didnt want to pass and deal with your wake when we were going to stop just past the islands. BTW do you know how fast you were running there?” He said “sure, about 74.” I replied “you using GPS?” He said No, he doesnt use the GPS speed, just the lake maps. Told him “hate to tell you but you were running about 65 by GPS.” He said “cant be, I was told this was a mid 70s boat…” He asked how fast I was running when I passed him and I told him about 70 GPS. He then asked “how fast will it run?” Told him best so far, averaged over up river and down river, was 76.9 with just me, right at 75 with the two of us plus dog today. He then asked, “wow, what can I do to get my speed up there?” I told him to contact bass cat boats. He seemed to not be so happy after that encounter.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

Note you are pretty close to the 6000 red line for that merc. If you go to the 27, rpm will drop. This time of year, I would want to hit right at the max, as Summer will drain some power from that motor with hotter temps, less air density and more moisture content (humidity). Mine is sitting right on the rev limiter at 5850-5900 (I have a pro XS 200 that redlines at 5750). I also plan on testing a 27p Fury but I suspect that wont be the ticket for May through September at least. Your numbers are close to mine. My best (19 classic) was a two-way run at 76.9 average with just me, pretty full tank and tackle, live wells empty. 74.5-74.9 with me, and 200 pounds of son and dog, everything else the same. RPM for me is 5850-5900 where the merc refuses to let it wind further.Im pretty happy with the performance, as the hole shot is super-quick. Strap on a chopper/cleaver type prop and thats not happening until you start to see 400-500-600 horses or better. You MIGHT see an improvement in top speed although that is not a given, but you will most definitely not like the hole shot. With 3 people in my old Astro, the 28p small-eared chopper would not get up on plane. I think there are way more down-sides than the sole possible up-side of higher top end. Those things are so load-sensitive, horsepower sensitive, they are NOT what I would use to fish. Now if your goal was, as my sons and mine was on occasion, to sit out on the river and embarrass someone that runs by with their 250 R or T boat, then that kind of prop might be the ticket. But I would not race anyone back then from a standing start for 2 miles, not a chance with the lack of hole-shot. Once it got going, it would go, and go quickly.Nowadays I spend 75% of my time at 55 mph and below. But on occasion, if the wrong boat comes blasting by… BTW I have NOT run that specific prop. It has a cleaver-type shape, as opposed to the choppers that look more traditional with raked rounded blades. So NOTHING I have written so far directly applies to that prop. But that is one of Mercs props that fit the general classification of “over-the-hub” exhaust. That IS the same alloy used in the Fury, which at least might help improve the durability and reduce the blade slinging. If I were going to try another over-hub prop, I would likely start there. But I have absolutely no plans to turn down that specific road again. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, wife said it cost too much for that shirt. 2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200