I have a 17 foot aluminum bass tracker with a 78 mercury 80 hp motor. The boat normally has 2 200 lbs passengers with about 100 lbs of fishing gear. I have had this boat for a full season now (first boat). When I bought the boat it came with a very beat up 3 blade prop. The boat can get up to at least 5500 rpms but I'm thinking it could do more if the prop was in decent condition. I would like to go up to a higher pitch prop but I don't want to over stress the older motor. Given that I do not have any historical data for how the engine performs with a prop in decent shape I'm asking the forum what maximum pitch for a 3 blade prop would you recommend for this setup?
