Winterization fun

[OVERKILL]

Should have posted this in the spring but was hoping to have some sort of resolve by now.

So, we didn't trailer the Supra (or the Four Wynns) down last year, instead choosing to store them at the marina we park at. They are a family owned operation, pretty decent bunch, have done some work on the Four Wynns for dad that has been well done, and the prices aren't extravagant.

The Supra trailer requires a pretty decent drop hitch to work properly on their ramp and I suspect somebody didn't get the memo/didn't look (they tend to have young lads pulling these out of the lake) and when she was pulled out of storage to go back in this spring, I saw that the cage for the prop/rudder had been pretty mangled and there was a ding in the prop:

We were obviously not thrilled about it.

I took these pictures and then sent them to my dad, who was up there all summer, expecting him to deal with the marina. Well, that didn't actually happen. So, eventually I was able to go up last weekend and showed them to the wife of the owner, who was of course concerned and she asked me to e-mail them to her husband, which I've now done, but I've heard nothing back. My dad hasn't followed-up with them either, despite being over there a few times, so I may have to.

I had the boat out (it was launched and everything was apparently fine, they used it all summer) and it has a vibration now, which my sister says has been there all summer. It did not have a vibration last year. I'm not sure if it's the prop or if there's a wow in the driveshaft now, but I did bring attention to that in my discussion and correspondence with them, so I expect they will deal with it when the boat is pulled.

Not a great "first storage" experience, and I'd like to bring it back down here, but at the same time, I want to give them the chance to fix it, since they caused the problem.

Ugh.

 

[Oro_O]

Oh man, that's NOT good.

It's not the damage to the prop ( as it's clear you know), but anything that did that damage to the trailer guard sure sprung that shaft. No way around it. Not cheap or easy to fix. If they can't clearly articulate what is needed to fix that, don't let "them" try. That's not for an amateur. That whole shaft and mount has to be inspected and balanced, potentially re-bedded and turned.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I am assuming that is not your trailer? When I load my Lund Tyee I just power it on the trailer up to the automatic drotto latch and pull it out of the water. It looks to me like the trailer needs to be modified if it is yours.

 

[alarmguy]

I cant even imagine how you felt when you saw that.
Never had an inboard, curious if that is a bronze prop? Aluminum? SS?
I only wonder as when we bought our new to us Chaparral with I/O a few years back the Aluminum prop looked pretty beat up but not so much that I thought anything of it except that I might replace it one day.
Used it a year and always felt this slight harmonic in the otherwise perfect in every sense of the word used boat with at the time only 80 hours on it. Boating my whole life I knew it shouldn't be there but wasnt terrible.

Anyway, replaced it with a new 4 blade OEM V/P prop, same that was on there and noticed instantly it was perfect, no "harmonic" vibration
*LOL* after that I wanted to kick myself for not doing it sooner because I knew I was going to when I bought the boat.

I was curious as to the material your prop is made of, if a soft metal like aluminum maybe that would spare the shaft.
I had similar damage to the aluminum prop where one blade was worst then the others but none of them were very good.

 

[wings&wheels]

Don't you just love paying someone to screw something up when you could have easily done it yourself for free?

Sorry to see that, but not completely surprising.

If it dinged the prop that much, I would be looking at the strut and surrounding area, probably OK, strong area of the hull, but still. Also, the direction of force appears somewhat rearward; the guard looks to have pushed the prop back. I would check your transmission thrust bearings as well as the shaft (others have mentioned) and cutless bearing. Maybe time for that dripless seal you always wanted

Good luck...better at the end of the season than beginning.

 

[OVERKILL]

I am assuming that is not your trailer? When I load my Lund Tyee I just power it on the trailer up to the automatic drotto latch and pull it out of the water. It looks to me like the trailer needs to be modified if it is yours.

That's the factory trailer for the boat. The trailer was "modified" by the ramp. That's normally a big cage that runs underneath the prop and rudder to protect it.

 

[OVERKILL]

Don't you just love paying someone to screw something up when you could have easily done it yourself for free?

Sorry to see that, but not completely surprising.

