For those of you that have ever tried or needed to buy a propeller but got so much conflicting advice that they felt discouraged and further away from the purchase than ever then you are in luck! BBlades Ultimate propeller test and purchase program really is like a god send to performance power boater or any power boater for that matter.
If you’ve been around boating long then you know how most off the shelf propellers are a sacrifice in features no matter which way you slice it either top end or hole shot, or planing speed to acceleration, you stand to lose somehow. Choosing a the right prop for every boat is likened to a science in some ways. Every application, altitude operated at, salt water or fresh water and other factors play into the equation. For most of us we take the dealers recommendation and presume that the way the boat performs is the way it was supposed to which is kind of a shot in the dark method.
Well when your business and life revolves around taking the standard propeller offering and making it the ultimate propeller offering then your company and passion is whats known as BBlades Propellers. Located in Princeton Wisconsin, Brett Anderson of BBlades is not a new comer to the performance propeller industry having spent a couple of decades cutting his teeth for Mercury Racing’s Propeller division before setting out to be one of the largest propeller distributors in the country.
What we wanted to know is how and why this ‘Test and Buy” program all came about. Brett says that if theres one thing this industry has taught him is that the propeller business is a really a customer service business and you need to be in with both feet if your going to play at this level. Brett says that propeller companies spent giant sums of money developing their products and they often aren’t represented to the customer the actual features and benefits of what or why one prop is better than another. What was missing next was inventory and BBlades saw this opportunity to really shine in this area. BBlades inventories over half a million dollars in propellers at most times. Most of their clients cannot believe that not only do they sell and service standard production propellers but they house over $250,000 in specialty race props for #6 and #8 applications from all the key brands like Hering and Mercury Racing.
BBlades exclaims that while they are loaded with inventory their focus has been to revolutionize the propeller buying experience by making it simple for their customers. “When people buy from us for one application they always come back to us for their future needs and that’s something we always have prided ourselves in.” says Brett. So we want to know how simple or easy is this prop buying experience? Brett exclaims:
“We only want whats best for our customer and we give them the opportunity to find that out. We offer a test program, not an exchange program like other dealers do. You DO NOT need to buy anything from us. There isn’t another propeller business in the country that will ship a new propeller anywhere in the country or Canada for a $45 test fee for a 15 day trial period without having to buy the propeller. Nobody does that. But we do. This program allows us to get the potential customer involved in the propeller buying decision process. The customer actually can feel the differences a certain propeller makes compared to what he had been using prior. Of course we only send products we feel will work. A product that will improve performance in the direction the customer has expressed. Also, when customizing or Lab Finishing is a strong option, the baseline information the customer supplies us from their testing is incredibly important in determining the custom recipe we will build for that customer. We even supply printable test sheets for collecting data on our web site. Just print the sheets and take them along while testing. Our inventory of test propellers including a full selection of Hering #6 propellers for testing. The #6 testing program is slightly different than the outboard and Bravo style test program. You can find explanations to each program and all the specifics on our website. So yeah, I’d say we have the best program in the business. Nobody is even close.”
Wow! From our end as a boater its pretty obvious you just can’t lose with this deal. Brett Says “Because of our size and inventory level we can make the contributions to our customers and they have rewarded us with continued growth which I am very grateful and thankful to our customers.”
