Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Took the parents and the in-laws out on the new pontoon yesterday. We traveled up river about 8 miles and had dinner. As we were coming back a storm started to roll in so I put the throttle down and we were cruising at a good clip.

I'm coming around this bend in the river and there's a f#@$! kayaker in the middle of the river just sitting there. I had no intention of slowing down because of the aforementioned storm system so I got out of the channel a bit to pass him.

Bad idea... scrap scrap thump thump thump. Hit a submerged sand bar. Stopped, put the motor up, got out of there and then continued on our way. Put the boat on the trailer later and got my first look at the prop. Still in running condition, just missing some edging! At least the lower unit is okay! Only some minor paint missing from the skeg.

It's okay though, I was going to buy a back up prop anyway. Now I'll buy a new prop and get this one rebuilt.

Wow! you got lucky. Good thing your lower unit was still there

Beermunk- that sucks but through the years I have found out the best insurance against prop damage is a spare prop. I know it sounds funny but a spare prop is as important as a spare trailer tire to me. If I didn't carry them both I surely would need them both as soon as I left the lake.

i heard too many horror stories from guys leaving the channel on
the mississippi. so i only leave the channel at right angles to the
shoreline, with the sterndrive trimmed way up and someone out
front watching for wingdams.

aluminum props are great insurance in these situations. gears cost
way too much.

Bummer, sucks to have stuff like that happen...

Are you gonna try out any other sizes or pitches or just go with whats on there now?

btw, even in the channel you can never be totally sure.
early last fall we went out on lake sinnissippi for the first
time. i had heard that the dnr up near horicon marsh had
released their heavy june flood waters to save the
treehuggers' pussy willows, so sinnissippi got hammered.
we tried going up the river channel to get to a better
launch a few miles north of the lake. within half a mile
of leaving the lake, the channel was totally mudded in.
my sterndrive was in the mud and the rear of the toons
were sliming through it. the water was maybe a foot
deep. a lot of the lake was destroyed and had a depth
of about 18" to 24". what a shame. i heard that property
values on that lake, which were already not too great,
took it in the shorts.

Thanks all for the condolences on my prop death I'm going to stick with the same pitch and size as it get's the motor to the correct WOT RPM's with my wife, myself and two dogs in the boat just fine.

The old prop will get rebuilt and be used as my spare. The new prop should be here on Friday! $120 including shipping... I picked up some Mercury black paint too, to repaint the skeg and rid her of the scratches I put on.

bummer......

Hey, what size and where ya getting the new one?

WaltF wrote:bummer......

Hey, what size and where ya getting the new one?

Bought it from iboats.com for $120 w/ shipping. Got a 15.25" x 15" pitch, same as the old one.