Getting ready to order my first Gator Trax boat and it will come with this motor. The boat is the 17x50 hybrid with hunt deck. I will be in areas like Lake Okeechobee a lot. so 50% heavy vegetation and 50% open water with a load of 3 guys and gear. Do I have a option as to what prop comes with this motor? and if not will the stock prop suet me very well or do I need to look at getting a diff. prop?
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated please....

I'm pretty sure you would want the big blade. I'd say hammer, but I know the stock 37 has trouble with the hammer and the 4400 really doesn't have that much more power IMO.

Just order it with the big blade on it and you'll be set.

There have been some issues with the briggs efi as of late, but it mostly boils down to the harness. I'm still running the mikuni for a while, before buying into the efi. Your choice either way.

Lake Okeechobee is a prop eater. The shallow sandy bottom plays hell on props.

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Get a hammer. I have the exact motor on a prodigy and switching to the hammer was the best thing I ever did. It was like having a new boat. The guy saying it may not have the power is wrong. if it doesn't come with a hammer than just buy one and keep the BB for a back up. Also the hammer will not wear nearly as fast. Good luck. Also first thing you need to do is take the transmission cover off and look at the lower gear to make sure your belt is aligned properly. MB hasn't made it public yet but all the motors up until just a little bit ago have potential alignment issues that will eat a belt up. It takes 30 seconds to check and about an hour to fix if it's off. They put a stupid spacer that was necessary on the HD's but throws off the HDR. PM me if you details.

You assumed in your first post a 4400 couldn't spin it did you not. And your second post didn't really clarify that. But I have no clue as to if a 37 could spin one because I don't have one nor am I around folks that have one with a hammer. I was just simply stating that your assumption was wrong about a 4400. Because that's what the op was asking for. i wish I wouldn't have listened to similar comments otherwise I would have bought a hammer much earlier. I'm trying to save the op from listening to them.

You're comparing apples to oranges. A lot of things can make a boat run faster or slower top end. I will say you will lose some top end comparative to a BB but since I'm not taking long runs and I'm in the "nasty" more often then I'm in the open I prefer the hammer. Plus the beating it can take is fantastic.

I don't disagree with you at all on the hammer. It's 4mph slower than some of my other 2 blades, but they don't eat like it does and they don't plane off like it does.

When talking about the 4400 vs the 37 GTR's running they were running the same size hull and same props. Watching them in the nasty the 4400 did seem to have more power, but didn't seem like it was a huge difference. Not like a DPE level 3 compared to a stocker.

LOL. Are you getting paid by DPE level 3? I read another post you had about props and you talked about it often there as well. Maybe submit a post in the review section to get it off your chest. Just busting your chops but yes I hear good things about the EFI mods that are coming out. The 4400 is not a slug but if you bought it to be the fastest boat in marsh you probably made a very costly mistake.

I got a level 3 DPE so I could get the most for my money. They were time tested and proven. I didn't do the mods for speed, I did it for load carrying. If I wanted the fastest boat in the marsh I would have kept the inboard.