When to replace prop?

[SkaterRace]

I recently took a good ding to my prop and skeg, prop is paint scraped on one blade and on the other two are small dings about the width of a quarter and maybe deep as half a cm. Skeg took a harder hit, it now has a wave in the bottom of it with no paint on the tip.

All this on a boat with 4.5 hours on it..

Question comes down to how do I know when it is time to replace my prop and also skeg? I've always just replaced the prop at the first ding since I knew a guy that ran a used boat and repair yard. Super cheap ($40 CAD) but now it will be more like $250 CAD

 

[Starcraft5834]

any local prop shops to bang those out for you? certainly not going to perform as well... skegs getting dinged and scraped and chunked out....again, how bad.... make sure your prop shaft isnt bent from the hits....to check that.. spin your prop and focus your eye on the little milled hole in the center of shaft nut.. if the hole "wobbles" your prop shaft is bent.. if not, your fine...

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,...... I'd get the prop inspected, 'n hammered out, so you don't get vibrations from it,......

The skeg is optional,...... I've seen 'em from well beaten, to completely missin',.....

The prop thrust steers the boat, not the skeg,.........

 

[SkaterRace]

any local prop shops to bang those out for you? certainly not going to perform as well... skegs getting dinged and scraped and chunked out....again, how bad.... make sure your prop shaft isnt bent from the hits....to check that.. spin your prop and focus your eye on the little milled hole in the center of shaft nut.. if the hole "wobbles" your prop shaft is bent.. if not, your fine...

Prop is slightly dinged but shaft is good. There is a local shop and I will be going to them after the next trip out and I see how it feels.

The skeg is missing a tiny bit not enough to matter just enough to annoy me. Worst part looking at it last night is maybe a half cm.

 

[SkaterRace]

Ayuh,...... I'd get the prop inspected, 'n hammered out, so you don't get vibrations from it,......

The skeg is optional,...... I've seen 'em from well beaten, to completely missin',.....

The prop thrust steers the boat, not the skeg,.........

The dings in the drop are not enough to matter I think, the one is scrapped where only the paint camp off the leading edge and the other two are small

 

[SkaterRace]

Here are the pics I took, not the best look but hopefully enough to tell if I need to do anything about it.
https://i.imgur.com/641InC3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HvLueXh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/o90JeJs.jpg

 

[Starcraft5834]

pics are helpful... that is very minor damage to the prop... same with the skeg.. those are closer to scrapes.... doubt you will observe any vibration from that...... few years ago was fishing in St. Lawrence River in my (recently sold) cuddy.. that river is likely one of the countries finest fisheries.. and one of the finest placed to destroy your drive.. goes from 100ft deep in the channel to, if not paying attention, gets really skinny fast.. and very rocky on shore... was drifting pike fishing.. depth alarm was set at 6 feet.. went off... i started the motor, still drifted into rocks dinging and bending up my then 4 blade. had a few quarter sized bends.. pounded em out.... is all.......

 

[Scott Danforth]

I get them repaired until the prop shop says.....its too busted to repair vs replace.

 

[Sea Rider]

If that's an outboard motor try running it at the unlocked position if having one, that way when hitting anything worse at speed motor will rise accordingly with minimum damage to skeg or prop. Just lock it back when reversing or motor will rise and lock itself up.

Happy Boating

 

[SkaterRace]

If that's an outboard motor try running it at the unlocked position if having one, that way when hitting anything worse at speed motor will rise accordingly with minimum damage to skeg or prop. Just lock it back when reversing or motor will rise and lock itself up.

Happy Boating

It's a bow-rider so no way of unlocking it, being a I/O and all. I used to do that with my outboards since some lakes I used to boat on are pretty bad for logs floating along. This incident was near the launch