Both me and a buddy of mine have lots of years experience with 2stokes, and we've both recently gotten 4cycles and used them.

Both of us had little trouble operating the suckers. And both of the engines ruined a number of plastic spinners. Was it our inexperience with 4strokes or the 4strokes themselves that ruined the spinners? Who cares. It happened with the 4strokes and we've yet to mess up spinners on 2strokers.

Here's the deal.
4strokes are apt to backfire. Very prone to do so from what I've seen at the club field. Matter of fact, a number of our members start their 4strokes by flipping them backwards to get them to "forward fire" into starting. And when an engine backfires it often loosens the prop nut. And of course, it happens so often with 4strokes, that almost all of them come equipped with TWO prop nuts to deal with the harsh backfiring.

And what happens to a plastic spinner when the prop backfires? Depends on some minor things, but some times the plastic cone takes a hard shot. One I've got simply sheared the locating pins. Another took damage at the prop openings where the cone mates with the backplate. They don't fit into each other anymore. Another one ruined the gripping surface of the backplate. It was plastic and was nowhere strong enough to handle the 4cycle load. It was also old and had been used on 2cycles for years and years.

Some plastic backplates distort when you tighten the propnut really tight. I'd suggest you avoid them for 4cycle use 100% of the time. Most of my plastic spinners have plastic backplates with almost no gripping serrations (on the drive washer side) worthy of the name. I wouldn't use any of them on a 4cycle. The plastic spinners with only plastic pins that locate the cone to the backplate don't go on my 4cycle any more. Matter of fact, right now, I simply don't have any plastic spinners that I'd put on the sucker. And if I ever put a spinner on another 4cycle, it'll be metal.