Check and tighen up your jack plate bolts:crying: Not me but it still hurts to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5kEVIb9H8o
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Check and tighen up your jack plate bolts:crying: Not me but it still hurts to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5kEVIb9H8o
I was running the camera that day. Good reminder to check your bolts before and after every trip. When we got back to the hotel that night there was another guy in the club that checked his jackplate and it was also broke. Luckily his motor was still attached and he could do some preventative maintenance before launch the next morning!
was the engine ok after you got the boat back on the trailer?
Yeah--he headed home the next morning and took it to his mechanic. He fogged(?) the motor and had it in his shop for a few weeks. It has run flawlessly ever since. We just finished up a 3 day trip at table rock and you would never have known that motor spent about 3 hours under water.
And what plate was he running?
Rite Hite! We didn't hit anything that day, thought the wind had come up and gotten fairly rough. From the looks of it, it had been cracked for some time and finally gave out.
was there a permanent crease in the drivers seat?:eek:
Curious did it totally break off that it sunk? or did some of the cabling hold onto it.. Because if it sunk, how the heck do you retrieve that?
It hung by the cables until we drifted to the bank. A boat came out with airbags, tied them around it, inflated them and raised it up. 4 of us put it on the back deck. New cowling and plastics covers it looks new and runs like new. The recovery guys seems like they do it quite often at Truman if you know what I'm saying. #Stumpy I would take that motor anywhere.
Let's ask Lea to pin that video for the next person who thinks those plates are ok to use.
I was headed to Truman and passed you guys that morning on 7 hiway. Looked over and saw who it was and was wondering WTH happened then someone me about it.
How did it actually break, at the brackets attaching to the hull or motor, or was the break at the center extension, or did the bolts shear.
I have an 8 inch rite hite on the 96 - 186 I bought last spring, and I am a little concerned.
Holy cow! That's just depressing. I'm glad he was able to save the engine.
He notes above that the jack plate was most likely cracked and then it finally gave out during the rough water ride. My 1996 181 had a rite hite on it when I bought it and it was the first thing i replaced for piece of mind. I went with a Rapid Jack.
I have been trying to keep up with the owner of my 187. Last I heard, he still had the rite hite on it. I can only keep reminding him!
I wish the OP could explain the break. I've compared the mounting bracket(angles) of the Rite Hite and several other brands. The mounting bearing surfaces are fairly close in size, the thickness is the same. So center spacers are different, Rite Hite uses the tube and other brands use plates, do the tubes crack.
I'm wondering if the failure was galvanic corrosion, in the bolt. A low quality Chinese made stainless bolt could have corroded and sheared or the owners may have have over torqued the bolts. Most stainless steel bolt / nut should not be affixed with more than 45 pounds on a torque wrench.
I hope others that have seen Rite Hite jack plate failures would reply.
Sorry I didn't see your question until now. It was actually failure in the bolts. This particular model didn't have through bolts. Just one side you screwed the nut onto, so there was no replacing them (if that makes sense, you didn't have access to the bolt head). It appeared that the a couple of the bolts had been cracked for some time based on the coloring, and the last 1 or 2 gave way that day in rough water.
I will say that I have ran a couple Rite Hites since then, but they all had the through bolts that could be replaced if needed. I never had an issue with any of them. I wish I would have taken a picture of this model after the failure.
thanks
that eases my mind a bit
I had a Rite Hite on my Champion 202 with a 225 Mariner EFI, one bolt broke the other was damaged. I now run an 8" Detwiler. Gave it away on TFF, no bolts with it.