Kiwi Prop

You gotta get underneath and grease that prop, and as regularly as you can. You need to find all five grease points and be generous with the application.

If after greasing, the blades dont 'flap' freely then you need to dismantle further, or send the unit back for servicing. I did that last year and was given good customer care.
 
drnutsert said:
I have had a problem with Reverse with my Kiwi Prop Does anyone have any good/bad long term experience of this prop?
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Had one for 5 years now generally no problems if as the others say you service it every year.

Only had 1 problem when one year the boat was left for 4 months without being used and a couple of barnacles got between the blade and the reversing stud (expensive lift to find that out) so every month I run the engine and engage forward and reverse to ensure that problem does not appear again!

Very pleased with the unit has transformed sailing speed and marina berth negotiating.
 
Interesting. In fact the blades do flip over and would still drive the boat forward if it weren't for the rotating spring loaded hub and studs forcing the blades back to the original posn. Maybe the hub itself needs freeing. I have found you need to be generous with the throttle to engage reverse, but then the Kiwi prop is even more powerful than in forwards because of the increased pitch in reverse.
I'm very pleased with mine.
 
drnutsert said:
The blades will not go from the feathered position into reverse I have had the revs checked and it was greased only last April but sometimes it works and sometimes not just wondered if anyone else has had this problem?
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I wrecked two (catamaran) in less than a year - but more than 10000nm. Blades wouldn't feather properly, wore and started moving up the shaft. Lots of damage to the blades around the reverse position stop.

These were late 2009 units and they are supposed to have been redesigned since then.
 
drnutsert said:
The blades will not go from the feathered position into reverse I have had the revs checked and it was greased only last April but sometimes it works and sometimes not just wondered if anyone else has had this problem?
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Time to grease it again! 11 months is stretching service time a bit, although I only do ours annualy I often run the engine and engage ahead and astern frequently to keep it moving. I am currently using Rock Oil white marine grease-seems fine. As another poster said we are very pleased with ours- does exactly what it says on the website. I use a hard antifoul on the composite blades which keeps them clean.
 
Me Too

I have just lifted out after 3 months of increasing anxiety about what happens in Astern

Prop is 8 months old , when new it was absolutely FANTASTIC, through the summer increasingly I played Russian Roulette - when engaging astern engine goes into slow mode with lots of unburnt diesel coming out the exhaust.

When lifted I found that the hub is not rotating freely and seems to be full of water and air pockets. (When I hand rotated the hub it released lots of water) it seems to be an issue of lack of grease. I am disassembling , cleaning and then reassembling. I hope that my work is better than the assembly from new otherwise there is a problem. Boat in Hamble and lots of critters in the water.

There are more than an exceptional few with this problem I believe

I will report back on relaunch......

fingers crossed.
 
IanR said:
I have just lifted out after 3 months of increasing anxiety about what happens in Astern

Prop is 8 months old , when new it was absolutely FANTASTIC, through the summer increasingly I played Russian Roulette - when engaging astern engine goes into slow mode with lots of unburnt diesel coming out the exhaust.

When lifted I found that the hub is not rotating freely and seems to be full of water and air pockets. (When I hand rotated the hub it released lots of water) it seems to be an issue of lack of grease. I am disassembling , cleaning and then reassembling. I hope that my work is better than the assembly from new otherwise there is a problem. Boat in Hamble and lots of critters in the water.

There are more than an exceptional few with this problem I believe

I will report back on relaunch......

fingers crossed.
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Ian that sounds almost the same because the blades only go half way the engine will not rev and it just sends out smoke and water I have a Volvo 2030 shaft drive with MS2L gearbox
also I to am on the Hamble you can see the critters on my prop!
 
IanR said:
I have just lifted out after 3 months of increasing anxiety about what happens in Astern

Prop is 8 months old , when new it was absolutely FANTASTIC, through the summer increasingly I played Russian Roulette - when engaging astern engine goes into slow mode with lots of unburnt diesel coming out the exhaust.
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+1
Had it for two seasons, was very pleased when it was working well, and very happy the dealer bought it back for 75% of the amount paid.
 
I have had mine 4 seasons.Mine also can stick if it is not operated for a while and like others I run the engine periodically if not going out. You do need to put a lot of grease in it and the only way to know if there is enough is that the grease comes out of the root of the blade.After it is greased the blades are not floppy.I queried this with Vecta Marine and they said after a few hours the excess grease is washed out and it will be OK.They were right. I am pleased with mine so far.
 
