Back at Full Strength

Evinrude RX4 Stainless Steel Propeller

Well, after a month of waiting the power aspect of both the Ranger and the 14 foot River boat have been resolved.  Last Thursday both Jack Taylor and his son Ben accompanied myself back to Frankie's to pick up the final pieces to my summer adventures, the prop to the Evinrude 250HO that just had the lower unit redone as well the new 25 hp outboard for the river boat.  First was the RX4 propeller, truly a work of art. this is a highly polished, 4 bladed stainless steel propeller and is an amazing piece of hardware.  The Ranger came from the factory with an RX4, 22 pitch prop but there was some concerns with the top full throttle RPM at 5400.  Although this is within the proper specifications of the engine it was on the low end as the horsepower range is stated at 5400 - 6000 RPM's and I felt it needed a lower pitch to get the RPM's up towards the maximum.  The dealer let me try a 3 bladed Rebel 21 pitch stainless prop and to be honest it did raise my RPM's a bit, it was also like putting racing slick tires on your truck in the winter, it was pretty interesting.  The 3 bladed prop would blow out in the corners, blow out at half the trim of the 4 bladed, off it came and ended up putting back on the RX$ in a 20 pitch.  It raised the RPM's around 400 or 5800 which was predictable as each 1" in propeller pitch change results in a 200 RPM change in engine speed.  The top speed was not affected however the boat had a much better hole shot with a load and seemed more responsive.  At cruising speed of around 3400 RPM's or about 32 mph, the 22 pitch does get better gas mileage, an important thing when going into Lac Seul, when we are back to a normal load but it struggles a bit when we first come in with a full load.  When replacing the lower unit the prop was damaged, the plan it to take the damaged prop and see if it can be fixed and reworked to a 21 pitch prop, maybe a nice compromise between power and speed as these props only come in even pitch sizes from the factory.  They are also quite expensive so at $700 each, it can get a little pricey trying to figure out what is best.  I agree with my friend Bill Lundeen, I am probably chasing a problem that doesn't need fixing however having a 20 pitch on the engine, a 22 pitch as my spare, as long as I have to repair the bent up prop they took off my boat anyway, maybe just seeing what a 21 will do sparks some curiosity.  Oh well!

25 hp 4 stroke Mercury

 the second thing we picked up was a new Mercury 25 hp short shaft Tiller outboard with electric start.  Originally I was looking for tilt and trim however it was impossible to find a short shaft motor with this feature.  Apparently few motors are short (15 inch) shaft and most boats these days are built for long shaft (20 inch) outboards.  After the last trip to Lac Seul and using a camp boat which had a 30 hp motor, it was probably a good choice anyway as a motor with tilt and trim does not "Kick" up like a standard motor so it is better that the motor does kick up when traversing the shallower areas of the Mississippi River which are full of rocks.  It is a heavy motor, a 3 cylinder, 4 stroke and it took all both of us to mount it on the jon boat.  We got it in place and tightened down the mounting bolts which are now hex head instead of the swivel lever, as well they recommend adding 2 more bolts to secure it, which seems like a good idea.  I don't think I will do that until I take it for an initial run to see if the motor needs to be higher on the transom.  Taking off my rock guard on the wore out 25 hp that was on the boat, I got that mounted as well.  it works pretty well as if you hit a rock it tends to protect the lower unit and propeller from damage which I seem to be prone at!  Looking at the specs of this motor verses the old one, they both have the same RPM range, lower unit gear ration yet the new motor has a 9.5 diameter x 11 pitch prop but the older motor had a 10.38 diam by 13 pitch, oh well here we go again!  The other big difference is the older and wore out motor was a 2 cylinder and came in at 112 pounds where as this new one is over 150 pounds, a big difference.

The plan is sometime this week to get both boats out for a trial run.  The walleyes are still hitting like mad at Mille Lacs and the River is almost back to normal so the smallies should be going.  We've had a lot of rain the last few days and the garden is coming along pretty well.  Even though I am retired it seems like there just isn't enough time in the day.  Oh well, along with that comes other stuff, like I just received from Amazon a 3000 yard spool of P-Line CX fishing line, 15 pound test, moss green.  I really like P-Line CX as it is quite supple, strong, with little memory and it is about one size thinner than most lines.  The 8 pound I use on my spinning reels is a strong as 10#, the same diameter as 6#, and is perfect for walleye fishing.  I bought the 15# for my baitcaster's as I like something more beefy.  One of the rods that I had in Canada needed the line replaced and after receiving the spool and pulling off the line from the reel, I set the spool in a box which provided the perfect tension for re-spooling the reel.  A couple hours later, and cleaning up the work area I grabbed the boxes to burn them.  Noticing the "different" smell coming from the burn area, thinking nothing of it until a few hours later looking for that new spool of fishing line and not finding it..................forgot to remove it from the box............that explains the different smell!  Luckily I could order another one but that wasn't very smart, CRS I guess!