If it dinged the prop that much, I would be looking at the strut and surrounding area, probably OK, strong area of the hull, but still. Also, the direction of force appears somewhat rearward; the guard looks to have pushed the prop back. I would check your transmission thrust bearings as well as the shaft (others have mentioned) and cutless bearing. Maybe time for that dripless seal you always wanted

Good luck...better at the end of the season than beginning.

Oh man, that's NOT good.

It's not the damage to the prop ( as it's clear you know), but anything that did that damage to the trailer guard sure sprung that shaft. No way around it. Not cheap or easy to fix. If they can't clearly articulate what is needed to fix that, don't let "them" try. That's not for an amateur. That whole shaft and mount has to be inspected and balanced, potentially re-bedded and turned.

I'm assuming this happened when they put the trailer IN the lake to take the boat out, at the end of the season last year, since the trailer framework is pushed back and up. So I'm not sure how much, if any, of that the boat saw, beyond being driven into that mess.

That's my hope anyways.

 

[OVERKILL]

I cant even imagine how you felt when you saw that.
Never had an inboard, curious if that is a bronze prop? Aluminum? SS?
I only wonder as when we bought our new to us Chaparral with I/O a few years back the Aluminum prop looked pretty beat up but not so much that I thought anything of it except that I might replace it one day.
Used it a year and always felt this slight harmonic in the otherwise perfect in every sense of the word used boat with at the time only 80 hours on it. Boating my whole life I knew it shouldn't be there but wasnt terrible.

Anyway, replaced it with a new 4 blade OEM V/P prop, same that was on there and noticed instantly it was perfect, no "harmonic" vibration
*LOL* after that I wanted to kick myself for not doing it sooner because I knew I was going to when I bought the boat.

I was curious as to the material your prop is made of, if a soft metal like aluminum maybe that would spare the shaft.
I had similar damage to the aluminum prop where one blade was worst then the others but none of them were very good.

Yes, brass prop, they are pricey. This is a very mild ding though, can be easily removed by a competent prop shop.

 

[Lapham3]

I've had my new bought 'inland waterway' outboard boat for 40 years. I always was attracted to powerful inboards, but so often noted how they came in too shallow and carved 'trenches' in the bottom in front of our place-that can't be good either!

 

[Donald]

Another reason why my boat trailer never goes in the water.

 

[OVERKILL]

She's still at the marina sitting in our slip, lol:

Been told they will be looking at the vibration soon though, and making it right. They take responsibility for what happened, so that's good. We have a good relationship with them.

Boy does it need a run-in with some compound though... Ugh.

 

[alarmguy]

Just winterized the boat this past Saturday. Believe it or not by the end of October in this part of South Carolina we could actually get freezing temperatures depending on the year, it’s not an every year thing even though we get close a lot but it’s been one or two years in the last 15 that cracked a lot of engine blocks/and or freeze plugs end of Oct into Nov.
As it is this week they’re saying we might get frost middle of the week.

 

[Donald]

Just winterized the boat this past Saturday. Believe it or not by the end of October in this part of South Carolina we could actually get freezing temperatures depending on the year, it’s not an every year thing even though we get close a lot but it’s been one or two years in the last 15 that cracked a lot of engine blocks/and or freeze plugs end of Oct into Nov.
As it is this week they’re saying we might get frost middle of the week.

Frost is not a hard freeze which is what cracks blocks.

 

[alarmguy]

Frost is not a hard freeze which is what cracks blocks.

That is correct.
Its an indication that cold weather is here and in our area, that could mean at any given time in a few weeks it is possible to get a hard freeze, since we do not live near the ocean temperature swings can become wild where we live compared to the coast.

If you notice I mention the end of Oct into Nov for that freeze not this week, this week the forecast is calling for frost. It can indicate a cold start to the winter or cold winter period since it is very early in the season for this cold where we are and I won't have to think about it if the forecast is wrong (which it is a lot near us) and changes at the last minute to even colder.

Now I don't have to even give it a thought, boat is in storage and set for the winter. It can be stressful keeping an eye on the temps, we don't use the boat this time of year.

