Shaft Spurs - pros and cons

[jlightonjr]

Reading up on Shaft Spurs:
http://www.spursmarine.com/index.html

Has anyone installed, I see for some applications you need a "spacer" on the transmission?

I remember cruising and having problems with a line in the water, having to throw down the hook and do some diving...

Any thoughts?

Warm Regards,
Jack

 

[luckydave215]

I have them. We have a heap 'o lobster pots in these here parts, pardner and I never have to dive when I'd rather be fishing.
They must be disturbing the water flow through the props, but which do you find the most annoying, a tiny bit of drag or fried cutlass bearings?

 

[jlightonjr]

Very good points!!

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Here's a couple of comments from a past thread:

http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2558&highlight=prop+spurs

 

[jlightonjr]

Sky,

I can always count on you for helping out! As always thank you!

Not much longer and you will be back on the water!

Warm Regards,
Jack

 

[Capten]

Here are my comments from a while back. I still have a set of Spurs and spacers for 2.5" shafts available for sale.

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I can tell you from experience that Spurs work great. We ran them for nearly 10 seasons on our 1984 32' Hatteras Sportfisherman. They kept us out of trouble on many an occasion in the Chesapeake Bay and the Mid-Atlantic Canyons. You can actually hear them cutting a line when you run over it. Usually two "ka-chunks" and it's over. If you operate in areas where there are crab or lobster pots they are a must. They make night running much more comfortable.

We purchased and installed the Spurs line & net cutters and Shaft Spacers for our 1983 46C HP about 10 years ago but only used them for a couple of months. We try to run up around 25 knots plus and found a little vibration at speeds above 24 knots while using them so we removed them. They were cleaned and have been in storage since then. I purchased service parts from Spurs Marine last spring and installed new bearings, zincs, and nylon plugs. These items are all like new. The Spurs still have the original ink pen marks on them from the manufacturer.

We needed shaft spacers in our application to provide space between the prop and the strut for the Spurs. The Shaft Spacers were used on our DD 8V92s with Allison transmissions. They are 1" thick and 9" in diameter. They are an 8 hole bolt pattern and come complete with heavy-duty 4" long bolts and nuts. They are very heavy!

Be sure to check out a couple of things on your application when researching: 1. As mentioned before, do you have enough space between the prop and the strut? 2. Make sure you do not have too much taper in the shaft where the cutters are to be mounted. This can cause many problems including vibration. The folks at Spurs are great. There is one gentleman that is at all of the boatshows that really knows his stuff. I can not recall his name off hand.

I would like to clear out the garage and sell both the Spurs and Spacers. New "D" Spurs are $575.00 per set. New 9" Shaft Spacers with bolts are $600.00 each. Make me an offer on any or all of this equipment. They really do work well in the right application. I am located in Maryland.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or for photos.

 

[REBrueckner]

I've read that the space between the rear of the cutless bearing (strut)and the front of the prop hub should be limited to 1/2 the diameter of the shaft. Apparently greater lengths here might induce some vibration.

But for those who cruise at moderate speeds, say 8 to 12 knots, likely this is not much of an issue. For high speed convertibles hauling at 20 or 25 knots I'd be very cautious on this account and also because the shaft cutters do disturb water flow at the prop hub a bit.