Kiwi Prop Question....AGAIN!!! Kiwi summery included.

[Paul Bruner]

Okay, I'm at the kitchen counter drinking Tequila...neat, with a 16" Kiwi Prop pitched at 21 degrees next to the computer.  I'm $1510 into this expedition (always talk $ up front, always please).

I've read all 3 dozen+ posts containing "Kiwi"...completely. The summery is: overall the Kiwi Prop was the best "marketed" prop on the forum, everyone approves of the prop (of course after spending 12-15 Bens for it, so do I, not even operating the boat, ever), 15.5-16" is too big, 20 or more degrees of pitch is too much, the engines (-25 or -35) smoke when attempting to develop the full RPMs recommended by Universal, tachs are not accurate, the engines overload in reverse, reverse pitch is unadjustable, it stops on a dime, reverse performance is great, no sane person claims greater than a 1 knot sailing performance advantage, no sane person claims greater than a 1 knot cruise performance advantage, it's affordable overall, it's cheap to fix a broken blade, it's easy to install, you have to maintain the 5 grease fittings, no shaft mods are required, and finally the Aussies/New Zealanders are very active sailors.

THE QUESTION: Do I drop the prop pitch to 19ish degrees (Mark II, M-35) while it is sitting on the counter here?  Prop goes on the boat the end of next week.  Who am I to judge Kiwi?  I gave them all the specs they wanted and they sent the 16" pitched at 21 degrees.  Prop number 11,406!!  Does Kiwi have it wired by now or not?

[noworries]

I recently put one on my boat, #11352 from July 2011.

Mine is a 15.5" 21 pitch, I have a m35

I was overpropped before, boat would cruise at 1500 RPM at 6.5-7 knots in flat conditions.  Boat would smoke at 2000 RPM.

I told Kiwi all of this.

New prop I cruise at 1700 RPM, still smokes at 2000 RPM.  When I put the boat in reverse it will stall 2 out of 3 times if it's not warmed up.  It's never stalled when putting it in the slip, only when taking it out.

It made a pretty significant difference in performance.

[Paul Bruner]

Thanks for the insight on a very recent Kiwi prop.  It definitely sounds like I'm going to be overpropped as well.  If your 15.5" @ 21 degrees still smokes at 2000 RPM then no doubt my 16" @ 21 degrees will result in an overloaded engine.  That's a definite vote to decrease pitch.

I'm going to go "one full turn" on the adjustment for a result of 18 degrees.  Does anyone think this could result in cavitation issues?  Is it possible to be under pitched?   

[Steve Sayian]

I put on a Kiwi 4 years ago and it was origianlly a 16" (actually 15.5") at 21 degrees which is what the M35 specs out to be.

Smoked in forward and loaded down in reverse really bad.

Got new 15" (14.4") blades and reduced pitch to 17 degrees.  I made up a bunch of different pitch templates from old manilla folders to check the pitch. 
If you want change the pitch, you place the angle template on the outside flat edge of the blade.  Make sure the blade is firmly pushed against the hub before you move the pitch screw.
Once I changed the pitch and blades, no more smoking problems in forward.  I have to rev the engine above idle before going into reverse.  If I don't, the max RPMs I can get is 550, regardless of how much throttle I apply.  Doing this gives me a full range of reverse thrust.

Another thing to remember is to grease the two points on the hub every spring before launch.  I didn't do this for 3 years (dopey me didn't RTFM) and had to have the prop removed half-way through last year as it wouldn't go into reverse at all.  Sent it back to Kiwi in Ontario and they greased and check it out.  No problem now and it will get another dose of grease when we haul on Oct 28.

Hope this helps.

[Paul Bruner]

NW/Steve,

Thanks for your insights.  I stepped my 16" Kiwi prop down to 18 degrees of pitch (factory set 21 degrees) before installing it. 

After 4 hours of motoring: I'm able to attain the full engine RPMs recommended by Universal (3000 RPM) without smoke.  At 2400 RPM (80% Power) the boat motored at only 4.7 kts; at 2900 RPM I would see 5.3 kts; I don't see the boat motoring above 5.5 kts at this pitch setting.  I'll roll with this setting for the next 3 months and then increase the pitch 1/3 turn.  Universal says a properly installed engine, transmission, and propeller should attain hull speed (at least 7 kts for us) at 80% power.  My goal therefore would be to achieve 7 knots at 2400 RPM without smoke.  Results to follow. 

No issues in reverse (pitch unadjustable), it responds rapidly (like brakes), an increase in power from 1000 RPM to 1800 RPM produces greater rev thrust, the engine does not seem overloaded, same prop walk left, however, I'm able to get out of reverse sooner with steerage available.

I have not sailed with it yet....I'm happy with it overall so far.