Have had mine for 6 seasons and love it. However I had a similar problem a couple of seasons ago and found that it is not just normal greasing that is required. On mine the 3 small 'reversing rollers' were getting clogged with calcareous deposits after a while and would then not move - this means that although the blades will flop over when astern gear is selected (because the direction of rotation changes), the engine would not rev in astern. I have found that by checking that the reversing rollers are free to move a couple of times a season (I have a bilge keeler) the problem has not recurred.
 
drnutsert said:
Is this what you had
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Yes, mine looked like that, except with less barnacles because I was nearly always moving!

They said my problems were caused by impact damage. I disagreed. They offered me the new, improved, models for US$600 each. I declined and went back to my fixed blade Volvos.
 
I'm glad that some report longer successful use than the season I enjoyed. I have to say I was delighted with the initial performance of the Kiwiprop. Did start having some problems with intermittent transition into reverse, as one poster observed: took more than idle reverse revs to get the blades to activate. Then after a while one of the three blades fell off. Yes, to the bottom of the sea. Probably having hit a submerged log, I have to assume. Great customer service from Vecta Marine to replace the missing blade, but that was where my real problems started. Apparently the very loose articulation of the two halves of the globe bulb was 'normal' (I failed to get the dealer to understand that they were wildly loose). Then it all started to become my fault. I had consistently poor performance at what it's supposed to be good at, and eventually, with sadness, I replaced the Kiwiprop with a better-made all-metal brand.

Oh, and the blades wear pretty badly, particularly where they hit the reverse roller stoppers.

A great idea, but my conclusion was that whatever they say about the magic plastic they make it of, it's sadly not fit for purpose to propel a 40' vessel through the seas.
 
If you're talking propellers you might be interested to know that down here in Kiwi-land a lot of kiwis have moved away from kiwiprop and are raving about Gori:

http://www.gori-propeller.com/

Not only do they look the sexiest propellor of all time (probably the sexiest piece of kit anywhere on the boat for that matter) more importantly they seem to perform extremely well and have an interesting feature called 'over drive'. This apparently gives it longer legs when motor-sailing when the engine load is lightened by assistance from the sails. And achieves hull speeds in flat water.

But under normal motoring it reverts to normal pitch and maintains bite to drive into a seaway.

I don't yet speak from personal experience as I've only just started researching options for a change from my existing 2 blade folded prop which is pathetic at biting in a seaway or astern.

Currently receiving lots of positive recommendations from people who have switched to Gori but now looking for independent pro advice before making a decision.
 
Don't know which folder you have, but the latest designs are much improved in motoring erformance. I have a Flexofold 2 blade and the performance under motor is virtually identical to the previous fixed 2 blade - both in controlled tests and in use.

If motorsailing is a priority you might consider a Bruntons Autoprop which is very popular here and in the Med. This has selfpitching blades and is much less complex than the Gori. Feathering props such as the Max Prop and Featherstream are also very popular, as are the newer designs of 3 blade folders. The drawback to the more complex props is that they are anything up to 3 times the price of simple two blade folders, so you have to be sure that you will benefit from the different characteristics they offer.
 
BelleSerene said:
A great idea, but my conclusion was that whatever they say about the magic plastic they make it of, it's sadly not fit for purpose to propel a 40' vessel through the seas.
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Your conclusion is the opposite of mine. Our heavy-just about 12 tons-long keel 38ft cutter has a Kiwi Prop. It was greased when I fitted it two years ago, and I would suggest it was short of grease as it took a lot before it oozed out. I suspect it was greased on assembly, but not subsequently as it would be messy. Thirteen months later we put her on the clubs drying piles for a wash, scrape and antifoul and a clean and grease of the Kiwi Prop. Everything fine, took a lot of grease and worked well all last year and up to last week when we had her on the Haslar Sealift. They gave her an antifoul and polish and I did the prop once more. Only done about 16 nautical miles since but the same as before, no problems. After fitting we lost about half a knot cruising speed under engine, but gained a knot under sail. I inspected the blades closely both times and have found no wear on the blades where in contact with the stops of any significance, just marks where the hard antifoul used on the blades has gone due the the contact. Far better manouvering- important for First Mate as she is I/C steering-and stopping is much improved. A slight hesitation while the blades flip from ahead to astern and vice versa but I believe that is the case with all feathering props. We are well pleased with ours, and I am sorry you are not.
 
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