My small boat has steel, my large boat has aluminum and my old cruiser had brass. The steel looks pretty and is less prone to damage (it can tear up the lower end instead) and the aluminum is more prone to wear and is waddable if you hit something, obviously the steel is a lot more expensive than the pot metal ones, but what really is the advantage of the steel really if any? Brass seemed to be in the middle somewhere. Can you still get brass props for runabouts anymore?

Tim wrote:
My small boat has steel, my large boat has aluminum and my old cruiser
had brass. The steel looks pretty and is less prone to damage (it can
tear up the lower end instead) and the aluminum is more prone to wear and
is waddable if you hit something, obviously the steel is a lot more
expensive than the pot metal ones, but what really is the advantage of
the steel really if any? Brass seemed to be in the middle somewhere. Can
you still get brass props for runabouts anymore?

Steel are more efficient. You can have a thinner blade, better profile.
My jet drive has stainless impellers. Pump gravel better. Have to take a
grinder to them once in a while if running shallow gravel rivers. Sand
just polishes the blades.

Now that you mention it, the steel does have a better pitch to it . I suppose that's to get a better "screw" effect with less rpm?

On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:07:44 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

Now that you mention it, the steel does have a better pitch to it . I suppose that's to get a better "screw" effect with less rpm?

===

I think that because steel is stronger than aluminun, they can build a
prop with thinner blades that have less friction when turning through
the water.

Could be Wayne, but just on outward appearance the steel seems to have longer vanes with more pitch than the aluminum. Might be how it just looks though. But even so that could also be the advantage of using the stronger material

On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:21:02 -0400, wrote:

I seldom see anything with an aluminum prop around here unless it is
on a motor you can carry.

===

I had an aluminum prop on our old runabout that we brought to Florida
from Connecticut. We went through 3 or 4 props them our first year
in the Cape.

Why is that Wayne? Deterioration from salt?

On Thursday, 31 July 2014 16:37:44 UTC-3, wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:38:12 -0400, Wayne.B

wrote:



On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:21:02 -0400, wrote:



I seldom see anything with an aluminum prop around here unless it is

on a motor you can carry.



===



I had an aluminum prop on our old runabout that we brought to Florida

from Connecticut. We went through 3 or 4 props them our first year

in the Cape.



That bottom is pretty close to the top here isn't it ;-)

When I bought my Harris in 1985, it had a beat up old aluminum prop on

it and the first thing I did was replace it with stainless.

I start getting nervous when the water drops to 6'.
I feel much better with 100' below my nice painted hull. ;-)