Not a good day yesterday...

[brolland]

Was out for a tournament yesterday and have fished this lake many times without any problems. There is a lot of rock and chunk concrete piles and I am familiar with these locations. Yesterday while idling past a bunch of them, I was watching the Lowrance and was finally clear of them (at least the ones we all knew about). The water depth proceeded to get deeper and I was probably 100 yds past the concrete and decided to take off. I accelerated and went about 10 yds and "BAM". Been at this exact spot hundreds of times and never knew these concrete dumps were here and NOT marked. Prop is shot, lower unit is busted inside but luckily the motor still runs. Thank god for good insurance and the neighbor is my agent....
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[sugelle]

Ouch. What lake?

[bigkahuna19]

Sorry man. Same thing happened to me in July, only no insurance......

[bbbill]

Been there, done that. Never fun. Sorry man!

[brolland]

Ouch. What lake?

Rend Lake.. About 100 yards left of the spillway and out about 100 yards from the bank. I know about the ridge of rock and concrete there but I crossed it at idle speed and went another several yards past and accelerated from where I have done so many times before. Someone suggested that the Corps may have been placing more piles out there and not marking them.

[headhigh]

Damn! Glad it was just a prop and L/U. Rock piles aren't nice to hulls!

[Sooner496]

Man that sucks!!!

[NY Trooper]

That just hurts to look at. Friend of mine did the same thing this year on a rock to his lower unit. Fortunately he too had insurance and was back up and running within a week.

[OldTimer57]

This happens. I fish Lay all the time, and visit Bullocks Islands regularly. The middle channel has a big tree out in the middle where LakeMaster says that channel is. I've fished there forever. A few months back someone came running right down the middle and we heard this loud thunk. Went over to help him and as we were sitting there scratching out head about what had happened, we spotted a stump in at least 20' of water. Not marked. Never noticed. Been sitting there since the early 1900's, solely to grab a lower unit here and there. If you think about it, hitting a submerged stump would be very difficult if you knew where it was. Not knowing makes it even harder. But no less painful of course. :)

[mysuzytoo]

[Rangerdeepv]

Sorry to see this! Friend of mine did the same kind of thing up in Minnesota a few years back. Found out they lowered the lake level about a foot............................

[crank68]

Make sure the insurance company gets you an OE lower unit not the after maker crap....

[Hookset5]

That stinks!

[brolland]

Make sure the insurance company gets you an OE lower unit not the after maker crap....

[brolland]

The Ranger is fixed...between $10k and $11k to replace the lower unit with a new one. The mechanic stated that I prob hit something harder than concrete because the prop shaft was snapped clean in half. Suggests that I most likely hit some steel due to the shaft snapping and the skag having a huge, formed gouge in the front side. Still have some small fiberglass work to do on the bottom aft part of the boat but will take it back for that when the season ends. No leaks detected. Rend Lake in Illinois is probably off my list to ever fish again...

[CaymasRodney]

The Ranger is fixed...between $10k and $11k to replace the lower unit with a new one. The mechanic stated that I prob hit something harder than concrete because the prop shaft was snapped clean in half. Suggests that I most likely hit some steel due to the shaft snapping and the skag having a huge, formed gouge in the front side. Still have some small fiberglass work to do on the bottom aft part of the boat but will take it back for that when the season ends. No leaks detected. Rend Lake in Illinois is probably off my list to ever fish again...

Wow, 11 grand for a gear case, hope that covers prop also.

[TrackerPro16]

On the local lake there are pilings from past logging operations a fair distance from shore. They raise and lower the lake about 3' between summer and winter. When it is low you can see the tops when the wind is blowing and there is some wave action. I hit one at slow speed with the lower but had it tilted enough it just went over and chewed it up a bit more with the prop. I know the area well so was pretty surprised I hit it...

[dean c]

Somebody got rolled if that price was just for that gearcase...should be half that price...and takes 30 minutes to install.

Glad your back on the water though.

[brolland]

Wow, 11 grand for a gear case, hope that covers prop also.

It did...

[brolland]

Somebody got rolled if that price was just for that gearcase...should be half that price...and takes 30 minutes to install.

Glad your back on the water though.

What? Now this was OE parts and the entire unit below the motor was all replaced ie: case, internals as well as the prop. The price also includes the fiberglass work to be done after season ends. My mechanic told me just the gearcase new for this engine (Merc 250 torquemaster) was close to $7k and then showed me the merc book and the prices. It looks like I got a decent fair deal. If i'm missing something, please enlighten me... Always a learnng experience.