I hear lots of opinions on props used in the bay, some guys swear by stainless and others say thats a no-no and run aluminum to protect the lower-unit and gears of your outboard.

What do you guys think?

I always go steel. Just depends on your preference. Either way, always carry a spare with all the parts needed to replace it. Not as easily but Steel will shear too.

Its no fun paddling your brothers boat at night because the prop fell off somewhere in the bay and your brother didnt have a spair. Im stil holding that grudge.

But the concern isnt about shearing or breaking a blade, carrying a spare is a given with either propeller. The issue is if you strike something really hard with stainless it transfers the impact & brunt of the trauma to your gears and lower unit inside - creating a potentially very big repair. Where the aluminum prop breaks and protects the outboard.

That is pretty well old wives BS...

And on a modern tunnel hull flats/bay boat, it wouldn't even run with a aluminum prop...

Now if you're talking about a canoe with a 4 hp motor, then that's a different situation.

Your not going to hurt the lower unit hitting normal hazzards. Now if you hit a sunken barge, you may have issues, like not having a lower unit at all.

i've seen alot of alum. props hit hard enough to bend a prop shaft too.

average is this.

1) cost of an aum. prop average is 115.00
2) cost of a sst prop is average at 350.00

you'll repair 10 alum. props to 1 sst prop.
repair cost of an alum. prop is average 55.00
repair cost of a sst prop is average 125.00


average cost to repair a bent shaft is about 800.00

do the math to see which you are ahead. you'll find it's SST all the way. not to mention down time, and driving back and forth to a prop shop.

btw. alum props can only be repaired 3 to 4 times before they are trash, and most of the time they are NOT worth repairing.