I would be doing the above no matter what but this year on top of it, we are moving out of our house next month! and (this I am not kidding about) having a heart procedure done (cardiac ablation) 9 days before the scheduled closing! So moving into an apartment slowly right now because the home we are building won't be done for months but need to get out of this house for the buyers (assuming everything goes ok on their end) before the heart ablation as I won't be able to lift anything until the veins that they plug up with dissolving plugs, after running up to 4 wires through 4 veins into my heart need to be fully healed so I don't bleed out... Can't make this stuff up! But that is my life, makes you feel alive, maybe that is a bad choice of words ...

 

[alarmguy]

^^ Update to what I was saying above, it’s 52 degrees right now at Columbia SC airport which are the numbers NOAA.gov uses.
It’s 42 degrees at our house 15 miles away.
By around the end of OCT a hard freeze is possible here, the rest of this week NOAA calls for temps as low as 35, will we be 10 degrees cooler like right now?
I don’t see how but we are right now, either way glad I don’t have to worry, if we get a hard freeze this would be a record breaker this soon in the month.

But then I see the headlines in the news (I still look at NY news where we moved from, it’s almost half the country)
It’s actually going to be much warmer in my old home on Long Island NY 750 miles away then here in South Carolina at night this week.
So check your weather forecast !!

Freeze alerts issued for more than 75 million Americans as coldest air of season invades Midwest, South, East

The cold air will mean both morning low temperatures and afternoon highs will be much colder than average across the Midwest, South and East.

nypost.com

 

[Donald]

I plan on winterizing my boat soon. Mine is closed cooling so less to worry about.

 

[alarmguy]

I plan on winterizing my boat soon. Mine is closed cooling so less to worry about.

Yeah, closed cooling is great and I feel any I/O that operates in salt water should have it, but then there are costs that manufacturers don't want to deal with. I had one boat many decades ago a new 1987 Sea Ray Midcabin, Ironically it was a budget Sea Ray midcabin but to me it was the coolest boat in the world at my age and after all it was a SeaRay that I bought myself new from the dealer... and it had closed cooling. I loved the concept and all I had to do is after a fresh water flush open a peacock on the heat exchanger to drain the water if I am remembering correctly.

Weather update, to give you an idea of how crazy the weather can get here, this isn't an every year thing by any means but a reason I prepare in Oct since we don't use the boat now anyway, tonight we will be colder (though not sure if we will hit 32) than where my daughter just texted me from in a major mountain pass of the White Mountains in New Hampshire! Her forecast calls for a low of 41 mine is calling for 36 in South Carolina we are 1000 miles more south of her! Being we are 15 miles from the forecast area I would not be surprised to see 32 though its still early for that so I doubt it but close enough that I would be worried even this early and certainly by the end of the month I would freak out of fear.

Next year we will be boating in Salt Water and my fear is it will eat this 2008 Chaparral engine up alive but maybe not, will see.

 

[alarmguy]

Hit 32 degrees last night in the midlands of South Carolina. This is one of the earliest I remember and gives an idea what can happen by the end of the month through November. Could get costly if it went a few degrees colder, cant trust the weather report here, no nearby ocean to moderate things. Only typing this because it can be hard to believe, if near the coast, you can go almost a 1000 miles north and not go below freezing like we did last night.
5AM reading from two different brand outdoor sensors on opposite sides of our house. (yes I know the time is wrong*LOL*) and a birdbath with ice in it at 8AM.

 

[alarmguy]

She's still at the marina sitting in our slip, lol:
View attachment 121540

Been told they will be looking at the vibration soon though, and making it right. They take responsibility for what happened, so that's good. We have a good relationship with them.

Boy does it need a run-in with some compound though... Ugh.

Thats awesome to have covered wet storage like that, costly I am sure.
Yeah, that's rough having colored gelcoat. Used to drive me nuts but it is what it is.

 

[OVERKILL]

Thats awesome to have covered wet storage like that, costly I am sure.
Yeah, that's rough having colored gelcoat. Used to drive me nuts but it is what it is.

Yeah, it looks amazing when it is clean!