Prop shop in Panama City Panama?

[engele]

I need a recommendation on a prop shop in Panama City. We recently replaced our transmission with a Hurth 250 that has a different gear ratio than our old Paragon. We have a Perkins 4.108 at 45hp and the Hurth has a ratio of 2.75. Our old prop on our 8 ton boat was a 19x11 and seemed over pitched. With the new teams though we can't even hit 5 knots. I need to either repitch more aggressively or buy a new prop. Any recommendations?

[atoll]

first work out the correct size prop you need for the new configuration.
then see if your old prop can be changed or if you need a new prop.

online calculator here:

Vicprop - Propeller Calculator

[jeremiason]

This is in the 2012 Panama City Cruisers Guide:

Cristobal Marine Repair

232-6575 www.cmrepair.com
In Diablo (Ancon), Local No 2, Edificio 42-E, Calle Arnulfo Arias Madrid (turn left at the El Rey in Diablo, cross the train tracks and take the first right after the tracks)

Shipbuilding and ship repair. Have a propeller shop

[engele]

Originally Posted by atoll

first work out the correct size prop you need for the new configuration.
then see if your old prop can be changed or if you need a new prop.

online calculator here:

Vicprop - Propeller Calculator

Thank you Atol. This is by far the best prop calculator I have seen and it gives an answer more in line with what I would expect.

[engele]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

This is in the 2012 Panama City Cruisers Guide:

Cristobal Marine Repair 232-6575 www.cmrepair.com
In Diablo (Ancon), Local No 2, Edificio 42-E, Calle Arnulfo Arias Madrid (turn left at the El Rey in Diablo, cross the train tracks and take the first right after the tracks)
Shipbuilding and ship repair. Have a propeller shop

Thanks. I realized quickly today that we were under propped. I had a smaller diameter prop that was RH rather than LH, but pitch equal. The ratios on the trans changed, but we were pretty over propped before so I had hopes we would come out close. We didn't. In the morning I am going to dive the prop and swap back to the old one that turns in the wrong direction, but is closer to correct because of the larger diameter. If the boat cruises ok, but up a hundred RPMs okay, that's fine I'll deal with it until I can get back to the US, if it doesn't I may need to re pitch it and add an oil cooler to the transmission.

Where did you find the Panama City Cruising guide? Southbound group?

[engele]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

This is in the 2012 Panama City Cruisers Guide:

Cristobal Marine Repair 232-6575 www.cmrepair.com
In Diablo (Ancon), Local No 2, Edificio 42-E, Calle Arnulfo Arias Madrid (turn left at the El Rey in Diablo, cross the train tracks and take the first right after the tracks)
Shipbuilding and ship repair. Have a propeller shop

Never mind I just saw your link. The Sarana guides are the best for Pacific Central America. Thank you.

Élan

[Pato]

In the morning I am going to dive the prop and swap back to the old one that turns in the wrong direction, but is closer to correct because of the larger diameter. If the boat cruises ok, but up a hundred RPMs okay, that's fine I'll deal with it until I can get back to the US, if it doesn't I may need to re pitch it and add an oil cooler to the transmission.

If its left hand transmission and you put a RH prop on it you would have to run the gear in revers to go forward and some transmissions have different ration between forward and revers as well as it is very stress full for the gears in the transmission as the loads will be reversed from how they are suppose to be loaded I would highly recommend not doing this

[engele]

Originally Posted by Pato

In the morning I am going to dive the prop and swap back to the old one that turns in the wrong direction, but is closer to correct because of the larger diameter. If the boat cruises ok, but up a hundred RPMs okay, that's fine I'll deal with it until I can get back to the US, if it doesn't I may need to re pitch it and add an oil cooler to the transmission.

If its left hand transmission and you put a RH prop on it you would have to run the gear in revers to go forward and some transmissions have different ration between forward and revers as well as it is very stress full for the gears in the transmission as the loads will be reversed from how they are suppose to be loaded I would highly recommend not doing this

Pato,

Hurth calls for a cooler if the trans is run in reverse (b position), but say it should be fine otherwise. Would you avoid doing it anyway?

Élan

[Pato]

I would use a trans cooler either way. I would still avoid running a rh prop on a lh gear It would suck to damage your new gear especially if you plan on swapping to correct prop in the future. Did you ask them if its has same ration in both A and B positions ?

[engele]

Ratio in A position is 2.74 and ratio in B position is 2.72. Twin engine boats often use this trans because the ratios are so close (but use a cooler when running in the B position). I am still hesitant to run forward in the B position. The trans is an Hurth HBW 250. In the A position it was 144 degrees F on my digital thermometer. I've swapped in my LH pitch 11x19, and today we will go out briefly and test the gear temp and boat performance. We have a Perkins 4.108 paired with a Seafarer 38.

[engele]

The temp was a few degrees hotter today at 154 degrees, but I also pushed the boat harder. We were able to go 4.5 into wind and chop and 5.5 away from it (or a bit better).

I still think we need a RH prop with more pitch than what we have.

[engele]

We now have a trans cooler that I fabricated out of stainless steel now and we are still trying to locate a prop that doesn't need to ship from Miami. Cristobal Repair wanted $100 to tell us if they could change our props pitch and then tell us what it would cost. It sounded more expensive to do a repitch here than buying a new prop, but the soonest they would be able to get a new one was "at least two and a half weeks". I guess we will keep looking at options. Losing a knot motoring would be unfortunate, but once in te land of stuff we can take care of it.

[Bambolera]

I'm in Panama city too and I have a spare prop. I changed over to a max prop a few years back and kept the old prop as a spare. I believe it's also a Left hand drive, however, so you may not be interested. I'll check the size the next time i'm at the boat.

[engele]

Thanks. We pushed off and made Jamaica, underpitched and all. Our window was good and I have a new prop coming from the USA on Saturday.