New Prop Advice for wakesurfing.
 

Greetings.

I have a 21ft V-drive Maxum that we have begun setting up for wakesurfing and am looking for some advice on a new prop more suited for wakesurfing and wakeboarding. Better fuel economy and low speed control.

We plan on running approx. 1500-1700lbs. of ballast and are using a Nauticurl suck gate. We do not have Perfect Pass and top speed is not a priority.

The stock prop it currently has is an OJ 14x18 3-blade.

I assume a 4 blade Acme prop is the way to go, but the options are a bit overwhelming so any advice would be much appreciated,

(There is an Acme 537 13.5 x 16 available locally for half the cost of normal. Thoughts?)

Thank you

The easiest thing to do would be to call acme and they could tell you better than anyone. I would say a 13.5x16 would not be a great pitch for surfing something around a 14 pitch would be better. Either way callbacks cause elevation, weight (ballast) , and engine power all determine what prop is best

Got it.

We have a 5.7 350 Merc. Ski Tourney. and elevation is approx. 2200 ft.

Looks like maybe a Acme 1235 might be closer to what Im after. 14.5 x 14.25


Thanks Josh.

1st thing you need to do is confirm the v-drive ratio. Next, determine what amount of clearance you have between the tip of the prop and the hull and again between the trailer.

Sorry, I'm new to v-drives. How would I determine the V-drive ratio? I have the Merc Manuals and boat manual but don't see anything referring to v-drive ratio.

Thank you!

Should be a tag riveted to the v-drive.

Awesome. I'll find it!

Pretty boat. I did not know that Maxum had made a v-drive model.
You can determine a lot by knowing the wide open throttle RPM and GPS speed, lightly or normally loaded. That will let you figure out how it is set up now and give you a range to drop down to for a surf prop. If you are int the range of 18 to 14" pitch than a a4 blade should be a good choice.

Thanks Art! We are super happy with it. It's a great boat, especially for the price... and it puts out a pretty impressive wave with only 1200lbs. of ballast and a Nauticurl shaper. I will test the wide open RPM and speed this week.

Thanks!

I have the Bayliner version of your boat with the gear reduction v drive (don't remember the ratio off the top of my head) and the Black Scorpion multi port injected 350 cubic inch engine. Back in 1997 I believe that engine was rated at 315HP. The boat came to me with an OJ 14x18 I think. I switched to the Acme 1235 and was happy with it for a while. We were running 1000lbs of lead throughout the the boat and roughly 1000lbs of water ballast on whatever side we were surfing and it did fine. Once we added a homemade surfgate with probably about 1 square foot at a 90 degree angle to the hull the 1235 began to struggle when we would have a large group of people on the boat. I changed to an ACME 2315 and now it does great. If I were you I would go straight to the ACME 2315.

537 is a decent middle of the road prop. will be an improvement over what you have, but definitely leaves some on the table if all you need is stump pulling low end power.

confirm with prop makers you can run a 14.5" prop

Thanks for the advice all! Much appreciated!

I'm temped to try the 537 as I could probably pick it up for $200(lighly used and in perfect shape)... It would be better then what I'm running. I'll have to think on it.

would make a great back up prop if it doesn't do 100% of what you need.

Absolutely! And not that what I'm running currently is really that bad... it could just be better.