February '08 Propeller Tips

Spring 2008

 This spring a common question I’ve been getting is “what causes a propeller to break”.
 I will address this question in this article. How ever, I must say this is only my opinion. I have researched this with propeller manufacturers and have come up with several situations that causes blade failures.

One common situation is the obvious. Many of us “go fast” guys run our engines very high, this causes an extreme amount of pressure on the tips of the propeller. If you are like me and run above the pad then you must try to eliminate long runs at very high speeds.

Another common problem is excessively thick blades at the trailing edge. As the blade moves through the water the trailing edge of the blade causes a “void” in the water. This void, also know as a pinch point, puts an extreme amount of pressure on the tips of the blade causing a weak point.

 The obvious problems years ago was heat treating at above 1700 degrees. When a blade is heat treated above this temperature the metal becomes weak, causing blade failure.

I'm not really sure if there’s a 100 percent fix for blade failure, but I have done some modifications to blades that seems to be helping keep them together.

I have heard of all kinds of reasons for blade failure lately, such as blades being too thin, too thick, wrong material, casting flaws, and so on , and so on.

What it boils down too is, we want to go faster and lift the bow higher. This combination does not equate to a propeller that will stay together forever.

Steve Glenn
Steve’s Custom Props.

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