FAQs Archive - Page 2 of 3 - Johnson Propeller Company Inc.

Q: Are you making more props for surfing now than anything else?

It has gone in that direction. We had the whole wakeboard craze for a while. The props really don’t vary much from that, other than we’re going slower. We’re going 11 mph and carrying a lot more weight. The challenge is to be able to do that and make it happen efficiently. The surf scene is going to continue to grow. You’re not slamming around doing crazy things on a slalom ski or wakeboard.

Q: The company has had to evolve with the changes in how people play behind their boats. What’s been the biggest challenge going from slalom skiing to wakeboarding to wakesurfing?

We have evolved over the years from trying to create the smallest, flattest wake at 34, 36 mph to what we’re doing now, which is pushing an incredible amount of wake in a much larger boat to create the biggest wake at 11 mph. It’s been a big challenge, but we have sort of been at the forefront by being the first to create the concept of a wake propeller. Typically if the boat ran a 14/18-inch prop, we loaded it down with a 1.5-to-1 gear ratio and would go to a 14/16-inch, lower the pitch to try to get the engine rpm up to push more wake. About 12 years ago I came up with the concept of larger diameter and lower pitch. We went to a 14½-inch diameter and now a 15-inch, and we’ve found we can carry the load with the increased diameter and increased blade area better than with reduced pitch. I was fortunate to work off the base that Oscar created. He was so ahead of his time with cupping and rake angle and pitch distribution.

Q: What are some highlights of your racing career?

I raced until the early 2000s. I drove the Bud Light at Bay City, Mich., for Michael Seebold. I ran my SST 120 boat and his boat in the Champ class, and I won a heat race and finished fourth or fifth. I hadn’t driven a Champ boat, so I remember getting a speech from Billy Seebold — the winningest tunnel-boat racer in history and Michael’s dad and team owner: “You’re last on the dock, and don’t crash the dang thing.” We lined up, and I think we were 12th on the dock. We take off, and for whatever reason, I came down the front chute in front, and I hear Billy over the radio: “Go ahead and let her eat.” It was quite a thrill to drive that type of equipment and have Billy Seebold in my ear.

Q: The Legend seems to be the prop that put the company on the map. How did it come about?

I had been at the company for about two years, and we just kept making the same old, same old. At that point I was also racing stock outboard and got into outboard tunnels, the SST 120 class and Formula One, and there were a lot of changes being made there with three- and four-blades. I decided to take a crack at designing something, so I grabbed one of Oscar’s original single-blade patterns that he hand-carved out of wood. It was the diameter and pitch I wanted, so I made the Legend blade shape. We have a very unique blade shape, and we kind of went away from it when my dad was running the company. I went back to the original OJ shape, made a three-blade and called it the Legend to honor what Oscar did. It worked way better than what we had or what anyone else had. I took the same basic concept and introduced a four-blade in 1995.

Q: People were copying your designs?

It happens. Look at the Michigan Wheel Ambush line of inboard props — it’s our stuff. I got a call from one of the guys in the propeller development side at Michigan Wheel, and he said, “I apologize, we’ve tried to make something better, and all we can do right now is use your design, so I’m just letting you know.” They still sell some, but they’re not ingrained with manufacturers like we are.

Q: Are you the primary supplier to inboard-powered towboats, and what companies do you work with?

We work with all the builders — at one point we had everybody. Back in the late 1990s through the early 2000s, we were the sole supplier for anyone who built a towboat. Our designs were out in front of everybody else. At that point, it was Michigan Wheel and us, and we took everything Michigan Wheel had. We had a few guys try to enter the business. Cutter Marine out of Washington copied our design and had it made in China out of stainless. They had a three- or four-year run where they took some business from us, but we got it back. I didn’t even know these guys. I would get a call from someone saying his prop was vibrating, and I’d get the prop in, and it was my propeller but in stainless.

Q: When did you switch to towboat props?

In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Rob Shirley at MasterCraft contacted my dad. They were having performance issues with their supplier, and we got a crack at making some props for Rob. Plus, they had just introduced the Power Slot transmission and were having some issues figuring the change in gear ratio, going from 1-to-1 to 1.5-to-1. We had some stuff lying around, and the rest is history. We’ve been making propellers exclusively for them ever since.

Q: What’s the timeline for those changes?

From 1936 to the mid-1950s through the early ’60s, we did a lot of the bronze two-blade racing props. Karl Kiekhaefer tried to buy the company from my grandfather. We were doing an awful lot for Mercury and Mercury Racing. We’ve done outboards, sterndrives and inboards, and have a vast knowledge in these areas. Many people don’t understand the base from where we came. Then we worked with Volvo Penta on aluminum props during the early 1970s.