Old Hickory is over 2.5 hours away, the closest prop shop that allows testing is about 1.5 hr away.
'96 Honda (4-stroke). Stock prop was a 9.25 dia, 12 pitch. Replacement props are all 10-10.5 dia. I am not sure what diameter is on there now (boat is not kept here at the house); I just know it is a 12 pitch and that I was fine with low end speed (but not handling) and the top end was okay too. However top end, felt like the last couple mph were really slow to develop (ie liked to fast cruise at 21 mph but WOT was 25 with dinged up prop). In other words the last couple of rpms didn't seem to add much speed. That prop is a no go now (ie missing a 2" chunk) so I can't even test for rpm range now.
I am not trying to go any slower, although I would rather not go any faster at idle/troll. Boat came with troll plate; hard to steer at low speeds with that thing choking it down. In heavy winds (even with plate removed), slow trolling can be tough to maintain direction (ie boat gets pushed around by the wind, even though going at 1.5-2.0 mph). For that reason I though a 4-blade would work better, although I have concerns that top end speed may suffer some (in which I am ok with 2-3 mph but not 5 mph). Although I thought it could be mitigated some buy going with larger diameter.
Stock prop, I figure, would be in the middle of performance range. Boat and motor were not a package deal so it isn't "matched". Seems to me that there should be room to tweak both the low and high end performance, especially if I am increasing diameter.
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