[THEFERMANATOR]

Coming from somebody who grew up boating around nothing but rocks, oysters, and tree stumps, you will NEVER see a stainless prop on my boat if I'm boating anywhere NEAR those areas. As my dad told me, aluminum props are cheaper than prop shafts, and it's not hard to change a prop and be back under way. Yeah that stainless prop may survive the hit, but how about your prop shaft? I personnally would much rather tear up a $100 prop than an expensive prop shaft AND prop. That said, I've found MICHIGAN WHEEL to have some TOUGH aluminum props that can take someserious abuse, and many times they will just bend instead of breaking. Hammer it out when you get home, and you've got a great spare prop. Yes, I have a $500 powertech scd4 stainless prop for my skiff, but it stays under the bow when I'm flats fishing, and my $90 4 blade solas prop is bolted on for rock duty.

As to propping, that more so boils down to your current WOT RPM's. You need to prop it so the engine is runni,g inside the max wot rpm range at wide open(if it's a 4 stroke, it is reccomended to prop it so it runs on the upper end of it, or just over. You do NOT want to lug a 4 stroke unless you want to carbon it up, and chance it making oil). Michigan wheel sells some nice aluminum 4 blade aluminum props using the xhs hub system that come in lower pitch numbers for a pontoon boat. I like 4 blade props for big heavy boats that need alot of low speed thrust.