Stainless duoprops -- yes or no?

[memse 0]

I have a 1995 296 that I ordered from the factory with twin 5.8 liter fuel injected engines with 290 duoprops. My props are the original aluminum delivered with the boat. I've had all of these straighened twice and just noticed that one blade is dinged a bit. I've thought about upgrading to stainless but this will cost about $2600 (which would buy a lot of gas this summer). I've heard pros & cons about upgrading and was just looking at the Volvo prop guide which shows that I can use the C4, C5 & C6 sets. My boat has hit 52 mph on the water pickup speedometer before getting bottom painted so if I upgraded, would I want to use C6 props? Haven't been able to find any documentation so far that talks about the difference between these prop sets -- only the speed chart showing the mph range. So I guess I have 2 questions: (1) Do the benefits of running stainless props outweight the cons & cost, and (2) if I did upgraded, which stainless prop set should I get? Thanks in advance for any replies.

[box-of-rain 0]

As far as costs go I would have a hard time spending almost 3k for props on 95' boat, you will not see much if any of this in resale, stainless is nice but the price?

[The MOST 0]

I have 2 questions: (1) Do the benefits of running stainless props outweight the cons & cost, and (2) if I did upgraded, which stainless prop set should I get? Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

You have had the aluminum for 13 years without too much maintenance and great performance (52 mph!). Replace the props with the same???

As for the second question, we do not have any performance tests or data to advise you on this choice.