how to trash a brand new prop......

[jay_merrill]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

While there are certainly things that you can hit in my area that will cause serious damage, most of the time we just hit mud and fallen tree limbs.

I'd love to operate an old wooden boat here regularly, but wouldn't. I'm afraid I would just beat it up too much!



???

 

[moonfish]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

A small river takes a lot of familiarity. Obstacles move a lot, the bottom changes whenever it floods and the water level can change at random. A bigger motor will not help that particular situation.

 

[Scoop]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

I was lucky, This year I just got of the navigation channel of a local lake. I made sure to stay well away in deeper water to stay away from the buoy marking a rock. Tooling along and bam! Rock! Not a foot down from the surface. I think they either misplaced the buoy or someone thought it would be funny to to kill the motors of people who don't live on the lake.
Luckily my boat is slow and only scratched the skeg and a small ding out of the prop.​

 

[Mark42]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

A Dremel tool with a grinding wheel should take that right out...lol.

Ouch!

Thats going to take more than a Dremel tool or even duct tape. You need the shiny aluminum tape to make that perform like new again.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

in 5 minutes or less....

i bought my starcraft about 6 weeks ago, the prop looked like it had been used for target practice......

so the first thing i did after picking her up was go to my local evinrude dealer and buy a new gas tank hoses fittings and prop... well, the first prop i bought was the wrong size (i have the big lower unit) so back to the dealer and another 20 bucks on top of what i already dropped and i had the right one.

the ramp is only about two miles from the dealer so i stopped and fueled up, and got to the ramp where i put the new prop on.....fit like a shiney new glove


remembering what i had heard about a sand bar where a smaller creek joins the river right up from the ramp i made sure to stay right in the center....lol, the sand bar came out about 5/8ths into the river....before i knew it, i was in about 18" of water that was quickly dropping to around 12"......i didnt even have time to throttle down before it was all over.......i plowed right up/along the side of this underwater hill.....


the boat never touched bottom i dont think, but i beat the living daylights out of a brand new 140 dollar prop after being in the water for only 5 minutes

Well, now that you got that out of the way, you can check it off of the list and not worry about it so much anymore...

 

[Triton II]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

BaDuck, if the original "target practice" prop is not too badly damaged, why not try to use it until you've learned the river, then refit with your newer better prop to learn some more, then go for your new engine and prop combo... although I guess your rivers change more than ours due to heavy rains, melting winter snow etc, so you'll have to relearn a little each spring to find where the bottom's shifted or new rocks exposed.

 

[BaDucK]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

BaDuck, if the original "target practice" prop is not too badly damaged, why not try to use it until you've learned the river, then refit with your newer better prop to learn some more, then go for your new engine and prop combo... although I guess your rivers change more than ours due to heavy rains, melting winter snow etc, so you'll have to relearn a little each spring to find where the bottom's shifted or new rocks exposed.

thats my plan.....the "original" prop on the boat was in horrible shape, actually had pieces missing from it, im going to keep using the one i bottomed out with thrue early spring, then ill get a new one and use this one for an emergency spare....not too many worries downstream from the ramp, COE dredged up until a few years ago, bottom is clay mud and anywhere from 10 to 100 feet deep according to the charts....lol, its just going north that gets a little hairy.....natural bottom and gets rockier the farther north ya go



im just glad i got it out of the way......alot less apprehensive now about hitting the river

 

[Triton II]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

Cool, enjoy your upriver explorations and stay safe!

 

[df909]

Re: how to trash a brand new prop......

Ok, so I have to add something here.

If you are wondering...I have a brand new 4-blade prop that just got wet for the first time, should I tilt the outdrive up or leave it down when I pull the boat out of the water?

My skeg, prop, wallet, and I have this discussion over dinner after we did a little boating. We all came to an agreement- I should take up the drive BEFORE driving to boat staging area to tuck everything down for the drive home. I know I know, it's not at cool as leaving a big scratch on the launch ramp or the unmistakable noise alerting everyone that you're finished for the day.