Those of you living in and around the Greenville/Hartwell/Anderson area are lucky to have Don Weed & European marine as your local Mercury dealership. I vacation at Hartwell each year for the past 8 years and Don gets my rig for a day (scheduled prior to our arrival) to perform annual service on my Merc 300XS. This years appt was scheduled for next Monday. Usually we do it the first Monday so we would have left the boat on the trailer for the next mornings drive to European
This year started out no so good. We arrive Sunday late in the day. Monday morning early i drop the boat in the water and idle into the cove where we are staying. Alls fine. My wife drove the trailer back to the house, I walked up from the dock and unhooked the trailer
I'm back down to the boat, start the motor and after a minute or so it shuts off. OK now what? Pull the cover off and see a wet fuel line so I pull it, trim some line off and install a new zip tie. no more leaking. And motor still does not start.
Now my scheduled appt is next Monday and Don is not at his shop till later in the day due to prior commitments so I start calling local marinas and they are all too busy. I understand. One gives me a former employee's phone number who does work at his home. I call him and he is willing to see me that night. So I tell the wife we are boatless bank trash for now. I go back up to the house hook up the trailer so my wife can drive it back down the road to the ramp. I troll the baot back out the cove and put it back on trailer and back to the house.
About 2:00 or so I call European to tell him whats going on and he tells me to bring it right up!! Huh?? I knew he was out of office for the morning and booked for the afternoon. He explains this other guy may not be able to get it running and my appt with Don is not till next Monday so am i going to waste a week sitting around??
We hop in the truck (staying in a house off of Providence Church road) and head on up to route 85. We get to the traffic light by Lake Hartwell Tackle and a truck next to me is blowing the horn like crazy and yelling to me. I've got a flat on the trailer. I pull into the tackle shop parking lot, look at the flat and I have no tire. It's laying on the highway where I was stopped. I borrow a jack, my ramp/wheel chock is back at the house in the yard, change it out with spare and get back on highway. i get to Don after 4:00, talk a while and head back to Anderson and receive a call from him just as we are getting off 85 and he fixed it!!!!
Picked it up next morning and dropped it in lake again and all'S well. Drove the trailer back to tire shop in Anderson where I bought the tires 2 years prior and told him I wanted new tires but better ones this time.
You guys in SC near Don are lucky to have him!!!
Thanks to Don I'm not sitting around for a week drinking beer everyday.
THANK YOU DON!!!
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Originally Posted by Bob G.
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