Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

[kyron4]

Some of the older 50's evinrude 3 hp motors have the "weedless" lower unit. I have a chance to buy a standerd LU (prop at 90* ) from a 50's Johnson that will bolt right on. I'm told the standerd LU increases speed . Is this true ? Will I even notice a difference ? -Thanks

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

BTDT. As mentioned in the "Best of the 50's" blog herein, the OMC 3 hp twin was a dream come true for a reliable, economical, smooth running, sweetie........if only it had a few more mustangs under the cowl.....(my only wish at the time).

Having operated/been driven by both, yes you pay a price for the weedless drive and I'm going to say the prop makes the difference as it has the blades severely curved (to shed weeds) and as a result, you loose the thrust that you get on a conventional prop which the other has. The drive is sloped 20 degrees or thereabouts but I doubt that you loose much in that.

So, if you want to creep through weeds, you pay the price on performance but get your wish otherwise. If you want thrust, go with the conventional design, but stay out of the weeds.

Mark

 

[wilde1j]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

With the very small motors, the speed difference between weedless and standard is almost nil. Those motors will never plane a decent sized hull, so you're talking about tenths of a knot at best difference. I had a 6hp J weedless for many years ... ran great, but never the motor if you wanted speed. If you want speed, you need to be considering a much bigger motor.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

The other day I saw on youtube a 2hp Evinrude apparently on a light jon with a light driver sitting on the middle seat it sure appeared to be planing or very close to it.I think a 3 setup similarly could plane though not likely in a practical setup.
Check it out , evinrude 2 hp jon boat, pretty impressive.

 

[F_R]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

Some of the older 50's evinrude 3 hp motors have the "weedless" lower unit. I have a chance to buy a standerd LU (prop at 90* ) from a 50's Johnson that will bolt right on. I'm told the standerd LU increases speed . Is this true ? Will I even notice a difference ? -Thanks

Where you gonna get that 90* from the '50's? I believe it came out around 1964. So, I don't know what you are planning to put on your motor.

However, the 90* drive was meant to be used as an auxillary motor, generally on sailboats. As such it had a large diameter, very flat pitch prop. ("Power Prop") What it will do on your particular boat is a try-and-see proposition.

I will say that the weedless is rather slow, compared to straight drive motors of the same hp. It isn't all in the prop either. On my list of to-do things is a speed comparison between a weedless 3 and a Gale 3. Props are similar. I just "know" that the Gale is going to run circles around the weedless. We'll see.

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

I have a beautiful little 4hp (1970) with a weedless prop on it. I just rebuilt it for a guy and been waiting all year for him to pay me for rebuilding the engine. When my house sells and I still have it, I'm taking it with me.

 

[kbait]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

I have a jh-19, '64 3hp that has the 90 drive. Drive would bolt right up to any lightwin/johnson 3's with a fisherman lower from '52-about '70. It does have a power prop on it.. Haven't used it yet, but may perform better as a kicker (if not in weeds)

 

[TN-25]

Re: Lower units; weedless vs. standerd ?

As was mentioned in some of the above posts, the 90 degree higher thrust lower unit was added as an alternate model to the weedless 3 horse for 1964. Through 1972 its lower unit remained interchangeable with all years of the weedless 110 degree l.u. (folding midsection models are unto themselves.) The lower unit can be swapped in place of any weedless l.u.

In 1973 the right angle drive was redesigned in the midsection as well as the lower unit. The old weedless l.u. carried on unchanged through 1982.

My dad had a weedless 3 (1967 Johnson folding weedless). Using it in the weeds I was truly impressed since it worked as well as they claimed. I had on occasion used it on my 17' Grumman canoe. Now I have a low-hours 1971 Evinrude 4 with the right angle drive. It should be interesting to see the difference in performance.