Veem prop cracking

Fix in Bones you went with the interceptors. I think that is what they call the ones with the strips or inserts you can change to effectively alter pitch. I bought Veem for my boat a couple of years ago when the interceptors were somewhat new. I decided against them, only because they were new. Are you planning on having to change the strips to get your WOT rpms right? I would be interested in how these work out for you. They would have saved me some money as i had to go thru 3 changes to get my rpms to were i wanted them (50 over rated in the summer with some shark skin on them).

Definitely need to get the prop nuts installed correctly.

https://www.sbmar.com/articles/propeller-installation-big-nut-vs-little-nut/

Thru my years I have never witnessed a failure on the nuts in the wrong place.
I was taught long ago the small nut went on first and always did it that way.
I was taught left foot first also when either foot would work.
The bottom line is they are tight and pin or wired down.

Yards usually use the large Heavy Nut to crank on the prop and make sure it has seated as far forward as possible. But then they get lazy and do not remove the large Heavy Nut to put the Jam Nut in its proper location:



The good news is that you will get a warning if things have gone wrong, by a noticeable vibration, mainly after you have grounded or hit an object. The thinner Jam Nut can only hold so much against the larger Heavy Nut, its just comes down to physics.

this is an interesting thread. We just got the boat out of the water and noticed (among other things) that the small nut is on the end as well. Go figure...

True, thousands of boats are cruising around with the nuts in the wrong sequence. No big deal except that if a yard doesn’t know the correct sequence how does one know that the prop has been properly seated on the tapper.

Prussian Blue ink ( I use Permatex) should be applied, the prop seated on the taper then removed to "Read" the ink. places of contact turn silver, no contact stay blue. Different horsepower's require different percentages of contact. A great fit will read over 90% contact.

Whoa!!! That is a very hard question to answer.
IMO (due arguments); a proper repair on a proper repairable wheel should last forever. This does NOT include the original mfg's performance design or fine tuning.
Example; Every prop shop has a set of cast iron blocks to shape Michigan wheels. It's rare to find a shop (if any) shops with Veem blocks. Also in shaping and grinding, I've never witnessed a Veem prop to come back with the trim line re-usable. A rebuilt prop always looses some of the mfg's fine efforts.

The wheels that come back will work. The boat will go forward, not grind your teeth and make close rpm.

Over all, your wheels should have not busted up like they did. The repair shop had the opportunity to condemn the wheels and not repair them if they were in that bad of shape. Lack of bacon on their plates may have driven them to try the repair.

OTOH, if the owner begged the prop shop to just make them work,,,,,,, Bacon on the plate still.
Then bacon grease on the sellers face. I'd rather have a honest shop than a hungry one.
Don't go to that prop shop.

Actually you need to install the nuts that way with that system. If you look in the second photo, the washer between the nut and the prop is a lock washer and is designed to be bent over onto the first nut to lock it in place. Once bent over the washer tabs will be too deep, or over the thin nut and you won't be able to tighten the second nut. Usually I don't see this system with a 2 nut system, usually just the washer and a single nut on Princesses.

Tin tabbed Lock washers only lock if half the tabs are bent forward and half backwards , so each nut is engaged.

Post #16, second picture does not show a tab washer. Those are threaded holes for a removal / install tool (Prop Smith?).
Also in the pic from #26, threaded holes.

The ones I recently saw on a 2015 Princess, had a cutout where the lockwasher rode over the key way and was locked into place by the keyway and then the tabs bent back.

That being said, I have never personally seen an issue from the large nut installed first, versus the proper way of installing the small nut.

I agree. See #24 above.

I recall the kids at Huckins Yacht puts their new builds together with small nut first.
Any customers prop they service on the hill, it goes together as it came apart.
Our divers did the same, together as it came apart.

I just spent 6 months trying to source vibration and learned a lot about props that seems practical.
prop shafts have a max unsupported length (bearings)
props get thin and weak with each reconditioning
using hammers, blocks of wood, pipe wrenches on running gear is a no-no
not all prop shops are created equal

All your points are spot on. Did you locate and resolve your source of vibration?

Yes. Our boat had a history of vibration and "experts" trying to resolve it for prior owners. When we bought the boat I assured my wife I could resolve it. Many $$$ later the boat was still not any better. I remembered having a hard to resolve vibration in a 58 Hampton years ago and was recommended to a young man in Palm Beach Gardens who specializes in running gear. That is all he does. I called him in November and he could not take the boat in until February. I went on his list.
Finally my number came up. I arrive for the haul out and he pulls up in his truck and says "I see your problem already".
2 1/2" shaft should not be unsupported for more than 90" and he thought I had more. Sure enough it was 93". My boat did not have a bearing where the shaft went through the hull. The builder added the bearing in future boats we found out. That was the fix. Laser target, moving motors... big job
I also learned that using a block of wood between the prop blade tip and the bottom to torque props bends blades. Our 5 blades were 19 years old and thin from reconditioning so many times.
So glad to have it resolved. Keep my PropSmith kit and strike wrench on board with my spares now.

Yeah that's not uncommon to omit the bearing in the shaft log - unfortunately.