Bayliner 175BR

[jmc74]

well, I'm not so lucky as some of you, I have a 2007 Bayliner 175 and yesterday (saturday July 12th) I when out with some friends to the lake, we had fun for about 4 hrs, and then while cruising for luch I hear a loud buss, and I see the temp gauge go 3/4 of the way, then lower to cold (100) and up again, and my voltage was 12v +/- so i shut off the motor and opened the engine cover... only yot find my belt was gone and i was stcuk in the middle of the lake about 1/2 mile of nearest marina, and about 30 min cruising speed of my launching marina.. lucky for me I have a fix mount VHF and a 5' antenna, i called for vessel assist, and since I drifted to a small cove, they could barely hear me, but the sherif come by soon after and towed my boat to the nearest marina, then gave me a ride to the original marina my truck was.

well here is more to ruin anyones day... as im driving arround the lake for about 20 minutes, I notice on my mirror that one of the trailer bunks are croked and is moving as i turn, so when i arrive to the marina my boat was, I checked the trailer, only to find that the bolts that hold the bunk are gone !!!! I said GREAT now what? so i aligned as much as i could the bunk and presided to retrive the boat, and as i pulled the boat in the trailer, the bunk slides and the metal braket that holds the bunk makes a HUGE scratch on the bottom of the boat, peeling the gelcoat down to the fiberglass

I'm PISSED OFF!!!!, tomorrow i will take this Piece of S#!t boat and trailer back to the dealer, and I will tell them to fix it and I will not pick up this boat until it looks like new!

imagine this boat now has 15hrs of use, I have used the boat 2 times last year, and 4 times this year, and this trailer is comming apart!, and the belt broke and posibly the engine overheated, and i drifted into a sand bed, and the bottom of the boat is scuffed by the sand, as well as the drive, prop, and to make it final, the front bow has scratches as the boat moved on the bow roller and it deforming the roller and damaging the blue vinyl.


what should I do? should i contact Bayliner Corporate?

 

[xxxflhrci]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

I doubt if calling Bayliner will yield satisfaction:

1.) Belts break. In the future, carry a spare belt and the tools needed to change it.

2.) You should keep an eye on your gauges when driving to watch engine temp and charging.

3.) You should have anchored your boat to keep from floating into the sand.

4.) You knew the trailer was missing bolts. You should not have put the boat on the trailer until it was fixed.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

I doubt if calling Bayliner will yield satisfaction:

Ayuh,.... I gotta Agree,... It sounds like Self-Inflected Pain to Me....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

it is called lack of maintenance. they scratched hull is totally your fault. you should have run down to Ace Hardware and gotten some nuts and bolts, sure would have been a lot cheaper than repairing the scratch. belts break. you have learned to check things before they go bad. it is called preventative maintenance.

 

[tmh]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

Bayliner excusers, lets show some compassion.......

Sure belts break, my 23 year old boat had one break- after 20 years or so. 6th time out!?!?!?!?!? Shouldn't happen. I doubt much PM would have caught this. Now, this is an engine issue, not really Bayliner specific I guess (Same company though....Brunswick also owns Mercruiser, right?).

As for the trailer bolts - either crap parts, poor quality build or likely both. Shouldn't happen to a new trailer and who would think to check each trailer bolt each time you launch a NEW boat? Now.....dragging the new boat onto the trailer metal supports, THAT one is on you. I'm sure the marina would have some bolts you could have used in a pinch. Bad decision.

It'll be interesting to see what they feel should be covered under the warranty.

 

[jmc74]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

well I did ask the marina for bolts, and they didn't had anything even remotelly as large as they are, so i had no choice but to load the boat slowly, what can I had done, leave the boat? and whya should I had been checking a new boat, like it was a junker, i have had vehicles that endured more work and made it to over 150k miles and never damaged a belt, and they still run like a champ when i sold them... this is a new boat, that day the boat had only 11hrs when I launched on that morning.... should anyone that has bought a new boat be that careful to always look at the gauges expecting something to go bad on a NEW boat? or expect to have a trailer that is comming apart? especially when the trailer is about 8-9 months old and it probably has about 200 miles on it...

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

always look at the gauges expecting something to go bad on a NEW boat. YES, a plastic bag and get on the water pump intake and burn your brand new motor up. it is mechanical, anything can go wrong at any time. You said you new the bunk was loose, YES, you should have left the boat. gone and gotten bolt. this is a no brainer.

 

[jonsquatch]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

If you are operating the trailer on the public roadway it is your responsibility to insure that everything is in proper function every time you operate it. It's just a part of making sure your load is properly secured. I have lost nuts that hold on my bunks before, and replaced them with proper lock nuts appropriately torqued. This doesn't mean that I don't verify that everything is right each time I unload my boat, best time for checking things that are hard/impossible to reach while its loaded.

Getting stranded on the water sucks. Enough so that I always give the entire drive system the once over before I leave the house. Boats aren't cars, many still have carbs, and they require a level of maintenance that few land vehicles ever see. Belts can surely last a lot longer than 2 years, but I wouldn't expect to get 20+ years. When v-belts were used commonly on cars the "experts" recommended replacement after 3-4 years or 36k-48k miles. The question I have is was the tension right, that is surely something I would have checked after a winter off.

 

[jmc74]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

well, I taked the boat to the dealer, they will repair "ALL" at no cost to me under the 1yr 360* WARRANTY, and they will modify the bunks as they agree that the bolts should have not come loose, as they are not carriage bolts, they are screws the go from the bottom and once loose the will come out or damage the wood, so they will replace the bunks with new revised version with thru S/S bolts and locking nuts, as for the belts; they told me they don't know of any problem on the 3.0L, but for what i read on BOC.com; looks like the 3.0L has been having belt issues with premature failure.

they also will fix the fenders on the trailer as the original design only screws from bottom to a plastic on the fender, and the revision is to use SS thru bolts and locking nut (antoher revision my boat/trailer didn't had); as for the damage on the Gelcoat under the boat, they will fix it and they asured i would never see trace of it, it will look like new. they offered to re-detail the boat and re-pain the O/D and check for all vital functions and re-calibrate the carburator to correct the diesel when shuting off.

so, far seem like Bayliner dealer will correct everything that went bad, and will try to make things better for me to re-experince a good feel about the boat.

 

[jaxnjil]

Re: Bayliner 175BR

sound like you have a realy good dealer!!!!!!!!!!!
if they do every thing you said, stick with them. THATS GREAT SERVICE
i think the only error in judgment was to load the boat knowing the bunk wasnt right. rember its easy for us to set back and back seat drive now. the world is full of pit falls that you dont get a second chance to change
best of luck